Lt (A) Morley Francis Wheeler RNVR
Lived in Leicestershire
Pilot
Died 6 October 2012 in Liecester Royal Infirmary
Funeral details
12.15 on Monday 22 October at St Mary – in – the – Elms, School Lane, Woodhouse, Leicestershire LE12 8UZ.
From records
Served 1942-46 with:
846 Squadron flying Grumman Avenger.
Stalled onto deck, opened up, ran over port side embarking Ravager in Chesapeake Bay 2.7.43
The next day, engine failure on take-off. Aircraft sank , Ravager. 3.7.43
Hook pulled out, into barrier, Trumpeter 11.7.44
731 Squadron flying Fairey Firefly
Obituary from Western Park Gazette by Roger Blackmore, dated 3 November 2012.
Many readers of the Gazette will be sad to learn of the death last month of Morley Wheeler, formerly of Letchworth Road, who played such a major role in the campaign to prevent the building of a ‘Techno-Eco Zoo’ on Western Park in the early 1990’s. Born in London in 1921 and educated at St Ninian’s School in Battersea, at the age of 21, he became a Fleet Air Arm pilot in the Second World War. It was in this role he flew protection for the Arctic convoys to Murmansk in Russia. Along with the rest of 846 Squadron, he took on both the biting cold of the Arctic and German U-Boat submarines, as they hunted Allied convoys.
Years after the war, he travelled back to Murmansk where he visited a school and became close friends with both staff and pupils. He maintained this contact for many decades. He recently contributed to a TV documentary outlining his part in the Arctic conflict, giving eye witness accounts of depth charging submarines and the difficulties of air warfare in severe winter conditions when surrounded by nothing but sea. Prior to the outbreak of war, Morley worked at London Life Insurance where he met his wife Renee whom he married in 1944. They were married for sixty one years until she passed away in 2006. In the early 50’s the couple adopted two children, Alan and Janet, and the family moved to Leicester in 1955 where Morley became a surveyor for Sketchleys. In Leicester he became an active member of New Parks Boys Club and the congregation of Leicester Cathedral and remained a lifelong West Ham fan. He was also a member of the Conservative Party and a keen dog walker. Morley Wheeler retired in 1983 and later moved to the Charnwood Forest area. He always retained a deep interest in the life of the Western Park area and gave a talk on his wartime experiences to pupils at Dovelands School only a matter of weeks before he died. The eulogy written by his nephew Martin Black that was read by one of Morley’s adoted sons My father was born in Wandsworth, London in July 1921. He was the eldest son of Harold and Edith Wheeler. Bravery was certainly something which he inherited from both his father and mother. His father was awarded the Albert Medal for trying to rescue men trapped in the basement of a blazing print works in Fleet Street, following a Zeppelin attack. His mother was a Queen Alexandra Nursing Sister who was invalided home suffering from the affects of poisoned gas, which was being exhailed by a ward full of casualties, during the Battle of Ypres.
In 1942, having been in the RNR, my father sought a commission in the Fleet Air Arm. My father was aware that a lot of applicants were failing their interview for reasons unknown to them. He decided that the best thing to do was to put his best foot forward and hope for the best.
He was asked what he would do if the Fleet Air Arm turned him down.
Most applicants had answered that they would apply for a commission in the RAF. As these men had been shown the door, my father sensed a trap. “Well, Sir” he replied “ I would apply to join the Royal Navy and I want to fly. You see, the Sea is in my blood. I come from a long line of ship owners. My forebears owned clipper ships and acted as masters on them!” This is the only time that I am aware that my father telling anyone an outright lie. But it worked and he was accepted!
He qualified as a pilot in Pensacola, Florida and was then posted to a new American-built carrier, HMS Ravenger, which was working itself up, in Chesapeake Bay. He was a member of 846 Squadron which flew fighter bombers. In July 1943, whilst doing deck landing training, he was on final approach when the deck landing officer suddenly gave him instructions to go around again. He had no option but to touch down and immediately turned the aircraft to his left and, with insufficient power, crashed into the sea.
The medial officer advised him to get up in the air as soon as possible the next day. This time he suffered an engine failure 3/4ers of the way down the flight deck and with no power to take off or stop, he ran off the front of the flight deck into the sea. His canopy would not open and the aircraft started to sink. It was the shock of the carrier sticking his wing that burst the canopy open. Somehow he managed to avoid the ship’s propellers and was rescued a second time. In all he had five crashes. His flight log refers to them as “prangs”. The Archivist at the Fleet Air Arm Museum commented that Dad had “something of a charmed life.”
He was involved convoys across the Atlantic, down to Gibraltar and toughest of all – winter convoys up to Murmansk . He was involved in laying mines in Aalsund Fjord where the battleship Tirpitz was hiding. As he flew up the fjord, on one of those raids, he saw beautiful blocks of red and gold lights floating up towards him. His comment was that “It took me a little while to realize that the Devils were trying to shoot me down!”
He left the Fleet Air Arm in 1946 and qualified with the Royal Institute of Chartered Surveyors, whilst at The London Life Association. Then he joined Sketchley’s eventually becoming a main Board director responsible for their Properties.
On his retirement he became actively involved with the Fleet Air Arm Officers Association, visiting both Russia and Norway, helping others locate the crash sites where friends lay with their aircraft. For all his joviality, the War left its mark on him as it did on so many others. More recently he had started to talk to school children about his experiences ans as many of you know, he appeared in a recent Channel 4 documentary on the Russian Convoys.