Searching for Walter

Walter Bloy, an ex-merchant navy officer, died in 1947 shortly before his son Stephen's second birthday. It was only in 2009, after seeing a television documentary about the role of the Merchant Navy in the North Atlantic convoys of World War 2 that Stephen was inspired to research and write his father's story. His researches, started initially to establish a claim to his father's wartime medals, took him on an extraordinary journey of discovery into the life and times of over two hundred years of his family's history. Not only does he identify his ancestors, he explores how they fared, within the socio-economic setting of Victorian and early 20th century England. Stephen discovered intolerable hardships, frequent infant mortality, un-imaginable tragedy, deportation to the colonies, as well as, evidence of insanity and committal to a lunatic asylum, two murders, prison, a possibly bigamous marriage, financial riches from ill-gotten gains, rumours of a curse, and a family connection to one of Great Britain's greatest heroes. The story provides an in-depth and illuminating examination of the fate and fortunes of a Grimsby working class family within the past two centuries. A warm, well-researched and fascinating look at a family history, which leaves no stone unturned, and uncovers surprises on the way.