Swimming pool scene. Foster. Sunderland. Dressel’, 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) on board HMT...

Swimming pool scene. Foster. Sunderland. Dressel’, 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters) on board HMT Orion en route to Egypt, 1941. Photograph by Major Wilfred Herbert James Sale (1913-1995), MC, 3rd County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), World War Two (1939-1945), 1941. The ocean liner RMS Orion, launched in 1934, was requisitioned as a troopship in 1940. She transported troops to and from England, Egypt, New Zealand, Australia, and Singapore; she survived the war and was scrapped in 1963. Troops in transit were able to take advantage of some of the the liner’s peacetime facilities, such as the swimming pool. According to the Sharpshooters’ war diary, 40 officers and 603 other ranks of the 3rd County of London Yeomanry embarked on the Orion at Avonmouth on 14 August 1941. The troopship sailed for Egypt the next day. British forces travelling to Egypt avoided the Mediterranean Sea because of the threat from German and Italian forces. The Orion’s route included Freetown in Sierra Leone, Cape Town in South Africa, Aden and then up to Port Said in Egypt via the Suez Canal. From an album containing 229 group photographs compiled by Major W H J Sale, MC, 3rd/4th County of London Yeomanry (Sharpshooters), 1941.