Lady Shirley was part of the 31st A/S Group and was stationed and operated from Gibralter with the trawlers Erin of 7th A/S GP and Lady Hogarth, Lady shirley was a escort / patrol trawler.she was fitted with Asdic anti-submarine dome. October 4 1941 found Lady Shirley on lone patrol South of the Canaries the Lookout spotted something that looked like a ships funnel and reported it to Watch officer Sub Lieutenant French. French went to investigate and as he observed the object it dissapeared. It could have been a funnel or the conning tower of a U boat, Shirley`s captain immediately altered course to head for the position. Having a positive contact from the Asdic equipment Lady Shirley went into attack. A pattern of depth charges were dropped and shortly afterwards to the stern of Lady shirley a U boat surfaced, Lady Shirley turned hard to port to bring the 4 inch gun to bear on the U boat, as Lady Shirley`s point five guns opened fire they were answered by a stream of cannon shells. The four inch gun fired but was a near miss, the U boat fired at the same time and tracer flasheds went everywhere. This burst of tracer mortally wounded the gun layer, Seaman Pizzey who was hit by a cannon shell, he called out "they`ve got me !" he staggered back, collapsed and died. A replacement quickly took over as gun layer and another shot was fired, all the while the Hotchkiss gunners firing at the U boat. The crew of lady Shirley could not understand why the U boat had not returned fire with it`s big gun. The U boat crew started to abandon ship and very quickly afterwards the U boat sank. All the Germans were taken aboard from the water 45 in total, 8 were unaccounted for including the captain. On the voyage back to Gibralter that afternoon a Funeral service was held for Seaman Pizzey, another sevice was held the day after for a wounded German.

After 4 days sailing Lady Shirley arrived back in Gibralter to a hero`s welcome, Winston Churchill cabled his personal congratulations to Lady Shirley. Lieutenant Commander Callaway was awarded an immediate DSO 'For daring and skill in a brilliant action against a U boat in which the Enemy was sunk and surrendered, to H.M.T Lady Shirley.

December 1941 The Loss of Lady Shirley