Roof tile fragment from Hiroshima : Leading Signalman R Thompson, HMS Commonwealth, BCOF

A part of a roof tile fused by the heat from the first atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima. The fragment is roughly circular with small craters appearing on one side.

Associated with the service of D/JA 245595 Leading Signaller Robert ‘Bob’ Thompson, Royal Navy, who enlisted on 3 January 1941 and saw service with the North Russia and Trafalgar convoys; in the Normandy Campaign; and manned Landing Craft LC H187 during the British Commando/Royal Marine assault on Walcheren Island (a German-held fortified island, near the mouth of the Scheldt River which protected the approaches to Antwerp) on 1-8 November 1944. After the war ended, Thompson served with the British Commonwealth Occupation Forces (BCOF) in Japan in 1946 with the shore establishment, HMS ‘Commonwealth’. He later emigrated to Australia.