Interview with Victor Douglas Stamp

British seaman served as cook aboard HMS Ramillies in Pacific, Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, 9/1939-10/1941; petty officer cook served aboard HMS Enchantress in North and South Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific, 1941-1945

REEL 1 Background in Portsmouth, GB, 1919-1938: family; education; employment; reasons for enlistment in Royal Navy, 9/1938. Recollections of period as cook aboard HMS Ramillies in Pacific, Indian Ocean and Mediterranean, 9/1939-10/1941: organisation of cooking; numbers of seaman cooked for; facilities aboard battleship; hearing declaration of Second World War, 3/9/1939; Christmas in New Zealand, 25/12/1939; sweat money for working in tropics; reasons for working in bakery; work in bakery; daily routine on board HMS Ramillies; incident of fire in gallery; contrast in working on smaller ships and battleships; seamens' favourite foods; problems of operating in different climates; use of hammock; story of baking bread in rough conditions. REEL 2 Continues: method of making coco; supper; provision of sandwiches and soup for bridge personnel; reasons for loss of teeth; convoy escort in Indian Ocean; passing through Suez Canal, Egypt; action station in shell room; opinion of Italian Navy; ashore in Alexandria, Egypt; attitude towards firing on Vichy French Navy vessels; return to GB, 10/1941. Recollections of period as cook aboard HMS Enchantress in North and South Atlantic, Mediterranean and Pacific, 1941-1945: drafting to sloop; captain Lieutenant Commander Arthur Christie's boxing exploits; story of loss of turkey leg to hungry stoker; story of dealing with injured seaman; loss of supply officer; ship's armament; length of service aboard ship. REEL 3 Continues: return to GB prior to Operation Torch; sight of British Army troops in United States Army uniforms; orders to support HMS Hartland and HMS Walney during attack on Oran Harbour, French Algeria, 11/1942; rescue of pilot; damage to ship during ramming Italian submarine Corallo off Bougie, French Algeria, 13/12/1942; return to GB with temporary wooden bow; fate of HMS Hartland and HMS Walney during attack on Oran, French Algeria, 8/11/1942; arrangements for marriage; escorting German Navy submarines in Bay of Biscay after German surrender, 5/1945; impressions of captured German submarine; wartime Gibraltar; move to Australia; length of service on board ship and promotion to petty officer; special rations for former Far Eastern Prisoners of War in Hong Kong; story of captain wearing Maori skirt during action aboard HMS Ramilles; return to GB. Various postings as petty officer cook with Royal Navy, 1945-1960: period on board HMS Theseus, 1948-1950; signing on as instructor. REEL 4 Continues: work during Spithead Review, 1953; teaching officer to cook for Antarctic Expedition; reasons for leaving Royal Navy, 1960; attitude to having served in Royal Navy, 1938-1960.