Description
Object description
British seaman served as boy signaller aboard HMS Cairo, Home Fleet, 1937; served as ordinary signaller aboard HMS Sheffield, 2nd Cruiser Sqdn, Home Fleet, 1938-1938; served aboard HMS Jarvis, 7th and 14th Destroyer Flotillas, 1940-1942 served as as yeoman of signals aboard HMS Hotspur, C4 Escort Group, 1943-1944; served aboard HMS Redoubt with East Indies Fleet, 1945; served at Communications Headquarter, HMS Highflyer Shore Station, Trincomalee, Ceylon, 1945-1947; served at signal station at Chatham Dockyard, 1948-1949; served aboard HMS Crossbow, 1949-1950
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Andover, 1920-1935: social circumstances; education; work as telegram boy and butcher; hobby building boat; volunteering to join Royal Navy, 1935. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine at HMS Ganges Shore Station, Shotley, 7/1935-11/1936: reception and 1st meal; initial annexe accommodation; kitting out and sewing name on kit; success in educational tests and selection for training as signaller; swimming lessons; barracks room accommodation; discipline and punishments at kit inspections; morning routine; cleaning session; food rations and role as duty cooks; kitchen fatigues; divisions parade; educational lessons; Morse code training.
REEL 2 Continues: signal books; learning flags and pennants system of signalling; method of raising flags on hoists and competitions; fleet manoeuvre signals and exercises on parade ground; executive signals; seamanship, drill, rifle and masthead training; PT and sport; relationship with boys; pay; canteen; relationship with instructors; kit inspections; leave; examinations; issue with hammocks; cutter training and races.
REEL 3 Continues: sailing cutters and whalers; trip aboard destroyer; smoking ban; selection of Chatham as home port. Period in Chatham Barracks, 11/1936: vaccinations; minimal duties; question of discipline. Recollections of period as boy signaller aboard HMS Cairo, Home Fleet, 1/1937-11/1937: reception on joining ship at Chatham; status as commodore ship; nature of boys' forward mess deck; hammocks; duties as cook of mess; canteen messing system and food; introduction to duties on bridge and flag deck; repairing flags; cleaning duties; mechanical semaphore system; duties as anchor boy; hoisting flags from flag deck and story having to climb mast to retrieve flag hoisted up in error; spring cruise of HF in Mediterranean; seasickness in rough weather.
REEL 4 Continues: sunburn; signal lookout duty; period at Oran and story of visit to French Foreign Legion depot; night fighting exercises with HF in North Sea; signal lamps; open day at Greenwich. Recollections of periods as boy signaller and ordinary signaller aboard HMS Sheffield, 2nd Cruiser Sqdn, HF, 1/1938-11/1938: first impressions and comparison with HMS Cairo; qualification as signaller; burial of admiral at sea from HMS Iron Duke. Period on secondment to HMS Hussar at Portland, 1/1939-5/1939. Recollections of period aboard HMS Jarvis, 7th Destroyer Flotilla, HF, 5/1939-6/1940: first impressions on joining ship at Wallsend; question of Mountbatten's influence on RN and superior captain's quarters installed on HMS Jarvis and HMS Kelly; commissioning after trials; communications mess deck; latrines; washing clothes ion bucket.
REEL 5 Continues: sea trials and raising white ensign; move to take crew aboard at Chatham; working up exercises; reactions to outbreak of war; operations in North Sea based at Immingham docks; story of punishment after getting drunk ashore; story of collision with merchant ship during move to Rosyth, 18/3/1940; period in dry dock at Wallsend on Tyne; detachment on course as leading signaller, 5/1940; reaction to inclusion as signaller in naval battalion for service in France; rejoining ship; sea trials on completion of repairs, 6/1940. Recollections of operations in Mediterranean with 14th Destroyer Flotilla based at Alexandria, Egypt, 6/1940-8/1942: voyage out; opinion of Captain Philip John-Mack; impressions of Alexandria; relationship with Egyptian civilians and dock labourers.
REEL 6 Continues: Italian air raids; patrols escorting fleet; impact of sinking of HMS Barham; shore bombardment in Sollum sector, Egypt; escorting troopship to Suda Bay, Crete; story of hitting HMS Jaguar whilst escorting convoy into Tobruk during air raid, 1/12/1941; search for Vitorio Venetio following Battle of Matapan; signal arrangements to mimic pattern of Italian night signals; rescuing Italian survivors and sinking of Pola; German bombing attack; shore bombardment of Italian airfield at Rhodes; evacuation of British troops from Crete; opinion of Mountbatten.
REEL 7 Continues: damage to ship during attack by Italian frogmen on neighbouring oil tanker in Alexandria harbour, 19/12/1941; repairs in dock; leave and Christmas celebrations in Cairo, 25/12/1941; story of German air attack during operations to intercept German convoy, sinking of three destroyers and rescue of survivors, 10/5/1942; attending course and promotion to yeoman of signals; evacuation of Alexandria during German advance through Western Desert, ca 6/1942; period based at Port Said; background to leaving ship, 8/1942. Voyage aboard Neue Amsterdam to Durban, South Africa, 9/1942. Story of being torpedoed aboard Orcades, ca 9/1942.
REEL 8 Continues: rescue from lifeboat by Polish ship; return to Capetown. Period in Pietersburg, ca 9/1942. Voyage aboard Maloja to GB, 1/1942. Period at Chatham, 1942-1943. Recollections of period as yeoman of signals aboard HMS Hotspur, C4 Escort Group, 1943-1944: working up exercises; Atlantic convoy escort role and effect of sever weather conditions; inexperience of officers; attending course on U Boat warfare; role patrolling in Western English Channel during D Day and subsequent operations, 6/1944-7/1944; opinion of inexperienced captain; decommission of ship, ca 11/1944. Period at Chatham, 1944-1945. Voyage out to Ceylon, 1945. Period aboard HMS Redoubt with East Indies Fleet, 1945: joining fleet at Trincomalee; story of refusal of rescue by Japanese survivors from bombed ship; story of rescue of Malayan; situation.
REEL 9 Continues: escorting landing craft to Nicobar islands; fresh food storage problems during long voyages; reactions to Japanese surrender, 8/1945; entry into Penang; return to Trincomalee, local leave; leaving ship. Period at Communications Headquarter, HMS Highflyer Shore Station, Trincomalee, Ceylon, 1945-1947: beer ration; accommodation; role in charge of part of Women's Royal Naval Service 'Wrens'; learning to drive; story of taking Wrens to party at detached signal station; story of sinking motorised dugout canoe in harbour; effect of wartime experiences; voyage home. Period in charge of signal station at Chtham Dockyard, 1948-1949. Period aboard HMS Crossbow, 1949-1950: background to posting; liaison with US Navy in testing new anti-submarine equipment at Key West, US; story of fatal accident with hand grenade exploding on bridge; story of rating shot by US policeman; recreational visits ashore. Demobilisation, 7/1950: question of remaining in RN; promotion prospects; question of vocational training and advice.
REEL 10 Post-service career: reactions to leaving RN; move to Rhyl; work as painter; career as policeman with Cheshire Police Force; effect of wartime experiences; membership of Royal Naval Assoc and attending HMS Ganges Association reunions.
