Description
Object description
British rating served aboard HMS Warspite, 1937-1941; served as leading seaman aboard HMS Jay, 1941-1944; served as coxswain aboard HMS Verdun, 1944-1945; served as chief petty officer aboard HMS Cossack, 1951-1954
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of background in Liverpool and Runswick Bay, 1920-1935: family background and social circumstances; education and rugby activities; recreations; background to joining Royal Navy and passing tests, 1935. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine as boy recruit with HMS Ganges Shore Station, Shotley, 5/1936-2/1937: reception; annexe barrack accommodation; kitting out; pay; sewing names on uniform; dispute with instructor boys; food rations; rowing lessons; move into No 5 Mess, Collingwood Division; relationship with instructors; seamanship training including boatwork, anchors and cables, knots and splices, boxing compass, rule of road and use of seamanship manual; drill.
REEL 2 Continues: opinion of officers; field gun exercise; 6" gun drill; training in director and ranging equipment; rifle training; learning to swim and swimming test; PT and attitude of PT instructors; mast drill; rugby and boxing activities; relationship with boy recruits; examinations and passing out as Boy 1st Class. Period at Pembroke Barracks, Chatham, 2/1937-7/1937: role of home port; joining routine; fatigues; participation in Royal Tournament, Olympia, 1937, including PT tests prior to selection, special training at HMS Victory Barracks, Portsmouth and successful performances; return to Chatham; leave and meeting future wife. Recollections of service aboard HMS Warspite, 7/1937-2/1941: first impressions on joining ship at Portsmouth; reception from former PT instructor; boys' mess deck.
REEL 3 Continues: hammocks relationship with petty officers; painting and cleaning duties; allocation to top division; holystoning and washing upper deck; training and evolution exercises; gunnery training and review of director, range finders and fire control system; success in frie control examination; seamanship training; torpedo training and electrical course; move to quarterdeck division; rating as ordinary seaman, 12/1938; role as side boy; voyage to Malta to takeover as flagship for Mediterranean Fleet; routine duties and PT; general messing system and food; cocoa; watch system; lookout duty; cutter crew duty; impressions of visits ashore at Malta; view of loading and firing 15" guns of 'A' Turret. REEL 4 Continues: view of loading and firing 15" guns of 'A' Turret as time keeper; restrictions on exercises and use of sub-calibre shells; Mediterranean exercises and composition of fleet; spring exercises with Home Fleet based at Gibraltar; posting as ordinary seaman and move to No. 39 Mess, Quarterdeck Division; washing clothes in bucket; relationship with ratings; photography 'firm'; duties as captain's messenger and stories illustrating opinion of Captain Victor Crutchley VC; memories of Admirals Dudley Pound, Cunningham and Bruce Fraser; captain's inspections; participation in fleet regattas; visits ashore; rugby activities; duties as central communications office messenger and awareness of approach of war, 9/1939.
REEL 5 Continues: story of raising periscope alarm whilst acting as captain's messenger during exercise; news of outbreak of war, 3/9/1939; preparations and initial cruise in Mediterranean; effects of storm during voyage to Halifax, Canada, 10/1939; voyage with convoy to GB, 11/1939; responding to distress call from HMS Rawalpindi,23/11/1939; return to join Home Fleet at Scapa Flow, 11/1939; exercises; shore leave; role in Anti-Aircraft Transmitting Station during Second Battle of Narvik, 13/4/1940, including minor damage to ship, taking aboard wounded and success of Swordfish in sinking U Boat; return on Italian entry to war to Mediterranean based at Alexandria, Egypt, 6/1940; skirmish with Italian Fleet at Battle of Calabria, 9/7/1940; shore bombardments in support of Eight Army, 12/1940; cruising station role in 15 Turret Transmitting Station and nature of director system; covering convoys to Malta; Italian high level air attacks including action stations as range finder on pom-pom director, method of avoiding bombs and story of near miss; paining ship camouflage pattern.
REEL 6 Continues: story of accident; training for leading seaman examinations; internment of French ships, ca 6/1940; visits ashore at Alexandria including relationship with Egyptian civilians and canteen; story of German dive bomber attack on HMS Illustrious during convoy to Malta, 1/1941; leaving ship after passing as leading seaman, 2/1941. Period at HMS Canopus Barracks, Alexandria, 2/1941-3/1941: conditions of service; period in desert camp; story of loss of officer's kit during train journey. Voyage aboard Monarch of Bermuda to GB, 3/1941: conditions; stories of disputes over treatment by officers. Period at Pembroke Barracks, Chatham, 3/1941-9/1941: promotion to leading seaman; guard and fire picket duty. Recollections of period as leading seaman aboard HMS Jay, 9/1941-4/1944: role as converted trawler minelayer; first impressions on joining ship at Glasgow; composition of crew; opinion of hostilities only ratings; commencing voyage to Colombo, Ceylon, 11/1941; effects of storm.
REEL 7 Continues: makeshift meal during storm; visit to Azores; engine problems; makeshift sails; repairs at Freetown, Sierra Leone; steering problems; route; stories of visits ashore during repairs at Capetown and Durban, South Africa; method of surveying and laying minefield off Mauritius; catching shark; laying minefield off Madagascar; role of support ship HMS Manchester City; laying 'guard loop' of mines off East Coast of Africa; story of getting drunk ashore and aboard ship; success in passing petty officers' exam and promotion as coxswain petty officer.
REEL 8 Continues: visit to Seychelles; laying minefield off Colombo; story of Japanese air raid whilst loaded with mines; attacks of dengue fever; cockroach and rat problems; fumigation treatment; nature of PO mess; role as coxswain and relationship with officers; making lead line; leaving ship, 3/1944. Period in St Joseph's Barracks, Colombo, 3/1944-5/1944: conditions; visit by Lord Mountbatten and orders to return home. Voyage aboard HMS Sussex to Scapa Flow, 5/1944: question of next qualification; duties acting as quartermaster on wheel; dispute over duties on temporary ship; train journey to Chatham. Period at Pembroke Barracks, Chatham, 5/1944-12/1944: leave and marriage, 12/6/1944; attending coxswain's course at HMS Vernon, Portsmouth; role during period of sea training aboard HMS Verdun. Period as coxswain aboard HMS Verdun, 12/1944-6/1945: role escorting East Coast convoys; question of E-Boat threat; VE Day, 8/5/1945. Period at Pembroke Barracks, Chatham, 6/1945-8/1945. Period as chief petty officer coxswain aboard HMS Holderness, 8/1945-3/1946: escorting German ships to Soviet Union; conditions.
REEL 9 Review of naval career, 1946-1951: training for educational qualifications; work in Rosneath dockyard, 1947-1948; acting as coxswain on admiral's barge; period as instructor and on PO course at HMS Royal Arthur Shore Station, Corsham; period as instructor at HMS Ceres Shore Station, Wetherby, 1949-1951. Period as chief petty officer aboard HMS Cossack, 1951-1954: voyage out on Empire Foy to Hong Kong, 10/1951; initial billet in Fleet Club before moving into barracks; CPO's mess; duties as CPO; story of investigating theft from officers' wine store and punishment of offenders; sea trials; operations off Korea based at Sasebo, Japan; inshore patrols including firing at trains, and South Korean positions; role on wheel during action stations, refuelling at sea and entering harbour; role assisting in keeping watch on bridge; escorting aircraft carriers; story of accidental attack by US aircraft off Korean coast; damage caused by collision with US ship; relationship with US sailors and story of US NCOs taking passage on ship.
REEL 10 Continues: refuelling from oil tankers; anti-submarine exercise with US Navy off Okinawa; return to Hong Kong; award of British Empire Medal; case of deserters; leaving ship and voyage aboard Empire Fovey back to GB. Review of naval career, 1954-1960: period as instructor at HMS Ceres, Wetherby, 1954-1958; service as coxswain aboard HMS Salisbury, 1958-1959, including story of reception from officer, story of dispute with officer, exercises in Mediterranean, patrols off Iceland, replacement engine, visits to Bermuda, Canada and US, preparing draft notes for crew prior to paying off and final disciplinary cases; period as 'chief of pier' at HMS Ganges, Shotley, 9/1959-9/1960; demobilisation, 9/1960. Post-service career: failing medical for coastguards; career as customs officer patrolling coast, 1961-1984.