ServiceHistory

I was born at a time when it was required that I should register for National Service in 1948. As I lived in a small village called Anstey in Leicestershire I had to go to the City of Leicester to register. There they said that I would have to join the army. As I had always wanted to join the navy they said that I would have to sign on as a regular for seven years with the fleet and five years in the reserve fleet. I fell for it and that is how I came to join the Supply and Secretariat Branch of the Royal Navy as a Probationary Writer on 21 September 1948 at HMS Royal Arthur at Corsham in Wiltshire.

After six weeks of 'work ship' and 'square bashing', I was drafted to HMS Ceres at Wetherby in Yorkshire for about six months training in the secretarial work I was to perform during my stay in the Royal Navy. In March 1949, after completion of my training, I was drafted to the Royal Naval Barracks Portsmouth to await my fate from the Drafting Office.

It came after about two weeks as a 'draft chit' to HMS Dryad - the Radar and Navigational Training School at the village of Southwick in Hampshire and the wartime headquarters of General Eisenhower during his preparations for the invasion of Europe in 1944. Here I worked in the Captain's Office and later, to gain experience for advancement, in the Pay Office. Apart from a weeks cruise to Torbay at the insistence of the Commander(S) that I should get some seatime, I languished there for over three years. I really thought the Drafting Office had lost my details.

Then, in May 1952 - six months after I was advanced to Leading Writer it arrived - a draft to HMS Vanguard. I still remember the day I climbed into the back of the lorry in the courtyard of HMS Dryad and the drive down to the Dockyard and the South Railway Jetty. I spent two happy years aboard HMS Vanguard employed in the Ship's Office and in May 1954 I was drafted to the Royal Naval Air Service Drafting Office at HMS Daedalus, Lee-on-Solent where I was advanced to Petty Officer Writer and remained until I was demobbed in September 1955.