TODAY IN HISTORY VEST THE BOY FROM DR BARNARDO'S HOMES, JOINS THE BRITISH ROYAL NAVY,JAN-7-1942.
It was January 5 1942, I had passed my medical exam, despite the minimum height requirement of five feet. I was four feet ten and a half inches tall, Six stone six pounds (42.3 Kilos) and fifteen years, five months and twenty days old, an under aged and under sized piece of cannon fodder. The Naval preparatory school run by Barnardo's Homes received a 25 Pounds Sterling bounty on delivering me for service in the British Royal Navy on January-7-1942. I was worth Aus$1.15 a kilo or 30 cents U/S per lb.
After a gruelling train journey to Fleetwood (near Liverpool)I embarked in the early morning on the Isle Of Man Steamer, 'Rushen Castle', It took four hours to get to Douglas I O Man and I had not been to sea for over four years.
Looking piteously at the first timers berleying their guts out on the boisterous Irish sea, I was reminded of my first experience of sea sickness while on a Portsmouth to Isle of Wight ferry in 1938 the 'Lorna Doone', a coal burning paddle steamer, which was put to good use evacuating soldiers from Dunkirk (Dunkerque) France in 1940.
The Bible in my possession was signed by the Rev Harling on the feast of the epiphany Jan 7-42,I often wonder if that old sod made it to heaven. On that conspicuous day I became a Boy 2nd Class Royal Navy. The Americans had beat me to this war thing by 31 days, but I was better prepared than most for my next encounter with a new type of authority.
Yesterday January 6-2007, It was sixty one years ago, Sunday Jan- 6, the ship I served on for over two years during WW2,left Sydney for England after under-going repairs. We were the last unit Serving overseas to return to Britain where the war had ended ten months earlier, most Brits didn't know about the pacific war until the first 'A'Bomb on Japan.
Would the person who suggested in a previous post that I was born with a silver spoon, Should you ever find it? Shove it up your Ass.
After a gruelling train journey to Fleetwood (near Liverpool)I embarked in the early morning on the Isle Of Man Steamer, 'Rushen Castle', It took four hours to get to Douglas I O Man and I had not been to sea for over four years.
Looking piteously at the first timers berleying their guts out on the boisterous Irish sea, I was reminded of my first experience of sea sickness while on a Portsmouth to Isle of Wight ferry in 1938 the 'Lorna Doone', a coal burning paddle steamer, which was put to good use evacuating soldiers from Dunkirk (Dunkerque) France in 1940.
The Bible in my possession was signed by the Rev Harling on the feast of the epiphany Jan 7-42,I often wonder if that old sod made it to heaven. On that conspicuous day I became a Boy 2nd Class Royal Navy. The Americans had beat me to this war thing by 31 days, but I was better prepared than most for my next encounter with a new type of authority.
Yesterday January 6-2007, It was sixty one years ago, Sunday Jan- 6, the ship I served on for over two years during WW2,left Sydney for England after under-going repairs. We were the last unit Serving overseas to return to Britain where the war had ended ten months earlier, most Brits didn't know about the pacific war until the first 'A'Bomb on Japan.
Would the person who suggested in a previous post that I was born with a silver spoon, Should you ever find it? Shove it up your Ass.
Comments
i new all along u were not royalty
its the way u cuss
not the way harward guys do
176mm plus 98kilos is now my present size.
dats 176 cm
unless u r referring to your penis
u britishers havent mastered the metric system yet
and 98 kg is probably pounds
hehehe
I filled my boots whenever, couldn't get enough.
Happy new year mate.
happy new year to you and family.
Yeah mate we read about it in your book- but whats [The Andrew}
Keshi.
Saby: watch it. OK a Typo should be CM not MM. Goa visit on hold; so is your demise, this is due to health problems within the family.
The term 'The Andrew' Meaning the British Royal Navy has been around long before the battle of Trafalgar, Mon-Oct-21-1805 and the Napoleonic wars.
If I remember correctly the Brit Navy had 250,000 sailors from a population of ten million the greater majority of which were those pressed into service or taken from prisons, approx 15% of all able bodied men between the ages of 12 to 65 were sailors, most were never allowed shore leave.
Lt Andrew Miller was a Press Gang officer who operated around the Portsmouth district, so it is assumed that he and his nefarious activities gave rise to the term 'The Andrew' meaning the British Navy.
Type in.
Naval press Gangs, then click onto-
Broadside the press gangs, then the Impress service. I have discovered a stack of good reading within those pages, all good stuff.
hehehehehe
u better make it fast
or i will be in California then
i aim to do some serious calli -fornicating in california
they say the blondes there are crazy for indians
they tink all indians no YOGA and can keep it up for 2 hours at the least
Read all about the press gangs, not much diff from your entry into the Navy vesty.
stinking fart.
if u kill PUGS
i figure with PUGS gone
Michele will marry me
for the simple reason
no body else has proposed
not even PUGS
but she is hoping dat some day he will
knock him off
before he does
Then again you and her would pair aup well, you being as sly as a yellow eyed shit house rat with a gold tooth.
Should all else fail, you could pair up with the hobnailed booted aged shed building harridan from sticks-ville Minnesota, who is currently holed up in a snow bound shack in the wilds, Her ex called Scrunchy was until recently the undiscovered eighth dwarf from dunderhead land, But was recently devoured by a huge Grizzly Bear, so you could be in with chance should you be able to handle a hammer and nails.
I am now off to the club for happy drinks, talk to you later shit stain.