´óÏó´«Ã½

Churchill and family returnng from Canada and on to Alexandria
Transcribed from a video recording

The train pulled in at the station, alongside the pier, and out stepped Winston Churchill, Mrs Churchill, Mary Churchill, Captain Thompson, Churchill’s doctor, we believe, he wasn’t announced as a doctor, he was in naval uniform, Captain Thompson, he followed Churchill everywhere, and who else? His entourage, and a whole lot of WRNS, which was rather fun, because they were coming aboard, they were the coders, because wherever Churchill was, the war had to be carried on. We were delighted to see the girls, but we weren’t happy about the arrangements, because we had to be turfed out of our quarters to make room for them, because women didn’t go to sea, not in naval ships, it was unheard of, but they had to be there, everything was done in code, so that was that that, and
We arrived in Greenock, and Churchill rallied everyone together to say how much he’d enjoyed the trip, because I think he did, he came round the ship, you see, he visited the ship, he came into the wardroom, and sat as close as that microphone, he was there, I was here, with the cigar.
Well he thanked us all [ imitation of Churchill in very deep voice — untranscribable] Got all the crew together, thanked us all for the trip, and then off he went. And there’s a photograph of him leaving Renown, from the mooring in Greenock, and that was that.
And on the Renown, we went back to Scapa, for more exercises, and working up ship, and we had aircraft … So that was that. A lot of things they fitted in….anyway, back to Scapa. more exercises. These Swordfish were towing things called drogues, like a windsock, a long length, quarter of a mile maybe, and we fired at this thing, not of the aircraft, at the drogues. Boring stuff, really it’s all in the log book, what we did, what we fired at, when we started, and all that sort of stuff, and then we were sent down to Falmouth, and we picked up Churchill again, and his party, and took him to Alexandria for him to go to the Teheran Conference, that was with Stalin and Co. So we had him with us twice.

Gordon Richmond

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.