大象传媒

I joined the Navy as a boy at 15 1/2 and when the war broke out I was in the Indian Ocean on HMS Manchester.

I came back on shore and was sent up to the Admiralty to start working in mine disposal. I was given 24 hours to think about whether I wanted to do it or not - but there wasn't a lot of choice!

So with very little training I would go out with an officer. My officer was from Australia and he was a gentleman - I did nearly all my jobs with him. Mines were dropped in by parachute by the Germans and would land anywhere - on land, in the mud or on water. They could also land anywhere in the country and if they had not exploded, we were sent out make them safe - we would be sent out by special car to wherever we were needed. Quite often people didn't come back from a job, but the money was good which made it slightly more appealing! I was 20 years old and did this job for about 18 months. Being a bit of a rebel, I wanted to stand up for what I thought was right and it was this that got me in to trouble - I fell out with someone and got sent back to the Navy where I served on 2 more ships before moving on to submarines.

The mine disposal work stands out in my memory, because it was different. We would get a week off every 3 weeks and quite often we would get free tickets for cinema and theatre - so there were some perks. And on top of my wages I would get an extra 拢2.12 6d food allowance, which was a lot of money in those days! I completed 16 jobs altogether, but received the George Medal for 2 particular jobs, at the age of 21. I had to go to the Palace to get the medal from the King. Although it didn't mean too much to me at that age, my parents were very proud. I met the King again when he came to review the submarine I was serving on at a later date - he saw the medal ribbon and stopped to talk to me, asking me when he had given me the medal. I was very privileged to be one of the only men he talked to.

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