- Contributed by听
- Burnham Library
- People in story:听
- Don Baines
- Location of story:听
- Burnham, Essex
- Background to story:听
- Royal Navy
- Article ID:听
- A3391733
- Contributed on:听
- 10 December 2004
TS Exmouth Boys Band marching along Burnham High Street 1939
This story was submitted to the Peoples's War site by J. Marshall on behalf of D. Baines and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions
Training ships moored along the Thames were established to provide nautical training to boys to help them enter the Merchant or Royal Navy. When War broke out the ships were evacuated on Government instructions with the boys and crew from Grays to Burnham on Crouch. One of these ships was the Training Ship Exmouth.
I was a young boy in the War and remember seeing these boys around the town marching in their band and taking part in various exercises on the river. The discipline was very strict on the ships and run along military lines.
These boys were of good character and were taught seamanship to prepare them for the Forces. Over 800 of the boys were trained on the ships and served in the Forces.
After the War the Exmouth was replaced with the TS Joseph Hertz moored off Grays which trained Jewish orphans who had lost parents in the War, some of whom had survived the Belsen concentration camp
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