大象传媒

Training Ship Conway and the RN College, Greenwich.
Transcribed from a video recording

My name is Gordon Richmond, and I was born on the seventeenth of January 1925
Well, I left school in 1940, at the age of fourteen. And went to sea in a training ship based in the river Mersey, she was what they used to call one of the old wooden walls, in other words like the Victory, which is in Portsmouth, and she was moored in the Mersey, as I said, and she was a training ship designed for training officers for the Merchant Navy, that was her prime purpose, and the total complement of cadets on board was about one hundred and thirty. Now the training period was two years on the Conway, and at the end of two years I qualified as one year apprenticeship in the normal sea time. Normally one had four year鈥檚 apprenticeship to qualify for your ticket, but if you were on the Conway that one year took you up to your three years before you could sit the examination. But things changed, we are now talking 1940, and the war was on, of course, and during the two year period we had a visit from the top brass from the Admiralty, we had lots of these big noises came up, actually very senior officers, with bags of what we called fruit salad, which is the medal ribbons, and oak leaves, and that sort of things, and they got the chaps assembled, and then the waffle which you don鈥檛 hear today very much, 鈥淲e are delighted to be on the Conway today, chaps, and we are in fact offering you short service commissions in the Royal Navy. Captain Goddard is here, and he will be delighted to give you all the details should you so wish at the end of my little talk. Now we don鈥檛 want to distract you from your normal programme, which would have been to search for employment in a Merchant ship, but we are offering you this concession, and having got that out of the way, I decided, well the war is on, we don鈥檛 know how long it is going to be, so I opted for the Navy. I was granted a commission as Midshipman in the RNR, Royal naval Reserve, and proceeded to the Royal Naval College in Greenwich for three months further training, of course.
One or two individuals who were of interest to people of my age, there was a famous actor called Ian Hunter who was on the course, you won鈥檛 remember him, he played in the film 鈥淭he battle of the River Plate, as one of the officers, and also John Barron was on my course, and he played the part of CJ in 鈥淭he fall and rise of Reginald Perrin鈥� , he was the boss of Sunshine Deserts, absolutely hilarious, and he was an actor then, just starting out.

Gordon Richmond

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