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1932 — Born and moved to Fairlie (Largs in Ayrshire). Dad, due to depression, took a job in Kelburn Castle (Lord Glasgow’s Castle) as he was a chef on board HMS Granville in the First World War and asked my father if he ever needed work to contact him. My father did in 1932 and we had a cottage on the Estate.
Then in 1939, the 2nd World War started and my father, who trained as a chef at Dartmouth College, was called up again and joined HMS Osprey, then transferred to HMS Titania, which was a submarine depot ship and was berthed in a lock up in the Clyde. I believe it was Lock Awe.
We then had to move from Fairlie as there was no transport to get my father home at leave times from Glasgow, so we uprooted and had a flat in Paisley. Mother used to take in Munition Workers from Bishopton, the cordite factory, as we had 7 rooms. We had 3 of these workers, but they had to alternate between jobs at the factory as the exposure to the cordite fumes turned their skin yellow after a period of time.
At the outbreak of war I was 8 years old and the school I was attending was the storage and distribution centre for all the gas masks in the area, so we used to issue them to all the public.
We first had a Morrison shelter in our flat, but the safety officer made them take it apart as it was too heavy for the floor to support and they erected Anderson shelters in the gardens of the block of flats. We used these shelters quite often when the sirens were sounded.
I well remember Clyde Bank when the Germans bombed it and when we saw the red glow after the raid it looked like a brilliant sunset in the sky. I will never forget this and when I see a sunset now it always reminds me of that night.
There was also the case when they dropped a land mine on my sister’s college and completely destroyed it and we used to watch the dog fights between our fighters and German planes quite often. We were well organised in the streets. ARP wardens with lots of stirrup pumps giving them to each household for use against incendiary bombs.
My father moved to a shore base a Dunoon and I used to catch the ferry down the Clyde and visit him at weekends.
He was a Chief Petty Officer and when the war ended we moved to Weymouth where my mother had a house in Southlands Road, which, by the way, had been bomb damaged due to one that landed close by.
My father had ill health towards the end of the war, so we took over management of a golf clubhouse at Weymouth, but he died in 1950 and today I still have his medals from 2 world wars in my possession.
I remember when he came home with his demob suit; a grey trilby, blue pinstripe suit, raincoat, etc.
We will always remember when he came home at weekends with his small suitcase. He would bring white bread loaves (brown bread only during war years), jam Swiss rolls and bars of chocolate. It was a wonderful memory of those austere days.
I remember travelling down from Glasgow twice a year to Weymouth, to see our relatives, and the journeys during the war years were an epic. We would start off at 9.30 pm from Glasgow and then, halfway, we would have to stop as an air raid was taking place, perhaps for an hour or two at any one time.
The carriages used to be full and also the corridors were full of servicemen with all their kit bags, etc., and you simply had a job to get past them, it was so crowded, but we all understood and put on a brave face.
When we arrived in Weymouth, the beach was covered in barbed wire and it was said that there were invasions and if there was a German landing there, they would set the sea on fire also, but it never came to that.
HMS TITANIA
Origin of the ship — she was captured in the 1914 — 1918 war, was refitted and went into service with the Royal Navy. She was the submarine depot ship and served well in both World Wars. She took over the midget submarines during the 1939 — 1945 war and then went as a training vessel and finally finished up by dismantling at Faslane Naval Base. Her tender ship is still in operation in Holland. Being a coal fired ship, it was so hot in the boiler room that the stokers could only work in 20-minute stints and were well supplied with a large amount of limejuice. She was often berthed in Portland Naval Base.
When the Second World War broke out, she had to be moved to a less vulnerable location. I well remember the Barrage Balloons and the services installing and inflating them.
When we were issued with gas masks, my baby sister had one. Being only a few months old, she was completely enclosed in it and I believe, as far as my memory tells me, that it had an air pump on it.
All the tenement flats in the town had wooden seating along each side of the corridors.
I remember the celebrations at the cessation of the war and burning all these seats on large bonfires in the streets.
I also remember the water containers for firemen to use in an emergency, but there were always cats and dogs that had strayed into them and drowned and that was always a worry for flat owners!

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