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When the war began I was living with my family in Fairfield Road, Burnham in Buckinghamshire. I was 19 when I joined the Navy in 1941. I volunteered because I wanted to be in the Navy rather than the Army and I wouldn’t have had the choice if I had waited to be conscripted. I went in to the Engineering section as a stoker.

I got married in May 1942. My wife had an ivory wedding dress and we had a cake and a reception despite the war. Our son was born the following year. I was in the Persian Gulf when I received the news so by the time I saw my son for the first time he was about 2 years old and he was walking and talking.

I remember feeling excited rather than frightened at the start of the war. My father had been in the First World War and was mustard gassed a lot but he made no comment about me volunteering. One of my brothers had already been called up into the Army so it was something I just took for granted that I would do. I was eager and I was looking forward to it. This is what you did…… You went in a boy and you came out a man …… All your friends kept going into the forces one by one so there was no one left of your own age in Burnham .

I didn’t feel we were really prepared for war with Germany because Germany had such a force behind them. I think England was saved because Germany invaded Russia.

On board ship we took it in turns to prepare the meals which we took down to the cook. You had what was called canteen messing. You were allowed so much money per man and you got stores from the Naafi. It was all tinned food. We were issued with a daily rum ration too but sometimes the person who gave out the ration deliberately bent the bottom of the measuring cup to make it smaller so that everyone got less than they should and there was more left for him at the end. We slept in hammocks which were about 18 inches wide and we showered in salt water. We had two types of uniform. One was a serge navy blue suit for this country and home waters which had flared trousers with seven creases in each leg and a special collar which the girls all liked to touch because they thought it brought good luck! Abroad we had white shorts and T Shirt and a white hat. When we were working on board ship we wore boiler suits. Some times our hats came in useful for scooping water out of the ship! People ask whether I felt proud to wear my uniform. It didn’t make me feel proud particularly but it made me feel part of the crowd — it felt funny when you came back into civvies after the war.

My training consisted of one month foot slogging at Skegness, marching and exercising (in Billy Butlin’s Holiday Camp! or HMS Royal Arthur as it was named then), and then about five weeks training in the Engine Room. I was given a Stoker’s Manual which I still have to this day. My main job was to charge the engine, drive the ship and to make sure the ship kept going. I got so involved in the work that I didn’t really feel frightened about what was going on round about. Other people were in charge of the guns on the ship.

My first journey of the war was from Liverpool to Durban, South Africa in a convoy. I was very sea sick to begin with but gradually got used to it.

During the war I travelled to Africa, Australia, Honk Kong and Shanghai. I have been back to South Africa since the war ended but not to any of the other places I went to during the war.

When the convoy was being attacked by submarines (we called it pinging) we would lob depth charges over the side and they would explode at different depths.

During battles my particular responsibility was to help the pilots if their aeroplanes crashed. I remember picking up two Germans on the ship because their plane had gone down.

I got on well with my comrades and stayed in touch with some of them after the war. We used to cheer ourselves up with a game of darts and a drink.

When the war ended in Europe, I was still at sea. We were in the Pacific shelling Tokyo when the news came through. I remember we got a bit more rum than usual to celebrate - “splicing the main brace” it was called. It was still about another five months before I was discharged home. I stayed with the ship and returned to England with her. The ship was then put in the mothball fleet. When I was de-mobbed I returned to the Mars factory in Slough where I had worked before the war and I lived with my wife and son in two upstairs rooms. It wasn’t a land “fit for heroes” that we came home to.

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