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Ken Shuttleworth

When the war started Ken was 16 years old. He said he remembered the day war war declared it was a Sunday and the hottest day of the year. Ken lived in Silsden in Yorkshire. Ken didn’t have a large family so got a rationing book for him self.
Ken was in collage when war broke out. When he finished collage he joined the home guards on the 17th may 1940 and stayed there till he was ‘called up’ in August but when he went to a medical at Darlington to join the fleet air arm he didn’t pass because of his eyesight and hearing, so he decided he would join the Navy, he didn’t go to the army because he had had family in world war 1 that died in the trenches so didn’t want any of that.
The uniform was the basic navy uniform, he said that he liked the uniform and it was comfortable. Ken said that the first thing he learnt was how to wash and iron his cloths. They were given a basic fighting kit that everyone got, you were given money to replace broken or damaged items. Ken said that not everyone had a gun and was only given to people that had experience with a gun. Ken was lucky and had experience with guns as he was in the home guard. When Ken was just 17 he had a riffle that he kept under his bed and the ammo under his pillow in case you were invaded.
When Ken was on ships they slept on hammocks and had food cooked for then by the Navel chief. If Ken got letters from home thay often came in a bundle that had built up over the weeks.
Ken joined HMS faulknor at Hull in August 1942 as a radar mechanic/operator. Ken sailed to Iceland and then to Russia, PQ18 was the number of the convoy and Ken was 18 years old at the time.

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