The Freedom Years

There were a handful of times when I found myself the victim of circumstance and in trouble while I was in the Navy. My Dad was a policeman so I knew better than to get in trouble intentionally, but for some reason trouble turned up and I found myself ‘In front of The Joss’. The Royal Navy is policed by the ‘Reggies’ – or Regulators as they are officially known. Not the best liked bunch and some were downright horrible – putting it mildly. The first time I was in trouble through no fault of mine was during basic training at HMS Daedalus in 1981 and involved a local resident’s garden. One night four of us were coming back from having a drink at the Swordfish and walked through the roads leading to the main gate as usual. We heard some others laughing and carrying on but thought nothing of it as they were in another road to us. We slowly wandered through the gate, showing our ID (as you did). Next thing the Duty Chief tells us to go into his office. Rather bemused, and...

When I got to HMS Daedalus in July 1981, one of the first Naval traditions I was introduced to was the Field Gun Competition. The Fleet Air Arm Field Gun Crew (also known as ‘Men of Air’) was based at Daedalus where every summer about 50 or so big muscular men descended on the camp to train and compete in the Royal Tournament which took place at Earls Court in London for a couple of weeks. The history of the Field Gun event came from the Battle of Ladysmith in the Boer war when a group of sailors hauled gun carriages across the battle field. In doing so they had to be dismantled many times to get them over and across obstacles. They succeeded and have since been remembered by this battle of strength, skill and endurance between three Naval Crews. The Air Command, wearing green, Portsmouth wearing red and Devonport who wore blue. Racing against each other over a course to see who is the fastest to Get through two walls, over a chasm on a wire and reach the fi...

There was a time when the pubs only opened from 12.00 until 3.00 and then 6.00 until 11.00pm so unless you found somewhere to go that stayed open later you were fairly limited to the amount of alcohol you could consume in a public place. So when May 8th came around every year, there was great excitement in the air station for what is known as   Helston Flora Day – a day of Cornish traditions such as flowers and greenery bedecking the buildings, dancers in ball gowns and top hats and musicians dancing gaily around the town, in and out of houses and generally acting a little odd by modern standards. Shenanigans started very early in the morning and went on through the day. The main attraction for us naval folk however was the fact that the pubs all opened at 10am and pretty much stayed open until midnight – with just a couple of hours mid-afternoon for the landlords to stock up their bars and replenish their supplies of plastic pint glasses. It also meant we could relocate ou...

Five baby Wren Air Engineering Mechanics arrived in a sunny little place called Lee on the Solent on a Sunday afternoon in early July after five weeks basic training at HMS Dauntless .  That would be Pam Walker from Norton in Teesside, Mo McCleave from Scunthorpe, Arlene Cook from Devon,  Karen Oversby from London and of course little old me from the sticks in Lancashire. Me, Cookie, Karen, Mo (hat), Pam. Pam, Mo and I were already good friends, finding we had a lot in common, humour, northern, confident and looking for fun and adventure amongst others. Arlene was very quiet and kept herself to herself a little and Karen, who supposedly had a rich boyfriend with a flash car and couldn't wait to go home to see him, was not at all interested in tagging along with us.  As it happened she only lasted a couple of weeks at Daedalus before mysteriously 'leaving'.  It was pretty obvious even to us that she wasn't cut out for Navy life. So after getting ins...

July 1st 1981 I sat on a Royal Navy bus that drove me through the gates of my very first Naval Establishment - or ship as they are known to naval folk. Living in the middle of rural Lancashire I had never had the opportunity to see any military bases/camps/ships first hand so really didn't know what to expect.  I didn't expect what I saw though.  My initial thought was 'The Great Escape'.  Lots of dark brown wooden 'H' shaped buildings arranged in a secure compound. It was sunny, so probably looked a lot better than when first seen on a damp foggy day. That photo was taken sometime between 1945 and 1981. I doubt it ever looked any different during that time. I was in Hermes 13 Division. Hermes 14 was the very last division to pass out from HMS Dauntless so you could say I just scraped through. I feel like I can say I was one of the 'old school' Wrens because I did my training there. I spent some time six years later at HMS Raleigh which was to b...