My Father, Harry Watson's naval career, 1946-1948
In May 2023, the weekend of the coronation of King Charles III, I knew
almost nothing about Harry's Navy career. I thought he did National Service in the late 1940s and family legend said that he spent
some time at Portsmouth and I remember him teaching me Morse code in the 1960s when I had a toy Morse code set. That was the limit of my
knowledge.
At the beginning of
April 2023 the Ministry of Defense scrapped the £30 charge for
getting copies of the war records of deceased ancestors and so I applied
for my father's records on April 1st. I was
rather glad that I hadn't paid £30 as I received just three sheets of paper
representing his full naval career, two photocopies of
original documents and a summary of his earlier career in
the Navy. I also received a fascinating booklet, "A Short Introduction to the Interpretation of Second World War Ratings Service Certificates", which explains the contents of the records.
The first thing
that surprised me was the number of different establishments at which
he served, between 1946 and 1948, years which were actually earlier than I
had expected. I soon realised that what I thought was his National Service career was actually War Service as he joined in July 1946 and
was discharged in April 1948, just before his twentieth birthday.
(It was legally designated as "National Service" from 1939 to 1960. However, between 1939 and 1948, it was often referred to as "War Service". National Service as peacetime conscription was formulated by the National Service Act 1948. From 1 January 1949, healthy males 17 to 21 years old were required to serve in the armed forces for 18 months, and remain on the reserve list for four years. (Wikipedia)).
I would guess that Harry received his call-up papers in late April
1946 very soon after he reached 18. Perhaps his school term finished in July 1946. I can now imagine that a year
earlier, with WWII still in progress he must have
actually been concerned that he would see active service overseas. It
does make me very sad that I never questioned him about his naval career
and all we have are two family photographs of him in his Navy uniform.
Almost
as soon as I had opened the envelope, while watching the coronation on TV, I started researching the various
ships on which he served, and quickly realized that most of them were "stone frigates" or land-based naval locations. The information about these locations was extracted from a document called Navy Pay and Victuals Ledgers and had been transcribed as follows. The naming and locations of stone frigates are complex, as many were 'paid off' and then recommissioned, only sometimes with the same name, but elsewhere in the UK.
There were then two separate sheets of paper, one of which listed his activities during the later part of his career.
The very
first posting, HMS Royal Arthur turned out to be the former Butlin's holiday camp at Ingoldmells,
just outside Skegness, having been requisitioned by The Admiralty. I have no recollection of this ever being mentioned in my youth. It does remind me of Ringo Starr, The Beatles
drummer, soon after visiting the Maharishi in India, saying that his
experiences there reminded him of Butlin's. I sometimes wonder if holiday
camps reminded my father of his time in his first week in the Navy.
HMS Royal Arthur, 15 July - 21 August 1946
HMS Royal Arthur was the central reception depot for new naval recruits, for kitting out, and basic training in seamanship. Royal Arthur continued in service until being paid off in 1946. It was recommissioned on 2 January 1947 in Corsham, Wiltshire, where Prince Philip, (Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten) was an instructor. I have vague memories of being told as a child that Prince Philip, was Harry's commanding officer, but I have been unable to verify if that was at Ingoldmells. Harry must have been one of the last Ingoldmells intake. He spent five weeks there from 15th July to 21st August 1946. Over 4000 naval personnel were based at Royal Arthur at one time. (In 1942 a low-flying German bomber wrecked dozens of the chalets and killed four men.) The camp was surrounded by an 8 foot high barbed wire palisaded, unclimbable fence.
HMS Gosling, 22 August - 16 October 1946
He moved to Cheshire, to HMS Gosling R.N. Air Training Establishment, Risley, near Warrington, a few hundred yards north east of the M6/M62 motorway interchange, which looks (below) as if it was designed by a sailor with too much free time and several lengths of rope!
Harry seems to have
been briefly in one particular set of accommodation, Camp 1 (HQ), New Road, Croft, then moved to another, Camp 3 Lady Lane, Croft, ¾ mile north, then back to the
first (for just one day!) and then returned to the second. Risley is now mostly occupied by Birchwood Technology Park. The camps were collectively know as the HMS Gosling camps.
This page has a "Guide for New Entries to HMS Gosling, 1944. It's an 8-page booklet designed to help new entrants over their first few days, to help them get familiar with new surroundings. It's fascinating reading. I imagine that during the weeks that he was in Cheshire he received his basic training. The RAF Croft link at the foot of this page has extensive information, maps and photographs.
HMS Scotia, 17-31st October 1946
The second half of October 1946 saw Harry spending two weeks on HMS Scotia, Ayr in Scotland
where I think he would have done basic Ordinary Telegraphist training
as that camp was a specialist technical training location. Billy Butlin built the camp at Ayr for the War Minister, and it was named HMS Scotia by the Admiralty. It was designed with an eye for turning it into a holiday camp when the war was over as he was so confident that the British would win! It is now Craig Tara, Heads of Ayr. The Rivers Ayr and Doon reach the Firth of Clyde just to the north.
Harry seems to have followed about three years behind Ordinary Signalman Eric Mason, who wrote the following, many years after his time at HMS Royal Arthur and then on HMS Scotia, recalling his 1943 visit:
"We lived in Nissen Huts, 20 double tiered bunk beds in each, with an iron stove at either end to keep us warm at night. The huts were newly erected and had not had the end doors and windows put in.
The course of training was very intensive and included all forms of signaling, Morse sending and receiving by W/T (Wireless Telegraphy), lamp and flag, visual by semaphore (hand flags and mechanical), signal flag hoists on the mast. The Signal School had a 60 foot mast and we had to learn to climb it, practicing until it became second nature. Our instructors were Chief Yeomen or Yeomen of Signals and they quickly told us not to get too 'cocky' about being able to climb the mast as we were the ones who would replace the signal halyard ropes and the W/T aerials on board ship and they always seemed to break in the worst possible weather. The ship's mast would not keep still like the one at the Signal School. Every movement between each period of instruction was done at the 'double march'. Only instructors and officers were allowed to walk during instruction periods." More here. Do read it!
HMS Drake, 1st November 1946 - 31st March 1947 & from 1st April 1947 - unspecified
His next assignment seems to have been HMS Drake, near Plymouth, His Majesty's Naval Base, Devonport (HMNB Devonport) on the Tamar Estuary. Very little information is available, and it is unclear when he was relocated from HMS Drake along the coast to HMS Cleopatra at Portsmouth.
HMS Cleopatra, unspecified - 17th February 1948
HMS Cleopatra, was a Tyne-built cruiser. This ship was
severely damaged on at least two separate occasions during WWII in the Mediterranean. It was damaged by bomb and by torpedo.
(Cruiser HMS Cleopatra and destroyer Fortune were attacked by JU 88 bombers as they headed towards Grand Harbour this morning. Cleopatra was hit by a 500kg bomb which passed through the forward structure and exploded, killing or mortally injuring twenty of the crew. The two ships had made a brave dash through the western Mediterranean via Gibraltar, bringing essential spares to Malta. Despite the bombing, both vessels made it in to harbour where Cleopatra is undergoing repairs.)
In 1946 it returned to Portsmouth for a refit and so I
imagine that my father spent some time either on the ship or in a camp
nearby.
(In 1953 HMS
Cleopatra was used in a film, "Sailor of the King", staring Michael Rennie in which it portrayed two
separate ships and this film is currently available on YouTube. It was based on Based on the book "Brown on Resolution" a novel by C. S. Forester.
THE GREATEST STORY OF THE SEA BY TODAY’S GREATEST STORYTELLER !
"A British naval officer has a brief affair during WWI with a woman in England. Twenty years later he is a senior officer on a British ship that has damaged a German ship which has prisoners on it. The German ship seeks shelter to effect repairs. One of the prisoners escapes and finds a way to slow the repairs to the German ship while a lethal hunt for him goes on." I thoroughly enjoyed this poignant and exciting film. Interestingly, 'Galapagos', where the action supposedly takes place is pronounced 'Galler - PAY - Goss' on two occasions.
One review states, "The battle scenes in this are executed well; the locations real and it is great seeing a real 400 foot long cruiser back into a semi-circular small bay faced by huge stone cliffs (filmed in Gozo & Malta).")
HMS Cleopatra plays both the fictional Royal Navy ships "HMS Amesbury" and "HMS Stratford". As HMS Amesbury she is heroically sunk by the more powerful German raider Essen, (portrayed by the Manxman with large mock-up gun turrets), and as HMS Stratford, she triumphs at the end of the story. The two battle sequences depict this open-bridge light-cruiser firing her guns and torpedoes in some detail.
HMS Victory 1 and 2
The
final entry mentions HMS Victory 1 and 2. The first seems to have been
another stone frigate, in Portsmouth, possibly an accounting base and
then Victory 2 is possibly Crystal Palace and Sydenham. I wonder if it
was my father's knowledge of this area of South London that attracted
him and his new wife there in the early 1950s soon after their marriage.
I cannot be sure that he actually did serve any of his time in South
London.
I often wondered
why my father had no naval friends from his service time, but judging by
the number of times he was moved from one location to another I would
guess that he never had time to establish any lasting friendships.
I do not know why the dates for his service on HMS Cleopatra are not given.
And Ordinary Telegraphist Harry Watson, JX 807637, was released on 15th April 1948, 8 days before his twentieth birthday. Character VG, the top grade, Efficiency 'Sat', the second top grade. And they didn't teach him how to swim!
In compiling this, I was amused to learn the expression 'stone frigate' and also ‘barrack stanchion’, "a naval officer or rating who spent long periods of his service in barracks or on a stone frigate and seldom served at sea..."
References:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Royal_Arthur_(shore_establishment)
https://moviesalamark.com/2020/03/22/sailor-of-the-king/
https://maltagc70.wordpress.com/tag/hms-cleopatra/
http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Ops-Events1946-50.htm
http://www.rodericktimms.royalnavy.co.uk/basic_training.html
https://www.facebook.com/butlins/photos/on-4-september-1939-butlins-skegness-camp-became-hms-royal-arthur-and-was-home-t/10151875717150281/?paipv=0&eav=Afa99I13tFBGvrNref72-o-mRJQe5-dlw-TZcHyXfwyLPUVhK2ffm0zMzoQsAVGyKKQ&_rdr
https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/263681/
https://www.historicaviationmilitary.com/croft.html RAF Croft
http://www.hms-vengeance.co.uk/induction.htm
https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/FAA-Bases/Risley.htm
https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/record/hes/295711/heads-ayr-butlins-holiday-camp/rcahms
http://www.harry-tates.org.uk/veteranstales26.htm A detailed account of HMS Royal Arthur and HMS Scotia by a former navy rating.
https://www.wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/ships/ship.php?pid=2556
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMNB_Devonport
https://martinharrisonsmedalresearch.weebly.com/uploads/8/7/8/2/8782416/hms_royal_arthur_drake_and_eaglet.pdf
https://www.worldnavalships.com/forums/thread.php?threadid=123
https://aircrashsites.co.uk/aviation-history/attachment/3262/