50 years ago

[Mick F]

On the 29th of this month, it will be 50years since I joined the RN.
To mark this occasion, Mrs Mick F has been in touch with HMS Raleigh - the new entry establishment - and we're going along for a visit and to watch the ceremonial divisions and passing out parade on Friday 27th. She didn't tell me that she was doing it. Ain't she sweet!
I'd been in the RN just over two years when we met, so she's been connected with them for 40odd years too.

This means a great deal to me, and I'm getting quite emotional just typing this. I'm sure we'll be looked after. I'll be wearing a suit and tie and be wearing my medals too.

[rjb]

Have a great day Mick. My dad volunteered for the RN in 1941 a couple of months before his 16th birthday having witnessed the bombing in Pembroke Dock. He was posted to HMS Raleigh to complete his apprenticeship and training. He then settled in and around Plymouth for the rest of his life.
heres a photo oh him with my Auntie in 1943 on the Hoe. I think hes showing off with his jaunty hat pose. He would have been 18 then.

[al_yrpal]

Bell bottoms with creases. Matelots dont wear them any more.... Or do they?

Al

[Spinners]

Have a great day the pair of you!

[Mick F]

Thanks guys!

My bellbottoms have five creases.
You either had five or seven, depending on how tall you were.

The creases were ironed in using your paybook as a gauge. I still have mine - paybook as well as complete uniform suit.
These days, the bellbottoms aren't so wide and they don't fold them up like wot we did. Also, the blue collar is fitted in the tunic these days. Ours was a separate thing tied on - again with creases ironed in (three of them with the middle one inwards). I still have one, though we were issued with two.

I still have one cap. We were issued with two, one with gold lettering and one with gold coloured lettering. We had to learn tie on the cap ribbons. The cap tally on it though is HMS Gurkha - the last time I was a junior rating as I achieved Petty Officer on Gurkha.

I cannot get into that uniform any longer. The trousers won't fasten and neither will the tunic. I was 16 going on 17 when it was issued, but the cap still fits!

I was talking about the boots we were issued with the other day. I still have one of the two pairs, and they still fit beautifully. Just goes to show, when you're 16 your head stops growing and so do your feet!

[Audax67]

That's grand, Mick. Have a great day!

[merseymouth]

Hi MickF, NLYSLDOAH! (I.T.M.A.)
My late father was F.A.A., so his first "Concrete Carrier" was "Duke" at Malvern.
One thing I have been longing to learn for years is how to correctly tie a Tally? Think they're like poor bow ties, Pre-Tied!
Have a great wander down old alleys. TTFN MM

[Mick F]

Cap tallies were issued when you joined up, and when you joined a new ship or establishment. If you wanted more, you had to buy them. Cheap enough though.

They came as a long ribbon - probably the same these days - and you found the middle letter of the HMS Nonsuch or whatever, as written in the font. That letter, or space maybe, was placed at the middle seam of your cap.

The ribbon was tied on the left in line with the left seam. That's the way the writing was arranged - shorter ribbon on the left and longer on the right. The ribbon was maybe two or so feet long.

You tied a tight knot and made a horizontal bow out of it. The normal way of tying a bow would make the "wings" vertical, so it needs to be done differently to the way you would tend to make one. The bow was made small and neat, and the ends cut off into short "swallow tails".

The tally was then wriggled off and the bow ironed flat, then put back on.

If/when I go into the loft next time - maybe in the next few days - I'll bring my cap down and photograph it.

[Mick F]

Here you go.

HMS Gurkha.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Gurkha_(F122)

Not got the gold cap tally any more, so this is the gold coloured one. Rayon I think.
Also the bow on the side. The swallow tails have long since eroded. The cap has been in the loft for donkey's years and moved from one loft to the other house to house!
Note that the U in H.M.S. Gurkha is the centre.

Also note, that my left thumb was trapped in the car door some months ago and the nail is re-growing.

[rjb]

Did you have more than 1 uniform. ? My dad above is not dressed in bell bottoms and his cap is different? Is he wearing a more formal outfit?
His service record shows him as based at Chatham while still training at HMS Raleigh before joining HMS Sussex.

[Mick F]

There are basically two types of uniform.

Square rig .......... sailor suit for junior ratings.
Fore and Aft rig ............. senior ratings POs and CPOs, warrant officers, and also apprentices. Senior rates and WOs had gold buttons and apprentices black buttons. All double-breasted.

No1 uniform had gold badges and was your best suit.
No2 uniform had red badges for duties and general dress.

[Mick F]

Leaving for HMS Raleigh in an hour.
I'm nervous and emotional.

[Yvonned]

Have a great time Mick revisiting old places, situations and memories. Make new ones too.

My brother trained on Raleigh in mid 1970s, he loved it. He died two weeks ago, the veterans in Cardiff doing something musical at his funeral.

[al_yrpal]

Next Sunday I am off to Bristol where I will be joining my old Apprentice chums for a reunion. I started my Student Apprenticeship in 1959 at the AID Laboratories in Harefield Middlesex, so its 60 years. We call ourselves "The Tubes"... AID... get it? It actually means Aeronautical Inspection Directorate, although to girls we often peddled the myyth that it involved the more obvious interpretation. As Ministry of Aviation apprentices we were sent for long periods to the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Farnborough. We lived in a beautiful hostel which was an Arts and Crafts country house that formerly belonged to the German Ambassador at Denham. During my apprenticeship I did 6 months at Bristol Siddely, Bristol, which made the Olympus that powered Concorde and the Vulcan, and the Pegasus engine that powered the jump jet as well as many others. I also did 6 months at Pyestock where the engines were tested. This lead after my apprenticeship to work as a Mechanical Engineer designing all sorts of quality rotating machinery.
On the Sunday we we will have a reunion dinner and on Monday morning a guided tour of the Aeromautical Museum where we will revisit many of the aircraft that figured large in our 5 year Student Apprenticeship. We are all intensely proud of our period as apprentices which combined degree level education alongside hands on practical experience that enabled us to start real work from day 1. All engineers should be trained in this way.

Al

[rjb]

+1
I was fortunate to gain a student apprenticeship with the Central Electricity Generating Board. I started in 1971 and spent half my time studying at Plymouth Polytechnic and the remainder training in the South West at various Power Stations and Transmission sub stations. I was fortunate to receive an excellent preparation for starting meaningfully work the day i graduated. The thatcher era and privatisations brought to light the true cost of running these schemes and in order to make companies more profitable for privatisation many of these schemes were abandoned as a cost saving measure. Government now realises the value of such apprenticeship schemes and offer tax breaks to companies to encourage them. We use 4 Olympus jet engines at Hinkley Point as back up generation in case of a disconnection from the grid.