The Life of Brian: a Boy and Man in the Royal Navy

By Sylvia Martin Reed

Sylvia having had two of her books published and would now like to see Brians book published that he wrote several years ago.
Brian passed away in 2012, and he was always writing to Naval Magazines after serving in the Royal Navy for twenty-six years.
I used to say that he swallowed the anchor. He talked all the time about the navy!
Sylvia has taken notes from the book he wrote those many years ago with lots of corrections.
I really enjoyed doing this book and so hope readers will enjoy it too!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris AU
• Release date: Sep 10, 2015
• ISBN: 9781503507531

Book preview

THE LIFE OF BRIAN:

A Boy and Man in the Royal Navy

Sylvia Martin Reed

Copyright © 2015 by Sylvia Martin Reed.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 08/27/2015

Xlibris

1-800-455-039

www.Xlibris.com.au

719463

CONTENTS

Preface

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Sixteen

Chapter Seventeen

PREFACE

Sylvia having had two of her books published and would now like to see Brian’s book published that he wrote several years ago.

Brian passed away in 2012 and he was always writing to Naval Magazines after serving in The Royal Navy for 26 years.

I used to say He Swallowed the Anchor he talked all the time about the Navy!

Sylvia has taken notes from the book he wrote those many years ago with lots of corrections.

I really enjoyed doing this book and so hope readers will enjoy it too!

CHAPTER ONE

My life began the 28th March 1929 at Birch Hill Hospital, Rochdale in Lancashire England. My Parents were Alice and Robert Barker they had me Christened Brian Gledhill Barker. The Name Gledhill was the Maiden Name of my Father’s Mother. I had a Sister who was six years older than me her name was Elsie. Although I can’t remember it, I think the first impressions of this new world I had entered was not very favourable, as within the first couple of days I was cut three times! I was circumcised, the skin under my tongue was cut and an abscess behind my ear was lanced. I must have thought that everyone walked around with a knife in his or her hand!! However I survived all this and was eventually taken home. A house that I may add that is still standing and looks as good now, if not better, than when we lived in it. It was a typical Lancashire House. One of about 30 houses in a Terraced Row, two rooms upstairs and two rooms downstairs, with a toilet in the backyard. I lived there about 8 years.

The only thing I can remember of my pr-school days is of my sister, who very often got the job of looking after her new brother. She took me out in a small folding pram for a walk and we went across the Common a large open grass area near our house. Elsie must have been in a hurry as she was running and the front wheels of the pram stuck in a rut in the path, and the pram folded up with me in it! I think Elsie’s enthusiasm for looking after me slowly deteriorated, as I got older. I think this may have had something to do with the fact that I gradually turned into a typical boy, very rebellious.

Time eventually came for me to start School and I was taken to the local School, about ten minutes walk from home. My sister Elsie also attended this school, a fact that as I got older I was constantly being reminded of by the Teachers, usually when I had been misbehaving the Teachers were very quick to remind me that my sister was a little Angel! They must have known a different girl to whom I knew. In all fairness I must confess I deserved it though. Even so I got away with a lot that was not found out! I visited the Old School when I re-visited Rochdale in 1990 and nothing had changed. The place was exactly the same and it brought a lot of memories and faces flooding back to mind. In fact the whole area where I grew up, played and went to School had changed very little after all these years. I spent many happy hours remembering people and events as I walked around the area. I could even follow my old paper round as about 95% of the houses were still standing.

One incident that I remember from those Infant School Days was the day I swallowed a Foreign Coin I was playing with. I was immediately taken to the Rochdale Infirmary and X-Rayed. I was allowed to go home again to wait for my Father to come home from work, so that he could take me into Hospital. The real reason I wanted to do that was because I was scared stiff and looking for any reason to delay my entry into Hospital. But of course the time came when I couldn’t find any more excuses and Mum and Dad took me in. I was kept in for about three days until the coin worked its way through my body naturally. I remember when it came time for me to leave Hospital I didn’t want to leave. Typical Kid!

I eventually grew a little older, left Infant School and moved up to Junior School. While I was there it was decided to build a New Senior School and make a few alterations around the Old School. This meant that some of us had to be placed in other Schools for about 12 months. I was sent to All Saints School, this was the School attached to the Local Church of England Church. During my stay there, they came around recruiting and holding Auditions for boys to sing in the Choir. I tried my best to get out of it but was still roped in, and a letter was sent to Mum. She thought this was a wonderful idea, I wasn’t even asked, just told to go to Choir Practice or else! Off I went, and much to my surprise, I enjoyed it. Our Choir Master was a Mr, Reggie Ramm he was a very good Bass Singer and had broadcast on the Radio at one time. Most of all he was a very strict disciplinarian and stood no nonsense from the boys. We practiced twice a week and we really practiced! We received payment for our Singing; we received a Half Penny for attendance. This worked out to Two Pence per week, or just over eight shillings per year, cheap labour! To make matters worse we never saw the money as they told us it paid for the Choir Boys Outing Day, which was always on Whit Saturday. I still don’t think that we got our monies worth on those outings and someone was making on the deal!!

One of the Main Religious Festivals in those days was Whit Friday; this was the day when all the Members of the Local Churches marched around the boundaries of their Parish. As the Bible says, The Singers were in front. The Whole Choir, wearing Cassocks, Surplices and special for this occasion, Mortar Board Hats, led the Procession. Also in the Procession were carried the large Church Banners, surrounded by the young girls of the Church dressed in New White Dresses. I know the Men who carried the Banners always Prayed for a still day, as it took a lot of holding in a Strong Wind. This Procession took place in the morning and it all ended up in a field, selected for the occasion, where all the rest of the families and friends were gathered. The rest of the day was a large family picnic, eating and playing games together. Some food and drink was given by the Church and everyone was given a ticket, called a Pie, Tea Bun, Tea Ticket This was because it could be torn into four parts and on each part was written what you could get for it, which was a pie, bun, or two cups of tea.

The next day, Whit Saturday was the Choir Boy’s big day The Outing, we all assembled at the Church and there was a Charabanc Motor Coach waiting to take us to places like Blackpool, Southport and many other seaside resorts for the day.

This was always an exciting time as for many of us; it was the only time we ever went to the seaside.

There was very little money to spare in those days for holidays.

The daily life at home was enjoyable, but routine and anything that broke the routine was exciting! Like the day we changed from Gas to Electricity at home. This meant that I no longer had to carry the heavy accumulator (re-chargeable battery) for the Radio to the Shop to be charged. This had to be done about every two weeks, or we had no Radio. I think Mum was the one who appreciated it most as she now had an Electric Iron and no longer had to heat up the Old Flat Iron. After school, in summer time, our main entertainment was going out to play this meant joining up with the Local Gang and ours was about 20 strong. My main friend was Jack Taylor who was just 20 days older than me. He lived about 10 houses away from us in the same street. Girls were not allowed in the gangs, although we did sometimes play with them! On Wet days of which there were many, we would have to play indoors and drive Mum crazy. Later when we moved to a Corner Shop we had, I played in my sister’s bedroom, which was larger than mine. We only had one room downstairs and so Elsie’s bedroom was made into a Bed Sitting Room. It had quite a large floor space and there I was able to play with my Meccano Set and my Wind up Hornsby Train Set. I spent many, many hours there. I had quite a collection of Meccano and Train parts. Most presents for Christmas and Birthdays were parts to add to these sets, There was a number of times that even Mum forgot I was up there and when it was time to come home to go to bed, I would hear Mum outside, shouting for me to come in. I used to let her shout for awhile and then when she came back indoors, usually muttering something like, I’ll kill him when he comes home I would come bounding downstairs as if nothing had happened, knowing she couldn’t do anything to me as I had been indoors all the time!! As I said before I was a real naughty boy!!

When it was wet or during the dark cold winter nights, as a special treat I would be allowed to invite a friend in that drove Mum really crazy!!

We still used to go out in the winter, especially when the snow was on the ground. When it snowed my first job was to clear the snow from the back door to the outside toilet. Then I had to clear the Footpaths around the house. When all this was done to Mum’s satisfaction, it was into the Cellar, dig out the Sledge (Toboggan) and off to the slope in the Church Field. This was beautiful slope for sledging on, quite steep to get up speed and then a nice hump at the bottom, which if you didn’t take it right threw you off in a heap. Sometimes it would freeze long enough and hard to freeze the big pond over and I would borrow my Dad’s Ice Skates and go Skating. I was never very good at Ice Skating. It was the perfect place to go Skating as the Pond was only about 3 feet deep (1meter) so even if you broke through the Ice, apart from getting very wet and cold. You couldn’t come to much harm. It was used during the summer for Sailing Model Yachts and there were a few fish in there as well.

One of the big occasions for the Gang was collecting Wood to burn on the Bonfire on the 5th of November, Guy Fawkes Night. As this wood was collected, it had to be protected as other Gangs around the area would steal it for their bonfire it they got the chance, as indeed, we would if we got the chance! There were many fights over the wood but never anything very serious.

On the Big Day we would stack it into a conical pile ready for lighting. When it got dark one of our Dads would throw Petrol on the pile and light it.

We were all ready with our Fireworks and there was whizzes and bangs all over the place.

A lot of the Parents came as well and brought Treacle Toffee, Boiled Black Peas, and Potatoes for Roasting on the Fire.

It was quite a big communal affair and a good time was had by all. It is a pity as I was part of the last Generation to carry on with this Tradition. I think there were too many accidents with Fireworks and the Authorities stopped the Sale of Fireworks and this killed the tradition. Funnily enough, I can never remember any serious accidents with Fireworks.

My Father was employed all of his life in the Cotton Industry, apart from the period when he Served in the Army during the First World War against Germany. He was a Machine Gunner and was eventually captured and taken prisoner. He talked very little about this period of his life, so I know nothing about it. I do know he used to send Mum beautiful Postcards from France. They were all embroidered in silk on lace. I used to look at them when we got the family photo album out. He also managed to get a pair of German Carl Zeiss binoculars, which luckily he sent, home before he was taken prisoner They had belonged to a German Army Field Gunnery Officer and were used for spotting the fall of shells during bombardments. I used to play with them as a child; and eventually broke them I still however have them. Before we left England to come to Australia, Sylvia insisted that I try to get them repaired. I took them to a Binocular and Camera Shop in Gosport and the owner looked at them and was very excited. He offered me quite a lot of money for them as the Zeiss Factory was in East Germany and you could not get these make of Binoculars. I didn’t realise that they were so precious, so I declined his offer. They are also a Collectors item as they are now quite old as the date 1901 is embossed on them as well. The binoculars were in fact repaired and cleaned and when completed the shop owner offered me even more money for them. But again I declined, so he gave me a Second Hand Leather case to keep them in. Our son Paul now has these Binoculars seeing