windrush:
I travelled to the UK on the Empire Windrush (hence my screen name) aged five months in 1951.
Wow! That’s fascinating ^^^ . Tell me to mind my own business if you don’t want to talk about it but I’m genuinely interested in how you feel and what your experiences have been growing up in the Windrush generation.
Sorry to disapoint you maoster but when I travelled on the Windrush it was several years after the influx of folk from the Carribean. I’m ‘white British’ and at that time the Windrush was in use as a troop ship. I was born in Benghazi as my father was in the army there (clearing up after WW2 basically) and the ship transported my parents and myself back to the UK. As the Korean war was on he had the choice of going to Korea and mum and me would have gone to Australia or the family returning to the UK and he would take a training post. As he had been in the army since 1939 and gone through Dunkirk, the western dessert (Alamein and Tobruk) , crete, Italy (Cassino and Rome) he thought his luck would eventually run out so took the UK option. Despite being married my parents were separated at night (Army ruling!) so I was placed on the bridge in my carrycot so they could have some time together during the day. Mum was breastfeeding me and by coincidence the Captain used to visit her cabin “to check that she was ok” whenever in was feed time, she got used to it and it didn’t bother her! Sorry to ramble on.
windrush:
I travelled to the UK on the Empire Windrush (hence my screen name) aged five months in 1951.
Wow! That’s fascinating ^^^ . Tell me to mind my own business if you don’t want to talk about it but I’m genuinely interested in how you feel and what your experiences have been growing up in the Windrush generation.
Sorry to disapoint you maoster but when I travelled on the Windrush it was several years after the influx of folk from the Carribean. I’m ‘white British’ and at that time the Windrush was in use as a troop ship. I was born in Benghazi as my father was in the army there (clearing up after WW2 basically) and the ship transported my parents and myself back to the UK. As the Korean war was on he had the choice of going to Korea and mum and me would have gone to Australia or the family returning to the UK and he would take a training post. As he had been in the army since 1939 and gone through Dunkirk, the western dessert (Alamein and Tobruk) , crete, Italy (Cassino and Rome) he thought his luck would eventually run out so took the UK option. Despite being married my parents were separated at night (Army ruling!) so I was placed on the bridge in my carrycot so they could have some time together during the day. Mum was breastfeeding me and by coincidence the Captain used to visit her cabin “to check that she was ok” whenever in was feed time, she got used to it and it didn’t bother her! Sorry to ramble on.
Pete.
That’s very interesting-I bet your dad had some stories!!
andrew.s: That’s very interesting-I bet your dad had some stories!!
Like many from that war he ddn’t talk about it much, his army book told us more than he did although he was mentioned in the London Dispatch twice for bravery. When we left Africa he threw all his medals into the harbour, he never was one for material objects and refused to join the British Legion which was a shame as they could have helped mother when he became terminally ill with cancer.
Of course the Windrush was originally a German ship, it was used to ferry supplies to the battleship Tirpitz while moored in the Norwegial fiord where it was finally sunk, also it transported Norwegian jews on their way to the concentration camps.
windrush:
Of course the Windrush was originally a German ship, it was used to ferry supplies to the battleship Tirpitz while moored in the Norwegial fiord where it was finally sunk, also it transported Norwegian jews on their way to the concentration camps.
Pete.
That’s interesting, didnt know that.
Thanks for sharing.
andrew.s: That’s very interesting-I bet your dad had some stories!!
Like many from that war he ddn’t talk about it much, his army book told us more than he did although he was mentioned in the London Dispatch twice for bravery. When we left Africa he threw all his medals into the harbour, he never was one for material objects and refused to join the British Legion which was a shame as they could have helped mother when he became terminally ill with cancer.
Of course the Windrush was originally a German ship, it was used to ferry supplies to the battleship Tirpitz while moored in the Norwegial fiord where it was finally sunk, also it transported Norwegian jews on their way to the concentration camps.
Pete.
That’s a shame about your dad not wanting to talk about it-I’m a huge ww2 geek-my grandfather was a Royal Navy man and was in before the war, finished up as a chief petty officer, was at Dunkirk and D day, and Atlantic convoys in between-he’s obviously long gone now but I’d love to be able to quiz him on his experiences.
Henry Stephens:
Try scuba diving in the Scapa Flow to see the scuttled German navy fleet is not for the faint hearted in pitch black visibility until you hit the sea floor.
TBH I found diving in the Clyde to be darker, pitch black by the time you pass 25 metres, thanks to the very steep fjord-style environment. Or even at some of the Lake District sites, we used to do one on a wall at Wastwater to test how the trainees responded to pitch darkness. Dark as a coal mine at less than 20 metres.
Deep water is less intimidating when you have a good reason to be down there, and 40 metres in the Red Sea is no problem when you’re used to UK conditions, this was a pre-breakfast dive some years ago
Brilliant photo, I got my PADI training in Goa, did one week in a hotel for resort diving in Egypt then one week on a liveaboard yacht to go out to sea further.
The locations of Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh.
TBH not exactly my best shot, I lost most of my prized photos from that period of my life due to the actions of a third party - if only cloud storage had been a thing back then.
I learned to dive at Uni, then became an instructor - primarily to support the Uni club - then had a bunch of years indulging my passion for diving and underwater photography, which led to a stint of being a regular “contributor” to one of the diving magazines, and a number of “assignments” ie free diving holidays Happy days…
Henry Stephens:
Brilliant photo, I got my PADI training in Goa, did one week in a hotel for resort diving in Egypt then one week on a liveaboard yacht to go out to see further.
The locations of Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh.
Ive been to Goa many years ago.I learnt to ride a motorbike there.It was an Enfield bullet,they have a license to make them there.We used to race each other on the motorbikes back to the hotel! I fell off the bike but still here to tell the tale.somehow…
A little trick I keep quiet is if you go to Mumbai to the bucket travel shops( Something to do with airline tickets?) you can buy a deal to the Maldives, I paid $100 per night but by buying a holiday there from the UK travel agents it will set you back thousands.
I dived at Oban and Cornwall,but not the quarry at Vobster near Mells , Somerset and Stoney Cove.
Henry Stephens:
Try scuba diving in the Scapa Flow to see the scuttled German navy fleet is not for the faint hearted in pitch black visibility until you hit the sea floor.
TBH I found diving in the Clyde to be darker, pitch black by the time you pass 25 metres, thanks to the very steep fjord-style environment. Or even at some of the Lake District sites, we used to do one on a wall at Wastwater to test how the trainees responded to pitch darkness. Dark as a coal mine at less than 20 metres.
Deep water is less intimidating when you have a good reason to be down there, and 40 metres in the Red Sea is no problem when you’re used to UK conditions, this was a pre-breakfast dive some years ago
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PS: Look Sploom, I’m diving with the Devil himself…
Yes,looks like youre having a great extended vacation with your old friend…
Sorry to ramble on.
Happy days…