Memoirs of GD Fell

After I had been at Anderson for a few days, I bumped into one of my pals from Carlisle, Jimmy Ewing. I knew he was in the navy but didn’t know he was a Tel(S) and thought that he was on the cruiser Bellona, somewhere in the Atlantic. Shortly after meeting him he was taken into hospital with appendicitis and I was able to keep his mother informed as to his progress.

HMS Atheling

On 29th April 1946, I left Anderson for Colombo, there to take passage on HMS Atheling, which was an escort carrier, to the UK. On board there was also a contingent from Tonga (the friendly isles), who were going to take part in the victory celebrations to be held in London. They were led by the nephew of Queen Salote. During the voyage I got chatting with this nephew and he told me that his aunt would want to know every little detail about the journey. Years later she made a visit to the UK and stole the hearts of all the people she met.

I arrived at Devonport early in May, was drafted to HMS Drake, and from there to the Signal School at Glen Holt, filling the time with run of the mill jobs such as honing my morse skills, practising rifle shooting etc. In fact just about anything to keep you occupied. This lasted until 9th October when I was sent to St Budeaux for demob.

We were issued with civilian clothes, which consisted of a choice of cap or trilby, two shirts, a tie, choice of boots or shoes (black or brown), two pairs of socks and a suit with a choice of colour, brown or grey. If I remember correctly, all the suits were herring boned, and I chose the grey one. This brings me to a cartoon which was on the go at the time. Three men walking down the street in step, they are all dressed in identical suits and the caption was, “Isn’t it nice to be out of uniform.”

I was also issued with a travel warrant to my home address in Carlisle. At this time you were entitled to insist on being re-instated in the job you were doing prior to joining the forces, but I didn’t fancy going back to hairdressing for the rest of my life, so I didn’t even apply for my old job. There was no other job that was going that I fancied so one day I decided to rejoin the navy for three years on a scheme which was called, ‘Hostilities Only Extended Service’, and we were known as HOES.