cloudobservers

No doubt the more senior silver surfers amongst us can remember the red bricked building with highly polished floors and the seldom flowering yukka plant in the front garden of the Met School !! Well we now have the opportunity to bring ourselves up to date with life in the present day Met Branch. A visit to the new Met School in Plymouth has been arranged for 0930hrs on the morning of the 25 July 2008.

As we will be going into a working dockyard we are limited to between 20 and 24 people so it will be on a first come first served basis. Due to the limited numbers places will only be available for ex Met Observers and unfortunately it will not be possible to include other family members. The visit will allow us the opportunity to meet some of today's officers and ratings involved with Meteorology in the RN at the Met School. It is also hoped that we will be able to take lunch in the Senior Rates Mess.

At this stage please contact Gill at secretary@cloudobservers.co.uk who will be firming up the arrangements for the visit and liasing with the pass office. Once we know the take-up for the visit then Gill will be able to to let you know the details.

If work or other commitments prevent you from taking part in the morning visit you are more than welcome to take the opportunity for an informal evening get together. Arrangements could be made for either the Friday or Saturday night. If interested then please contact Jean Brenchley at enquiries@cloudobservers.co.uk and we will arrange something in Plymouth.

Cloudobersvers annually award the Cloudobservers Trophy to a student recommended by MWSHMTG Deveonport. This year AB(HM) Grace Jones received the award from Commodore Charles Stevenson, NROSNI in the library at Devonport on 12 March. Witnessing the event is Gill Charles on the left and John Williams on the right.

Is being arranged for October 2009 - This is just the start - when details of the venue and precise dates have been firmed up we will post them in this space. So keep visiting the site for updates.

Culdrose in the 60's - We have received a selection of pictures from Tony and Jenny Key that were taken in 1965 when Jenny Stallard served in the Tower at Culdrose leaving to get married in 1965. They have recently celebrated their 43rd Anniversary. Further pictures in the WRNS Section

MEMORIES - A selection of photographs of METOC ratings and WRNS at work both ashore and afloat. This photo was taken at Burghfield in 1950

WISH YOU WERE HERE - Travel was a major aspect of life in the RN and WRNS and so far we have mainly delved into the past. This section aims to look at what ex-METOC's are up to in the way of travel today. So please send in small articles and pictures of where you have been recently. This picture was taken in September 2007 whilst re-visiting Hong Kong. I had previously visited HK on several occasions and this was Jeans second visit. Send your items to colin@cloudobservers.co.uk

THE CARRIERS a selection of pictures depicting the largest of the Royal Navy ships that Met Ratings used to serve on. As sea-going Met Offices they had the largest staff usually consisting of 1 x Commander, 1 Lt Cdr, 1x Lt, 1 x CPO/PO then 1 x LA and 4 NA's in the old days or 5 x LA's. Most of the ratings served at some time in their careers on a Carrier and in their hayday there was always at least one carrier permanently on the Far East.

WWII Met Wrens (L to R) Dorothy Rickards (Davies), Edith Beaumont (Touzel) and Jean Atkins shown reminiscing about their wartime Met service during the reunion weekend at Portsmouth in September 2006. For the full story, sent to us by Celia Saywell follow this link to the WRNS section.

Get an up to date weather forecast for the UK or Europe by clicking on the following link www.weathercommerce.co.uk

Current Satellite images of the UK - click onto this site thanks to the support of the Dundee Satellite Receiving Station. Many of the members of the Met Branch will remember the images received from this site in the 60's when they were at the forefront of monitoring images from Meteorological Satellites. www.sat.dundee.ac.uk

CLOUD OBSERVERS CD - now available - Visit the cloudobservers shop for full details.

Greetings Cards by Colin Brenchley - Visit the shop for further details or go directly to www.print-fair.net/colinbrenchley (Proceeds from sales will be used to help in maintaining this website).

Cloudobservers is a site dedicated to renewing and maintaining friendship amongst ex-serving members of the Meteorological Observer (later METOC) branch who served in the Royal Navy from the 50's up to the Millenium. The idea of a web site for retired Met Observers was thought about after contact was first made through the Servicepals.com website between Arthur Charles and Colin Brenchley in early 2004. Both had served in the Met Branch for 22 years and retired as CPOA(Met) in the late 80's. Details of how CloudObservers evolved and the Team responsible are detailed in the Comms Room.

We know of around 1500 names that served in the branch from the 1940's through to the 1990's - if you know any members please pass on the site address to them.

Arthur has conducted a bit of research on the those that have ended up living abroad and currently we have discovered that we know of 22 expats of which 16 are already members. A glance through the statistics revealed that 5 ex Met Wrens found themselves resident in the USA with another 2 in Europe (France/Italy) then heading down under there are 5 associated souls resident in Australia, 2 in Tasmania with another 2 in New Zealand. For the fellas there is Russ in Portugal, Terry and Chris in Australia and John in Bermuda (it's rough but someone has to do it!)

What is striking about these hardy souls is their enthusiasm for cloudobservers and willingness to travel vast distances to be with their old comrades. There must be more out there but without information (a country is a good starting place) we cannot hope to contact them. If you have any information at all we would be happy to try to follow up on it. If you are an expat who has visited the site but do not know how to get involved then on email, or a note in the guestbook is all that it takes to establish contact.