Guest Book

I agree with Ken at Admiralty we were in the Heart of of the heart of theatre and club land my first digs were at Pimlico. in Admiralty we never saw our uniform. Ken with his Mod Style and pointy shoes and me with my take on of a Tony Curtis
With watches of 24 on and 72 off, it gave opportunity to fill in our off days I once worked at Cheesemans in Lewisham. London allownce certainly did not cover a good life. I Married a Ex Met Wren
not that she was in long as we were engaged when I was on the MET School staff and she was on a course at Culdrose.Watches were such that you could go out for a meal and drink and come back for a Kip till after the 0300 chart had meen plotted. We also had a run ashore about once a Month. I did spend a very short time at Northwood with Asweps.WHICH WAS NOT EXACTLY FULL OF NIGHT LIFE. which was about the time I went on the USS WASP on a Exercise Boston to the Arctic Circle until flying off Spain arriving back at Admiralty to be sent off to Londonderry on a Exercise. he most popular drink in the local was Merrydown cider. from where I was brought up. some say dragged up. I always found my own Married Quarters.

Frank, what you have to realise is that all of these revelations of boozing with the stars and shady West End restaurants were all part of "the swinging sixties" experience which we all enjoyed courtesy of the First Sea Lord.
Seedy shared flats in Earls Court at £6 per per person per week and expensive beer in West End hostelries meant that everbody needed another source of income, hence the off watch working at Debenhams.
Ah, such happy days, never to return I fear.

OMG I seem to have taken a very sheltered and darkened (miners strike power cuts) life at Northwood in the early '70s unlike earlier past times in Whitehall interested in learning more in case I need to take a career change....

At ChrisHolmes' Debenhams in the West End '64 I was employed at £2 pd off watch to help MR Pratt who had made a pratt of himself and was working off a debt TO THE COMPANY in such late life- He was a very old gent - well over 70 - and he was in charge of the 'returns' - He - We had access to the 'delivery' side of the business as reflected in JW's entry and as an insider i know there was a liberal use of the companies parcel post.
Mr PRATT taught me the tricks of the trade - when garments were returned - the usual thing was a womans coat - "oooh I've only worn this once - it's shrunk or the seam has split!!!!!!

Mr Pratt taught me to ASSESS the fraud and the (very few) genuine malfunctions in a garment - tools were ....

Magnifying glass to determine the 'wear' on the button holes -THEY WERE ALWAYS WORN MORE THAN ONCE THEY WERE LIKE A FORREST UNDER THAT MICROSCOPE - AND THE STRETCH MARKES !

And then the 'stretch' on the buttock and arse lining - which no matter how FEW times it had been worn it showed, in the ironing out the lady had simply historically recorded her activity.

END

I wish I could have added ----------

Madam YOU ARE NOT A SIZE TWELVE - YOPU ARE A COMFORTABLE 14 -= ENJOY AND PLEASE STOP HARASSING YOUR HUSBAND - HE DOES NOT KNOWTHE DIFFERENCE !

This is SPUD .....

ASLEEP _ YET _ WHY NOT !!!!!!

The main commercial and later military code I learned from Debenhams was the established code used by the company to reflect the 'cost-price' of - say a coat, to one of their stores - this information was shown on the price tag on the shop floor in casual writing - it made no sence to the buying public.
All OK if the coat was sold and no problems - but if returned - the company, MR Pratt and ME needed to know that the return was for a genuine reason - then we could propose a 'refund'or otherwise, knowing the original cost price.

The code which represents a run of digits from 1 to 10 is contained within one word - which has no repeated letter - I give you CORNFLAKES as an exapmle - At Debenhams the cost-price code on the lable of a coat being sold lets say in my day for (1966).... say £12 (£11.99) in the shop the lable was td/6 - breakdown of the code - 39/6 (£1 19 and 6)

The Debenham code was METHODICAL ! hence td/6 (39/6)

.YOU ...still awake ..... ??

Me - wonderin'wot that code was called -

RAMROD

APPOLOGIES TO MY READERS - MUCH SEARCHING FOR RAMROD MUCH JOY IN REMEMBERING.

Later in my aviation life in the Andrew I had to rely heavily on RAMROD codes - BUT UNBELIEVABLE THERE ARE THOUSANDS - simple CORNFLAKES eg and etc.

Seems to be a reunion of ex Admialty workers. That Swedish Barmaid we took ashore with us on one of our runs starting at the Chandos. I had a job in Antiques whilst there, well it was more of shop with House Clearance. the old man looked a bit like Fagan.
Ivor Batey was the only bloke that took his raincoat with him in scorching weather when out with Sue.
at Kete the was a Wendy and a little Margaret who I took out to the Griffin also met her in Falmouth, There is a photo of them in here somewhere. Was it the Ship and Shuvel towards Canon Street with a Sandwich Shop Opposite. Should all meet up in the Chandos if its still there.

Spud's mention of Chris Holmes brought back some memories. We used to go to the factory, somewhere near the Post Office tower to Pack womens coats, very expensive one as I remember. It was a great way of subsidising the booze money, I think we could earn a couple of quid a day which was good money in the 60's. My sisters also received some nice camel coats from "misdirected" deliveries.

Yes, I remember Dave Turner well - also Ivor Batey, who I also knew at the Met School at Culdrose. He was regularly doing naughty things to a Wren called Sue Swales; who went on to become a Wren Officer of some sort. I also went to see him after he left the RN and went to work in the Air Ministry Met section at Carlisle Airport - this is many years ago.
The barmaid at the Chandos was indeed a lovely Swedish girl called Bierta - I enjoyed watching Johnny Whitfield chat her up. He called her big Bierta, saomething she seemed to like!

I have been trying to Remember the name of that Pub the Marquis of Granby, I to enjoyed the Pork and Salad. furthe left after the Granby was a Club upstairs owned by a queer Canadian. got barred after upsetting a client in a long dress male of course. Use to enjoy a meal in a Chinese in St Martins Lane with a Forecaster 10/6d for a 3 course meal. The Salisbury was a visiting hole for Actors had lots of mirrors. Strangely can never remember names numbers yes. I think the entrys are checked. before let loose. I hope these stir up the memory cells. anyone heard of Ivor Batey at Admiralt. We all use to have a run ashore starting at the Chandos. must of been around 1964.

Coming in a bit late on early '60s AFS citadel watchkeeping - rememberance hazy coz' i'm old but remember best lunch was up behind the Post Office off ~Traf Sq - at the MARQUIS OF GRANDBY - got a lunch (roast pork salad) there from big RON on the day of WINSTON'S FUNERAL - RON later sold me a lovely 'stereo' music centre because he was vacating the apartment above because his boyfriend had split from him! Also remember the jazz bar Ronnie Scotts at the edge of TRAF Sq just south of the South African Embassy where i was propositioned by Ronald Frazier (the actor) who slided up to me and asked me 'where have you been all my life' the only answer I could find was "well I haven't been born for most of it" 'think he bought me a drink. Ronnie
Scott'S has moved over towards Soho or near the Dover Street wine bar 'tween the '60's and the early '90's where I last frequented when serving in the MOD.('92 to '95)
Anyway great memories awakened by john's (Whitfield) recollections
All names mentioned above I do remember (I was AFS '64-'66) and add for that 'era' Ian Plackett, the late Roger Edwards, Tony Newrick, Dave Barton, George Clevitt, Everton's Pete Lonsdale, Geordie Foster Terrance MacSweeny and a a few more I will add idc.

Do 'we' remember the moonlighting of the early '60s ex National Service Met man Chris Holmes at Debenhams (Just below the Post Office Tower off Tottenham Court Road) ! - trades the communicators got us into - Schweppes ... etc -- £2 a day cash doubled our weekly spend !.

Am I dreaming all this ????

Maybe, now the FORUM is inactive, and noting our guest book is PUBLIC ! I wonder if our webmaster could devise a 'log-on' guestbook to allow the current banter without exposing telephone details - etc

Gill ( secretary ) did you receive my DVD