Guest Book

Message for Ken Ashton.
Dont know if you have seen this one but go to the below link.
http://www.barrylockyer.com/hms_victorious.htm
regards to all
Pixie Parkes(SE)

To all - met up with young Steve Howard last week, and had a meal out; also a trip around Ely, where he lives. Many old memories and a lot of lampswinging about the Happy Hermes.....spent ages trying to remember the Met crew when we were both on board! Anyone remember exactly?

Alan
Preliminary details are on the front page of the site. Keep a look out for further details.
Regards
Colin

I was a met wren at Culdrose 1960/62 where I met Brian Cox (SE).We would like to contact Geraldine Jones(nee Green)& Peter Jones(bestman at wedding)in 1963.If anyone knows where they are now please let us know. They went to Singapore in 1963/4 & then lived in Farnham or Farnborough. Lost touch after that but would like to get in contact again if possible.

Stevie - it's all coming back to me....I joined mid-commission; must have done, because Pete Lonsdale left along with Ioin Evans, Ian Plackett and Jock Kuziw. Colin Brenchley stayed, along with you, of course, but can't remember who else was on board with us three. I have a photo of us all in the best decorated Mess somewhere.....also one of Mike Cutting with us at some point or other. Anyway, it was a brilliant commission, whoever shared it with us. Good memories.......
Ray

Ray

I feel reassured, I thought it was just me and old age, but it's amazing how you can live and work so closely to such great people and then with the passage of time have to scratch your head to think of who they were.

I joined Hermes after she'd sailed non-stop back from Australia. My first day at sea was escorting the Queen Mary down the Channel for the last time in late 1967. We were on our way to cover the Aden withdrawal. Because so many of our lads were getting shot up the withdrawal date was bought forward and we kind of missed it.

We stopped off at Cape Town and Mombasa on the way out, spent Xmas in the Persian Gulf, where we won the best decorated mess and then repeated the runs ashore on the way back. Our second trip was a nin emonth trip to the far East.

Colin Brenchley, Pete Lonsdale, Cdr Derek Blacker, Ian Plackett, Ioan (the Evans Whale) Evans and Derek 'Jock' Kuziw were onboard along with Lt Cdr David Newing who I was later to work with in Oceanography at Northwood.You must have been onboard as well on that first trip as I distinctly remember we had a run ashore together in Mombasa!
Certainly Seaweed Sid was with us on the Far East run, along with Lt Cdr David 'Basher' Brooks, so perhaps Sid joined the ship at the same time as I did.

Gosh doesn't the brain get scrambled with the passage of time.

Ah Stevie baby, the best commission I ever had was the happy Hermes.....do I remember correctly there being Belicose Bannister and Seaweed Sid being the two forecasters, or am I getting mixed up with other ships? Also I remember you joining Hermes mid-commission, so was Colin Brenchley with us? Who else can you recall? I'll be e-mailing you soon;
Must meet up this summer.......
Ray

Ray

I remember it well. As I recall on the deck right above my head was the pump that made the liquid oxygen for the pilots. When they turned it off in harbour I couldn't sleep because of the silence!
Some of the happiest days of my life were spent on Hermes. I have very fond memories even to this day. I was one of the fortunate few who saw Hermes from the air when I flew off the cats in a Gannet off Penang and from the waterline when I fell overboard in Freemantle harbour.

I now live in Ely, Cambridgeshire with my partner Rosina. My marriage to Jean sadly ended about 16 years ago, but we remain on good terms.

I don't do the Facebook etc stuff, just too sad to my mind.

I'll dig out some photos and try and upload them to the site.

I see you've got a reunion in September. Unfortunately we flyy off to China for three weeks on Monday 10th so it may be cutting it a bit fine, I'll wait and see nearer the time.

I see from the photos that Gillet the Younger clearly didn't put a grey syrup on his wedding list (yup I'm still a cheeky sod).

Steve - been after a contact with you for ages. Remember us on the happy Hermes; first 4H2 and then 4J4 Mess, with you sleeping under that noisy asbestos-wrapped pipe???? I now live in sleepy Somerset, got all my hair and most of my teeth, One son (now 40) living in London and one daughter (now 36)in Manchester. Where are you - would love to meet up after all these years.....
Ray

I was told about your website by a colleague at work this morning who stumbled across it by accident whilst searching 'HMS Hermes'.

After leaving the Navy I managed a paper shop for 3 years (nobody needed the skills of a 'Met Man', before joining the Cambridgeshire Ambulance Service in 1976, where I spent a 31 year career. I took early retirement at the end of 1007 and had an 18 month 'gap year' during which my partner Rosina and I toured America for 6 months in our motorhome. Our exploits can be found on our website which in the throes of changing its address to http://www.britstourusa.com. After our travels I returned to the Ambulance Service on the non emergency side where I vegitate to this day.

I still enjoy good health thus managing to stay one step ahead of the embalmers, and have my own teeth and hair which I suppose is something to be grateful for.
I have two daughters Clare & Nicola, who are all grown up now, no grandchildren which helps to keep the costs down at Christmas!!

Nicola joined the Navy for about four years during which she made naval history by becoming the navy's first ever 'female button boy'. She's now in the Hampshire police whilst Clare has her own business here in Cambridgeshire.

Nice to have visited the site and seen a few valued former colleagues (some stories should remain untold!!).