Reginald Harold Fricker
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The Rabligs of a “ Matelot “ Reginald Harold Fricker ROYAL NAVAL COMMUNICATION CHIEF’S MESS FROM ROYAL NAVAL TELEGRAPHISTS (1918) ASSOC. THE RAMBLING“ OF A MATELOT Reginald Harold Fricker Dedicated to the Ex-Royal Naval Telegraphists 1918 Association OTTAWA, CANAA 1971 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Formative Prelude (1894-1910) 1 Chapter 2 Introduction to Royal Navy (1910-1911) 5 Chapter 3 First Ships at Sea (1911-1912) 9 Chapter 4 Naval Hospital, Valuable Training and 13 Development of Initiative (1912-1914) Chapter 5 Experiences in I Cruiser Force (1914-1916) 18 Chapter 6 Anti-Submarine Warfare and Escort Duties 26 Chapter 7 Irish Waters and Baltic Service (1919-1921) 36 Chapter 8 Interlude on a Light Cruiser (1921-1922) 39 Chapter 9 Introduction to Canada (1922-1923) 42 Chapter 10 A Three-masted Schooner in the Arctic (1923) 44 Chapter 11 Pachena Point, Vancouver Island (1923-1926) 53 Chapter 12 Vancouver, B.C. (1926-1930) 59 Chapter 13 Patent Development in the U.S. (1931-1932) 62 Chapter 14 Ottawa and Port Churchill (1932-1936) 64 Chapter 15 Interlude in a London Post Office (1937-1939) 68 Chapter 16 Admiralty Service, Radar and Direction 70 Finding (1939-1942) Chapter 17 Eastern Fleet (1942-1945) 77 Chapter 18 Post-war Admiralty Service (1945-1948) 90 Chapter 19 Struggle for Establishment (1948-1952) 91 Chapter 20 Back in Canada (1952-1960) 95 List of Illustrations 99 CHAPTER 1 Formative Prelude (1894-1910) This book is an attempt to recall in autobiographical form, from memories covering the past sixty years, some of my most vivid recollections of naval experiences in both World Wars, 1914-1918 and 1939-1945. I was born on the 27th of November, 1894, when my family lived at 12 Marlborough Road, Lee, near Lewisham, Kent. Chronological sequence starts with early memories of attendance at a Church school, soehere adjacent to hoe. I think I took to pence per week as payment. This period was nearing the end of an era in which girls were employed in “erice at wags ranging from about three to nine pounds per annum and living in. I can just recall the girl employed by my parents working in the kitchen, adjacent to the garden, and a parrot that she owned jabbering away in a cage in the kitchen. Her boy friend was probably a sailor. In those days people were divided into two distinct types, those with independent means or employment in the professions and those who kept small shops or worked in so- called lower categories. I can dil recall father’s connection ith the Half Tone Engraing Copan in Farrington “treet, London, and his connection ith the efforts to finance one of “tanle’s expeditions to Africa. My mother had social engagements and was often at Lady Wiorne’s parties. There was a complete severance from this type of life when my family moved from Lee to Allfarthing Lane, Wandsworth. I was eventually sent to live on my grandparents farm at Terrington “t. John, half a eteen King’s Lnn and Wisech, in Norfolk. I must have been a peculiar type of boy as I delighted in disappearing and roaming around. My mother would take me shopping with her and I would take the first opportunity to disappear and would subsequently be found in a Police Station at about ten in the evening, drinking a bottle of pop and amusing the Policemen on duty. This was not considered funny by my parents. The farm did not cure me of this tendency and I did not take to the chores very well. Milking cows and feeding cattle and sorting good peas from bad ones night after night, with no company but my grandparents, made me want to run away even more. The only thing that I liked about the farm was the livestock, the horses in particular, and I became very adept at bareback riding 1 Terrington St. John was a small village with a Post Office, a couple of public houses, a general store, a aker, a slaughterhouse coplete ith a utcher’s shop, a school, to blacksmiths, an Anglican Church and a Primitive Methodist Chapel. An ostler’s cart, a closed an, ade eekl trips to King’s Lnn and Wisech, hich were six-and-a-half miles away, and passengers were charged sixpence each. There were people in the village who had never seen an automobile or a train and their lives were spent within the orbits of their own and the adjacent villages of Terrington St. Clements, Tilney All Saints and Tilney St. Lawrence. There were factions, such as the groups who patronised one public house rather than the other, those who preferred the Church of England rather than the Chapel and those who preferred one farmer to another. My grandparents and household, including my Aunt and myself, attended the Church of England, which was in the charge of the Rev. Sprigg-Smith, who had previously been a missionary. It has always amazed me to see the tremendous number of beautiful old churches in Norfolk, most of them dating from around the thirteenth century. The belfry contained some beautiful bells and my grandfather apparently donated one of them. At least his name was on it. The churches were and are grand old buildings. The congregation at Terrington St. John Church averaged about six or eight people. I had to sit with my aunt in the choir and she had a very good voice. We got on pretty well together, my Aunt Hilda and I. I eventually persuaded my people to let me sit in one of the front pews with three or four other youngsters. I just could not bring myself to concentrate on the service and got more and more fed up with the same old things over and over again, and I am afraid that my influence on the other kids was all for the bad. I dared the to follo exaple and one da during the Litan, hen the parson said All e like sheep have gone astra, I led the gang saing Ba-a. For this I was duly punished and eventually was withdrawn from the Church and sent to the Chapel instead. The Superintendent at the Chapel Sunday School was the blacksmith and I spent every spare moent that I had at the lacksith’s shop. I receied the top prize at the “unda “chool for the ear 96, uch to on and eerone else’s surprise. Mr. Sparks, the schoolmaster of the village school, was a bit of a martinet but was, I think, biased in my case by the fact that he owed a considerable bill to my grandfather. Anyhow, he gave me several severe canings. I use to hate his lessons, especially parsing and analysing, and remember particularly objection to having to parse and analyse the firs t few lines of “helle’s Ode to a Skylark. I said that it as contradictor, doing such stuff a Hail to thee, lthe spirit, ird thou neer ert, as it was not even good English to start with. Old Sparks was quite rightly annoyed with me and made me suffer accordingly. I had to accopan grandother to King’s Lnn on Fridas, here she disposed of her dairy produce and did other farm business. This I enjoyed but it entailed being absent from school every Friday. 2 This led to trouble with the authorities and several hidings by the schoolmaster, which I deemed most unfair. There were threats of actions against the schoolmaster on account of the bruises that I came home with and I was eventually banished back to my parents in London I was by no means blameless and this was probably the best way out. This time our home was moved to Ashford, Middlesex, and I went to a school at Ashford Common, near Sunbury, called Spelthorpe, The headmaster at this school was Mr. Hollyoak and he had a sense of humour and an impartial attitude. I am afraid that I was a bit of a nuisance at this school also, although I stood well in class and was in standard ex seven at the age of twelve and thirteen. However, I had nothing but admiration and respect for Mr. Hollyoak, despite the fact that he broke a cane on my wrist and a sliver entered the sore and I had to wear my arm in a sling for a while. This injury resulted because he expected me to withdraw my hand when receiving the stroke and I did not do so. I used to sit next to the most studious and correct student in the school, a boy named Leslie Auger My worst offence was talking. One day the headmaster was taking us in a lesson on ancient history and he was particularly calling our attention to prehistoric mammals. It was very nearl closing tie and I said to Leslie Auger, He’s a prehistoric old aal/ Mr Holloak saw me speak to Leslie an made us stay after school. He then asked us what was said and who spoke. I said that I did and Leslie agreed. The master then asked what was said and I said I had forgotten. He would not let it go at that and persisted, intimating that we should stay in till we remembered. You can imagine my embarrassment as I spluttered out I s-said you were a prehistoric old maal, sir. I dul receied a couple of strokes, ut I think that the old codger laughed at the episode. I used to take Leslie Auger home on my bike, so it did not put him out much.