H.M.S. Ajax & River Plate Veterans Association NEWSLETTER JUNE 2015 CONTENTS Chairman/Editor's Remarks Thars Silver in them thar hills – Fred Coates More memories of my time in HMS AJAX – John Hitchen Calling All Ganges Boys News from Town of Ajax – Colleen Jordan Membership Report – Judi Collis Archivist Report – Malcolm Collis Ships Bells – Conundrum – Clive Sharplin AGM 2014 – Minutes and Annual Accounts Gift Aid Form NEC QUISQUAM NISI AJAX 2. 3. H.M.S. AJAX & RIVER PLATE VETERANS ASSOCIATION. taken to the mine; met more of the CHAIRMAN/SECRETARY ARCHIVIST/WEBMASTER group and was shown around, what to NEWSLETTER EDITOR Malcolm Collis me was a fascinating place. I didn't Peter Danks The Bewicks, Station Road 104 Kelsey Avenue Ten Mile Bank, get to the main shaft as there were Southbourne Norfolk PE38 0EU volunteers working down there. Emsworth Tel: 01366 377945 That's a treat for another time (I Hampshire PO10 8NQ [email protected] hope). The photograph shows Tel: 01243 371947 Tyrone Boyce, my friend's son in law [email protected] and on my left his son Sam who is 16 and the youngest member of the TREASURER/MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE Acting TREASURER group; his main role is that of dumper SECRETARY MEMBER STANDARD BEARER driver and apparently it is God help Mrs Judi Collis Alf Larkin John (Vic) Wilson anyone who has the temerity to touch The Bewicks, Station Road Lime Kiln Collage 9 Ashleigh Avenue it, let alone drive it. There are further Ten Mile Bank Egham 2 Easton Lane Norfolk PE38 0EU details from the web site - click on Surrey TW20 8LB Portland Tel: 01366 377945 Dorset DT5 1BW Combe Martin Silver Mine. Mobile: 07736 929641 Tel: 01784 439630 Tel: 01305 457259 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.hmsajax.org More Memories of my time in HMS AJAX by John Hitchen I think it was in an article by Richard Llewellyn that he said how the first sight of the Rock of Gibraltar made a lasting impression on him. It was the same for me, it was not just the Rock itself but there were CHAIRMAN/EDITOR'S REMARKS lights everywhere whereas we had been used to the blackout since 1939. There was another reason why I remember the occasion and it was because my father read in his newspaper the following day I hope all members are well and looking forward to a nice summer. Activities within the Association the latest report from La Linea which stated HMS AJAX had entered Gibraltar harbour. seem to have slowed down and we can now look forward to celebrating the 50th Annual Reunion of the Association in October. The application form was included in the March newsletter – this is a Our next port of call was Algiers which was equally impressive but in a different way of course. I later gentle reminder to send your form off. saw other French colonial towns in Africa all of which gave the impression that the French were here to stay, all of which was in contrast to our own colonies in West Africa. AGM 2014 – AGM 2015. I am pleased to publish the 2014 AGM minutes and annual accounts within this issue. If members have any concerns over matters within the minutes or the accounts, After out little mishap in Bone, we returned to Gibraltar. After some patching up, AJAX sailed for the please contact me as soon as convenient and the committee will do their best to resolve them. The USA with a skeleton crew and the rest of us, I think, were sent back to the UK in HMS RENOWN. 2015 AGM will be held on Thursday 8th October and if there any items members wish to be raised at My next appointment was to KING ALFRED where I passed out as a Midshipman (before I had this meeting, please could they be forwarded to me by 1st August, so I can include them in the agenda enough sea time to be an AB?). We were given the largest cheque I had up to that point and we all which will go out in the September newsletter. Any supporting paperwork should accompany the walked across the road to one of the well known tailors and handed over our cheque for our new items to be raised please. uniform – there was no change! Newsletter Articles I am grateful to Clive Sharplin for his article on the bells of HMS AJAX. My first seagoing appointment was to a corvette having a refit in Falmouth. I was told I was cipher Thanks to Colleen Jordan for the news from Ajax. John Hitchen and Fred Coates also responded to officer and to say I felt inadequate is to put it mildly. KING ALFRED had nothing to say on the Malcolm's request for articles and their contributions are in this newsletter. subject. I was in charge of a large cabinet, unfortunately kept in the Captain's cabin; on one side were the secret books, which nobody ever read, and on the other side were the code and cipher books; both 75th Anniversary year an excellent DVD has been produced by Kit Harwood with speeches and operated in the same way and were current for different lengths of time i.e. one week, six weeks etc. interviews from the lunch on 13th December and Cliff Hoppe has produced his usual high standard set We left Falmouth for Tobermoray where we 'worked up' for a week or so and then joined an Atlantic of pictures taken at the lunch. If you would like copies of these wonderful memories of a busy year, convoy, which I think was going to the Med; but we carried on to Freetown. By the time we got there, please contact Malcolm Collis by the 20th June 2015. I had two sacks full of out of date code books which had to be disposed of and with the help of a rating we found the disposal point which was a great big bonfire. Standing in front of a bonfire in Freetown Thars Silver in them thar hills - by Fred Coates in the middle of the day can make one feel a bit woozy which was how I felt when waiting for the water Over the last eighteen years or so while on holiday in many of the north Devon holiday resorts, we taxi and I came too when the rating dug me in the ribs and said “I think he means you”. Captain D had often visited Combe Martin. I've got a passion for local museums and although one was advertised in arrived with his entourage and I had failed to salute. My misdemeanour was reported to my Captain Combe Martin, I never did find it open. My main interest was in discovering what had happened to who was not amused. I was cipher officer on more than one ship and during the whole time only came the famous Combe Martin Silver Mine. This year I found the Museum and it was open. across one signal that applied to us and that referred to the moving of a buoy in a swept channel. I have since been told that by the time of my first appointment, the Germans had already broken our I got a little bit of info on the mine and while staying with friends I mentioned that I was interested in naval code, which was changed about a year or so later! Can anybody tell me the difference between a the mine. “No problem”, I was told. Their son in law and grandson were part of the mine code and a cypher? preservation group of volunteers. After 18 years of nosing around my search was over. And I was 2. 3. H.M.S. AJAX & RIVER PLATE VETERANS ASSOCIATION. taken to the mine; met more of the CHAIRMAN/SECRETARY ARCHIVIST/WEBMASTER group and was shown around, what to NEWSLETTER EDITOR Malcolm Collis me was a fascinating place. I didn't Peter Danks The Bewicks, Station Road 104 Kelsey Avenue Ten Mile Bank, get to the main shaft as there were Southbourne Norfolk PE38 0EU volunteers working down there. Emsworth Tel: 01366 377945 That's a treat for another time (I Hampshire PO10 8NQ [email protected] hope). The photograph shows Tel: 01243 371947 Tyrone Boyce, my friend's son in law [email protected] and on my left his son Sam who is 16 and the youngest member of the TREASURER/MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE Acting TREASURER group; his main role is that of dumper SECRETARY MEMBER STANDARD BEARER driver and apparently it is God help Mrs Judi Collis Alf Larkin John (Vic) Wilson anyone who has the temerity to touch The Bewicks, Station Road Lime Kiln Collage 9 Ashleigh Avenue it, let alone drive it. There are further Ten Mile Bank Egham 2 Easton Lane Norfolk PE38 0EU details from the web site - click on Surrey TW20 8LB Portland Tel: 01366 377945 Dorset DT5 1BW Combe Martin Silver Mine. Mobile: 07736 929641 Tel: 01784 439630 Tel: 01305 457259 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] www.hmsajax.org More Memories of my time in HMS AJAX by John Hitchen I think it was in an article by Richard Llewellyn that he said how the first sight of the Rock of Gibraltar made a lasting impression on him. It was the same for me, it was not just the Rock itself but there were CHAIRMAN/EDITOR'S REMARKS lights everywhere whereas we had been used to the blackout since 1939.