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London Branch October 2011


Written by London Branch | Posted on 23rd October 2011


Secretary's Report

Greetings to all

September meeting and the leaves had started their fall, days were getting shorter. We have always been fortunate that the same members (who are able) turn up despite good or bad weather; and it was so at the last meeting. But we were concerned with the non appearance of the Branch Chairman. This was very unusual, the Chairman, who is more affectionately known by his Christian name is regarded as almost infallible when it comes to attendance, and his unexplained absence gave rise to speculation that he may have been involved in some mishap. The meeting was started after a reasonable waiting period. It was arranged that the Branch Secretary phone the next morning to make enquiries. This he did and was relieved to hear the Chairman's voice. He knew that Charlie was alright because Charlie immediately complained about receiving such an early morning telephone call (he always does, of course, in spite of the fact that this one was as early as 10.30). The Secretary explained that we had been worried and had phoned to find out why he had not been at the meeting the previous day. There was a pregnant silence, broken finally by Charlie who pleaded memory failure as he thought the meeting was the following week. So thankfully, all was well. But it got us thinking. We are not too far away from Charlie as far as age is concerned. lf memory loss is linked with age, have we got this to come? Or has it already come? We start recalling the times when we have been up the garden to fetch something from the shed and by the time we had reached the shed we had forgotten what we went there for and had to return to the house to think what it was we were supposed to get. And this hasn't happened just the once! Someone said that it was not uncommon, and one way of overcoming the problem was to write the name of whatever it was that you were getting from the shed on a slip of paper. If you then had forgotten what it was you were getting when you reached the shed the paper would tell you. They said that the method was foolproof — a 100% effective cure. It didn't work for us — we kept forgetting to take the piece of paper. We will just have to put up with it. The main thing was that Charlie was O.K. We have received some good news from the CFVA. East Lancs. Branch — in fact two pieces of good news. One was that efforts at their end to raise sufficient money to cover the cost of repairs to their Torpedo War Memorial had been successful and the immediate problem was solved — work could go ahead. The second piece of good news was that Bury (Lancs.) Council had undertaken to maintain the memorial and bear the cost of maintenance for the future. So what a great outcome! In their newsletter, Len Mears, Secretary to the East Lancs. Branch expressed his sincere thanks to the London Branch for the offer that we made of financial assistance should it have been required. The offer he said, came from "good shipmates" (it made us feel good also, to be able to make the offer!). It is sad that the newsletter will be the last from the East Lancs. Branch. They, together with the North Midlands Branch will be closing this month. As far as we know only three Branches remain — South London, Southern and ourselves. lf there are any others, we would be very pleased to hear about them. Members who receive copies of the minutes covering the last Branch meeting will be aware of new restrictions introduced by the Imperial War Museum (IWM) covering attendance at the Remembrance Service on the Belfast. They intend to increase the scope of their own invitations and thus there will be, inevitably, a reduction on the number of places available to CFVA and the Sea Cadets. Our allocation consisted of just 11 places. A great deal of representation has been made to IWM at the highest level, and has resulted in a concession covering the carers of veterans. The Branch Committee is currently in discussion over the situation and once agreement is reached over the allocation of spaces, this will be made known. As a CFVA Branch, initial consideration will almost certainly be given to the requirements of WW2 Coastal Forces personnel. Sec.

Web Site Update

It can easily be forgotten that most of our branch members are not 'on line', not able to visit HMS Belfast for the branch meetings, and therefore completely rely on the postal edition of our Newsletter for maintaining contact and keeping up-to-date on any Branch happenings; so occasionally Eddy will ask for any interesting news or items from our web site. Here is a summary of our progress to date and a glimpse of future aspirations. Work on the revamped Coastal Forces Veterans web site continues apace, most notably in extending the existing search tool (database) for individual boats and their details, which is planned to include all makes of Coastal Forces craft, besides those for Fairmile which are currently available. Requests for information on particular boats, by relatives of those who served, is the most frequent type of request made through the web site, and it is hoped the availability of a comprehensive on—line search mechanism will prove useful to researchers, and the general public alike, drawing more people to the web site, and bringing the work of Light Coastal Forces to the attention of younger generations. Figures for September 2011 show some 1,053 unique visitors to the web site from over twenty five different countries, including Great Britain, United States, Ukraine, Russian Federation, Canada, Australia and Germany. After work on the search tool is completed, the next project will see the creation of a Book of Commemoration within the web site, to record details of all those who died fighting with Coastal Forces, as per records held by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Once that is finished, we hope to start promoting the web site further via e-mail notifications to libraries, newspapers, and other media organisations, so as to bring the existence of our web site to their attention as a good and reliable source of information on all aspects of Coastal Forces. Ted Else

Editors note:

As mentioned above, many of the requests for information come from relatives of those who served in Coastal Forces. Typical of these is one from a young man who was researching his family tree and wanted to know more about his Grandfather, Petty Officer J. George Huntley, DSM. P/JX 144954. Having found our web site, he placed an enquiry into the Personnel section of our Forum (the Forum being an area of the web site that is open for members of the public to add to, or pass on information/photos etc.). He mentioned that his grand dad was on MTB 632. Coincidentally, MTB 632 played a very important role in the life of one of our London Branch members, Ken Forrester. After a quick telephone call, Ken certainly remembered P/O George Huntley — Cox‘n on 632 and gave permission for his telephone number to be made known to the enquirer. Ken has since reported that he has had quite a long chat with him. Another example concerns the grandson of Ernest Ivor Holmes JX 383 846 who served on ML 182. This triggered some detailed response from Brian Holmes (not believed to be related) of the Medusa Trust on the actions and fate of ML 182. There are many other examples in many other areas. The scope of a web site is immense and its possibilities are boundless.

Why call her she?

Recently received was a little piece sent in by London Branch member Bill Clarke on the subject of ‘Why call a ship she?' which surfaced when he was clearing out some drawers. We probably all have seen or heard varied versions on the same theme, but it well deserves to see the light of day once more. Bill said that it was given to him, written on the scrap of paper, by a three badge Killick in the early days, it went thus -
  1. lt is because there is always a great deal of bustle about her.
  2. because there is usually a gang of men around.
  3. because she has a waist and stays.
  4. because she takes a lot of paint to keep her looking good.
  5. because it is not the initial expense that breaks you, it is the upkeep.
  6. because she is all decked out — it takes a good man to handle her.
  7. because she shows her topsides, hides her bottom, and when coming in to port, always heads for the buoys.
With fond memories of long ago - Bill Clarke.

Are they getting any better?

Well yes, Doug Elliott is. As was reported in the last newsletter, Doug had been involved in an unusual accident when he actuated closure of his garage door, but not being quite so agile as he used to be, failed to get out of the way and the door forced him to the floor at the same time taking with it slices of skin from his head and forehead. That was three months ago, and it has taken from that time to heal up. Doug is hopeful that this week will see him being given a complete discharge from the NHS. for the accident. Ken Gadsden is now feeling far better and catching up on the normal routines of life. On ringing Dennis and Sybil Reeves, Dennis said that they were just about 'getting by'. Reading between the lines, it would seem that if they were placed in the ‘having to grin and bear it' category then the grins, understandably, are wearing a bit thin. Sybil has very recently had a knee operation from which she is now recovering. Bill MacAngus? Much the same, same pains, but due to go into hospital for injections to relieve them. We wish them all well.

Clem Mills

lt is with great regret that we record the passing of Clem Mills, past Secretary/President of the North Midlands Branch. Clem was the last of the CFVA National Secretaries, with service on the National Executive Committee following the loss of Len Bridge and he held this position until the time of de-commissioning. (A further tribute to Clem Mills may be found in the October edition of the North Midlands Branch newsletter)