Ganges

[dt018a9667]

We Need A new page for us old boys !!!

 

[harryaitch]

We Need A new page for us old boys !!!

I could'nt agree more So here's one for the off,and I,m sure Nozzy Nozzer wont be far behind. :lol: November 12th 1962,54 recruitment,22 mess Grenville division,long covered way.Bless all those that survived a year of purgatory, with help from each other, and bloody good sense of humour.

 

[NozzyNozzer]

We Need A new page for us old boys !!!

I could'nt agree more So here's one for the off,and I,m sure Nozzy Nozzer wont be far behind. :lol: November 12th 1962,54 recruitment,22 mess Grenville division,long covered way.Bless all those that survived a year of purgatory, with help from each other, and bloody good sense of humour.

I am always impressed how many people are so good at dates. I can't even remember the dates I was last on holiday! :? Even more embarrassingly I only remember that the last service organisation I served in, the RNXS, closed sometime in the early the 1990s :?: I look forward to when brain transplants become feasible. Actually to be fair to myself, I had exactly the same problem at school, which was why I was so bad at history. I could have sworn that Magna Carta was signed at the Battle of the Boyne, fought on the running track at Shotley in 1066! :lol:

A Ganges page is an excellent idea. I have a friend who was a Stoker in G in the mid 1960s and loved his time there (he is a bit strange though :roll: ). I will try to entice him to visit the site.

 

[harryaitch]

We Need A new page for us old boys !!!

I could'nt agree more So here's one for the off,and I,m sure Nozzy Nozzer wont be far behind. :lol: November 12th 1962,54 recruitment,22 mess Grenville division,long covered way.Bless all those that survived a year of purgatory, with help from each other, and bloody good sense of humour.

I am always impressed how many people are so good at dates. I can't even remember the dates I was last on holiday! :? Even more embarrassingly I only remember that the last service organisation I served in, the RNXS, closed sometime in the early the 1990s :?: I look forward to when brain transplants become feasible. Actually to be fair to myself, I had exactly the same problem at school, which was why I was so bad at history. I could have sworn that Magna Carta was signed at the Battle of the Boyne, fought on the running track at Shotley in 1066! :lol:

A Ganges page is an excellent idea. I have a friend who was a Stoker in G in the mid 1960s and loved his time there (he is a bit strange though :roll: ). I will try to entice him to visit the site.

Ah!back to the first site,is'nt it nice to be wanted .Dont be to impressed by my memory nozzy,its just this one will never go away.any others are a bit of a blur .I remember the day I joined Ganges as if it were yesterday.Left Pompey by train(steam of course) at about 1100 on 12/11/62.along with two other victims bound for waterloo,then by tube to liverpool st to pick up the special train full of potential baby sailors.Then the journey to Parkstone quay,and I must say at that stage I wished I was elsewhere ,bad vibes.Anyway at parkstone we were loaded on to MFV's and headed across the water to shotley and home for the next year 8O .

 

[fido]

We Need A new page for us old boys !!!

I could'nt agree more So here's one for the off,and I,m sure Nozzy Nozzer wont be far behind. :lol: November 12th 1962,54 recruitment,22 mess Grenville division,long covered way.Bless all those that survived a year of purgatory, with help from each other, and bloody good sense of humour.

I am always impressed how many people are so good at dates. I can't even remember the dates I was last on holiday! :? Even more embarrassingly I only remember that the last service organisation I served in, the RNXS, closed sometime in the early the 1990s :?: I look forward to when brain transplants become feasible. Actually to be fair to myself, I had exactly the same problem at school, which was why I was so bad at history. I could have sworn that Magna Carta was signed at the Battle of the Boyne, fought on the running track at Shotley in 1066! :lol:

A Ganges page is an excellent idea. I have a friend who was a Stoker in G in the mid 1960s and loved his time there (he is a bit strange though :roll: ). I will try to entice him to visit the site.

Ah!back to the first site,is'nt it nice to be wanted .Dont be to impressed by my memory nozzy,its just this one will never go away.any others are a bit of a blur .I remember the day I joined Ganges as if it were yesterday.Left Pompey by train(steam of course) at about 1100 on 12/11/62.along with two other victims bound for waterloo,then by tube to liverpool st to pick up the special train full of potential baby sailors.Then the journey to Parkstone quay,and I must say at that stage I wished I was elsewhere ,bad vibes.Anyway at parkstone we were loaded on to MFV's and headed across the water to shotley and home for the next year 8O .

I also joined from Pompey - 11 Recruitment - February 1958 - Benbow Divison 32 Mess. Ships Book number 2244, (how's that for memory!) I keep in contact with two or three of my recruitment through the HMS GANGES Assocation which I thoroughly recommend to any Ganges Boys who are not yet members (as well as bumping in to others periodically - one as far away as Sydney when I was on holiday!) Remember how we used to thrash the Holbrook boys on the river?

fido

 

[fido]

We Need A new page for us old boys !!!

I could'nt agree more So here's one for the off,and I,m sure Nozzy Nozzer wont be far behind. :lol: November 12th 1962,54 recruitment,22 mess Grenville division,long covered way.Bless all those that survived a year of purgatory, with help from each other, and bloody good sense of humour.

I am always impressed how many people are so good at dates. I can't even remember the dates I was last on holiday! :? Even more embarrassingly I only remember that the last service organisation I served in, the RNXS, closed sometime in the early the 1990s :?: I look forward to when brain transplants become feasible. Actually to be fair to myself, I had exactly the same problem at school, which was why I was so bad at history. I could have sworn that Magna Carta was signed at the Battle of the Boyne, fought on the running track at Shotley in 1066! :lol:

A Ganges page is an excellent idea. I have a friend who was a Stoker in G in the mid 1960s and loved his time there (he is a bit strange though :roll: ). I will try to entice him to visit the site.

Ah!back to the first site,is'nt it nice to be wanted .Dont be to impressed by my memory nozzy,its just this one will never go away.any others are a bit of a blur .I remember the day I joined Ganges as if it were yesterday.Left Pompey by train(steam of course) at about 1100 on 12/11/62.along with two other victims bound for waterloo,then by tube to liverpool st to pick up the special train full of potential baby sailors.Then the journey to Parkstone quay,and I must say at that stage I wished I was elsewhere ,bad vibes.Anyway at parkstone we were loaded on to MFV's and headed across the water to shotley and home for the next year 8O .

I also joined from Pompey - 11 Recruitment - February 1958 - Benbow Divison 32 Mess. Ships Book number 2244, (how's that for memory!) I keep in contact with two or three of my recruitment through the HMS GANGES Assocation which I thoroughly recommend to any Ganges Boys who are not yet members (as well as bumping in to others periodically - one as far away as Sydney when I was on holiday!) Remember how we used to thrash the Holbrook boys on the river?

fido

 

[NozzyNozzer]

The problem at 15 is/was that one was romantic and full of stories about naval battles and victories, and didn't think too much about the realities, that and a conviction that 'it can't be that bad, I mean, there are laws against that sort of thing!' mentality. I didn't realise until I wandered off... and got dragged back, that the navy still had flogging: I thought that had gone out of fashion decades before 8O :cry: :cry: The infamous Mr.Ganges (he was a PTI if you don't remember him) certainly knew how to draw more than tears! I'm sure Ganges did me good :| , though I HATED it at the time (apart from the technical training, that is). I still feel a chill down my spine when I think of Ganges kit musters, and am shocked that Raleigh still inspect one's underpants. Yuck! Deeply humiliating memories there I remember reading a few years ago that a 19 year old killed himself at Raleigh because of those particular types of "kit" muster!

 

[dt018a9667]

Can some one tell me why us trogs have good memories of the place? It was not the most of nice places or was itthat we were young boys and it took a lot to get us down

 

[hobbit]

Can some one tell me why us trogs have good memories of the place? It was not the most of nice places or was itthat we were young boys and it took a lot to get us down

I recall, when having a gripe about the service, being told," you'll only remember the good times". I've found that to be true and in fact some of the bad times, when thought about, were not so bad after all. Funny bugger Jack

:lol:

 

[sidon55]

Ganges 1950 6 Mess (Dunkirk) Blake Div, top of LCW. 74/75 Class. Your right that we seem only to remember the good times. But I believe the training I got there has stood me in good stead through a couple of bad
tragedies. I can recommend the Ganges Association for those haven't joined, Though if anyone had suggested i would join an Association celebrating when I left there I would have said the stark raving mad

 

[harryaitch]

Can some one tell me why us trogs have good memories of the place? It was not the most of nice places or was itthat we were young boys and it took a lot to get us down

I think bad memories tend to fade with time,and we look back on the good times as a bigger part of our lives than the bad.As was the case at Ganges,once you got over the initial shock and in to the routine of the place it got comparatively less nasty as time went on,although they seemed to find a lot of suprises for us just as we were gaining confidence in overcoming previous mental and physical onslaughts.Once you made 1st class junior with the little star on your arm things changed.The regime did,nt change much,but your own esteem and attitude did.(does anyone remember at what stage we got the 'star'?)It was a place that took you from boy to man in a year,and doing a mans job on board ship at 17(without the pay )
I hated the place and was very pleased to leave,and would not like to do it all again.But,with me and I'm sure most other Ganges boys it did what it set out to do,turn boys into men of the Royal Navy.And I'm grateful for that.

 

[whitemouse]

Very true Aitch

Grenville 23 LCW 1962/3, shared the messdeck with Naval Airmen.

The problem I had there, was the Reg Staff knew my old man when he was there in 61 (ex RPO), so on any Nos 9s (and I had a couple or three) I was elected - punished ? - to clean the Reg Office out.

Memories?
The boxing ring in the Annex - didn't do too well in that !
the freeze of 62 / Laundry Hill / Assault course / Expeds in the rain / saluting a Customs Officer (oooh... the shame!! ?) which happened on my first run ashore in Dovercourt.

 

[harryaitch]

Very true Aitch

Grenville 23 LCW 1962/3, shared the messdeck with Naval Airmen.

The problem I had there, was the Reg Staff knew my old man when he was there in 61 (ex RPO), so on any Nos 9s (and I had a couple or three) I was elected - punished ? - to clean the Reg Office out.

Memories?
The boxing ring in the Annex - didn't do too well in that !
the freeze of 62 / Laundry Hill / Assault course / Expeds in the rain / saluting a Customs Officer (oooh... the shame!! ?) which happened on my first run ashore in Dovercourt.

I did manage to win the three boxing matches and was given a nice certificate,but it was more brute force than technique.As you know the final was a big occasion with all the Ganges brass and annexe inmates,I was shit scared and just wanted to get out of there as soon as poss,thats probably why I won .
That was some winter that year,the only good thing about it was that certain outdoor activities had to be shelved,apart from shoveling snow that is,which we had a laugh doing :lol:.I,m not sure having a crusher as a dad was good street cred at ganges,did your mates know :?: On leaviing I went to culdrose for training and remember calling an nco crab sir but there we called every bugger 'SIR'!,even the few ladies floating around were suprised at being called that 8O.

 

[Geoff_Wessex]

Can some one tell me why us trogs have good memories of the place? It was not the most of nice places or was itthat we were young boys and it took a lot to get us down

I cover my time at Ganges in my own website (my memoirs if you like) and I'm sure that you're right.

 

[fido]

Ganges 1950 6 Mess (Dunkirk) Blake Div, top of LCW. 74/75 Class. Your right that we seem only to remember the good times. But I believe the training I got there has stood me in good stead through a couple of bad
tragedies. I can recommend the Ganges Association for those haven't joined, Though if anyone had suggested i would join an Association celebrating when I left there I would have said the stark raving mad

sidon55,

So true, I can't say that I hated GANGES - it was pretty rough but I seem to recall that I didn't know what was going on half of the time - it was certainly better than my childhood - at least at GANGES I got fed regularly, had more clothing that ever in my life, my own bed and 7/6 (later 10 bob) each week. The 'fag barons' were merciless though - especially if you did a runner when it came to pay up on Thursday! What GANGES really did, of course, was took boys, inculcated a sense of discipline, loyalty and service and then gave us a marvellous career in the best service in the world.

You're right about the Association - brilliant!

fido