Leydene ("get fell in"!), HMS Victory & Release

It is my great regret that I did not take any photographs during my time in HMS Mercury, the Royal Naval Signal School at Leydene in Hampshire, now sadly closed down as a result of the irrelevance (?) of Morse Code as the principal method of Naval Communications.

I had relinquished my Acting PO Tel rating on leaving Ark Royal and so arrived at Leydene as a Leading Telegraphist once again.  On my first "going ashore" dressed in civvies, I stood apart from the other ratings (as was customary) when liberty-men were piped to fall in.  A gunnery Petty Officer, whose name I forget, was PO of the day and instructed me to "get fell in!" which I duly did.  Then realising he may have made a mistake asked "Are you a leading hand, then?" and when I said I was, he said "get fell out, then!"

When I was promoted to PO Tel shortly afterwards and became an Instructor, we would often meet in the Instructors' Rest Room and I would tease him at his treatment of me that day... rather over egging it, of course!

Although I can still see some of the faces of the classes of trainees I was responsible for, I have no class photographs (I don't know why), and the only person I remained in contact with after leaving the Navy, although not actually in my class was Dennis O'Hare who is now a Christian Missionary in Perpignon in the South of France.  Being an instructor did have its advantages as I used to have my class detailed to give my old car, a 1935 Austin 10, a bump start on a cold winters day!

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