Dad In The Navy - The Memoirs Of John Francis Connor

Harry Hatton told me a story about Balmoral at Sydney Heads where I had done my training, I asked him what was the reason for the amphitheatre which was built into the hillside overlooking the Pacific Ocean. He told me that in the 1930's an Archbishop (self styled) Leadbeater had come into prominence in Sydney and had forecast that Jesus Christ would walk through Sydney Heads on a specific date (on the water of course), incredibly thousands of people believed him and funds were raised to build the amphitheatre and seats booked for the big day. Of course the "Archbishop" disappeared jut before the date forecast and was later caught and tried for fraud. Whilst at Golden Hind I was roped in for a funeral firing party and by a strange co-incidence I had to fire a salute over the funeral of a man who had lived just around the corner from me at Middlesbrough. Bandy Wilson had been brought up with me on the Whinney Banks estate in Middlesbrough. He joined the navy about th

HMS Golden Hind was the main Australian base for the British Pacific Fleet, it was about 12 miles from the centre of Sydney at a place called Liverpool. The best part for me was that Hammondville was a short bus journey from Liverpool so I was able to spend more time at the Hattons house which was becoming my second home. Let me tell you something of Hammondville, it was a small community of buildings, almost all self-built which got its name from a Canon Hammond who had campaigned in the 1920s to get electricity and water laid on and established a small suburb of Liverpool. My Uncle Harry Hatton had settled there in the 30's after working on the railways and had a steady job as an ambulance driver. Most of the inhabitants worked in Liverpool or Sydney and the bus driver used to stop at each house every morning to pick us up (one morning I had to wake up on the verandah and I had to hurry and dress while the whole of the bus cheered). It was approaching Christmas 1945 and the

I was taken by jeep to HMAS Balmoral which was on the north side of Sydney harbour mouth, the entrance to Sydney harbour was known as Sydney Heads and I would be based on HMAS Balmoral and travel daily across the bay to HMAS Watsons Bay which was on the south side of Sydney Heads. Watsons Bay was a camp on a clifftop with radar ariels sticking up all over the place and huts converted into schoolrooms for lectures, I spent three months training there before passing out as a Radar Plotter second class or R.P.2. The next weekend I went up to Hammondville and told them the news, it was a surprise to them as they thought I would be sailing with the Lothian. I asked Aunt Flo if I could stay every weekend then I could get a living out allowance and native leave in Australia just as if I was in the Aussie navy, she said "Certainly", so on the Monday following I arranged it at the camp to leave Watsons Bay at 3.p.m each Friday and report back for 9.00 a.m each Monday- this I

After the hectic night on V.J  day I had to settle down to the routine of a ship changing from a wartime to a peacetime footing. I was under punishment for 14 days, so I couldn't go ashore on leave therefore I never saw the Hattons for a week, then one afternoon Flo and her friend called at the ship after work and I was able to go on the jetty and talk to them. I told them I was sorry I couldn't make it to their house but I would definitely be there on Saturday ( when my punishment would be over). The week passed slowly, almost everyone was ashore and I was pretty miserable- however on Saturday I was able to get a weekend pass from noon Saturday to Monday morning. I travelled up to Hammondville and we had the village dance on Saturday night and Sunday swimming in the creek. On Monday morning I was on board the ship by noon and I was told to report to the radar officer after dinner. The radar officer informed me that I had been selected to go on an R.P.2's course in Sy

Whilst the Lothian was preparing for sea, the news came that the Allies had dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima and had petitioned Tokyo to surrender. This was not done immediately and another bomb was dropped on Nagasaki and after a few more days the Japanese surrendered , it was the most terrible end to a war that had ever been known. Being young (I was still only 19), I looked at the end of the war selfishly and thanked God that I didn't have to go back up to the war zone. The city of Sydney went wild on V-J night, the ship was left with the least possible crew on board and at noon we spliced the main-brace and set off ashore to paint the town red. The licensing laws in Sydney were that the pubs were open all day and closed at six o'clock at night., there was a hullabaloo in the papers that they should open till later on V-J day, but it was decided that they should close at the same time as usual. I went ashore with Scouse Sutton, Terry Cowley and a couple more mates from

When I got back on board the Lothian there was quite a lot of mail waiting for me, one was a telegram from my Mam which gave me a laugh, it said simply - "Come home as Joe is on Embarkation Leave", the telegram was about nine months old and addressed to HMS London, it was covered in postmarks all over the world and it was a wonder it reached me at all. Another letter from Mam informed me that I had an aunt in Sydney and enclosed her address. I made a note of it and promised to go and see her. The first weekend off I had, I travelled by train from Sydney Central station to Liverpool and then got a local bus to Hammondville where my Aunt Flo lived. I knocked on the door and my uncle Harry Hatton answered, I told him my Mam had asked me to look them up and he shouted "Flo!", I explained who I was to Aunt Flo who was a lovely motherly figure - she put her arms around me and welcomed me into their house. I was the first person she had seen from home in nearly twen

For the last evening at Narrabri the town held a dance for the sailors on leave there, there were about a dozen of us scattered on different farms, it was a big occasion for the small town. I remember we started getting ready in the mid-afternoon, there was a certain order to having a bath as water was precious being caught off the roof into a barrel. Mrs Burrell had the first bath with Mavis following in the same water, then the water was changed and Bill Glenton went in first and then me, with the Burrells eldest son last, the water was only about four inches deep. We set out after tea about six o'clock in two cars and drove through fields of grain and bush and arrived in Narrabri just after seven. We had a good evening and it was good to have a night out with the lads, I had a couple of dances with Mavis, the dancing wasn't very good as I was just learning and the local girls didn't get much practice, anyway there was plenty to eat and drink and we all enjoyed i