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 news from home was still grim with rationing and shortages, I decided to give them a nice present for the first peacetime Christmas, I asked my Mam the sizes of shoes for the five brothers and sisters still at school and then I asked my Aunt Flo to buy shoes in Sydney. I parcelled these up and sent them home by the navy post office which was free, my Mam told me later they had arrived safely for Christmas and that they were all over the moon.
I spent Christmas with the Hattons and we had a smashing time, we let the New Year in at a dance in the village hall and we all went for a midnight swim in the creek as it was a hot midsummer night.
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