Dad In The Navy - The Memoirs Of John Francis Connor

  My next leave became due about March and I lined up on deck in a snowstorm for inspection before taking the boat ashore. I had bought an accordion on the ship and I was taking it home with me, as it was snowing and it had no case I had wrapped it up in some cleaning cloth. As the Master of Arms came along inspecting the men going ashore he told me to fall out. The boat left for the shore with the liberty-men and I was taken to the Officer of the Watch. The MAA told the OOW  that I had been attempting to steal Pursers Cloth- namely the cloth wrapped around my accordion. I explained that the cloth was old and worn and would have been thrown out anyway. The OOW had to back up the MAA and said I was on Captains report when I came back off leave in a fortnights time. I had to telegram my mother to say I would be a day late and I left the next day for home, it wasn't very nice to think you would had to come back to Captains report. The journey home took longer than usual as trains were

  One of the nicest surprises of my leave was meeting an old friend from the Lothian. Bill Glenton had served on the Lothian with me and I had written a few letters to him, we had also met in Hong Kong when I was on the Belfast and he was on the destroyer Cossack. We had exchanged addresses and promised to call on each other if ever we were in the area. Anyway he happened to call at my mothers while I was on leave so we were able to have a good chin-wag. My leave was soon over and I headed back to Portsmouth, after a week or so I was sent for and told I was to be drafted to HMS Howe, a battelship. The Howe bay at anchor at Portland Bill which was near Weymouth, strange that my last ship had been named Portland Bill. The Howe was turned over to peacetime routine and was crewed by mainly National Servicemen, these were young lads that had been called up after the war to do two years in the forces. The total crew of the Howe was about 2,000 and it was like a small town on board. I was all

  The lighters I had confiscated by the customs were impounded in the Kings warehouse and I was given a receipt for six cigarette lighters to be redeemed at seven shillings and six pence each.  I had bought them in Tokyo for one yen or four pence each, it seemed to me that Japan were starting to recover from the war in 1946, needless to say I never recovered the lighters. My first leave in England in two years started from Portsmouth station. I took the train from Portsmouth to Waterloo. The first thing that struck me about England after being away for two years was the chimney pots on houses. I suppose there must have been some abroad but England somehow seemed to be covered with them and in 1946 they were all smoking. I arrived in London and hailed a taxi from Waterloo to Kings Cross. I was with a Geordie sailor who was travelling to Newcastle, a Greek couple shared our taxi and pointed out the damage the doodle bugs had done to the city, they got out before us and said goodbye, but