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At the tail end of 2001, DaC driver Sam Harris (S09) went to Australia
for an ex-soldiers / sailors reunion. This is his report...
Remembrance Sunday, the second Sunday in November, would normally find my
fellow veterans and myself (unfortunately decreasing in numbers each year)
in London's Whitehall for the annual Remembrance Day parade, service and
march-past.
This year however, I was to be found nearly 10,000 miles away
in the West Australian capital of Perth attending the same type of
Remembrance ceremony, only this time in the company of about 40 former
members of the British Pacific and East Indies Fleets, plus ex-servicemen of
the Australian Armed Forces. How had this all come about...?
In August 2000 I had been on parade at Portsmouth where the
final get-together of the 'old boys' who had served together in those two
great fleets in the 40's took place. The Editor of Call Sign very kindly
published a report of this reunion in the December issue of that year.
Early the following year, I received a communication from one
of the organisers asking if I was interested in making a trip out to the Far
East and Australia in November with any other fellow members. I had always
been going on about these places
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SAM HARRIS GOES TO AUSTRALIA
FOR REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY
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A part of the group of former WRENS and members of the
British fleets from WW2 Sam is 5th from the left at the back.
Inset: War time recruitment poster
especially Sydney and Hong Kong - to my missus for as long
as we had been married (1952) and even before! But of course there was
always the expense and time involved in flying to these places - and in
latter years our health, especially in the case of Martha who now had
angina...
"Ok," she said, "let's see what the
doctor says. If he says its OK, we'll go; after all, the price is really
reasonable." I had the feeling that we were to be subsidised - by
who or what I knew not!
"Besides," said Martha, "I'd like to
see what you've been going on about all these years, so get it out of your
system and lets go!"
Our specialists gave us the all clear and Tuesday November
6th
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found us at Terminal 4, Heathrow, checking in for a BA
flight to our first stop of Singapore. One of my old shipmates from
Wakefield, Yorkshire was there - although I do see him and a few of the
other men each year at our own little get together. The flight took 12 hours
and we were not very impressed with the service on board!
We arrived in Singapore at 8am and were impressed by the layout
of the new Airport which was built on the site of the old Changi prison made
infamous during the last war as a PoW camp for thousands of British and
Commonwealth troops captured after the fall of this supposedly impregnable
fortress.
We were met by a very charming Eurasian lady who escorted us by
luxury coach to the New Otani Hotel by the Singapore River, not far from the
city centre. We waited in a most beautiful lounge whilst our keys were being
given out and this gave us a chance to meet up properly with the other
members of the party. We soon started chatting about the old days.
By about 11a.m.we had been allocated a lovely room with a very fine view
over the city. Excitement was beginning to mount...
To be continued...
Sam Harris (S09)
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