Speaking about the current state of the site, Mr Jones said: "All of the messes have been demolished, as have the laundry and the generators. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. She was based alternately in Falmouth, Harwich (from 1899) and Shotley (from 1905). May 46 to HMS Wakeful, Training Flotilla for a twelve-week tour from . Saw your message. HMS Ganges was a "stone frigate" or land-based institution for the Royal Navy, and between 1905 and 1976 was one of the key training bases used to prepare sailors to defend Great Britain. The cinemas would be packed with rows of Ganges boys in uniform and the caf at the corner of St Stephen's Lane would sell them many cups of tea as they waited for their bus back to Shotley. Looking pretty in candy-striped pyjama bottoms and naked chests, we were ordered across the parade ground, through the snow and ice, to the 'heads', that grown-up potty land, which had neither doors nor partitions around the bowls for privacy, to partake in our morning ablutions, a most embarrassing experience. It had to be a joke! Researched and compiled by A. S. Grimmer (Solent Division) who sadly crossed the bar 6th January 2007. [1] Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, Fungus case forces Jack Daniels to halt construction, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine. contact IPSO here, 2001-2023. Ken Smith, who now lives in Brighton, sent me memories of arriving at HMS Ganges in the severe winter of 1963 and his fear of the dreaded mast. CMEM (M) Served from 1972 - 1987 Served in HMS Ganges. They faced what was without doubt the most severe punishment, cuts. When I say there was sexual abuse Im speaking from personal experience. During Ganges's time in Cornwall allegations of harsh and brutal treatment were reported to the Admiralty.One wardroom steward shot himself over the matter, and the reports aroused indignation in the local community. GANGES was the shore training establishment for boy entrants into the Royal Navy from 1905 until 1976. Once the situation eases a bit there will be tangible progress to be seen.. AboutPressCopyrightContact. Thus was the nature of Ganges harsh training regime. At the tip of the Shotley peninsular sits a cluster of abandoned buildings that were once home to hundreds of young lads right at the start of their lives at sea. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. Editors' Code of Practice. HP10 9TY. She was based alternately in Falmouth, Harwich and Shotley . Discussions between developers and Babergh District Council planning officers have been concluded five years after plans for the huge project were given outline planning permission in December 2015. July 27, Awarded the Freedom of Ipswich. The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites. Report . Sadists most of them and that's from a 15 year old who was in a council care home before he joined, streetwise to fcuk and kept my head down. His early life was hard by any standards. Statistics for the 1930s indicate some 200 official canings per year in HMS Ganges alone, an average of four per week. MT2 Served from 1965 - 2021 Served in HMS Ganges. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Read about our approach to external linking. 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Hetzner Online GmbH, Industriestrasse 25, D-91710 Gunzenhausen, Germany +49 9831 505-0 abuse@hetzner.com. The overall height is 143 feet 10 inches, with the button being 11 inches diameter and 3 inches thick. The number of air raids at Shotley began to increase dramatically and its ratings soon had to go to the air . I was sent to the training Ship HMS Ganges a cruel harsh 12 months lay ahead of me and thousands of other boys. I heard many boys saying things like , dont bend over in front of the seamanship officer, or always face him dont turn around. The master at arms held a long thin bamboo cane, the instrument of the punishment. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to The cold water often caused some boys to duck in and out of the water quickly or sometimes not at all. He was sentenced at Portsmouth Crown Court. The HMS Ganges Museum previously said restorers would remove the wooden part of the mast for refurbishment off site and they would then check the condition of the steel lower mast. "A lot of the boys came from foster homes, or Barnardos. There was also a degree of sexual abuse going on at Ganges, but we boys were too scared to ever complain or report such incidents. I was out of there in an instant, but never said a word to anyone, I was just happy it was over and I had qualified. This site is part of Newsquest's audited local newspaper network. Rumour had it many years ago a boy did fall, bouncing off the safety net and through the Post Office roof. Observer career path/ real life experience. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Was anything in this navy free from fear? Network 157.90../16 Abuse Contact API. I knew a gentleman who said when he was at Ganges in 1947 he had his first taste of hot food. This site uses cookies. Justin I saw the mast fully manned three times and it was a wonderful sight to see as it was so well choreographed and I was always amazed how the button boy could even get onto the button, when there was a breeze the mast moved a few good feet at the top of it and as I said all he had to hold onto was a knee high lighting conductor. It used to be a training camp for the Navy until 1976, and in later years it was a police training school. . Roger Jones, chairman at the HMS Ganges Museum said: "HMS Ganges was originally a ship of the wooden wall, launched in 1821. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Change). Yes indeed, they were the best of times and the worst of times. After eating I dashed down to the boat sheds to report for my test. Were you a 'button boy'? they said. This was where the roped rigging jutted out some ten feet - above it, the platform. We caught up with Jim Dines, Director of TS Rigging, whose team. A Gannett Company. Its really difficult to give a definitive time scale but once things get going I would imagine that progress will be very visible whereas a lot of the work going on over the past two or three years hasnt necessarily been seen by the public.. St George IOM Boys training 3/5/45 Christmas leave 45 took all kit and returned to Ipswich station, then by the ubiquitous 3 ton Bedford to Shotley where we reopened HMS Ganges as a boys establishment. Probably running away was the worse decision, they were always caught and returned to the camp. Down the road we proudly thundered, the first time any of us had seen the outside words since the day of our arrival. Below are just some of our members who have served at HMS Ganges. But, because of the lockdown nothing has really moved and I think, even though construction workers havent leagally been told theyre not allowed to do anything, the owners are a bit reluctant to move. He was quite good too. The latest development means that construction work could start immediately, however, due to the coronavirus outbreak, progress has been delayed. It began snowing on Boxing Day. The former treasurer of a naval veterans' organisation has been jailed for 18 months after nearly 80,000 was withdrawn from its accounts. This page is dedicated to the memory of Tony whose commitment to the Royal Navy and especially HMS Ganges was unlimited. The training was tough, brutal at times, yet many of those who came through remember HMS Ganges, at Shotley Gate, with a certain fondness. JavaScript is disabled. While I was going through the various calls I felt his hand slipping up the back of my shorts. the reason i remember the date is that it was my 15th birthday, We got shipped out to Suez in October 1956 cutting short our training by a couple of months. contact the editor here. It was easy to spot those who had been here the longest. The rest of the class were not pleased to suffer because of one boys stupidity and sometimes made a cruel point of letting the culprit know. Work on the scheme, which would see 285 new homes, a 60-bed nursing home, a large retail space and areas for medical services, will not be started until a spine road through the site, which will take the bulk of construction traffic away from main roads, is built. I was at Ganges in 1955 and went to visit Shotley in 2005 and was surprised to see police signs near the old swimming baths. A question of Religion?Maybe MaybeNot???? Other things we had to do included, clean a toilet with a toothbrush, polish a hundred square feet of block-wood flooring with a boot brush every night before going to bed, paint the inside of a dustbin white before putting your rubbish into it. . GANGES; the ship had previously anchored out in the harbour below, at Shotley Gate, on the east coast opposite Harwich. If you are dissatisfied with the response provided you can There was one hell to come, the Ganges mast! It would not be an exaggeration to say not one of us had the slightest idea of what lay in store for the next year. Observer career path/ real life experience. Mr Youngman, who joined the navy aged 15 in 1965, said he had previously climbed up to the top of the mast but "couldn't wait to get back down". She was established as a boys' training establishment in 1865, and was based aboard a number of hulks before moving ashore. So as I have said already, we kept our heads down aiming for that final day when wed be drafted to a ship. HMS Ganges was a training ship and later stone frigate of the Royal Navy. After sewing on a tag and sporting a proud smile as I offered it up for inspection to that gorilla-of-gunner, I was sent scurrying away, ears ringing from slaps and vehement words, asking myself, 'How the hell did I mange to sew the tag on upside-down?'. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. Padre Weekes was always good for a fag and Jim Conroy (PTI) taught me to yodel. ', and he replied that it was the first time he had a warm bed, three hot meals a day, and a roof over his head that didn't leak. 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Today lots of those instructors (JIs and Badgeboys included) would be in front of the beak for various abuses, harassment and bullying. Standing at 143ft, the mast is made up of three main parts; the main 75ft mast came from HMS Cordelia, a steam corvette built in Portsmouth, the top mast of 47.5 ft wooden ruffle box from HMS Agincourt, which was renamed HMS Boscawen, and then Ganges II. The HMS Ganges site was initially opened in 1904 acted as a boys training facility for the Royal Navy. www.amazon.co.uk/H-m-S-Ganges-Dozen/dp/0906418003/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269273975&sr=1-1, www.navy-net.co.uk/Forums/viewtopic/t=134/postdays=0/postorder=asc/start=0.html, www.veterans-uk.info/vets_badge/vets_badge.htm. Registered in England & Wales | 01676637 |. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. Among his many punishments, he suffered cuts, a particularly brutal form of Naval punishment. 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