Some images from my visits to South Georgia and the Falklands – circa 1982 and 1984-85, HMS Leedscastle and HMS Yarmouth, respectively.

ALTHOUGH THE EVENT IS SOME THREE YEARS AGO I HAVE JUST BEEN ADVISED OF THE TRAGIC PASSING OF SIMONE BAXTER. MANY OF YOU WILL REMEMBER 'MON FROM HER DAYS AT STONEHOUSE AND HASLAR. SHE WAS A BEAUTIFUL PERSON BOTH EXTERNALLY AND INWARDLY. I WILL NOT GO INTO TOO MUCH DETAIL HERE AS IT IS INNAPROPRIATE BUT IF ANYONE WANTS TO KNOW MORE PLEASE E-MAIL AND I'LL FILL IN THE GAPS.

IT WOULD HAVE BEEN HER 49th BIRTHDAY AT THE END OF THE MONTH (SHE WAS A LEAP YEAR GIRL JUST TO BE AWKWARD AND EXTRACT EXTRA PRESENTS FROM ME!!) SO, IF YOU ARE INCLINED PLEASE REMEMBER HER IN YOUR THOUGHTS.

SHE LEAVES HER DAUGHTER LYDIA WHO IS NOW 13 AND AM ASSURED IS THE IMAGE OF HER MOTHER.

I MISS HER DEARLY

Sorry to read the very sad news of Ian Coulton (Titch)dying in February 2008.

 Apologies for posting such sad news but am sure those of you who knew him will also be shocked and saddened.

My wife Carole Robson was a naval nurse at Stonehouse and Haslar between 1976 / 1980.

A very slight geordie girl known to her oppos as George Robson.

She sadly passed away 6th december 2007 age 52.

We have one son jeff who is in the 2nd rifles……

Thanks.

Jeff Allan ex a/b(m).

Posted by Admin – for Jeff

If you are single, Xmas in the Navy can be good fun, even when you are working.

Here's an example….

It's Xmas 1974, I am working on the officers ward at RNH Stonehouse in Plymouth. I have reached the heady heights of PMA (Probationary Medical Assistant). I am working the day shift over the Xmas period.

Xmas eve sees a pretty good 'thrash' going on in the Geneva club – the hospital bar. There is much alcohol and frivolity – a good evening is being had by all!

Note to self – in future try to keep alcohol consumption down to sensible levels when I have to work the following morning. On this occasion I fail to do this and get well into the fun! Frivolity and alcohol consumption goes on late into Xmas eve – no surprises there then!

The next morning sees me waking up not feeling quite as cheerful as the evening before. I have the mother of hangovers – take it like a man! I report for duty on the officers ward – smartly dressed in pristine ward whites, oh.. and 6 foot of tinsel wrapped around my neck. seemed like a good idea at the time – Xmas morning after all!

The sister in charge, takes one look at my sorry face (I must have looked terrible) and sends me to lie down in an empty room. This I do with gratitude and promptly fall asleep. Remember, I am supposed to be on duty.

Sometime later I am woken with a gentle shake. Let me explain something – it is a tradition for the senior officers of the hospital to do rounds on Xmas morning to spread some good cheer. I try to focus, still feeling bloody awful from the night before, this proves to be difficult. I am dazzled by the amount of gold braid that appears before my eyes!

It is, of course, rounds! There in front of me is a Rear Admiral, the Executive Officer, Matron and assorted others. Bloody hell! I must be deep in the mire. The Admiral wishes me a very merry Xmas, which I return. He about turns with the rest of the party and exits the room.

I promptly roll over and go back to sleep. To this day – I have no idea how I got away with it! I do remember that the Admiral in question was Rear Admiral Binns, he had come through the ranks – a fairly rare thing to achieve his rank (hell he was even rumoured to have tattoos!). Maybe, he remembered what it was like to be working on the wards at Xmas!

Extract from – a Navy Lark! - Memoirs of a Royal Navy Medic

Whilst working on the wards in Plymouth in 1975 I became very adept at "laying out" the deceased. No idea why – just didn't seem to bother me that much. I was often called upon to help on other wards when I was on night duty…….

One Saturday night I was called upon to help on one of the surgical wards. So of I trot to do my stuff. In this case the patient had died from gas gangrene and had unpleasant, bubbling lesions along his spine – yuk!

Now this meant taking precautions. So my colleague and I gowned up, complete with masks and theatre hats – all in white. We prepared the body and then placed it in the bier (a metal box on wheels – used to transport the patient to the morgue).

I set off – just me and the body to the morgue. It was around 0100 on a dark night. The morgue was behind the hospital, close to the officers ward block and near to the staff quarters.

As I rounded a corner, pushing the body ahead of me I saw three staff members, obviously returning from a good night out at the other end of the hospital block, hove into view. I was some distance away but managed to have quite an effect on these 'drunken sailors'. They yelled as one and ran as fast as their boozy legs would take them to the staff quarters and disappeared from view. Hells teeth! What rattled their cages?

Ah!! Of course!. Picture the scene. You are returning from a good Saturday night filled with beer, you round the corner of a building and what do you see in the distance? A shadowy all white figure alone in the dark. The dark of an old military hospital reputed to have a good few un-departed souls. Well, you don't believe in this sort of rubbish, but, there it is, right in front of your eyes! Your first ghost! Of course, you run as fast as you, bloody well can!

Probably, the first and last time I will ever have such a 'spirited' effect on people!

Extract from  a navy lark! – memoirs of a navy medic

RNH Stonehouse 1974

Every month or so, can't remember exactly, there would be a new class of nurses arrive for training. This was quite an event for most of the male staff at the hospital – probably a slightly scary one for the new nurses!…..

The hospital, of course, had it's own bar called the Geneva club. It was here that ratings would gather in the evenings for a few beers, a disco or as a prelude to a run ashore. This was also a place of ordeal for a new class of 'baby' nurses.

I remember these nights very clearly. Once the new nurses had settled into their new surroundings they would pay their first visit to the Geneva club. It must have seemed like a cattle market to them. Male staff members would be in attendance to 'welcome them' and eye up the new talent! I'm sure that this first visit to the club must have been an uncomfortable experience.

Of course, these freshly pressed nurses would soon become extremely comfortable in their new surroundings. Stonehouse was a great place to live and work.

However, I always felt some sympathy on these nights and, would often introduce myself to help them feel welcome. I knew many, many nurses during my time at Stonehouse, purely as friends. There was many a good night at the Geneva club!

Extract from  a navy lark! – memoirs of a navy medic

Ahhh,the memories of the old Dolphin oggy wagon.a few libations in the Haslar Club,then weave a way to the hole in the fence near the new MBSQ,squeeze through and obtain a double bacon,cheese dogburger,add liberal amounts of mustard and red sauce…….yummmmm.

How many of us did this? I can still taste them now!

Fun stuff to while away Night duties…

This came up after a chat on the Rum Ration Site.

One night on E block top ward(E3 or E2 I think) we were bored.   We had a "glow in the dark" plastic skull, full size and attached it to a line.   At the same time we found a large nut and did like wise.

Using the nut on the line we tapped the window of the ward below.   We did this a few times then on the last one we let the skull drop. The screams were quite clear.

Needless to say we had a visit from the Block Staff Nurse and denied it all!

Any other dits like this out there?

I was reminded of an incident that happened in TD back in 78. We were doing light rescue practice off Dolphin Sub Aqua club building roof…..

There we were on the roof with a war pattern stretcher and assorted lengths of cordage. A casualty(mug more like) was selected,one PMA "Pony" Moore. He was duly dumped on the stretcher.

The "Leader",  a halfwit that had been back classed from Harvey Blue class(no names, no pack drill!),  selected the scaggiest most grotty bit of rope to lash the Casualty into the stretcher. Despite the rest of us telling him it was a bad move to use it he dismissed it.

Down below was the rest of Jenner Class and POMA Chris Henry, "carry on" he orders and so we fling Pony off the roof in his stretcher. We lowered away untill we hear "Haul him up! Haul him up!" We did as we were told,thinking that Pony had lost a lot of weight. Up came the stretcher……….minus the casualty!

What happened was…… the rope parted and pony's top half fell out of the stretcher, as he passed his legs he grabbed the rope which pulled his legs out after him and he landed on his feet on the ground!

We looked over to see a very white faced Pony being treated for syncope! Our first REAL casualty!  How we laughed!  Except poor Pony!