Many thanks to Robert Ferguson
for these photos from his time with 'B' Platoon, 6 Coy RASC at
HMS Sembawang, in Singapore. |
This is most of 'B' Platoon, 6 Coy RASC in 1958.
I am seated at the back,
fourth from left. Eleventh from the left at the back is Dvr
Lebbern.
Standing extreme left
is Alex Rhodes. First to the right of the Seikh guard is Charlie
Lockhart. Last two standing, extreme right are L to R, Sgt
Varnam and Chalky White. |
Just took off and heading for Malaya |
HMS Sembawang, Nee Soon. |
'A' Block. HMS Sembawang. Photographed my myself
in 1958.
Accommodation of 6 Coy RASC. |
Took this photo in 1958 from an Auster of Flight
1911. Leaving Malaya and approaching Singapore. |
Auster at HMS Sembawang. 1958 |
This Auster, Number WZ78, was part of the Army
Air Corps, Flight 1911, was, like 6 Coy RASC, based at HMS
Sembawang, Nee Soon.
On Days off, I would
sometimes volunteer to fly with them as an observer looking for
signs of terrorist activities. The Austers had no doors
fitted and the observers seat, on the right hand side, stuck out
from the side of the plane by about four to six inches. Looking
down, there was nothing under me and one of the biggest frights
I ever got was when zooming along at tree top height, we
suddenly shot out over an enormously high cliff. White knuckles
don't even begin to describe the shock I got. |
The Causeway in 1956.
I could probably get a better scan if I removed
the photo from the cover, but I don't want to do that. |
We usually pulled our resources and shared a taxi
when we went into town but on a couple of occasions I took the
bus just for the feel of it. |
Where we got our hand made clothes and shoes |
Maybe it was just me but I always thought that
this was a real dump of a place. |
A group of us from 6 Coy RASC on the balcony of
the Britannia Club.
L to R = Jock Comrie, Myself (broken wrist
on the mend), Tom Gallagher (Tom and I still keep in touch) ?
Rawles, Roy Gael, Dick Galloway, Jackie Fyffe, ? Lebbern
and Charlie Lockhart.
|
I think this place was near to the 'New World'
but I could be wrong.
|
We had no sooner got settled in when the army top
brass very kindly gave us detailed instructions on where to go
if we really wanted to enjoy ourselves. |
If going into the city with no particular
destination in mind, then it was recommended that you take this
map with you.
|
Very handy for making sure that you were not in
the wrong place at the wrong time. Or vice versa. |
Nothing to say about these establishments. But it
wasn't all that unusual to see MP's frog marching military
personnel out of them. |
This
is the bedding card for the trip from the UK to Singapore
I think it was the first voyage
for the Nevasa. As the Suez Canal had been blocked with
sunken ships by the Egyptians, we sailed via Las Palmas in the
Canary islands, into Bombay harbour, stopped, did an about face
and sailed on to and docked in Durban, and then Colombo.
Somewhere in the Indian Ocean, we passed the Dunera on its way
home. Both ships altered course so that the passed within about
100 yards. Hundreds of milk bottle white bodies heading east,
waving to hundreds of brown tanned bodies heading west.
November, two years later, sailing home, this
time via Aden and midway through the newly re-opened Suez Canal,
we experienced a snow. The first time it had snowed in Egypt (so
I was told) for about two hundred years. We were still wearing
tropical kit and we were freezing cold. I remember feeling the
cold all the way through the Mediterranean and it wasn't until
we left Gibraltar that we were issued with warmer UK uniforms. |
Sembawang Village, Singapore 1967
Thanks to A. J. Allen. Ex Leading Radio Operator Royal Navy, for this
photo |
See also these pages with a Naval
connection: Tim Brown
Sue Watts
Junior & Infant Schools |
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