“ I was steering the ship some days and it was like a giant roller coaster . The view from the bridge I will never forget – the waves coming up behind us were as huge as mountains .”
INTERVIEW
Tony , top row , far right , at a training school in Gloucester
that demolished an adjoining house , Don decided the family needed a real break and took only child Tony and his mum by train to visit relatives on the Isle of Wight . The stay remains vivid in Tony ’ s memory not just for the secure feeling of being on the Island – but also because V . E . Day came while they were there , and they found themselves caught up in all the exuberant end-of-war celebrations on Ryde seafront . “ People were ecstatic with joy and relief , laughing and crying ” he recalls . “ It was one of the magical moments of my life ”. They returned to Great Preston Road in London only to find it so badly bombed that Tony ’ s dad instantly called in a removal firm and shipped the family back to the Island lock , stock and barrel . Don had no work and the family survived in a grim little flat with a tin bath in the kitchen – not much better than what they ’ d left behind in London , but at least they felt safe . Gradually Don found work , ultimately as a furniture salesman travelling on the mainland , which enabled the family to move to St Helens .
High Hopes
Tony ’ s parents naturally wanted the best for their only child after such a traumatic early start , so Tony was duly packed off to private school . But he was always pretty clear that the world of academia held no appeal for him . “ I was not a willing pupil – GCEs meant nothing to me ” he says . “ I knew what I was born for , and school did not come into this plan !” “ My parents and teachers expected me to become a solicitor or something – a thought that horrified me ”. Happily , Tony was very clear on what he did want to do . He was always fascinated by the boatyard near his home , and instinctively knew that boats were “ it ” for him . Which was why he joined the Merchant Navy as a raw 16 year-old recruit – and began working with a human ‘ cargo ’ – people who wanted to flee the rubble of their old homes in Britain and make new lives in Australia . It was certainly a dramatic way to begin his career as a seaman : there were 1,000 emigrants aboard the Shore Savel Line that left Southampton ’ s Town Quay , and the ship was barely equipped for human cargo , with no air conditioning or other basic facilities . It proved to be a hair-raising voyage , hitting bad weather – including a fourday hurricane that Tony says saw the ship being ‘ methodically torn apart ’, and a terrifying fire breakout in the ship ’ s hospital halfway across the Indian Ocean . “ I was steering the ship some days and
“ I was steering the ship some days and it was like a giant roller coaster . The view from the bridge I will never forget – the waves coming up behind us were as huge as mountains .”
Tony with Earl Mountbatten at IW industries exhibition
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