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General => The Common Room => The Lighter Side => Topic started by: Finley 1 on Monday 25 March 19 20:01 GMT (UK)
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Was I on the Titanic ! or half of the Titanic...
Well NO
but I was on the ASTURIAS which it seems when scrapped the Rank organisation bought her starboard side and painted her up for the film
Night to Remember..
So I was on the Titanic... ish..
We came back from Australia on board this ship... it was at the time a Troop ship and our Father was given special permission to bring us back on it...
whilst on board I was ill with Whooping cough...... and sent upstairs to the hospital deck.
Earlier this week I considered looking to see if there is a record of my time spent in that hospital.. just to add a little something to my list..
then I got on with other research and it went to the back of my head.
Today ------ tidying up loose bits and pieces and my Illegitimates from Kirkcaldy.
I discovered a wonderful Kirkcaldy photo album that I had saved some time back without studying
LO and behold there is a picture of the Asturias in its original and first life state as a Hospital ship for the war...
this game is and or can be spooky beyond belief.
I often KNOW not just feel I am being directed.
..........
xin dafter by the day
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I have a passenger list for my grandfather sailing to Rio de Janeiro in July 1913 on the Asturias! Surely, it could not be the same ship. And it wasn't. He would've been on Asturias 1, and you would've sailed on Asturias 2, of Titanic fame.
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Yes that is right... it was Titanic 1 that I found a pic of with the Kirkcaldy memories book and that is what set me off.
So checked Wiki out and it told me that I was actually on the 2nd Asturias..of Titanic fame!!!!
Which had an interesting life...
We were on it as it sailed from Australia to UK to then go back and pick up prisoners of war or something like that...
Gosh I wish I could tell my Pops... or maybe he told me ha ha...
xin
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Query your Avatar? what is the tale there :)
xin
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It's the book she wrote Xin.
Lovely story for your personal history :D
Carol
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Wow.... looks a great book :) well done you
thanks Carol --
I have most of the BMDs census and gen stuff for the tree.. so now am filling out the life stories with some interesting hard searched discoveries..
xin
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Sorry didn't read your message till now. The book is my mother's WWII WAAF diary, published for the benefit of her grandchildren and generations beyond. Thank you for your interest.
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Think I once went on board the Asturias when serving in the RAF in Aden and I was on a stretcher party. That thought came to me in 1956 when on my way in Oronsay to Melbourne. We were somewhere in the Indian Ocean headed for Colombo when I was standing in the open concourse which had a large window on one side and for a few moments a ship came into view as we passed each other and there was an announcement to say that it was the Asturias.
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oooo that is interesting...
I remember going to columbo and riding in a rickshaw
the boat boys selling stuff to the big ship
my Poppa tying ribbons in my hair..
and my sister and I running around the deck....
We were back in UK for Coronation...
a couple of years later and we could have waved to each other. :)
xin
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MALCOLM.....
I just realised - my Uncle was in the RAF in ADEN in 1956 ????
Derek Green??
I know because - when my mother decided to come back to UK from Oz it was early 1956 June I think.. and she was allowed to visit MY UNCLE her brother for the day..
did you by any chance know him.. ?? he bless him suffers from the dreaded Alzheimers now.. such a shame..
xin
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MALCOLM.....
I just realised - my Uncle was in the RAF in ADEN in 1956 ????
Derek Green??
I know because - when my mother decided to come back to UK from Oz it was early 1956 June I think.. and she was allowed to visit MY UNCLE her brother for the day..
did you by any chance know him.. ?? he bless him suffers from the dreaded Alzheimers now.. such a shame..
xin
Afraid not. I was in Aden - RAF Steamer Point, Hospital, Orderly Room from early March 1952 until around mid-March, 1954. So I was in Aden on Coronation Day and it was one of the highest humidity days we ever had, so that night a few of us sat up on the hill overlooking Tawahi (Steamer Point) next to Little Ben, the clock tower. Photos I took were looking down from there over all the celebrations going on below. Some Bedui danced in circles firing rifles into the air. The Queen didn't visit our Hospital until a month after I left and just before that they gave us new tables and chairs in our Billet - which had been built by the Turks centuries before. I have many pictures and was just thinking that these could trigger some memories in your Uncle's mind. Will PM you with my email address.
We did stop in Aden in the Oronsay in March, 1956, but that would have been very likely before your Uncle arrived there. I returned to England then Turkey in November 1956 in the Orcades, but the Suez War had just broken out and the Canal was closed, so we had to cross from Perth to Kaap Stad and then another port of call at Gran Canaria before docking at Tilbury.
Next time I set foot in Aden was in December 1965 when migrating in the Fair Sky to Melbourne. We had to stay in the main Crescent of Tawahi for by then there was shooting everywhere - in the streets and so on.
There is a legend that if you climbed Sham Shan which I did, one would never go back to Aden - but I did, but only briefly for a few hours each time.
Try some phrases on your Uncle - could bring a smile - 'Kam Feloos', 'Anna Moskeen, shuft Saida', anna moskeen, mafeesh feloos'. Or count - Wahad, Etneen, Talata, Araba, Hamsa, ..... and then there was the 'Klefty Wallah'!!
Malcolm
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Just some more memories for your Uncle
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Thank you :)
really good of you to try and help him... He does have sudden spurts..
so sad
I was looking for a pic of him in Aden It is probably on here somewhere having been restored.
Really interesting tale to tell :)
thank you
xin
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These Aden pictures are great to see. Thanks for posting them Malcolm33