Terry Denham Posted 30 July , 2003 Share Posted 30 July , 2003 Ascension Island was a naval base 1816 to 01.11.1922 with its own CO and 1st Lieutenant. Transferred to Colonial Office in 1922. RM garrison left at that time. There are six WW1 Commonwealth war graves on the island plus one from WW2. All are RN or RM except for one Cape Coloured Labour Corps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christine liava'a Posted 31 July , 2003 Share Posted 31 July , 2003 What on earth are squaddies and crabfats? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted 31 July , 2003 Share Posted 31 July , 2003 Christine Sorry Crabfats = RAF personnel Squaddies = Army personnel Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greenwoodman Posted 31 July , 2003 Share Posted 31 July , 2003 Christine Michael is too modest to mention that naval personnel are known to the other two services as fishheads. Fleet Air Arm types are known as airy-fairies!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted 31 July , 2003 Share Posted 31 July , 2003 Fleet Air Arm personnel = WAFU's (wet and ---- useless) Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Birch Posted 1 August , 2003 Share Posted 1 August , 2003 To the RAF the Army are Pongos Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Saunders Posted 2 August , 2003 Share Posted 2 August , 2003 Will - got a couple of pictures of the headstone today ... not sure how it will come out as the headstone is black and not the normal white CWGC. Regret it is not a digital snap so if you can wait a week or so until the film is developed and then I will send scans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will O'Brien Posted 3 August , 2003 Author Share Posted 3 August , 2003 Signals - Thats great thanks very much. Waiting is no problem at all. Curious that he had a non CWGC headstone. I must assume its a private grave then, but Gillingham is a relatively long way from Bow Brickhill where A.J Claridge was from. Wonder why his family didn't bring him back home to be buried? Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank_East Posted 3 August , 2003 Share Posted 3 August , 2003 Michael, "Crabfats",never heard of them.In my time in Bomber Command the organisation was known as the "Brylcream Boys" and even this seemed to apply to Fighter Command and not us serious children who did not break our toys.The Army lads were known affectionally as "Brown Jobs" amongst other things. Interesting post on Ascension Island.(It might have been one of the bases leased to the US in exchange for the 50 Great War destroyers but I am not quite sure.) This island was first settled by the Portuguese on Ascension Day in 1501 but was not claimed by any country until 1815 when the Royal Navy established a base on the island in order to prevent the French using it to free Napoleon from St Helena further south. In 1922 the Royal Navy left and The Cable and Wireless Company set up a radio base using facilities that the Royal Navy had set up in 1915.Telegraph cables had already been laid at the turn of the century to link up the Cape and South America to Great Britain. In March 1942 the US Corps of Engineers laid down the present airfield as an emergency airfield /refuelling stop for the Atlantic southern crossing to Great Britain via Marrakesh."Wideawake" Airfield as the Americans called it was named after the mocking call of the nesting Terns which were a continual threat to aircraft movements on the airfield. At the outbreak of World War 2 the Royal Navy established a direction finding station on Ascension Island which became very successful with similar stations at St Helena and Freetown, South Africa in tracking down U Boat transmissions.Acension became an important base for US anti submarine patrols in this part of the Atlantic. The airfield was decommissioned in 1947 leaving the island to the Cable and Wireless Company until 1956 when the US established a base for Rocket Test Range monitoring.This required an improvement in landing facilities and the airfield runway length was doubled.The base was then readily available and most suitable in April 1982 to act as a staging post in the operations to regain the Falkland Islands. I remember seeing an excellent documentary before the Falklands campaign regarding the giant turtles who use Acension Island beaches as a site to lay their eggs in the sand.It looked such a desolate place then. Regards Frank East Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roger Posted 3 August , 2003 Share Posted 3 August , 2003 The explanation of the Naval term "crabfat" for the the RAF comes from the ointment (crabfat) used to treat pubic lice was the same colour blue / grey as RAF uniforms, or so I was told anyway. Roger. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank_East Posted 3 August , 2003 Share Posted 3 August , 2003 Yes I suspected it had something to do with "crabs". Of course the Royal Air Force were very thorough with their F.F.I inspections. Regards Frank East Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Frank_East Posted 7 August , 2003 Share Posted 7 August , 2003 Ascension Island. There is a very informative website available which is worth visiting. www.ascension-island.gov.ac is a government site. There is a photo tour which shows Bonetta Cemetery.This must be the cemetery that holds the military dead who T.D. refers to.I remember that the documentary I saw sometime ago referred to the garrison dead of the 19th century and showed a shot of a cemetery.It must be the same one as there is only one on the island. Falkland veterans can revisit the island as well as other civilians flying by RAF Tristar out of Brize Norton. The prices are not tourist class. Rats and feral cats are a problem on the island, the latter having been introduced by the Royal Navy to deal with rats. Finally you can apply for the vacant post of "Head of Operational Services" if you fancy a quiet life. There is a Discussion Forum on the Web Site but without moderation it falls short of quality. Regards Frank East Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Saunders Posted 9 August , 2003 Share Posted 9 August , 2003 Will, the "film" photos I took came back very poorly. I went back to teh cemetery this am and have some digital copies for you. I will be in contact by email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Will O'Brien Posted 9 August , 2003 Author Share Posted 9 August , 2003 Signals That is very much appreciated, if you ever need photo's etc from the North Bucks area, give me a shout & I can return the favour. Will Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lisajanedun Posted 9 December , 2011 Share Posted 9 December , 2011 Hi Everyone I have read all of the listings regarding HMS Pembroke and know that it was a base at Chatham but I am also investigating the Ship HMS Pembroke. I have a Wounds and Hurts certificate for William Hughes Sto II 140566 and states belonging to " His Majesty's Ship PEMBROKE" so I am now confused. Can anyone enlighten me about this ship that William was enlisted on. He was injured on the ship on 21/10/1942. Any help would be much appreciated. Best Wishes Lisa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
seaJane Posted 9 December , 2011 Share Posted 9 December , 2011 If not actually one of the various shore establishments (HMS still means HM's Ship even if of stone) maybe either a base or depot ship for one of them (http://en.wikipedia....i/HMS_Pembroke: and I, er, would point out that 1942 is in the wrong war for this forum). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
horatio2 Posted 9 December , 2011 Share Posted 9 December , 2011 The principles are the same for WW1 and WW2. It happens that in WW2 HMS PEMBROKE I was the section of the Chatham accounting base that dealt with all personnel serving in the RN Barracks, officers and men (and WRNS). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted 20 September , 2019 Share Posted 20 September , 2019 A member of my family Arthur Voice died in this incident but until now I didn’t know the details.Thanks to this Forum I now know.RIP Arthur Edward Voice 1895-1917 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TaurusSteve Posted 10 May , 2020 Share Posted 10 May , 2020 Ah nice! My great grandad is listed as being ar Pembroke I at14th May 1918 to 30th June 1918. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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