Fifty Years

Friday 2nd January 1970 was a Friday, we were only a small entry and we arrived on a Friday so as to be settled in and signed on before the Two & Three Class Apprentices arrived back off leave.

FIFTY YEARS ago today I joined HMS Fisgard in Torpoint, Cornwall, as an Artificer Apprentice aged 16. It was the beginning of a thirty-five year career that saw me travel the world, (90+ countries), make incredible friends and meet extraordinary people.

Fisgard has long gone but the people and the ethos remain and so it was that today two of us met up on the site of the ‘College of Knowledge’ for a celebratory tot before adjourning to a local pub for a ‘swift half’, with two more class mates, a foretaste of what’s likely to be a great night tomorrow.

Elsewhere today once I got back from Torpoint it was fish & chips for dinner at the Harbour Lights followed by the cinema to see Jo Jo Rabbit, Joshuas choice, but important as family time is it all that slips into the background remembering that fifty years ago today was the day that defined my life.