Artificers

Artificers were highly skilled craftsmen, instituted by First Sea Lord Jackie Fisher in 1868 they were required to be capable of repairing, maintaining and watch-keeping on all equipment and services required to keep the Royal Navy Floating-Moving-Fighting-Operating. This included having the skill of hand to manufacture complex components using the equipment found onboard.
As the Royal Navy evolved so did the Artificer, the complex systems on submarines, aircraft, fixed wing and rotary, hovercraft, hydrofoil craft and the increasingly complex weapons and navigation systems required an Artificer Stream with a multitude of trade skills. Some of the Artificers that evolved out of the original 1868 Engine Room Artificer were;
Ordnance Artificer (OA) - guns, torpedoes and other weapons
Electrical Artificer (EA) - generators, switchboards, motors and other heavy electrical equipment
Radio Electrical Artificer (REA) - radio, radar, sonar and other electronic equipment
Shipwright Artificer(SA) - ships’ boats and anything else made of wood
Air Artificer (AA) - engines and airframes of planes and helicopters
Air Electrical Artificer (AEA) - electrical equipment on planes and helicopters
Artificers were abolished in 2010, but Engineering Apprenticeships have recently been introduced in response to a serious shortage of skilled personnel.

That’s the background, twenty of us met in The Lounge in Plymouth today for a Pie & Pint, a monthly occurrence but my first for a good while.
I travelled up with friend and fellow ‘Tiff’ Peter, as we arrived we met two others and walked in with them. Tiffs identify themselves by their year and month of entry, initially they were called ‘Series’ then ‘Class’. So to the question “what Entry?” I responded 701, (first entry of 1970), he responded “533, (third entry of 1953)”. Laughing I told him that was the year I was born.
What a great reunion.

It will come as no surprise when I tell you that Peter and I were absolutely soaked in the horizontal rain between the pub and the station.