Colin Hamilton – Joining the Navy

I’d always wanted to go to sea. I’d thought about the Merchant Navy, thought about applying for a River Pilot, but no I joined the Navy.

I went across to Liverpool to the Recruiting Office when I was 16, and they tried to talk me in to becoming a Chef or a Cook, because they were desperate for Cooks.

I didn’t want to be a Cook, I wanted to be an Engineer, so I eventually talked them into it and I became a Junior Mechanic Second Class and I joined at 16.

I then went down and eventually went in September, we went down to … there were a few of, caught the train down to Plymouth and we were taken to HMS Raleigh, which was the basic training.

Which still is the basic training. In fact, that’s where submariners are trained as well now. I did my basic training in Sultan. I joined in August ’60 and left February ’61.

Simon Where’s Sultan?

HMS Sultan is in Gosport. It’s the big Engineering School. It used to be the Fleet Air Arm at one time up to 1956, and then it became HMS Sultan Engineering School which it still is.

Then when Daedalus closed, which took over the Fleet Air Arm, they broke into Sultan, so Daedalus is part of Sultan.