Don Cleavin – Applying to join the Navy

Well yeah, I wrote off for the application form. About a fortnight later, I got a Warrant to travel to Leeds Recruiting Office, 10 miles away. I went there. They made sure that I got two eyes, two legs. I could write a bit and had a quick brief medical, and then sent home.

Then, a couple of weeks later, I got another Warrant to go to Manchester Recruiting Office, and there they said, “What do you want to do?” I said, “I want to be a Gunner. I want to shoot shit out of people (laughs) and they did aptitude tests and they said, “We don’t think you’re suited to be a Gunner. You’d be much better off being a Marine Engi… a Stoker, a Marine Engineer, a Mechanic. You’d make all these wonderful metallic bits and pieces” which I never did make.

They were all made by Engine Artificers, but they talked me in to becoming a Marine Engineer and a Mechanic, or as a Stoker. And that’s what I was.

About four or five months later, I got a Warrant to go to Tor Point, Plymouth, Devon, to join HMS Raleigh.