Chris Groves – Travelled the World with surface fleet

In January of ’89 I went and spent 3 months on a Minesweeper based in Rosyth in Scotland, and then I joined HMS Ark Royal Aircraft Carrier in 1988, and went out to Australia for the Australian Bi-Centennial celebrations, so again I was very lucky and ended up with a 7 month deployment out to the Far East and to Australia, going to Malta and Singapore and Hong Kong and the Philippines and Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth and on to Bombay and then to Gibraltar on our way home.

I had my 21st birthday in HMS Ark Royal going across the Indian Ocean, so great memories and made some really lasting relationships. Some of my best friends, even now I met on that ship.