Ships Company
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Parker
When Allotted: 1954
Remarks: Daughter baptised with ships bell as font.
Parker, Lawrence “Lofty”
Rank: Petty Officer (GI)
When Allotted: 1958
Remarks: Joined RN in 1945 and left as a CPO Gunnery Instructor in 1969. Living in Plymouth (2012)
Parker, Roy
Rank: Able Seaman
Remarks: Joined RN 1954 and left in 1961. Living in Australia (2012)
Parkin
When Allotted: 1953
Parkin, (Ray) M.R.
When Allotted: 1945
Remarks: Died 19 October 2002
Parkinson, Doug. G.
Rank: EA3
When Allotted: 1957
Remarks: Joined Comus Jan 1957 and then took Cossack out of Singapore Dockyard hands in summer 1957.
Joined Comus as Electrical Artificer 4th Class and was rated 3rd class on return to HK end Nov or early Dec 1957.
Returned home June 1958.
Returning home from Cossack in 1958 I wondered what life would bring me. Irene & I had planned our wedding for 12th July on the assumption that the full eighteen months would be served in the Far East. As it happened I was on the first flight out to join Comus in Mombasa and someone somewhere defined I should be on the first flight home. Upshot was that we were married as planned and had our weeks honeymoon with just three days to spare before reporting to my new location!
We had also assumed I might well spend at least some time in Collingwood, being an EA and set out to find and start the process of buying a house on the outskirts of Gosport. Draft chit arrived by post before our wedding and it was to Daedalus, which you will recall was a Fleet Air Arm base. Keep “schtum and hope Doug,” as it was nearer our new house than Collingwood.
I duly arrive at the gates and into the Regulating Office when I pointed out I was General Service. RPO was confused, then a penny dropped and he recited the initials F.D.M.T.U.
I had no idea what he was talking about and explanation followed:- Flight Deck Machinery Trials & Training Unit .The Unit was on the far side of the airfield in some old Nissen huts.
Arrival at the Unit transpired I was to be one of two EA’s on the strength and it was to be our job to take over the instrumentation of Steam Catapult calibration trails and analysis of the results, from the Royal Aircraft Establishment at Bedford. Our boss was a Lt. Cdr. (E) who had a whole group of engineering personnel who would be “driving” the catapults during the trials. My first introduction was alongside RAE staff on Victorious sea trials shooting off each type of aircraft which might be carried and calibrating the catapult in relation to aircraft load and required steam pressure. While we were at sea an EA4 who had been in the group was drafted out and on our return my colleague was also drafted – to Marlinga in Oz, for A bomb testing support. Not a happy bunny but neither was our boss who spoke bluntly to “Drafty” explaining that he would not be able to carry on taking over from RAE if personnel were moved out. I stayed on the Unit for two years an unheard of shore time for an EA!
Apart from the catapult trials some of our unit were also involved in training Fleet Air arm flight deck personnel in the procedures prior to and during catapulting. Some years before someone had built a large (very large) model of a carrier and ERA’s had built a replica of the steam catapult’s predecessor into the model. My colleague & I were tasked with a dual job of designing and fitting circuits to enable this to function in the same way as the Steam Catapult At the same time a line drawing cross section of the steam and hydraulic functions had been built up on a vertical board and we had to ensure valves and other functions operated at the same time as the main model. All culminating in a model aircraft being shot off on a catenary wire. We found an air station to be a gold mine for bits & pieces to do the job.
I wasn’t shore based or at home all the time though. Dockyard trials on the carriers, where wheeled buoyant deadloads were shot off , recovered by tender and craned back, were followed by sea trials launching real aircraft. I spent time on Centaur, Ark Royal, both in Devonport and at sea, Hermes Portsmouth, Karel Doorman (Dutch) at sea , Minais Gerais (Brazilian – in a Dutch shipyard), Independencia (Argentinian) Bonaventure (Canadian) both in Portsmouth. In addition some minimum activity on Albion & Bulwark. In Portsmouth and at sea. My colleague also went on Clemenceau (French, in Brest)
Our other job was to train other Navies on the electrical circuits of the catapults. Got a bit interesting in translations! The Indian Navy personnel were fine with English but the British interpreter for the French was a huge joke as he had no technical knowledge at all. We also instructed on one of the first digital computers which calculated the speed aircraft were launched at.
After all this with experience gained I got a draft chit to submarines but I failed the medical. Again our blunt boss suggested to Drafty that experienced gained would be lost so I got a pier head to Victorious my last sea going billet. I remained in Victorious until 1963 first as acting CEA for 2 Deck and above (which of course include catapults) and at the end of my time there as acting CEA for the long refit. Leaving in May ’63 or there abouts I went into Collingwood instructing in the Servo Section until I took my 12 in November 1963.
Died 25 December 2024 aged 91. Survived by Irene
Parry, Arthur
When Allotted: 1947
Parry, C.F.
When Allotted: 1950
Remarks: Died 28 December 2000
Partridge
When Allotted: 1957
