HMS Victorious Association Web Community

 

   Thanks for the picture Dave, not sure why we are having this in the Arboretum ? but I suspect we will see worse to come in the near future.

   The original concept that I understood the arboretum was aiming for,seems to have been lost somewhere  "A place for quiet reflection to remember departed service personnel lost since the end on WW2 "     Did I get it wrong ?  I hope our tree survives !! I think little else will. 

                          Keep your eye on the place Crash.

     Trincomalee is now under the supervision of the National Museum Royal Navy Hartlepool. The dock area appears to have been renovated, and improved, a mini -meet has been suggested.anyone interested. I will get details if interest is there.

   We have had no suggestions for an alternative venue for the 2019 Reunion,so a provisional booking has been lodged with our friend Stacey at the Britannia for the usual week-end do.
     
                 Seems a long time off, but we have claimed the usual week-end (first week-end in October)--- 4th-5th-6th October 2019.  Details to follow, but hopeful of same rates as last year.



    Watch this space.

    A slightly slim lined F.T. has now gone out !!

    However, at this years reunion we obtained a volunteer editor, (one who knows what he is doing), our printer has again offered his services in printing the mag ! so hopefully we are rolling again.

  What we need is Victorious material, or material about Victorious men. There must be piles of stuff out there, please forward it in any format to either stoker Stan or Topsey. addresses and email in last Flat top.

We will see that it gets to the editor.
  What did you do after Vic ? what did you do on Vic. Do you remember joining Vic. What was good/ not good about the ship. Who do you remember on her.

     LETS HAVE IT PLEASE. 

 


Well we got it printed and out eventually. I thought it may get a couple of nominations for the old Pulitzer prize thing, but I have heard nothing from them yet !! there's time !!
 Ok. maybe not, I have heard it said that it rather looks like this edition was done by a stoker ..... hey ! anyway I have burnt out now and am suffering from writers block, so Dough Hotchkiss junior
who I am advised is a skilled editor will don the mantle of FLAT Top editor. He will edit it and send the stuff to me on a memory stick, our usual printer will do the print job.
    Shipmates a heavy weight has been lifted off my tired shoulders, (it was the computer end that got me... I don't know how to use one ).

     I will be in contact with our new editor shortly,but have promised him that we will provide the material for him to edit ! Start composing chaps or you may get the rubbish I dished up and it would serve you right !!   Watch this space for instructions on how to get your hot material to me or Ed.   Stoker Stan signing off for now.

    Oh Dave there will be some "cross" old trawler men if it gets out that the RNPS museum has been nicked by Coventry, can't trust anyone these days 

  Last month we had a run to the Isle of Wight.Visited Osborne House on the Isle of Wight where Queen Victory liked to have her holidays.  The house is very interesting ,but I had not known that in 1903, a Naval college was established in the grounds for the training of officer cadets. It seems that boys arrived at the age of 13, and stayed for two years before moving on to Dartmouth.
There are some very interesting photographs on display which I tried to get snaps of, but unfortunately  I did not have much success. The pictures are in what is now the public restaurant,and to take my pictures required me to sort of lean across tables. People eating lunch seemed unwilling to cooperate !!However the signage for the P.O. instructors mess is still on display, its a good day out
   The picture collection is worth seeing, and I expect that the cadets pictured would almost certainly have been young officers who went to war in 1914.

  Time flies by, and we are eating up September. Reunion is the 5th October, and I hope that we are blitzing Britannia with room booking forms.Our mini-meet at Lowestoft went very well,and I think the charm of the town and the great people we met will be a life long memory. The Royal Naval Patrol Service members we met up with, and reminded us that we were not the only organisation that still drinks rum,also opened a small window into what fighting a war was like from the perspective of a very small ship.  I do not think that any of us who visited Sparrows Nest Museum could fail to be rather shocked that this history of sacrifice and courage and the massive loss of life,could be so little know about.