Budden, Charles Richard

Charles Budden – Letter follow on from his initial letter about joining the Navy.
I’ve been prompted to write more. Well there are a few items of interest I can recall an aunt, going on holiday to her childhood home in Dorset, very kindly included me with her family. I was about 8 or 9, she and her boys stayed in Bridport, but I was taken to a village not so far, & stayed with an uncle, my father’s brother in fact and his family for 2 weeks, of course I thoroughly enjoyed it. The name of the village was Lower Loders? and they ran a small provision cum post office. A sister of his wife lived nearby, she used to repair fishing nets & lived by herself, quite old, in her seventies I think. My uncle was a licensed slaughterer & now and again I was taken with one of his boys on one of these outings by horse and cart. No cars in those days. I can’t say I enjoyed seeing the animals killed. Sometimes I was given something to eat and home made cyder to drink. I managed to get rid of it. I also had a trip to an auction & some of the animals were bought, my cousin of course was quite used to it. I remember, while they were attending to some, I was given the job of holding a calf. I think I was supposed to grab its tail & ear but as you can guess it got away and careered up the garden. Well they caught & controlled it eventually, thank goodness I didn’t have that job again. They had an orchard, & I had loads of apples to eat, these were sold in the shop. I can also recall the sinking of the Titanic, can’t remember how, as there was no phones, radios or such at that time, but it created such talk everywhere. Back to my Navy life, we had the usual quota of officers, Engineer Commander, Senior Engineer & two Warrant officers. The Senior Engineer, I recall, I never saw him sober, his name was Bond, he got booze from somewhere I remember the time we were cleaning out the oil tanks, he came down to have a look, he was in his uniform, including a white shirt. When he got out he suggested that us chaps would be best dressed in shorts, just fancy 2 or 3 hours in that atmosphere, We were dressed in our usual working garb, a flannel shirt and trousers made of blanket material to soak up sweat, they were called Fearnoughts, not surprising this officer was replaced. When we went into dry dock, the ships Company were transferred to barracks, so many ratings were left on as case & maintenance, a few of each seamen stoker’s, marines and so was one of the stokers. During this time we were allowed to invite relatives & friend. I had my mother & girlfriend aboard & showed them round the ship, they were somewhat out of their element, but they were very interested. Us fellows clubbed round & provided a good meal for all their friends & mine. We were in Chatham Dockyard at that time. I never was keen on nights out but at one time, no-one about I plucked up the courage & climbed the foremast to a lookout halfway. I was so pleased I followed that chap’s advice and joined as a stoker, there was a lookout further up called the crow’s nest, I could have never got there. Of course, all the ships had to visit the dockyard periodically, I think about 8 or 9 months. So that leave could be given, Ship’s Companies were divided into 4, so 1st, 2nd Port & 1st, 2nd Starboard. I was in the 2nd Post Division, usually half the ships Co, were given at one time can one leave, my mother had moved to a Flat over a shop in Notting Hill. I was in bed late one night, she came & woke me. A Zeppelin was about, I must say it wasn’t out of bravado or such but I slept on, I thought if anything has your name on it you’ve had it. I go back to when I saw the Invincible blow up, I think these was only 3 ratings saved out of, I think three? I cant remember how many, but she was a big battleship. Anyhow I heard no more. My favourite two came with me, the end of that leave to Kings Cross to catch the special train laid on for our ships ratings. There wasn’t much room, chaps laid about all over so I climbed up on luggage rack & slept all the way to Edinburgh. The ship was anchored in the Firth of Forth as one time I understood the powers that be replaced the plates & basins used in all of the ships, with enamel ware, as there was so many breakages when at sea, these were only issued to lower deck ratings of course. But the lads kicked up such a row, saying things were like a workhouse, that it was decided to go back to chinaware. But – I have always been a slow eater & chaps waiting for my plate, I sent away for an enamel plate & mug, which I thought sensible in such circumstances. All ratings had the chance of a daily tot of Rum, or in lieu 3/4 shilling. I was not a drinker, so I chose the cash 2/6 per month. Some of the chaps almost lived for it. I remember one chap saved his ration daily for special occasion birthday or whatever, came the day, marines had to be called for to take him to the cells to calm him down, the rum was the one part rum & three parts water, issues from a barrel on the upper deck weather permitting. A very rating was involved below the rank of petty officer, when the bosun went round the upper deck blowing his whistle and singing out, Clear lower deck, up steam pinnace, all had to go up and man the falls, I get hold of a rope round the deck and at the command haul away, all had to pull this rope which was attached to the steam pinnace, a boat which was propelled by steam again when in harbour.

When the 2nd War started, I was working at the E.N.V. turning out gears, so we had to start making gears for war. We were then living at East Acton & then had to prepare for bombs, I had to dig a hole in the garden, and were given metal covers to cover same. These were covered with earth. My younger son Ronald was evacuated to a place near Weymouth “Chickerell”. At one time local people organised a coach trip to Weymouth so the wife went by coach and my elder son Eric & I went by bicycle, before his calling up age he went in the army later. We were treated very well. When the war was over, Ron was taken on as a paid worker he was fond of animals, he used to harness the horse, who used to lower his head so that his collar could be put on. But after a while he was home sick & came back home. When we were first married, we lived with my mother in a three storied house on the top floor. In the middle flat lived an old chap with poor eyesight but he got me interested in woodwork. After a while, we got a flat in Chiswick & I made a shed in the garden & believe I/we made quite a lot of woodwork in my time, found a 2nd hand wood yard, mostly mahogany, I used to tie it on my bike and walked it home from Shepherds Bush to home. I made our bed, a wardrobe, made about six china cabinets for different people. I must have made about nine doll houses, also wheelbarrows for kids. I also made a pedal motor car for Eric & being on shift work I used to take him to the park for an hour, before I went to bed when I was on night work. I made an engine for Ronald, he used to sit and push with his feet