Granddad’s person page

Born into a coal mining family in South Shields at the end of the nineteenth century, Granddad spent a year as a miner after his parents decided they couldn’t afford for him to take up a place at grammar school, despite the schoolmaster’s pleadings.

The First World War offered escape – Granddad ran away to sea and spent the greater part of his working life in the Royal Navy, WW2 causing his retirement to be postponed.

Much of that time was spent working for Admiral Dunbar-Nasmith, first on the staff at Dartmouth Royal Naval College, during which posting he met my grandmother.

Working for the Admiral gave him the chance most seamen would not have had: sailing as part of the crew on the Admiral’s yacht in a Fastnet Race and a round the Isle of Wight race.

  • Granddad’s boyhood – to be written
  • Granddad in the Navy – started
  • Courtship, marriage and family life – to be written
  • After the navy – to be written