HMS Odyssey.

HMS ODYSSEY                   15-Feb-1944     to     30-Jun-1944

Dad’s next posting was to another shore establishment, but this one was a little different. HMS Odyssey was in actual fact the Collingwood Hotel in Ilfracombe! The hotel was taken over by the Royal Navy in 1943 and handed back to civilian life in 1946. It was another accounting base, and we can be sure that Dad wasn’t working in the actual hotel as in his records it again says ‘additional’ meaning it was just an accounting base for his records. This base was a little different as it was specifically for naval parties and other small units. A Navy Party (NP) was a group of officers and men that were formed for a specific task. When I was on the Lycaon during the Falklands conflict the forces personnel were NP 1900 and on the Salvageman NP1760. This was on the address for your mail.

As of June 2011 the fate of the Collingwood Hotel was undecided as it was now owned by Weatherspoons the pub chain. As it was in such poor condition and required a lot of work and expense to convert it they were trying to convince the local council to let them knock it down and rebuild a similar building on the site. There was some opposition as it was a local land mark for the town. (Update it was demolished 23^rd January 2012).

The Collingwood Hotel Ilfracombe in about the 1950’s ( HMS Odyssey 1943-46)

Dad’s work for the next few months was given in his record as special service for cipher duties on staff of Naval Force Commander Force S.

I have found a letter sent to Dad with the orders to proceed on this posting. It seems that he was to report to the Cameron Barracks in Inverness as he was appointed to HMS Odyssey for cipher duties on the staff of the Naval Force Commander Force S. I suspect that from Cameron Barracks Dad was sent to other training places in Scotland as there were plenty of Combined Operations Training Establishments not far from Inverness for the familiarisation with landing craft operations and the like.

Cameron Barracks, Inverness in 1970’s

HMS Victory.

HMS VICTORY                  24-Jan-1944     to    14-Feb-1944

Straight after his promotion it seems that Dad was sent back down to Portsmouth as it say he was two weeks additional to Victory for a Divisional Course. Additional meant that he didn’t sign on to the establishment but it was just for a course. As we learned when Dad was first in Victory it is not the wooden walled ship of Nelson fame but an accounting place for people moving about. Previously Dad was posted to Victory I and III. This time there is no number and so it refers to an actual barracks that where on Queens Street in Portsmouth where matelots were housed whilst on courses! I have found a confidential letter to Dad directing him to report to RN Barracks, Portsmouth for a divisional course. I do remember seeing a short booklet with just ‘OLQ’s’ on the front and Dad told me it stood for Officer Like Qualities and was given him during Officer training so this may have been at this time.

HMS Pembroke.

HMS PEMBROKE          3-Dec-1943      to     23-Jan-1944

The next entry in Dad’s record has him assigned to HMS Pembroke. This again was not a vessel but as far as I can make out it was another shore establishment. This time it does not seem to have been a training school or officer training place but an accountancy base. HMS Pembroke is the name given to several barracks etc attached Royal Dockyard Chatham. Unlike HMS Cochrane I can see no actual deport ship at Chatham so it seems it was a base for administration. It is strange as Dad was of the Portsmouth Division (His serial No. begins with J which indicates this) so if it was just for convenience you would have thought that he would have been on the books in Portsmouth. There are several possibilities of exactly which one he was attached to;

HMS Pembroke I  was a Chatham accounting base 1940-60

HMS Pembroke II was a Chatham accounting base 1940-57

HMS Pembroke III was an accounting base at London and out stations 1942-52

HMS Pembroke IV was an accounting base at the Nore 1939-61

(The Nore is a sandbank at the mouth of the Thames that marks the meeting of the Thames and the North Sea. The world’s first lightship was moored there in 1732. It is perhaps most famous for the Nore Mutiny in the Royal Navy. Because of the importance there was a Commander in Chief of the Nore and ships where at one time anchored there permanently. In 1797 around the time of the French Revolution some of the vessels at the Nore mutinied and took over their vessels. The mutiny at Spithead just before had been mainly about the conditions in the service, but at the Nore it became more political and as such was not so popular and those that continued were severely dealt with.

The usual officer training took about six weeks and Dad was assigned to Pembroke for over seven weeks so it doesn’t seem that this was his officer training. However at the end of it on 24^th Jan 1944 he was promoted to Temporary Acting Sub Lieutenant. The Temporary was referring to the type of commission. As Dad was RNVR he would not retain his rank after the conflict was over. The Acting part maybe a clue how he could have been promoted with out going on an Officer Training Course. I have a feeling that he may have been given the equivalent of a ‘field commission’. It seems to me that Dad had been dealing with coding/decoding  on an Admirals staff for along time. His actual rank is given a Temporary Acting Sub Lieutenant (Sp.Cy) which I think stands for Special cipher as that is written on a later report.  I have found that to read ciphers etc you had to be an officer. It would be the next logical step, after coding and decoding, to do the ciphering as well. It may well of being a natural progression that was pushed through by the Admiral.