Army Dodgers

[Noel Kelly]

I don't know if there has been a thread about this before but here goes, delete it if there has.
When I joined Royal Mail Lines in December 1953 as a junior engineer it didn't take long to realize that a number of engineers were avoiding doing National Service by joining the Merchant Navy and staying in until they were 26 which was the magic number.
Most had served a 5 year apprenticeship before being eligible for military duty and weren't keen on getting 28 bob a week and were prepared to spend 5 years at sea getting much more money.
Actually some of the ages differed, I sailed with one lad from Darlington who was 23 when he joined the MN, he had just got out of University with a degree and was not going to spend 2 years in the army.
Funnily enough, when I got my call-up papers shortly before I was 21 and my apprenticeship was ending, I wrote a letter to the powers that be telling them I intended to join the Merchant Navy and they wrote back giving me 30 extra days before my call-up time to do that.

[j.sabourn]

#1 Remember very well still have my excemption green card I received at 17 saying such.As regards engineers all the juniors were there for that reason dodging one might say NS .It was national servicemen who fought in Malaya, Borneo and Korea, in the merchant navy you were probably there at one time or another in any case I was in my teens. My wife’s cousin an. Ex university student was a NS and fought in Korea in the DLI he finished up after as colonel in the reserves and Mayor of Durham later. A friend of mine a fisherman who for some reason were not exempt did 4 years , 2 of them in the glasshouse he was allergic to taking orders and was in one of the Scottish Regiments . why they put him in the army and not the navy was always a mystery to me. Cheers JS

[j.sabourn]

Noel I think I replied to your email about Gateshead and my wife who recognised some of the names you mentioned but apologies if I didn’t , her memory health is not 100% at moment, neither is mine come to that. Living in Gateshead you would probably have got your exemption card from the Mercantile Marine Offices on the Newcastle Quayside ? Later in 1957 on completion of my indentures I used to go out with a girl who worked there who lived in Wallsend , Irene Lumsden wouldn’t happen to know her would you ? JS.

[Doc Vernon]

Going back a bit, in South Africa i too did not do National Service, this owing at the time that , there was really hardship in the Family, and i had to get better Pay to assist my dear Mother . I also received a letter from the Powers to be giving me exemption. However i did also tell them at that time i was going to Join the BMN, which also had better prospects for me !
So all worked out well, and there it was, Exemption, and into the Merchant Navy after a few Months!
Cheers

Mind you after that i of course also joined the RAF and did Basic Training at Bridgnorth, then after the passing out went on to Compton Baset, and then to Innsworth, there awaiting Shipment to Aden during the small wars at the time.

[j.sabourn]

#4. Vernon I believe but not 100% sure , but if you pushed to do your National Service in the RN you had to sign up for 3 years or some figure longer than 2 years ? Hugh once again would more than likely be more certain of that one. It wouldn’t have bothered me having to do as I was stopped from joining the RN in any case at 15 as my father wouldn’t sign the papers. Thought he was doing me a good turn, but in retrospect could have come out at 42 and do exactly what I did in any case assisted by a naval pension . JS

[j.sabourn]

Just found my dog eared green postcard Official Paid to Cardiff . To fill in on moving house or changing name and signature. Stamped Mercantile Marine Office South Shields 25 April 1955. Then a whole lot of does and donts in small print . So was 18. JS

[Ivan Cloherty]

Still have my green card from a year earlier John complete with NS Number, yes there were a lot of NS dodgers in the MN, in all depts I may add, and a lot thought that 26 was the magic number, in reality it was 27 as you could get called up at anytime whilst you were still in your 26th year. But! if I remember correctly it didn't end there, as if you did decide to leave an 'exempt occupation' whilst 26, or thereafter your name automatically went on the 'Reservist' list until the age of 36 and could be called upon to serve your country if a National/International emergency was enacted by the then Government.

In my experience many NS escapists who joined the MN really jumped out of the frying pan into the fire, because if you didn't like the sea and its rough weather, it was a cruel mistress and your bunk didn't stop gyrating just because you had finished your hours of duty, yes the money was better than NS, but money wasn't the attraction for most of us, you could earn more in a shore job, but on our leaves after payoff we were ten-day-millionaires and then it was back to the sh*te again and as a Pool man wondering what you were getting.

Rough weather never bothered me until I became mate and I saw all my overtime to get pristine white masthouses and bridge front turned to yellow/orange weeping rivets, as no matter how much preparation you took in chipping and painting correctly, tons of salt water battering you for days on end will find the weak spots, especially with the crap paints we had in the 50's and 60's.

Do it all again! you betcha!

[Rodney Mills]

I joined the MN, because it was the quickest escape from a miserable childhood.* I Left school at fifteen, tread water for a year and applied for MN admission at sixteen.*

It was about age seventeen that I realized that the draft was imminent if I came ashore*after I was 18, Never mind, I was doing things I liked, learning to cook and going places...And then I met a girl on a blind date and fell for her*and it changed my outlook.* Absence didn't make the heart*grow fonder; it made me miserable.

While I was home on leave, my girl and I went sightseeing. Long story short. I took a photo, entered it in The Evening Star newspaper photo*contest and won first prize a hundred pounds plus another 25, which was a ton of money in those days, when the average working man made 5 pounds a week.

We decided to save like*hell, get married and emigrate to Canada to both escape from our miserable homes, plus it was almost impossible in those days to find accommodations. What you could find you had to slip bribes; it was called "Key Money" plus there was the draft.

Now here's the kicker. I only have peripheral vision*in my left*eye, I'm legally*blind in that eye, but it never bothered me.* When I had my physical exam to join the MN.* The doctor told me to read the eye*exam chart and hold a card over my eye.* I cheated, and never gave it a thought.* It wasn't until years later when they came out with the eye testing machine, which ruled out any cheating that it dawned on me that if those machines were invented ten years earlier, I couldn't have gotten into the MN. with one eye. AND I COULDN"T HAVE BEEN DRAFTED not with one almost blind eye.

Strange thing fate, my whole life hung on a lazy doctor, who didn't want to get off his bum and examine my eyes properly.

Cheers, Rodney

[j.sabourn]

#8. That could have been an asset Rodney , did you ever apply for the job as Captain Birdseye ? JS
Talking about life changers think 1957 was mine , have asked this question before but were no positive answers but as now more on site maybe lucky second time round. Does anyone who worked out of Hong Kong know a Leo McGowan from South Gosforth who worked for one of the well known Hong Kong Company’s Butterfield and Swires ? We were both destined to go with them for jobs , they supplied you with a free sextant also a two year contract out of Hong Kong, both being foot loose and fancy free we liked the thought of living in the Mystic East for a few years. We were both thrown out of a well known at the time pub in Whitley Bay at closing time and rather than go home and sleep it off we decided to invade the dance at the Empress Ballroom where during the course of the rest of the evening I met my future wife who I added to my other two girlfriends all unknown to each other.Thus began a courtship lasting 5 years, now you see him now you don’t, if I had said see you in two years time don’t think it would have been acceptable , so Leo had to go to the Mystic East on his own. The one time I saw him later was a couple of years when he came back to the UK to sit his masters cert. his mates was a curry and rice one.
He had a house in Hong Kong and one in Sydney Australia. He was flying in the fast lane .Hope he is still alive and thriving . My one and only wife I talked into tying the knot in 1962 after untying the timber hitch unbeknown to her to the other two. She has always had my back but not so sure if she knew about the opposition. JS

[Des Taff Jenkins]

It never occurred to me to join the MN to avoid the call up, I had intended from when I left school to go to sea. I got my call up papers in Cape Town on my way to NZ on the Southern Cross, still have it. Wonder if they would still have me? I'm still fit.
Des