PORTSMOUTH TO PETERBOROUGH
Written by Ronald MizonPublished on January 2018
At HMS Hornet I was shown the sleeping quarters for ordinary ratings. Well, instead of sleeping in a hammock each rating had the luxury of a spring bed with a mattress and a pillow. One of the other occupants soon made friends with me and showed me around and gave me a valuable tip - this was an easy way to press one’s trousers without effort viz - on returning for the night the idea was to lay one’s trousers under the mattress and this flattened the trousers and kept them in a nice press for the next day. This bucked me up somewhat. I began to settle down and a lot of my leave time was spent visiting museums, historical buildings and exhibitions. Sundays I attended the circus church in Portsmouth. I visited the Fort Blockhouse which was adjacent to HMS Hornet. This was the Portsmouth base for submarines and training for submariners. I even thought that I might volunteer for the submarines because one received extra pay. However, after a look around a submarine I changed my mind.
The notice board in HMS Hornet was asking for volunteers to go with the flotilla to show the flag with a visit to the Channel Islands ie Jersey and Guernsey. This was obviously a sea borne visit. We were made very welcome with the occupants of the islands and I enjoyed myself getting to know the island and visiting the historical sites. Following the visit to Jersey we called briefly at Guernsey. The return to HMS Hornet went very smoothly. However, on arriving at Portsmouth Harbour, the Customs and Excise boat came out to search us for contraband!
Whilst in Nova Scotia I kept in touch with a young man called Harry Mumford and used to visit their house regularly. The Mumfords’ used to look after the gardens at Uniacke House and many a time I could be found helping out with the hoeing in the gardens along with Harry, Gordon and Muriel MacQuarrie [not sure of spelling] (have to say I was more interested in Muriel than the hoeing)! Whilst in the navy I heard that Harry Mumford had been wounded, in Dieppe (I think) and was hospitalised in Camp Borden near Brighton. I planned to visit Harry whilst on leave but never made the trip as I was invited to Peterborough with one of my colleagues onboard HMS Hornet.
I had never heard of Peterborough and couldn’t think why I would want to visit there. My friend then told me that there was a wonderful Cathedral in Peterborough. This immediately caught my interest and I couldn’t wait to visit it. This visit turned out to be one of many visits to Peterborough, not only to visit the Cathedral but to visit a certain young lady who turned out, eventually, to be my wife! But that is the start of another story………
*******The End******
Editor’s note: It has been many years since Ronald Mizon contacted our Newsletter and suggested he write his stories. We always knew it would eventually bring us back to Mount Uniacke. We will miss these monthly stories and the history and tidbits of information that we never would have known but for Ronald Mizon.
Barney’s River Museum has put all Ronald’s stories into a binder and has them on display for their visitors and residents to view. The Uniacke Newsletter web master is working on activating and organizing all of Ronald’s stories into numerical sequence as well as activating the stories that got missed when we switched to the present site. In correspondence with Ronald’s daughter we have determined that if not for these stories and her great assistance in sending them to us via e-mail each month, it would be part of her father’s life that she may never have known and it would definitely be part of our community’s history, and that of Barney’s River, that we may never have known. For that we are forever grateful.
There were several people still living in Mount Uniacke, as well as who had moved away from Mount Uniacke, who made contact with Ronald through his stories to renew old friendships and to “catch up”. There is nothing in the world that can replace renewing old friendships.
THANK YOU RONALD.
