Reasons for joining the Navy

It sounds foolish now when I think back on it, but I was afraid the war was going to be over before I could be in it. I really was. But it was made clear to me that I had to finish out my schooling before I joined up. It was a chance to go to sea and I thought that would be the greatest thing. I’d been in the cadets and it was a natural outcome of that that I should go in the navy. My mother had died when I was in grade ten and we never really had much of a family life after that. And so I finished off grade 11. I didn’t clear all my subjects. I went to work in a gold mine for six months and then I came out and joined up. One of the earliest photographs that I have of myself, I guess it’s the first one outside my mother’s arms, I was in a sailor’s suit. And then with the time spent in the Sea Cadets, there was no question. I wanted to be in the navy.