', and he replied that it was the first time he had a warm bed, three hot meals a day, and a roof over his head that didn't leak. First Royal Navy ship to visit Eire, post independence? I just got on with it. The HMS Ganges training base, which opened in 1905, closed in 1976 and has remained . 5.0 out of 5 stars A real trip down memory lane. This was followed by a leap from the diving board, as high as any tree I'd ever climbed, wearing the waterlogged boiler suit and a lifejacket. HMS Ganges was the name given to several Royal Navy ships since from 1779, but in 1905 it was chosen as title for a new training base at Shotley Gate, near Ipswich where about 500 boy recruits. "The rest of the buildings, including Nelsons Hall and the swimming pool will be converted into flats, shops and a sports centre. Newsquest Media Group Ltd, Loudwater Mill, Station Road, High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. At 14 he ran away to join the Royal Navy and signed on for 12 years. For spite I think, because it wasn't compulsory. HMS Ganges Museum is dedicated to the 160,000 boys who went through the gates as boys and marched out as men, from its inception as a Royal Navy Training Establishment in 1905 to its closure in 1976. It may not display this or other websites correctly. Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS, Independent Babergh District councillor for Ganges, Derek Davis. Artist's impression showing the view across a residential street at the redeveloped HMS Ganges site in Shotley Gate. As a subscriber, you are shown 80% less display advertising when reading our articles. However lessons, culminating in a test, were much more difficult. Welcome Guest. Photos showing the rusting mast at the former site of HMS Ganges at Shotley peninsula have been released on social media, prompting concerns that the 142ft high structure is not being properly. Boys were permitted to march through the streets of Ipswich with bayonets fixed. It closed in 1998 or something. HMS Ganges was the name given to several Royal Navy ships from 1779 onwards, but in 1905 it was chosen for a new training base at Shotley Gate, near Ipswich, where about 500 boy recruits were stationed. She remained in service at RNTE Shotley until October 1976. contact the editor here. Down the road we proudly thundered, the first time any of us had seen the outside words since the day of our arrival. They looked like what we didn't, sailors. Life at Ganges was recalled recently in The Evening Star when a book about the base by Alan Peck was published. Statistics for the 1930s indicate some 200 official canings per year in HMS Ganges alone, an average of four per week. Commander was Trick and a good egg. Write to Dave Kindred, Kindred Spirits, Evening Star, 30 Lower Brook Street, Ipswich IP4 1AN. 1976. In 1907, its famous training mast was erected on the parade ground. Finally he withdrew his hand and declared I passed the test. She was established as a boys' training establishment in 1865, and was based aboard a number of hulks before moving ashore. Boys normally signed up to a contract of 12 years, which would leave most of them aged in their late 20s after their tours. NO FLOWERS FOR GEORDIE, HE'S NOT HERE TODAYTHE SEA HAS CLAIMED MY GEORDIE BOYPLEASE NO FLOWERS TODAYFIFTEEN YEARS OF LEARNING, HE'LL NOT GO DOWN THE MINESO WE TOOK HIM NEAR TO IPSWICH TOWNFAR FROM THE SEAMS OF THE TYNEIN A PLACE THEY STILL CALL 'GANGES' WITH TWO THOUSAND OTHER BOYSHE LEARNED TO SPLICE AND SAIL A BOATTALL ORDERS WERE HIS TOYSTHE 'BULLY BOYS' CAME NIGHTLY, DID THINGS A BOY COUNDN'T TELLBUT THEY MADE HIM WRITE IN HIS LETTERS HOME MAMMA YOU'R BOY'S DOIN WELLTHEN NEWS CAME OF SOME FIGHTING IN A FAR OFF DISTANT LANDWE NEED THOSE BOYS THUS SPAKE FOUR RINGSIN OUR BIG SHIPS THEY CAN RIDEIT'S WRITTEN ON HIS PAPERS, TWAS NOT THE DEED OF A MAN BUT A WAVE THAT TOOK MY GEORDIE BOYFIVE MILES OFF PLYMOUTH SOUNDSO NO FLOWERS FOR GEORDIE HE'S NOT HERE TODAY THE SEA HAS CLAIMED MY GEORDIE BOYPLEASE NO FLOWERS TODAY. JavaScript is disabled. At Gagnes they spent 12 months training, and they learned everything you need to do to run a ship. The money belonged to the HMS Ganges Association for people who served at the former naval training base at Shotley Gate near Ipswich, Suffolk. He was an Electricians Mate Class 1 and served in, 12/03/35-09/01/36 HMS Ganges. We are the largest and fastest growing community of UK forces veterans on the web with over 500,000 members! It was as we crossed the parade ground the whole bunch of us suddenly froze and spun to face a huge aircraft-hanger-of-a-building running along its length. Mr Youngman, who joined the navy aged 15 in 1965, said he had previously climbed up to the top of the mast but "couldn't wait to get back down". 2023 BBC. A Gannett Company. Our abuse contact API returns data containing information belonging to the abuse contact of every IP address on the Internet. Mr Jones said: "There is a lot of truth to the statement that you entered as a boy, but left as a man. I would imagine it will be a number of years before we see the final product but Ive seen first hand how quickly they can actually make progress once the builders get going. Helpful. joined in '63 Dreadnought in the Annexe and Duncan in main camp, Went swimming at Vincent before colling-grad got its pool, and sailing if my memory is not totally shot, I sometimes considered climbing to the top of the mast a tossing myself off. First time ever looking at any RN sights. The master at arms held a long thin bamboo cane, the instrument of the punishment. Nevertheless, as bad and as cruel as I have describe Ganges, I remain proud to call myself a Ganges Boy. I took a bowl and ate the lot. Observer career path/ real life experience. I joined Ganges 30th June 1955 also as a boy telegraphist. HMS GANGES 6th May 2009 - YouTube. Heard so much about HMS Ganges though and it sounded very good for developing 'real sailors ' but as much as I hate to admit it I suspect it would have been too much for me . Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS (Image: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS). When I say there was sexual abuse Im speaking from personal experience. The HMS Ganges training base, which opened in 1905, closed in 1976 and has remained derelict. These adverts enable local businesses to get in front of their target audience the local community. Sad to see such an establishment close as it was so full of history and meant so much to so many. The number of air raids at Shotley began to increase dramatically and its ratings soon had to go to the air . HMS Ganges was also known as Shotley Training Establishment . It began snowing on Boxing Day. Early in 1940 Admiralty decided to close Ganges as a Boys Training Establishment and in April it became a Hostilities Only Training Establishment. Data returned from the Piano 'meterActive/meterExpired' callback event. He would lay on the number of cuts prescribed, each cut raised a welt on the boys buttocks. We were ushered in as a group of naked boys and told to wash thoroughly. Peter Ohara. Ganges Museum is located at Shotley Gate near Ipswich, in what was the Enright Block, on the foreshore of the former H.M.S. It would seem those boy-sailors who were seconds ago shoving sausages into smiling faces, had all disappeared into that terrifying building, and by the cries belching from its belly were being eaten alive. The Royal Naval Training Establishment Shotley (known within the Royal Navy as HMS Ganges) was established in southern Suffolk in 1905. The inquiry was carried out by Hampshire Police after debit card transactions of 4,200 and cash machine withdrawals totalling 74,000 were made from the association's bank accounts between August 2010 and June 2012. Old men on the HMS Ganges Facebook page and it helps keep alive my time spent there. View of the iconic mast at the former HMS Ganges site in Shotley Gate. Anniversary Toast - HMS RALEIGH 25th Oct 2009, Telegraph: "Captain Peter Grindal Obituary", Future Ford vehicles could repossess themselves, 10 myths told by Covid 'experts' now debunked. A Gannett Company. The showers at Ganges were just one bare room with several shower heads, no privacy. Review of a book of anecdotes about legendary UK boys' naval establishment HMS Ganges, which at any one time housed as many as 2,000 trainee sailors in their middle teens. Did my intro to Pusser at HMS Raleigh in ' 52 . Speaking about the current state of the site, Mr Jones said: "All of the messes have been demolished, as have the laundry and the generators. He was sitting on a stool and told me to stand in front of him and begin. Find BBC News: East of England on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. attempted to climb to the top of the mast, Harry and Meghan told to 'vacate' Frogmore Cottage, Explosive found in check-in luggage at US airport, Fungus case forces Jack Daniels to halt construction, Aboriginal spears taken in 1770 to return to Sydney, China and Belarus call for peace in Ukraine, Rare Jurassic-era bug found at Arkansas Walmart. 1903. Charles Dickens might have penned it the best of times and the worst of times. If you have a complaint about the editorial content which relates to Well this seems a good time to see if this site works properly. HP10 9TY. Were you a 'button boy'? Royal Navy 238217 Boy 2nd Class HMS Ganges II. HMS GANGES MUSEUM. Roger Jones, chairman at the HMS Ganges Museum said: "HMS Ganges was originally a ship of the wooden wall, launched in 1821. Abuse Details. This was the job of the button boy at HMS Ganges who had to shin up the last fifteen feet or so to climb on the button during ceremonial parades. GANGES was the shore training establishment for boy entrants into the Royal Navy from 1905 until 1976. Yes, I got it wrong! Picture: CLAGUE ARCHITECTS, Aerial artist's impression of one of the green spaces earmarked for the former HMS Ganges site in Shotley Gate. Even by naval training standards life there was controlled by a very strict regime. Didn't like it, there are better ways of teaching than violence, but it hardened me up and made me self disciplined. Tony Hayden. Doesnt sound too bad does it. It. There was also a degree of sexual abuse going on at Ganges, but we boys were too scared to ever complain or report such incidents. The test consisted of two lengths of the pool while wearing a boiler suit, then floating for five minutes. I knew that once the weather was respectable, when it was no longer dangerous, my skinny little skeleton would be transported, step by trembling step, up that perilous rigging. Real posh supercilious bastard. Rumour had it many years ago a boy did fall, bouncing off the safety net and through the Post Office roof. Jon Sparks. We caught up with Jim Dines, Director of TS Rigging, whose team. Ganges Tales of the T.R.O.G.s Paperback - 22 Nov. 1995 by John Douglas (Author), John Wheatley (Illustrator) 6 ratings Paperback 12.00 8 Used from 8.90 H.M.S. It would not be an exaggeration to say not one of us had the slightest idea of what lay in store for the next year. Sadists most of them and that's from a 15 year old who was in a council care home before he joined, streetwise to fcuk and kept my head down. Maurice was nothing to do with HMS Ganges, in fact he had been a crew member of HMS Hambledon. HMS Ganges (1821) This page summarises records created by this Organisation The summary includes a brief description of the collection (s) (usually including the covering dates of the. Every letter, every strip of tape had to be in a perfect line. One lad, a Geordie, was drafted early to a Destroyer bound for the Mediterraniann sailed from Plymouth He was washed overboard on his first few hours at sea..His parents never knew of the misery he suffered at Ganges. This page is dedicated to the memory of Tony whose commitment to the Royal Navy and especially HMS Ganges was unlimited. HMS Ganges is situated on the Shotley Peninsula in Suffolk. Sailors' uniforms were a familiar sight in our area until HMS Ganges closed in June 1976. But, because of the lockdown nothing has really moved and I think, even though construction workers havent leagally been told theyre not allowed to do anything, the owners are a bit reluctant to move. 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