I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety

Saturday 1 st January 1944 " Rang in the New Year well and truly on the ship’s bell. Nearly all the officers and ratings were in various stages of inebriation. The first lieutenant vainly trying to drink someone’s health from a bottle with the top still on. Foul taste in mouth this morning due to excess of port wine ." That's what my dad (Norman Buckle) wrote in his diary on New Year's Day 1944. He was stationed at H.M.S. Spurwing, the Royal Navy Air Base at Hastings, near Freetown in Sierra Leone, West Africa. He was nineteen years old. This photo was in Norman's collection; he hasn't made clear whether or not it's the New Year's Eve celebrations. Looks like it was a fun night though. Considering that high temperatures and humidity made a posting to Freetown very unpopular with services personnel they look like they're making the best of it!  Freetown was surrounded by malarial mangrove swamps and the humidity was so

October 15th is the first anniversary of the publication of I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II . I published the book exactly one year ago on the exact same date as my dad, Norman Buckle, joined the Fleet Air Arm of the Royal Navy in 1942. Seventy one years ago, World War II uprooted my father from a coal mining village in South Yorkshire and transported him thousands of miles to Sierra Leone in West Africa and later to a tropical island in the Pacific Ocean via Sydney, Australia. I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety: The Diary of a Petty Officer in the Fleet Air Arm during World War II is a short, annotated diary which records Norman's experiences and the on-going banalities of everyday life on a naval air-base far away from home. Since publication there have been over one thousand downloads of I Think I Prefer the Tinned Variety and I've been overwhelmed by the interest the book has generated am

I borrowed ‘Tracing Your Second World War Ancestors’ by Simon Fowler* from my local public library recently and found it to be a useful and informative guide. When I was researching my Second World War ancestor I found that it was quite straightforward to get hold of his records of service in the Fleet Air Arm from the Royal Navy Archives. There was a form and instructions that could be downloaded from the Internet and when completed sent off in the post with a cheque for £30 which seemed a bit steep but there you are. After a wait of several weeks the available information was returned and although incomplete still fascinating. In his book Simon Fowler guides you through a whole range of potential sources for all the UK services and even some of the civilian roles. For example, he gives information about researching ancestors who might have been Bevin Boys including some interesting weblinks. My grandfather was a coal miner and was required to continue in that occupa