Ken and I were shipmates on the 1954-55 America & West Indies cruise having both been conscripted into the Royal Navy upon each reaching our 18th birthday.

 

Although, I must admit, I can't remember being friendly when we did our initial training on board our first ship HMS Implacable out of Portland I do recall him, Graham Langford, Buster Brown and Neil Henderson ending up in a dormitory at Chatham all destined for the Super "B". Ken and I were East Londoners, I being born in Hackney and him in Poplar.

 

He was an extremely likable young man, single as I was, and had a really good sense of fun. The thing about Ken was that he never used an uncouth word. I remember that we often went ashore together once we left the British shores, Bermuda bound and enjoyed all that life, work and play in the navy threw in our direction.

 

Coming towards the end of our national service we both thought that we'd like to sign up to enter the United States navy and indeed sent off for the relevant forms to complete but somehow other things got in the way. I became engaged to be married in the UK and elected to stay in England and that was the end of that idea.

 

From what I understand Ken spent most of his working life with the Port of London Authority. Unfortunately I have lost the brief contact I had with Ken's son who lives in Australia.

 

Although we lost touch for 55 years we did at last exchange emails in 2010 having regained contact through the HMS Superb website and then, suddenly, in July 2011, Ken sadly passed away.

 

Brian Saunders