GANGES - BOY PRIGMORE
The Royal Navy service of a new-entry Boy Seaman starts here at HMS GANGES in 1945 and moves to aircraft carriers and Singapore by 1947. Follow him here and on the HMS TERROR pages.
The Royal Navy service of a new-entry Boy Seaman starts here at HMS GANGES in 1945 and moves to aircraft carriers and Singapore by 1947. Follow him here and on the HMS TERROR pages.
Alfred Ernest Prigmore arrived at HMS GANGES on the 20th of November 1945 to begin training as a Boy Seaman 2nd Class. It was a somewhat empty place at this time as 'Boy's' training had only recommenced a month earlier. Alfred's intake took the numbers there up to around 300 but all that was about to change.
During the war years Boy entrant training was moved from HMS GANGES to the relative safety of the Isle of Man and a requisitioned holiday camp which was given the name HMS ST GEORGE. The return of Boys training to GANGES was to be completed by some 1,400 ST GEORGE Boys going to 1945 Christmas Leave which would expire in HMS GANGES at Shotley Gate. Thus, by mid January 1946 the numbers under training there rose to around 1,700. During the five-year absence of Boys some 61,000 conscripted 'Hostilities only' men received initial training at the site.
Alfred's son, Steve, got in touch in October 2011 and subsequently kindly copied the service record and photographs from his father's collection that appear on this page and in the HMS TERROR pages of the site.I was especially pleased to have them as they fill almost exactly the gap between the end of World War II and my joining GANGES in 1954.
Alfred Prigmore, (C)/JX 660495, went into Benbow Division, 33 Mess, Classes 113/114 (Instructor CPO Harvey?)
During the war years Boy entrant training was moved from HMS GANGES to the relative safety of the Isle of Man and a requisitioned holiday camp which was given the name HMS ST GEORGE. The return of Boys training to GANGES was to be completed by some 1,400 ST GEORGE Boys going to 1945 Christmas Leave which would expire in HMS GANGES at Shotley Gate. Thus, by mid January 1946 the numbers under training there rose to around 1,700. During the five-year absence of Boys some 61,000 conscripted 'Hostilities only' men received initial training at the site.
Alfred's son, Steve, got in touch in October 2011 and subsequently kindly copied the service record and photographs from his father's collection that appear on this page and in the HMS TERROR pages of the site.I was especially pleased to have them as they fill almost exactly the gap between the end of World War II and my joining GANGES in 1954.
Alfred Prigmore, (C)/JX 660495, went into Benbow Division, 33 Mess, Classes 113/114 (Instructor CPO Harvey?)
Alfred's Class in Blue Suits and Sports Gear beneathe safety net of the 144ft (43.6M) mast
With classmates on the Shotley foreshore in 1946 with Felixstowe in the background. NB. The laid-up ships in ther
picture are but a small number of the many crowding the Stour into the 1950's
picture are but a small number of the many crowding the Stour into the 1950's
This picture is of the Lower Playing Field (LPF) at the confluence of the Rivers Stour and Orwell showing Felixstowe in the background. At the beginning of the 21st century the LPF has been excavated and developed into Shotley Marina. The volunteer-run HMS GANGES MUSEUM is sited there and welcomes visitors by arrangement.
Cruisers at Chatham in 1949. Though Alfred indicated them to be JAMAICA and BERMUDA (Colony Class) I believe the LH one is in fact a Southampton Class ship. BERMUDA returned to Chatham in 1949 to refit and was at Devonport early in 1950 which fixes the year.
Alfred's pictures of HM Troopship EMPIRE FOWEY (1946-1960) are, by a process of elimination, from 1952 when he probably took passage in her to Singapore to join DAMPIER. The 1935 ship was seized in Germany in 1945. It was sold to foreign buyers in 1960.
You can read more of him in the HMS TERROR/SINGAPORE pages and of the Survey Branch, in which Alfred specialised, in the HMS ECHO pages
(L-R) Top: Aircraft carriers HMS FORMIDABLE (1940-1956) and GLORY (1945-1961). Bottom: Minesweeper SHARPSHOOTER (1937-1945) then converted to Survey ship (1945-1965) and Survey ship CHALLENGER (1932-1954)
Top: SCOTT(1936-1965 ) and SML 324 (1941-1959) Sold into private use and in 2011 a houseboat.
Alfred Prigmore's final two ships were the survey ship DAMPIER (1947-1969) and the destroyer COSSACK (1945-1961) which spent her entire working life in the Far East returning to the UK to pay-off into Reserve in 1959.
Alfred Prigmore's final two ships were the survey ship DAMPIER (1947-1969) and the destroyer COSSACK (1945-1961) which spent her entire working life in the Far East returning to the UK to pay-off into Reserve in 1959.
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This GANGES BOY PRIGMORE section first published online 2008 and since revised