John Pound served with the Royal Navy in the Korean War from 1952 to 1954. Aged 19, he travelled to Korea on the Empire Pride before boarding HMS Charity, the small C-Class destroyer upon which John was based for the duration of the war. Prior to this overseas engagement, he had spent his first two years in the Navy training at Victoria Barracks and aboard HMS Bulwark and HMS Vanguard. Trained as a radar plotter, 3rd class, John shares his experience of work aboard HMS Charity in the operations room and details what his role entailed. He also talks about life out at sea, including the freezing conditions, the system of currency around rum rations, swimming in the Yellow Sea, and visiting the American base in Sasebo and the Australian base at Kure. Recalling having to be on action stations at all times, John delves into the dangers involved in his naval duties, including one particular Easter Sunday when Korean batteries hidden in caves ambushed their ship! Upon leaving HMS Charity, John returned home and completed his radar plotter course, 2nd class, before being assigned to the HMS Albion. Now a proud member of the Suffolk Korean Veteran’s Association, John’s story permits a wonderful insight into what life was like aboard a Royal Navy ship during the Korean War.

Marsie Taylor had a varied and fascinating war. She moved to London with her parents in 1939 and immediately joined the Mechanised Transport Corps because she wanted to contribute to the war effort. She recalls the effect the sights and sounds had on her, driving a Light Rescue Team through bombed-out streets in Lambeth. She vividly recalls receiving the BEM from the King for recovery work on the night of 15 October 1940. She joined the WRNS in 1942 when the bombing reduced, spending over a year in Norfolk House where she typed operation orders during planning for the invasions of Sicily and Normandy. She comments on the enormity of the secrecy, because she held BIGOT clearance, so knew the time and place of the landings. Once the planning finished, she moved to the naval HQ at Southwick House in Portsmouth in readiness for D-Day. She recalls hitchhiking in uniform back to London and working on artificial harbours. She was later commissioned and spent the last months of the war as an assistant to the captain in charge of an air station near Aberdeen.