IT IS hard to guess how many young Englishwomen settled overseas after the last world war. It must be many thousands.
We carried two stories recently involving ships that were used to carry war brides to their new homes in 1946 and shortly thereafter.
One was the Cunard liner the RMS Scythia, which shipped thousands of brides to Halifax, Canada.
Another with connections to this area was the Illustrious class aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable.
She carried the Great Britain Lions team to Australia and New Zealand in 1946, a team uniquely unbeaten in a Test series in Australia and known as the ‘Indomitables’.
Two surviving members of that team, Joe Egan and Bryn Knowelden, were reunited in Huddersfield two months ago.
What appears to be less known is that the carrier was crammed with war brides on their way to start a new life with their Servicemen husbands and boyfriends.
Austin Holroyd of Almondbury knew about the ship and its human cargo, but didn’t know at the time that the Lions were on board.
In 1946 he was a 20-year-old petty officer serving in Colombo, Ceylon, now Sri Lanka.
He takes up the tale:
“July 7, 1946 was a Sunday, a warm day, the war was over and life was pleasant.
“I was having a quiet afternoon behind my little office at Echelon Barracks (now buried under the Echelon Cocktail Bar at the Hilton Hotel) when the phone rang.
The aircraft carrier HMS Indomitable had just arrived in the harbour, and her paymaster was in desperate need of rupees with which to pay the crew.
“Nobody knew where the officer with the key for the naval safe would be in Colombo, so could I possibly dig out some transport and see if we could find him.
“We found the officer concerned (first attempt) in the swimming pool at the Fleet Club, and once he was dressed took him with us to where the dosh was kept.
“Meanwhile, the sailors were telling me such a tale.
“The Indomitable had left the UK for Australia some three weeks before with a cargo of English girls who had married Australian servicemen.
“Now some time before, as a “small ships” sailor I had travelled as a passenger myself from Colombo to Singapore on the Indomitable, and it was a new experience. From the skipper downwards everyone had to appear immaculate and properly dressed at all times, and all naval traditions strictly observed. Not on this trip however!
“Once the ship had passed Gibraltar into the calmer waters of a sunlit Mediterranean the girls decided that sun-bathing on the flight deck was a must! Bikinis hadn’t been invented then, nevertheless it was a seemingly wonderful sight.
“The skipper was apparently doing his nut, but whilst King’s Regulations and Admiralty Instructions could be applied to his crew, they didn’t have much effect on his passengers!
“And now after three weeks at sea, the ship had put into Colombo. Our two sailors informed me that no lady would be allowed ashore unless she had someone she knew like a brother or other relative to collect her and return her to the ship.
“Her name would have to be submitted to the quarter-master at the gangway by her guarantor before any lady would be allowed ashore.
“I thought that was a bit tough on the girls until one of the sailors dug into his pocket and gave me a long list of names, and could I find enough sailors in Colombo to act as guarantors?
“They used to call it a “buzz” in the Navy, and never did one travel so fast round the town as that one! At the appointed time there was a queue for boats to and from the ship.
“A good time was had by all.
Some time later the Indomitable returned, now with a cargo of Australian brides on their way to Britain. I think, from memory, that this time the skipper must have given up the ghost, the girls were allowed ashore, and the rest is history.”
