After three or so years of an extended stay at 3 Div. HQ & Signal Regiment on Salisbury Plain, I asked to extend my time there just a little in order to get married to Rita Sawyer. With a touch of humour for which Royal Signals Records Office folks are renowned, I was sent on Ristacom training at 8 Signal Regiment, Catterick in preparation for joining 19 Signal Regiment in Singapore. Because of my absence at Catterick, I was denied the pleasure of getting deeply involved in the wedding preparations – I was so disappointed.
Rita, from Southampton, had never travelled overseas – apart from the Isle of Wight – so she had to get her first passport. Her Mum was none too pleased with me for stealing her daughter away. We were married on 26th July 1969 and less than three weeks later we were boarding a VC10 at RAF Brize Norton. Rita had never flown before so it was all a great adventure!
Our first stop was at Bahrein and with great gravitas I warned Rita about the cold of desert nights – wrong – we were sweltering. After that it was Gan with all local servicemen finding essential tasks to do by the aircraft steps with chance to check out all the ladies as they descended the steps.
Finally, we arrived at RAF Changi to be met by Joe Croome, an old colleague from 3 Div. After sorting us out with cooling drinks, Joe told us that, it being the 150th anniversary of the founding of Singapore, there was scarcely any room at the inn. He took us to the only available room – The China Sea Beach Club – literally on the beach! After a day travelling, we were both crestfallen. But Joe came to our rescue and took us to his place. We stayed with Joe and his lady for over a week before moving to The Cameron – a rite of passage for most “married pads” arriving in Singapore. The whole experience was almost overwhelming for us both – the markets, the smells, the food and not least the tea and a banana with our morning alarm at The Cameron.
The powers that be in Microwave Troop decided that I was to be sent to Western Hill, Penang. Pete Thomas who was with me at Harrogate and at 3 Div. had arrived at 19 about the same time as me was to be sent to Butterworth. There being no flights available the only option was the take the train north. The journey took longer than the flights from the UK! We were told that we’d stay on our sleeper train all the way through to Butterworth. After a decent kip on the train we looked out of our cabin windows from our bunks as we drew into the marvellous station in Kuala Lumpur. We were enjoying the usual tea and banana when we heard the shouts of “All change”. Chaos reigned as we all tumbled from the train with no wish to end up in some deserted siding.
The ride up to Butterworth was slow and quiet with numerous kampongs and rubber plantations – you’ve seen one rubber tree, you’ve seen them all? Joe Winter was on Butterworth station to meet us and convey all four of us to Sandy Croft via the ferry.
The journey to work on Western Hill was via the ancient funicular railway, there being no road. It was quite novel at first but with time the novelty wore off … just a bit! A while back, when moving house, I found a box with my last season ticket in it.
The photos below show the 19 Sigs section of the site with the impressive Troposcatter dishes and the slightly less impressive SHF dish to the left of them.
The road from the top station ran through primary forest and the radar site was in the same habitat. Gibbons would visit the site perimeter at weekends when things were quiet – can’t be waging war on weekends.
I as soon settled into shift work which meant that I could spend loads of time with Rita. She settled into life in the tropics very quickly. Our first house together was a splendid one courtesy of RAF Penang. Rita couldn’t get over the idea of having an amah to take care of the house work and also of having a banana plant in our garden – it never did provide a banana though!
There was plenty for us to do around the island especially in Georgetown with its traditional covered pathways outside stores. Luckily, I had prepared Rita for the more exotic cuisine of the Orient at various curry houses in Southampton. Eventually she enjoyed the food as much as I did. Eating out was so very cheap too especially if you used the same places used by native Penangites. One of our favourites was the imaginatively named “Craven A Café” …. and it’s still going strong according to Google!
Coming from a suburb of Southampton she was used to travelling everywhere by ‘bus. Penang was a little different though with boarding being reminiscent of a rugby rolling maul!
There were a few tourist attractions on the island like the second longest reclining Buddha in the world and “The Snake Temple”. The place was strewn with pit vipers but we were told that they were all defanged and that the thick incense slowed them down – yeah right! Rita was keen to hold a bunch of them – I wasn’t.
No sooner had we settled into our life on the island than Records struck again and I was sent back to 8 Sigs for my Class 1 course. After just over 6 months I was back again having been away for long enough to forget all I’d been taught about the SHF gear, CT and VFTG! We were back again in the summer of 1970 and Rita still couldn’t quite believe that we were in this tropical paradise … and being paid to be there.
