Memories of HMS Conway

For me, the article about the youngsters from Brine Leas going to Conway House brought back a lot of memories, many happy but some of them rather painful!

When I was there many years ago, Conway House was the new flagship building for HMS Conway, a pre-sea boarding school for young lads who wanted a career in the Merchant Navy. It closed in 1974.

I joined HMS Conway in 1961 and stayed for three years.

For my first year a hundred, or so, of us were billeted in one half of the Marquis of Anglesey's house, Plas Newydd, which in retrospect was quite a treat despite the daily 6am cross country run.

After that first year we moved to "The Camp" which housed a couple of hundred lads in large huts. That has long been demolished although the National Trust reception area is located on that site.

Towards the end of my time, the "new block" as we called it (now Conway House) was built...in fact I was the first Cadet to move my goods and chattels (including bed) into the building. This was during my last term at Conway at the end of 1963.

It was in the entrance area of the new block, on 22nd November of that year, that I was told of the assassination of JFK...we all remember where we were on that day!

I mentioned that some of the memories were painful. Well, it was a different time then and corporal punishment was the norm. One rather well known rugby coach, Clive Woodward, mentions in his book about running away to escape the regime of "cuts" which quite simply consisted of being whipped across the backside with a rope for specific misdemeanours.

On the other hand, I feel, that the military lines upon which the college was run taught us self discipline and self sufficiency which has remained with me as time went on.

After Conway I joined the New Zealand Shipping Company and stayed at sea until I got my Master Mariners Certificate.

At that time I lived in the North East but chance brought me and my family down to the Audlem area where, coincidentally, our two children attended Brine Leas.

It's a small world!

AudlemOnline adds: We have found that stories about personal memories such as those by Geoff Farr and Bob Cartwright recently, have proved to be popular reading.

If you have a memory, experience of childhood, leaving home, student or work days, travel, indeed anything you fancy that might be of interest, do email it to editor@audlem.org

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