HMS Collingwood

Passing out parade and our move to HMS Collingwood 

On the final day at Ganges we gathered up our kit bags, marched to the main gate and  then boarded a bus for Ipswich railway station. Accompanying us on the journey all the way to Fareham in Hampshire was our instructor, Chief Jones.  After five hours on a train and bus we eventually arrived at HMS Collingwood, where we gathered in a room in one of our new multi-storey and modern accommodation blocks - in this case, Trafalgar block. 

As we moved through the building we noticed the small 4-bed rooms that were in the messdecks, the comfortable chairs in the TV room and the relatively low-key atmosphere that permeated around the place.  As we sat there chatting among ourselves in our best uniforms with kit bags and suitcases piled up behind us. There had been many trials, triumphs and tribulations to experience for all of us, but Chief Jones and PO Allard had been ever-present to help us make the transition from school boys to young men who were ready to take up our place in the Royal Navy.  The motto of Ganges was ‘Wisdom is strength’ and  we had all certainly gained in that respect over the one-year training period we had spent there. 

After a short introductory talk and welcome by our new Block PO, Chief Jones stepped to the front to say his last goodbyes in his own inimitable manner. He graciously wished us all well in our future careers, referring to us as “young men” as he had always done throughout our time at Ganges. For all classmates, possibly nothing in the future would match up to our time at Ganges and the standards – both personal and those related to the Navy - set by Gordon Jones and Malcolm Allard.  Chief Jones and many of us, certainly sensed a little emotional as he left the room, and all of us to our respective future lives.