SHIP & HENRY

It was the joy of seeing boats every day, as much as the Isle of Wight’s mild climate and sea air, that helped him convalesce. John’s ambition to be a naval architect was cemented here but his parents insisted that he study general architecture. When war was declared the navy refused his application because of his childhood TB. He moved to the Orkney Islands and worked as a civil engineer for the Admiralty. The years John spent working at the island base honed his encyclopedic knowledge of ships and their liveries. He made this model of the HMS Glasgow with his grandson Henry. Boat building weekends became Henry’s refuge from school. After his grandparents died Henry helped clear out their house. He took a call from a neighbour, noting down her details on a scrap of paper. When he turned the paper over it read ‘SQUIRREL DAMAGE REPAIRED STOP GLASGOW READY FOR SEA STOP’ in heavily punched type. It was a ‘TOP SECRET’ ‘telegram’ that his grandfather had written when Henry was a boy. It reported another break in. Squirrels had chewed away at the armada stored in the attic eaves. The evidence is here in the model that Henry saved from John and Helen’s house. Two distinct brown patches are left where the paint has been nibbled away.

21 Jul 2013