INSPIRED by ‘a very full life’ Redditch man Roger Henry Lippett has written a book on his life which began living on the Batchley Estate. He went on to serve in the Royal Navy and wants to share his story.
He was born on January 30 1939 on the council estate, with his dad’s name Henry, being given to him as his middle name.
Here he sheds light on his life family and friends as a social record of sorts that may be of interest to his children, grandchildren and the people of Redditch.
Although he said he had never achieved great wealth or fame he felt his life had moments worth recounting.
In his words: “I now live in the beautiful city of Plymouth in Devon but I will always be a Batchley boy.
“Far have I traveled, and much have I seen and this is my story, serialised in the Redditch Standard.”
Part 7
There are two events worth mentioning during my time with the Royal Navy at HMS Caledonia; one of which I am very proud to relate the other not so, but a story which needs to be told.
The first event relates to the visit to Scotland of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth and His Royal Highness Prince Phillip on June 30, 1958.
They disembarked from the Royal yacht Britannia in Rosyth Naval Dockyard and the Royal guard was provided by the apprentices of HMS Caledonia. About 100 apprentices were chosen from 11 class which was the senior class of which I was one.
We were chosen on the grounds of our smartness at marching and rifle drill and as I had always enjoyed parade drill and all things military, I was an obvious candidate.
Our uniforms were checked and had to be immaculate and new ones had to be bought if they did not pass muster and the same applied to our boots, caps end webbing.
We spent many hours spit-and-polishing our boots until you could almost see your reflection in them.
We practised the routines and drill almost daily for several weeks until we were ‘as smart as guardsmen’, which of course we were.
When the day of the Queen’s visit arrived we were ‘fallen in’ at Caledonia and inspected by the guard commander after which we were marched to the Royal dockyard.
The Royal yacht Britannia arrived alongside and the Queen and Prince Phillip disembarked.
The order was given: ‘Guard, Royal salute present arms’.
After this came ‘order arms’. We were then at attention and the Queen slowly walked between the ranks and inspected us.
She stood inches from me, looked me up and down before moving on the next in line. It was a slightly unnerving moment but a very proud one for me, a Batchley boy who had left school a few years ago with nothing now to be stood inches away being inspected by the Queen of England!
The event took much longer than described and there was a lot of standing around ‘at ease’ and ‘at attention’ but we had been taught how to stand for long periods with imperceptible movement.
All said, a proud day to remember.
My only disappointment being that I don’t appear on the official photographs of the occasion as the Queen is standing right in front of me and only the tip of my cap can be seen!
