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 12
It was on the return journey from Iceland that I used up the third of my nine lives.
What happened was that a junior officer was on watch on the bridge when one of the large screen wipers – similar to the ones on the buses, became damaged and inoperative.
He sent out a request for an engineer to visit the bridge and I was sent.
He ordered me to venture out to repair the wiper and being very junior I had no option but to obey the order.
The sea conditions south of Iceland were horrendous with mountainous waves breaking over the forecastle as the ship plunged through the stormy seas.
I managed to battle my way through the wind and rain and was in the process of cutting the old wiper free when a massive wave surged over the bows and struck me with such force that I was swept away in a mass of white foaming water.
Fortunately for me instead of going straight overboard I came up hard against a guardrail which I clung on to for dear life, literally.
I was told later that the young officer who had been stupid enough to order me out went white with shock thinking he was responsible for my loss but luckily I was seen hanging with the sea swirling around me and a burly seaman with a lifeline around his waist came out and pulled me to safety.
A senior officer who was then present sent me away to dry off and get warm and said: “Give the lad a tot of rum!” which
I was given although I was under age at the time.
We were relieved when our spell of duty around Iceland was completed and we were able to leave other ships of the fleet to take their turn.
After our return to Devonport we spent two weeks in the dockyard getting repairs done, ship painted and stores and munitions taken on board.
We left on the 30th of October on passage to Bermuda which was to be our base on the West Indies station for the next year.
Our task was to act as guard ship for the British Caribbean Islands during the hurricane season and to show the flag around the Islands and other foreign ports as well as to carry out any other tasks we might be asked to perform.
We were to relieve HMS Troubridge, another type 15 frigate and a sister ship who had been on the station for 12 months.
Before leaving we had all been issued with tropical kit which consisted of white uniform instead of our usual blue uniforms.
Our first port of call was Ponta Del Garda in the Azores and Tim Townsend, my fellow 5th class artificer, and I went ashore in our white tropical uniforms, the first of many times we would do so in the next year.
It was a novel experience for Tim and I and we marveled at the strange feeling of being in a sunny foreign port with all it’s different smells and sights.
We didn’t have long ashore as it was only a brief stop and then we continued on our passage towards our base in Bermuda.
