MEMORIES OF A
NATIONAL SERVICEMAN
Trevor
Sidaway
ROYAL ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERS
Keeping the
Laundry going and other Sports
Pictured
in 1953, the REME Barracks at Governors Cottage Camp with the main coastal road
running alongside
Built on the original site of the Governor of
Europa Point Lighthouse in the distance
The collection of far buildings is the
Sergeants Mess, with a path connecting it to the main road
A little closer are the
Corporals Club and NAAFI, and finally the CSM's office, they are all fronted by
a
service road
that ran the whole length of the Camp
The remainder of the Camp,
including the laundry, is out of shot although the wall, alongside the
ramp
up to the main
Camp area, can be seen in the right foreground
The Laundry
Built into a cavern in the cliff face, alongside the
Cookhouse, access was though a sizable door in the cliff face,
which was normally locked.
The very large commercial washers and driers were "donkeys" years
old; there were no spares available,
and breakdowns were frequent
It was staffed mainly by Spanish girls who crossed the border daily and it
was strictly out of bounds to all
ranks, except me!
As "Chief Draughtsman" I was on call to make emergency visits at
any time to locate and measure up the
worn out components to enable
spares to be made
It was very tricky onerous work, in a hot steamy cave, surrounded by
scantily clad Spanish teenage girls
but as I repeatedly told the
lads;
I WAS JUST
OBEYING ORDERS!!!
inside
the laundry cave
An old wartime shot of the laundry
It had changed little in my day and on one occasion I found myself
climbing into one of the washers to
extract a broken component to take it back to the Drawing Office and
measure it up--I recall that it
was part of the bearing assembly
The Royal
Canadian Engineers
Excavate 160,000 tons of rock in 1941/42
The
laundry cave was originally an ammunition store and was excavated by the
Tunnelling Company of
the
Royal Canadian Engineers
They
were on the Rock for two years, during WW2, and carried out extensive tunnelling
work, excavating
a total of 160,000 tons of rock
Their
main task was the construction of an underground hospital which consisted of
ten large chambers,
including nurses living quarters
The
hospital was named the Lord Gort Hospital
They
also built the road that connected Governors Cottage Camp, which in those days
included a rock
crushing
site, to the hospital tunnel entrance at
Other Sports
At barely 5`-7``I was not tall enough to be a really
effective sprinter although I did break eleven
seconds for the 100 yards in the REME sports day
But, as can be seen, a
hurdler I was not, finishing a poor second in the 110 yards hurdles
PICTURED IN
OCTOBER 1953 AT THE EUROPA SPORTS GROUND
Medal presentation in 1954
NH is Norman Holland who kindly supplied the
photograph
Ginger played in the REME rugby team
games were
played across the border on the nearest grass pitch
He was a
fine sprinter winning the 200 yards event
No sign of me
One other sporting activity
that I enjoyed was table tennis, playing no.1 in the REME team
For some reason we only joined the Military league towards the end of 1953
and I can only recall playing
in about three competitive matches
However, I was entered for the Garrison championship and managed to reach
the finals
Playing
trains with Prince Charles & Princess Anne
More about the models
"Resting"
in Tangiers--at the EL Farhar
Football in Gibraltar (part
one) Football in Gibraltar (Part two)
email
me trevor_sidaway@hotmail.com Link to "Black
Country Stories"