DAVID COLLEDGE
20th August 2011, 20:18
I have a double interest in joining Ships Nostalgia: firstly my father, William (Bill) Colledge served in the Merchant Navy during WWII on mv. DONOVANIA and mv. DIPLODON and possibly others for which I do not have details. He attended the School of Navigation at Southhampton on leaving school (Gordonstoun) in 1939 and from 1940 worked for Anglo-Saxon Petroleum. I believe he was 2nd. Mate and he served on both aforementioned vessels and perhaps others as well. Since he died in 1987 I have no known way of confirming further his war time career with the Merchant Navy, but it is nice at least to see photographs of the vessels he sailed on. Mv. DONOVANIA was torpedoed and sank in 1941 or 42 I believe. Like all his contemporaries who were friends of both my parents, he rarely talked about his experiences during the war.
My second interest in joining SN is that when I emigrated to Chile in 1989 at the age of 38 I joined a small private company of marine hull and cargo surveyors for which I have worked ever since; so in an ironic way my career in South America has had something to do with my father's service during the war. I too went to Gordonstoun and then to university in England (my family were woolen manufacturers from Selkirk and Galashiels in the Scottish Borders).
My second interest in joining SN is that when I emigrated to Chile in 1989 at the age of 38 I joined a small private company of marine hull and cargo surveyors for which I have worked ever since; so in an ironic way my career in South America has had something to do with my father's service during the war. I too went to Gordonstoun and then to university in England (my family were woolen manufacturers from Selkirk and Galashiels in the Scottish Borders).