16 NAVY NEWS, OCTOBER 2007
Historic air
● All smiles from some of the female contingent aboard HMS Invincible during the carrier’s visit to Barcelona in 2004 Picture: LA(Phot) Matt Ellison
station under
threat
ONE of the birthplaces of naval
aviation could vanish beneath
a wind farm if planners give the
scheme the go-ahead.
The former airfield at Pulham,
near Diss in Norfolk, was at the
heart of Britain’s experiment
with airships between the Great
War and the early 1930s.
Energy firm SLP is
considering erecting seven
400ft wind turbines on the East
Anglian site, a move which
has prompted vehement local
opposition from villagers,
who complain that the wind
farm would be unsightly – and
from historians who fear the
development would eradicate
what is left of the airfield.
The Admiralty snapped up
land at Pulham in 1912 – it’s
actually several miles inland,
beyond the range of the guns
of Germany’s High Seas Fleet.
By 1916 the Navy had
established a substantial air
station on the former farmland.
Blimps and airships based
at Pulham carried out vital
scouting missions over the
North Sea and the ‘Pulham
Pigs’, as they became known,
also led the fight against the
U-boat.
When the German submarine
fleet surrendered in November
1918, it was a Pulham-based
airship dispatched to escort
them.
And it was to Pulham that the
airship R34 returned from the
first transatlantic round-trip.
By the war’s end, 3,000
servicemen were based at
‘As long as you can do the
Pulham and two huge airship
sheds dominated the skyline.
Both are now gone (one was
dismantled and put up again
at Cardington, home of the ill-
fated R101) and much of the
air station has returned to its
original farming use. job, that’s what matters’
But local historian Hadrian
Jeffs says that scratch beneath
the surface and much of
Pulham’s aviation heritage
I
N THE messdeck of
The leading hand did notice but not from society.
remains: the foundations of HMS Marlborough,
WHEN Archie Hamilton stood up in the House some behavioural changes among “Even now at any cocktail party
the sheds, the silicol generator
opinions were readily
of Commons on Monday February 5 1990, he
some of his male shipmates. or social event, the fi rst question
plant which produced the
you’re asked is: ‘Oh what’s it like
hydrogen to fill the airships,
expressed – and rarely
announced the greatest sea change in the Royal
“If people were on watch with
to be a women at sea?’” says Lt
and the 90ft mooring mast
did they agree.
Navy’s history: women would go to sea. Seventeen
a female and it was midnight,
they would still turn up with their Cdr Shaughnessy. “It’s still seen
– the world’s first such
But there was one thing Kevin
years after that momentous decision, historians from
hair gelled and aftershave on as a novelty by some people who
mast, and perhaps Britain’s
‘Snowy’ Winter and his shipmates
the Royal Naval Museum have interviewed sailors to – obviously it wouldn’t happen on
aren’t in the services.”
principal contribution to airship
were convinced of – to a man. see what the fairer sex have brought to the Senior
an all-male ship,” he says. And it’s still seen as a novelty
development.
“Women at sea?” they mused.
Service – and whether attitudes have changed.
Such preening isn’t uncommon. by Fleet Street. Lt Cdr Charlie
“Pulham is a site of not only
“Nah, never work.”
“One of the chiefs told me that Atkinson was the fi rst female CO
local, but national, even global
The mess deck views of ‘Snowy’
he’d never washed as much when of a minehunter. “Within the Navy
importance and it should not be
Winter and his shipmates were tackled such trenchant opinions, feel the size of existing hatches is
he was at sea because he didn’t it wasn’t a big issue – it was only
obliterated,” said Mr Jeffs.
prevalent in the late 80s and early but the driving force behind the not suffi cient to accommodate the
want to go around stinking of
a matter of time before a woman
“Much, if not all, would
90s. Visiting warships, Armed MP’s decision in February 1990 average wren.”
grease all day in front of a lady,”
was selected to command a ship,”
be irreparably damaged, if
Forces Minister Archie Hamilton was a lack of good men. Naval wives were among the
recalls LWtr Sarah Jackson of life
she says. “It caused a little bit of a
not destroyed outright by
– today Lord Hamilton – found “We just didn’t have the right strongest opponents of women
aboard HMS Illustrious.
media fl urry.”
the proposed development
offi cers fairly receptive to the idea calibre of men coming forward going to sea. They protested on
There have been other ‘civilising
Lt Cdr Atkinson is no doubt
– representing an irreplaceable of women going to sea. – and we had very good women
the streets of Portsmouth and
effects’, as ‘Snowy’ Winter calls
she was “the fi rst of many”, and
loss to British aviation “As you moved down the we were turning away. This always
Plymouth, carrying banners
them.
former Commander-in-Chief
heritage.” ranks, they got more and more struck me as lunacy.”
warning of higher divorce rates
“I think it does have the effect
Fleet Admiral Sir Peter Abbott
SLP, based in Lowestoft, has reactionary,” he remembers. His announcement provoked
and broken marriages.
of dampening down the language
would certainly like to see more
asked for permission initially “When you got to the junior ranks’ a bulging postbag at Navy News.
“Putting wrens on board is
– the sexualised banter that goes
women follow in her footsteps
from South Norfolk Council to mess they thought the whole thing
– and beyond.
“At long last,” declared one retired like putting a match to a gasoline
around,” he adds. “If you were
erect a wind measuring mast
“There aren’t enough senior
was an absolutely outrageous wren. A WW2 veteran shook his station,” claimed one Gosport
all blokes together, I don’t think
offi cers yet who are female – you
to see whether the site would idea.” head: “Consider the harsh, brutal
naval wife. “I think it will wreck
anybody worried about that.”
can count them on the fi ngers of
be suitable for a larger wind Equality laws and growing realities of war at sea.” And in Hong
more marriages and relationships,”
It also means that sod’s operas
one hand,” he says. “They haven’t
turbine farm. political correctness might have Kong a wag put pen to paper: “We
warned another from Dartmouth.
– or rather ship’s revues as they
A decade and a half later Sophie
now are – are “a lot tamer” than
got to admiral yet, but that’s a
Shaughnessy frets when her
they used to be.
question of time.”
husband Lt Cdr Toby Shaughnessy
And for those dyed-in-the-wool
Seventeen years on from
puts to sea in a mixed ship. “I
matelots who just could not accept
his momentous decision, Lord
know it’s stupid because we trust
women at sea, LWtr Jackson had
Hamilton is convinced he made A CLASS SUBMARINE
each other completely,” she says.
the answer.
the correct call.
Model based on HMS Alliance 1962
“I always prefer it when he’s on an
“There were some quite sexist
“It must be right on equality
all-male ship.”
jokes said in front of me – to see if
grounds to give women the
As preserved at Royal Navy Submarine Museum, Gosport.
And Toby Shaughnessy in
I’d react,” she says. “In the end I’d
opportunity to serve in any walk of
This model is hand cast in metal, black washed and polished to give a pewter effect, turn probably has mixed feelings
just tell him a dirtier joke than he’d
life that they want to where they
too. For Sophie Shaughnessy is
told and completely show him up.
can make a decent job of it,” he
mounted on a wooden plinth 11” x 2”
a lieutenant commander (most
I just had to fi ght fi re with fi re. In
says.
recently she served in HMS
the end I won.”
“I’m sure that we have
Grafton) – and, as she readily
For then Lt Shaughnessy joining
strengthened the Navy as a result
admits, “I’m normally on a ship
her fi rst ship a decade ago, the
too, because I think it has raised
with far more men than he is
important thing was to lay down
the quality of people who now
£35.00
women.”
her authority to some of the hoary
serve in the Navy whether they’re
+ £3.00 P&P
That is not to say that mixing stokers.
male or female.”
UK Only
men and women in the confi nes “I would have to really steel
And ‘Snowy’ Winter? Have his
of a warship does not lead to myself and say: ‘Right, I’m going
opinions changed in 17 years?
relationships. to go down and I’m going to talk to
“I don’t think anyone bats an
“They’re fairly common – and this particularly grumpy chief and
eyelid any more,” the warrant
not normally frowned upon too I’m going to tell him that I found
offi cer says. “It doesn’t matter
much unless, say, one of them is this was incorrect or wrong or
what sex you are, it doesn’t matter
a boss of the other,” says LMEM needs tidying up,’ because I knew
what your sexual orientation is,
Mark Lock, who went out with the way he would just look at me
you’ve got a job to do in the Navy.
a shipmate – from a different in that sort of contemptuous type
As long as you can do the job,
section; he also abided by the ‘no – Oh God, what do you know?”
that’s what matters.”
To order your model send your name, address and daytime telephone number,
touching’ rule. After a decade of women marina You can listen to the
along with your cheque or credit card details (visa/mastercard) to:
“I didn’t see there was a going to sea, such attitudes are interviews and read transcripts
problem with it – and no-one else disappearing fast, or have vanished at www.seayourhistory.org.uk
Skytrex Ltd, Unit 1 Charnwood Business Park, North Road,Loughborough,
had a problem with me.” entirely – from the RN, at any rate, in the ‘oral gallery’.
Leicestershire LE11 1LE Tel: 01509 213789 Fax: 01509 230874
email: sales@skytrex.com www.skytrex.com
PLEASE ALLOW UP TO 28 DAYS FOR DELIVERY
016_NN_Oct.indd 1 19/9/07 16:02:14
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52