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Sub.Lt. John Raymond "Smiler" Ellis
Royal Navy HMS Cyclops
from:Yeovil, Somerset
My father was known as Ray Ellis, maybe nicknamed "Smiler". He was at Chatham by mid 1939, ie not conscripted but volunteered before the war. Then to Plymouth during the Blitz, then to Rothesay on the HMS Cyclops. He told me it was moored up all the time apart from one night a year, where "having lifted itself off its bed of empty gin bottles" it went to sea, and anchored, and came back next day. This allowed them to have the rum etc for another year.
He was a Sub-Lt all the way through and carried on his civilian skills (teaching physics and maths) by teaching personnel about navigation and anything else that was needed. My Aunt says he used to be in charge of the code books and carry them off the ship at night to our flat in Rothesay. He loved codes and years later, taught me the basics of code making, which I still love.
I was born early in 1945 in Rothesay. I was christened in the ship's bell. My dad was demobbed eventually, and we travelled down to his parents home in Somerset, with me in a carrycot made of white canvas, made by the sailmaker onboard, I can remember it, saved in our garage. After the war he went into the RNVR, helped at the Cadet group in his school, and joined the Civil Defence when that was formed.
