HMS St VINCENT.The Royal Navy New Entrants Establishment

When I joined the Royal Navy, I was given a railwaly warrant to Southsea station Portsmouth, As I got off the train I was met by a very friendly three badge P.O.Stoker.He stood at the platform gate and all the new entrants were identified, collected into a group of twenty, and ambled down to the Gosport Ferry.Where the PO STOKER,paid all our fares to the otherside, where a pussers bus was waiting, a nice we run the halfmile up to Vincent into the gates, into a dormitory and a nice cup of tea. After half an hour we were taken to a classroom, read the articles and told that if we wanted to go home now we could and here were the tickets lying on the desk, just identify yourself, walk to the front and you got a ticket home. One boy did, got his ticket and away he went no bother at all. The rest of us signed up on the articles, and within twenty minutes had no hair and within an hour had a full naval kit,from toothbrush to marching boots marchingboots marching boots marching boots marching boots, number one uniform number two uniform number three uniform number eights number tens (no number tens was a punishment) kit bag suitcase holdall, everything a person would ever need except hair