To all you little old ladies........

One of my duties on the Leeds Castle was to look after the forward hold.

This was used for storing all manner of supplies to be distributed around the task force. You may wonder why this mundane fact is worth a mention - let me enlighten you!

Here we are in the inhospitable waters of the South Atlantic, part of a military task force sent to do a job. This task force consists of many ships, crewed by men aged 17 and upwards. Imagine, you're 17 and at war, but, technically, you are to young to drink!

This task force is 7000 miles away from home, family and loved ones. The conditions can be severe, coupled with the threat of attack. These men are constantly keeping defence watches, this means wearing anti flash and carrying respirators, just in case. You are either on watch or of - usually sleeping. So it can be a pretty miserable existence, if you let it.

Now, the average military guy tends not to let things get him down. There's often a movie to watch, a game of crib to play, a game of Uckers ( a navy version of Ludo) or any number of things to pass the time whilst not on duty. Nevertheless, it's still great to know that people at home are thinking about you. That's where the forward hold comes in.

Alongside bits of equipment and essential supplies - the hold was often packed full of goodies. These goodies ranged from crates of beer to warm clothing. Pretty boring? Well, no, far from it.

In actual fact quite of lot of these items came from the public back home. People had taken the time to send 'stuff' to the troops. I myself, a small perk of the job, benefited from a particularly warm balaclava and a pair of woolly fingerless gloves (these gloves got many years service).

None of this is special - right? Well, when you know that these items were being knitted by, I think, mostly little old ladies and then sent South, your viewpoint changes. Quite often, these little parcels contained letters of support from these little old ladies. I for one, as did many others, find this uplifting - proof really, that beside our loved ones - there were people we didn't know thinking of us. A great feeling that - believe me.

So, to all you little old, and not so old, ladies who thought of us and did their bit to raise our spirits - THANK YOU!