After 20 years of involvement with the Navy, which ended in the late 1980s, I can identify an aircraft carrier or a submarine; but anything in between is a blur of grey metal with a pointy end and a blunt end. Except for RFA TIDESURGE which, without any qualifications, I was allowed to steer across the South China Sea for five hours in a moment of madness. That is a ship whose shape and size I will always be able to remember. Sadly she no longer exists and has long been sent to a ships' graveyard to be reduced to razor blades.
But I have immense pride that for a while I was on the periphery of the Senior Service and shared life with someone involved in the defence of our country, wardroom rugby, RPCs (Request Pleasure of the Company). In other words alcoholic orgies. With him I endured brushes with the KGB, Special Branch, MI5 & MI6 (not all at once of course).
There were sudden surprises such as my husband being sent to the Antarctic for eight months when baby number two was imminent or finding myself in Singapore unofficially and living in a tiny flat in a Chinese village and working in the Navy Base. We were there for the final year of history before the British Forces withdrew forever on the 31 October 1971.
Life was never dull and spanned many adventures juggling three children and taking care of the home-made wine while he was away. Or jumping on a plane with a child under each arm to join him on an unaccompanied post in Hong Kong for months.
Without the sisterhood of Navy wives, some of whose stories are included in this book, life would have been much more arduous.
About the Author: Mary started creating stories in her head when she was paralysed from the neck down at the age of 4 with a combination of polio and diphtheria. She spent two months in an isolation hospital unable to move. Not allowed toys or books because of possible cross infection, and unable to see her family except for once a week through a glass window, her imagination was her only companion.
When she was finally released from hospital but still struggling to walk properly, she started putting her stories and drawings down on paper. Mary was five when a local newspaper reporter learned of this and wrote an article about her. The paper also published her first story about a teddy bear.
She has enjoyed writing ever since and has had a number of different forms of creative writing published and broadcast including two children's stories published in hardback by Ladybird books.
Her dissertation on 'Care of the terminally ill cancer patient and their family' won the Institute of Welfare Officers Della Phillips national award. This was published and used as a model to set up a hospice abroad.
Prior to marriage into the Navy, Mary worked for the NHS, first as a student nurse at St. Bartholomew's Hospital in London. Mary changed career direction to become a medical secretary at the Royal Victoria Hospital Bournemouth, then as assistant medical social worker at the same hospital. Mary's hard work and dedication earned her a place as deputy personnel officer and part of the commissioning team at the new Poole General Hospital.
In 1970 she married a Royal Navy helicopter pilot. Her book, "Green Smarties," gives an insight into what life was like for a Royal Navy wife in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s when the Navy still had postings abroad and life within the service was very different.
Mary has three children and five grandchildren. Her hobbies include playing acoustic guitar and singing in public, creative writing and performing on stage with the Bournemouth Gilbert and Sullivan Society. Mary also enjoys co-presenting programmes and heading the on-air interview team for Hospital Radio Bedside - the local hospital radio station covering five hospitals.
