Anti Submarine Craft

My father had been employed during the twenties and thirties at a luxury car factory in Cobham Surrey. The Company had been formed by Sir Noel Macklin.

In 1939 just before the war, the company changed direction and became the Fairmile Marine Company. It secured contracts from the Admiralty for the manufacture of fast patrol boats based on an American design. These were designated ML, MGB and MTBs. These craft were manufactured at small boat yards around the country throughout the war. My father was given the task of supervising the engine installations at boatyards in Devon and Cornwall. My parents and I moved to Cornwall for the duration of the war. My father operated out of Looe and had a small Fiat car to visit the boatyards. I recall that there were yards at Looe, Appledore Brixham and Falmouth and a few others. Because of the tight security and absence of photography during the war, practically no records exist of this activity which is surprising as many able bodied men who were not of military age were employed in the activity. At the end of the war my father was rewarded with a BEM and I have some small correspondence in connection with this. By this time Sir Noel Macklin was in poor health and car manufacturing was not resumed.

I found the enforced evacuation quite difficult to handle as the educational syllabi did not match. Similar disruption took place at the end of the war when we returned to Surrey.I was just seven years old at the start of the war.

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