Upon joining St Vincent, the boys were separated into new entry classes to determine their abilities, this initial four week assessment determined if they were to join an advance class or a general class based on their educational ability.
David's new entry class was "Grenville Class" I only know this due to the following photo found online.
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His Naval record would of been started on day one and his recorded him as being 5 feet 8 3/4 with a chest size of 35in. He had brown hair, blue eyes and his complexion was listed as fresh.
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The first thing the new classes had to do was get get kitted up, they had to pack their civilian clothes in a suitcase and these were then taken from them and put into storage. They were not allowed to keep them and had to take them back home on the first trip back and not return with them.
The kit included the uniform and many items that would be useful for their time in the Navy, nearly everything was provided including a stamp kit and a sewing kit. The sewing kit was used to chain stitch their name onto every item of clothing in the their kit, not so bad for David Gale but you would have to feel sorry for someone with a longer name like Lawrence Braithwaite!
In the picture below you will see some of the kit, laid out neatly for a daily inspection. I still have some of David's items along with the suitcase he used at the time.
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Next up was the haircut, very short, nice and easy!
Then they were taken to their beds and given bedding and lockers, the dormitories had around 30 beds each and the boys had to strip their beds in the morning, fold the sheets and blanket and put it on the end of the bed. They were being taught at a very early stage to be neat and organized.
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The boys were awoken at 6am, had breakfast from 6.30am to 7.30am and then had to be in their classes by 8.30am. Once a week they would have a laundry morning, this meant they had to be up at 5am and take everything they had (clothes,underwear,sheets and bedding) to the laundry, when finished they had a shower before returning to the dormitory with all their equipment and neatly setting it out exactly how they had been shown.
They had to quickly learn how to use a iron, as some of the trousers had to be ironed inside out with seven perfect creases.
On occasions the Duty Petty Officer would make the boys peel back their foreskin to prove that they had cleaned everywhere and correctly. This doesn't sound pleasant, but it was yet another life lesson that the Navy was giving the boys, it was to teach them that they had to stick to strict routine and that they couldn't afford to have any inhibitions in the Navy, once out at sea everyone was in close quarters and they couldn't afford to be shy or coy about such things.
The classes taught them everything they needed to know about the Navy and sea craft, from the basics to the advanced techniques that they would need on a day to day basis. Also the boys were taught about team work, and as result St Vincents had boxing, athletics, hockey, football, rugby, cricket teams that would compete against each other or the other training establishments.
Each boy was given a seamanship manual and a Navy Ratings manual so they could study in their spare time.
When the boy's first joined they were known as Boys 2nd Class, they were paid 17/6d a week of which they were allowed 5 shillings pocket money and 5 shillings to send back home to their parents. So in today's terms they earned roughly 210 pence a week and had 60 pence pocket money and 60 pence to send home. This doesn't sound much but as they were only allowed out of the barracks on Saturday's and Sunday's between 1pm and 6pm, 60 pence was more than enough for the time.
The remaining money was put into a post office bank savings account and was only accessible after they had left HMS St Vincent.
The boy's were not allowed to leave the barracks or receive visitors in their first 4 1/2 weeks, apart from one special visitors day.
After the first visit home, the boys were divided into more formal groups based on their abilities.
David was placed into Hawke 73.
Amended & Updated July 2020.
In June 2020, it was discovered that Davis didn't actually join Hawke 73.
The next section will start with an explanation of this error.
