The Making Of A Man.

Loch Killisport

HMS Loch Killisport arrived back in Bahrain on the 26th of May, and stayed for a few days before taking passage for Kuwait on the 8th of June.

She performed a patrol in the Northern Persian Gulf and visited Basra before returning to Bahrain on the 21st of June.

Then on the 24th she took passage to Colombo for routine docking and refit.

On August 3rd she left Colombo for Trincomalee.

She took part in the CENTO Exercise JET 55, where ships of the commonwealth took part in an joint exercise in the Indian ocean.

On completion of JET 55 she took passage to Mauritius on September 8th and arrived on the 17th.

She was In Mauritius to collect the Governor, Sir Robert Scott to take him on visits to British Dependencies. Visits to Agalega, Diego Garcia, Salomon, Perks Banhos and Rodriguez. They returned to Mauritius with the Governor on October 14th.

They stayed in Mauritius for just under a week before leaving for the Seychelles and then on to Tanga, they arrived in Tanga on November 1st 1955.

A week later they were in Mombasa and on the 11th were on patrol off the coast of Oman.

On the 18th of November whilst in Salalah, David's substantive rating changed to ORD, this stands for ordinary seaman.

There where two criteria for this to happen, boys class one were automatically promoted on their eighteenth birthday or in David's case as he was only seventeen, they are promoted after one to one and a half years seagoing experience and processing the rudiments of seamanship.

His service record was also changed to include a new description, he was now 5 feet 10 with a 39" chest. It also noted tattoos on both forearms.

On the 19th they sailed for Mlna-al-Ahmadi, Kuwait were they stayed for the Christmas period.

On January 1st 1956, she took passage to Aden after relief by HMS Loch Fada, Killisport was on its way back home, stopping at Malta and Gibraltar before returning to Portsmouth on February 2nd 1956 for a refit and re-commission.

On the 9th of March, David volunteered for another nine years of service, although this wasn't due to start until his eighteenth birthday.

The Crew of HMS Loch Killisport were paid off on the 9th of April 1956.

HMS Killisport later in its history became the first Royal Navy ship to use the Suez canal after it re opened in 1957.

The crown for the Ensign staff was made by Japanese prisoners of war at Johore, Malaya in 1946, it is reputed to be the only crown made for a British warship to be made by an enemy.