The children managed to survive the changes of school and I’m sure, in retrospect, benefited from their varied experiences, certainly it did them no harm at all and were able to make friends easily.
Our final move in 1980, was to my department’s headquarters based in Bath. In August 1984, I was posted to serve on the Royal Fleet Auxiliary Fort Austin, (pictured below) which then spent 4 months down in the South Atlantic based in the Falkland Islands. The shooting war was well over by then but we were all on a high state of readyness/alert in case the Argentinians tried it on again (their Air Force was very successful and was still a possible threat). We returned to UK just in time for Christmas when Gill and the 3 children joined me on board for 2 weeks in Plymouth Sound. On 31st March 1985 I retired a little bit early, in Bath, and took up Association Croquet, Bridge and Genealogy!
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The R.F.A. “Fort Austin” an Armaments, Air Stores and Victualling Replenishment ship, anchored in San Carlos Bay, East Falkland in September 1984.