Edgar Cove Boat Builder: Rise and Fall of Family Business

STUDYING AT IMPERIAL COLLEGE 1942-1945

When I first entered Imperial College in 1942 nobody knew how long the war would last. Neither America nor Japan was yet involved, and despite the fact that we were getting material aid from America Britain was standing alone against a powerful enemy. Although we never entertained the possibility of defeat, everybody expected the war to last for many years and our Government had to plan accordingly.

Consequently those of us who had achieved a certain standard at school were able, with Government approval and support, to train as engineers and scientists at IC during the war with the ultimate object of maintaining the supply of qualified people for managerial positions in the armed forces and industry. Nevertheless, all of us who were at IC during that period were conscious of the fact that we were living a relatively protected existence while others, only a few years older than us, were fighting the enemy and facing the possibility of being killed every day. All sporting and recreational activities were therefore secondary to getting our degrees and any failure in the periodic examinations of the College as we progressed towards our final exams would lead to immediate termination of our college careers.

As soon as we left IC, with or without a degree, we had to either join the armed forces or go into whatever industrial position that the Ministry of Labour decreed for us. Under the "direction of labour" wartime laws one could not simply go out and find the most congenial job.

My intention was always to join the Navy, and to become an engineer officer one either had to join the Navy as a young cadet, finish schooling with the Navy, and then take the equivalent of a degree course at the Royal Naval Engineering College at Manadon. Then as Lt (E) RN one would go to sea and finally end up with an engine room watchkeeping certificate and embark on a naval career.

Those who were too old to follow that route could get an engineering degree elsewhere and then take a concentrated course at Manadon in naval engineering. After this one would proceed to sea, and in due course gain an engine room watchkeeping certificate. In this case one would be in the RNVR rather than the regular navy. This could lead to an offer of a permanent commission or otherwise one would be demobilised when one's services were no longer required. This was to be my route to the navy, always subject to getting through the degree course successfully.

During the period when I was there IC had (if I recall correctly) about 4000 students although others feel that this figure may be too high.

Student accommodation at the college was very limited and most of us were in digs. The lucky ones were around S. Kensington area but many of us were out in the suburbs and had to commute.

There was the occasional dance held in the Union. However, we were very short of women. There were about four or five in the City & Guilds College and somewhat more in the Royal College of Science and none, as far as I recall, in the Royal School of Mines. However, Bedford College in Regents Park had the same problem in reverse so for our Union dances a busload of them would come to join us for the evening. Not all of them went back on the bus! I recall walking my partner all the way from S.Kensington in the early morning hours, in the blackout, across Hyde Park and back to Bedford College in Regents park where a ground floor window would be conveniently unlatched for her to climb back in. Despite the possibility of air raids I think we were safer on this journey than would be the case today!

It was usually very noisy at night with planes overhead and anti aircraft fire making as much noise as the bombs themselves. During a raid the sky would be all lit up with searchlights looking for incoming planes. We often had to take shelter in our digs, sometimes several times a night. When the siren went we had to go into our "Morrison" shelter on the ground floor. This was a square structure like a steel table with a thick steel plate for the top and weldmesh sides joining the legs, the idea being that if the house collapsed around you there was a sporting chance of being dug out from the rubble in one piece.

Later the V1 flying bombs and, later still, the V2 rockets started coming I heard the very first V2 to come over. My digs were not far away and I heard this sudden explosion and wondered what it was as there had been no air raid warning nor had there been the familiar stuttering noise made by the ramjet engines of the pilotless V1 flying bombs. On arrival at College each morning one always hoped that there would be no bad news from one's friends.

During the long vacations in the summer we had to get "hands-on" engineering experience as apprentices in a factory. One summer I worked in a foundry, learning how castings were made and how a metallurgical laboratory controlled the quality of the product. For me, however, the greatest interest was the summer I worked at Rolls-Royce in Derby on a production line building Merlin and Griffon engines for our air force. I had always been interested in engines and it was a great experience to work on these advanced designs in the knowledge that the engines I was helping to assemble would soon be in the air fighting the enemy.

I also worked on the sub-assembly lines and found the setting up of the carburettors of these engines most interesting after the simple ones I had played with in our boats at home. Merlin carburettors had to go on working at various altitudes and also when the aircraft was fighting and in attitudes anything but level so they were quite complicated pieces of equipment. I also worked for a period on the test beds where new engines were run in and powered up for the first time. The test beds were fully active all day and night and the noise of the engines must have been audible to residents a long way away but nobody would complain about that in wartime.

Each year at the end of the summer term we were examined on the year's work, usually six subjects. All exams were completed in three days. There were no modules or resits. You passed, or you could not return next term to continue your course but were directed to a job selected for you by the Ministry of Labour. The final exams marked the end of my time at college. Since I had previously attended an Admiralty Selection Board and been accepted, I received a letter of appointment within a week. I was called upon to report to Portsmouth Naval HQ for an introductory course but my rank was prefixed "Provisional" because at that time it was not known whether or not I had been successful in the final examinations.

The introductory course was for a mixed bag of midshipmen of various specialities. There were lectures about what was expected of an officer and we spent some time marching up and down the parade ground being shouted at by a Chief Petty Officer until we could march, drill, and salute with swords in the approved manner. Once the CPO felt we could handle ourselves without letting the Service down we were dispersed to our various centres for specialist training before going to sea. In my case this involved a six months intensive course in Naval Engineering at the Royal Naval Engineering College at Manadon, after which I was appointed to my first ship.

John Cove
September 2010