OS. John William Ormsby
Royal Navy HMS Ambuscade
from:Woodfalls, Salisbury
John Ormsby was my father and he told his four children that he signed up for the Royal Navy after being shot at by a German plane while ploughing a field at his place of work in Woodfalls just outside Salisbury. He had been at grammar school in Salisbury but made to leave school before the leaving age as his parents needed and expected him to earn a living. He did not want to join the army after hearing about his father's experiences in WW1 in the Tank Corp so signed up with the RN.
After training at HMS Nelson, John was assigned to the destroyer HMS Ambuscade (D38). He told us of the terrible cold they all endured and how ice would form on your beard as they were deployed on the Arctic convoys. Tea was served in buckets and they smoked Players cigarettes. Always cold and often wet, the tea was a lifeline.
As children we had no central heating in our home because Dad was never cold.
