A Sailor's return

Before the war my father served in the Merchant Navy but in 1939 when war broke out he was called up to join the army. He explained to the recruiting officer of his past naval service and that he was a qualified stoker and would rather serve in the Royal Navy where his skills would be better used. Nothwithstanding this he was sent for army training. At the time no one really knew how long this war would last but my father realised that he was in the wrong service. Having failed many times to get a transfer to the Royal Navy he decided to take things into his own hands and so deserted and rejoined the Merchant Navy.
He served at sea, mainly on the North Atlantic convoy routes, throughout the war, even being torpedoed and having to be rescued by the Royal Navy. After the war he return home to what he thought was a much earned rest. Not so. One evening the Military Police called at his house and he was arrested for desertion and afterwards spent nearly two years in a Military prison.
The fact that he had just spent five years serving his country in the Merchant Service appeared to mean nothing. They even refused to award him his rightly deserved war medals. He was not bitter and accepted this as a consequence of his action. My family had been without their father for five years and when they finally got him back he was taken aware, leaving my mother and five children to fend for themselves, without any income. Only the kindness of his friends and neighbours kept them from destitution.

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