The Balmoral Restaurant - Afternoon Tea Crew

The first 6 photographs on this page were taken one afternoon while we were killing time in the Balmoral Restaurant waiting to start the afternoon tea shift from 4pm to 5pm. We were a day out of New York right at the start of the 1966 Great World Cruise. I've only been able to identify a couple of people in the gang, so if anyone can help put names to these faces, I'd be delighted to hear from you.

You may be wondering why it was that we were waiting around in the restaurant. Well, from 2pm to 6pm whilst at sea it was siesta time in the crew quarters, so you couldn't do anything in your cabin while others were there trying to get some well-earned sleep.

Within these photographs there are a few details of the surroundings in the Balmoral Restaurant. One view shows the only photograph I've seen of the restaurant clock, which unlike most of the other public room clocks was round rather than rectangular. The Sandringham Restaurant clock was sited in the raised bulkhead opposite the Staff Captain's table.

George - An Enigma

For the 1965 Summer Mediterranean Cruise, my first as an adult rating on the “Green Goddess,” George occupied the bunk below me. He was very much a larger-than-life character who could down 2 pints of beer in the time it took anyone else to take a few gulps from just one jug. Down “The Pig” he'd be the life and soul of the place, always ready to buy anyone a drink.

Then literally overnight he changed - he determined that he would lose weight before we got home to Southampton. So, he gave up the beer and, after dinner service when the crew had the use of Caronia's gym, George would be down there, often for as long as two hours a night. He'd frequently creep back into the cabin after everyone else was asleep.

He never went ashore once during the whole cruise! Well, he lost weight alright, in the space of 6 weeks he'd almost halved his weight. He needed to replace his outsize shirts and blues about 3 or 4 times in that period, just so he had uniform that fitted him. Something else changed too, he became a very much quieter and introverted character.

A few years later, he came up in conversation and I was told that when he visited his local pub, because he had changed so much, people shunned him. For some reason his joviality had disappeared along with his weight-loss. I was told that not long after, he committed suicide.

I hesitated a while before deciding to post this picture. However, it's here to show that he's by no means forgotten! I'm just hoping someone can remind me of his surname…