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©Troy Family publications 2001-24 All rights reserved
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Updated every 3 months . Last update Jan 2024
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Jersey |
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March 24 |
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Website administrator Maurice R. Troy |
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If you have any comments you would like to add about anything on this website please contact the website administrator.
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Website administrator Maurice R. Troy |
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Edward Troy 1860-1924 Sarah Troy 1862-1925 |
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My cousin Patrick Troy’s life. (Written by him for his grandchildren).
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KNOW YOUR GRANDFATHER
1931 - 1950 I was born in Jersey on 17th December 1931. My father, Francis Patrick Troy was born in Jersey of Irish descent; his grandparents had arrived from Ireland in the 1850s. My mother Helen Freda Troy nee de Ste Croix was also born in Jersey, her father from an old Jersey family and her mother from St Servan in France. I was in Jersey throughout the German occupation I was educated in Jersey firstly at First Tower School from where I won a scholarship to Victoria College where I started in 1943. At school I was always in the top quartile scholastically and I was rather good at sports. For three years I was in the 1st XI football team, three years in the swimming team. In each year I went to England with the teams to compete against English schools. I won the gymnastics cup and the swimming cup. In 1949 I was the squash runner up. I was also one of the school's better boxers. I was a member of the Jersey Swimming Club and represented the island at swimming, diving and water polo at the junior level.I was a keen member of the JTC later to become CCF, as a Sergeant. Perhaps because of the German occupation I had always wanted to join the Royal Navy but at liberation I was over 13 and no longer eligible to take the entrance exam for Dartmouth. However I later successfully applied to join the Fleet Air Arm on a short service commission and was sent a Cadets uniform and instructions to join HMS Victorious as an aviation cadet but as an observer, not as I wanted, as a pilot. I was 17. I had however taken the Civil Service Commission Exam for entry into the Royal Navy and Royal Marine; My special subjects were physics and french. I once again underwent the Admiralty Interview Board and was offered a commission as a Probationary Second Lieutenant in the Royal Marines. As it was a permanent commission I accepted and in December 1949 a left school on my 18th birthday. 1950 - 1980 On 5th January 1950 I left Jersey to join the January 50 Batch of 2nd Lieutenants at the Depot Royal Marines, Deal to commence three years training. My pay at the time was £2.62 a week. There were four of us in the batch later to be joined by a fifth. The three years were spent on a series of naval and military courses including three months at sea in the Mediterrainian in HMS Vanguard, the last battleship and two terms at the Royal Naval College at Greenwich. And of course I had to qualify for my commando green beret. During these years I had represented the Royal Navy in the Cadets spring bayonet fencing competition at the Royal Tournament. I had also boxed once, unsuccessfully, for the Naval Officers Boxing Club against Cambridge University. At the end of December 1952 after having spent my 21st birthday in a slit trench on a snow covered Salisbury Plain, I completed my training and was now a Lieutenant RM which was the equivalent of an army Captain. In January 1953 I took up my first operational appointment when I joined HMS Ocean, a light fleet aircraft carrier, in Malta. Ocean had completed one tour in Korea during the war and I was to go in her for her second. Whilst in Malta I qualified as a shallow water diver. We sailed to her base in Japan via the Suez Canal ,Aden, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Singapore and Hong Kong. From Japan we operated off the west coast of Korea with our two squadrons of aircraft. I did have a couple of flights from the deck in a Firefly; one of which was to Korea when I went up to the 38th parallel. The capital, Seoul, was in ruins. In June 1953 a truce was signed but we remained in Japan before returning home for Xmas. We were to remain in dry dock in Devonport being converted into a cadet training ship. I left Ocean in June 1954 for my next appointment. I was to join the Amphibious School RM at Eastney Barracks (now no longer), to commence my training for the SBS. Training was arduous and involved diving, canoeing, demolitions, beach reconnaissance, escape and evasion and parachuting.(During my career I was to complete in the order of ninety jumps from a variety of fixed wing aircraft and helicopters on to land and in to the sea). While under training I took part in an exercise in North Norway, we landed by canoe from Norwegian fishing boats. With my patrol was a Norwegian Home Guard officer named Tom Bergly but more about him later. I completed my training successfully by which time the Amphibious School had move to Poole; and was appointed to command the SBS in Germany in the Royal Naval Rhine Squadron, HMS Royal Prince. I went to Germany in June 1955 and was to stay for two years. Our role was to support the British Army of the Rhine during the cold war with Russia. We would assist in any river crossings and provide stay behind parties should the Russians advance. A subsidiary role was to assist in clearing the Rhine of barge traffic during times of tension. For this we had four minor landing craft and our area of responsibility was Duisberg Harbour. Our Admiral was Gillian Cambell’s grandfather. I had an enjoyable time as in addition to the major exercises we spent two periods with the Belgian paras, making sixteen jumps some of which were from a balloon. We did the Nijmegen marches twice in Holland, spent two winter periods at the Army leave centre at Winterberg learning crosscountry skiing ( whilst there I came second in the BAOR novices downhill);,we went twice to the Mohne Dam for diver training and had a superb two week cruise down the Moselle by canoe. I was also fortunate enough to skipper a ML down the Rhine and through the Dutch canals to the North Sea and back. My crew consisted of SBS, two German stokers and a coxswain from landing craft. During the time I served in Germany I bought my first car in Jersey a second hand Citroen, which I took to Germany but regrettably it never came back as I wrote it off. My next appointment in May 1957, was to Poole now the Joint Services Amphibious Warfare Centre,as a training officer for SBS. The highlight of this appointment was a six week snow warfare course at Dombas in Norway in1958. While at Dombas I met the Norwegian Home Guard officer I had met in N Norway in 1954. He offered to look after some of us when we were in Oslo on our way back to UK. Through him I first met Erna. In June 1958 I was appointed to 42 Commando RM at Bickleigh in Devon. 42 was preparing to embark in Britain’s first commando helicopter carrier, HMS Bulwark but the refit of Bulwark had slipped a bit and it was not until early 1960 that we embarked. In the meantime however.we deployed in a hurry in HMS Centaur to St Patrick’s Barracks in Malta and subsequently to Tarhuna in Libya as there was a Middle East crisis. King Idris was still in power in Libya. On return from this deployment in January 1959, I was sent on another six week winter warfare course, this time run by the Norwegian army at their Winter School at Elverum. During this course I met Erna again. The rest is history; Erna came to UK in the summer and in October we were married in St Olav’s Kirke in Oslo, one of the few Roman Catholic churches in Norway, now just months off 50 years ago. We moved into what was little more than a shack in Yelverton on the edge of Dartmoor but this was only for a short period as 42 was to sail in Bulwark in April 1960. Erna was to stay with my parents in Jersey. Bulwark with 42 and 848 Naval Air Squadron (Whirlwind Mk 2 helicopters) embarked and sailed for Singapore where we were to be based, via Gibraltar, Malta, Libya, Aden and Colombo. Once we were established in our barracks in Sembawang, wives and families joined us having come out in the troopship Nevasa. There were no married quarters available for families so we had to live in guest houses until such time as we found a house to rent. We found a bungalow at 1 Morley Road, Singapore 10. The unit was away from Singapore quite a lot exercising in Hong Kong, Borneo, Kenya and Aden but I did manage to get Erna to Aden for a short spell. I was fortunate to command X Troop and was with them when 42 made an operational landing by helicopter from Bulwark into Kuwait in 1961 to deter the Iraqis from invading Kuwait. We succeeded on this occasion. Social life in Singapore was great and it was in 1961 that Timothy was born in the British Military Hospital. His godfather was Ian Scott-Bell. In December 1961 we returned to UK. During foreign service leave which we spent in Jersey and Norway, I had to return to UK to sit the Staff College/Promotion exam at which due to my lack of preparation, I was expected to do dismally but much to everyones surprise, I passed all the papers and missed the cutting score for Staff College by a few points. I don’t think I was cut out to be a staff officer anyway and enjoyed my time as a regimental officer. In early 1962 I returned to Poole, now the Amphibious Training Unit RM to rejoin Special Boats Company firstly as Training Officer and the as OC 1 SBS. Once again no quarters were available so for a short period we lived in Coastguard Cottages at Sandbanks before moving into a bungalow at 46 Lower Blandford Road in Broadstone. During this time I was to do a course with the army at Warminster, the All Arms Tactics Course. I was also to take 1 SBS on exercises in N Norway, Denmark, Holland and Alderney. It was at Poole that Erna gave birth to twins only one, Jeremy, survived and who regrettably died a year later after we had moved to the White House in Corfe Mullen. My next appointment in 1964 was to RM Barracks Eastney for pre-embarkation training for HMS Protector for service in the S Atlantic.This was a relatively short period and we borrowed a quarter in “Teapot Row” in the barracks. When I embarked in Protector Erna and Timothy went to Norway, Timothy was three on the way over in the ferry. He went to a nursery school in Sandefjord. Protector sailed for the Falklands from Portsmouth in September 1964 and we went via Gibraltar, Madeira, Rio de Janeiro and,Montevideo. My jobs on board in addition to being Officer Commanding Royal Marines were Ship’s Diving Officer,Senior Watchkeeper Mail Officer and Confidential Books Officer.We were in Stanley for the 300th anniversary of the Royal Marines so the Detachment were able to throw a cocktail party to celebrate to which we invited selected members of the ship’s company and it seemed most of the adult population of Stanley. We hrld it in the Falkland Islands Defence Force drill hall. I made one trip down to South Georgia before the Detachment were ordered to land in the Falklands and take up residence in a derilect old wireless station at Moody Brook. An Argentinian light aircraft had landed on the racecourse, planted an Argentinian flag and taken off again , From the time we landed until the Argentinians landed in 1982 there was a continual Royal Marines presence with Moody Brook being constantly improved however we spent most of our time making Moody Brook habitable for us by putting in windows,laying on electricity,caulking the roof,putting in heads and showers and cutting peat for the galley. Sleeping quarters were primitive, airbeds and sleeping bags with compo boxes for stowage of kit. I was lucky as I lived in town with the Chief of Police. In 1982 Moody Brook was blown up by the Argentinians. One of our tasks was to train the Falkland Islands Defence Force. The main aim was to create a presence in the islands to deter aggression from Argentina and it was due to this presence that in 1982 that Britain was able to launch the retaking of the islands. When Naval Party 8901 relieved us in 1965 we re embarked in Protector for the passage home. Our first port of call was Punta Arenas in Chile. From there I flew to Santiago with the Naval Attache to prepare for the ship’s arrival in Valparaiso. I stayed a few days with the attaché during which time I went on a picnic with him and his family to the mountains overlooking Argentina when we experienced quite a large earthquake. Protector’s ships company were later to be involved in disaster relief. From Valparaiso we went to Lima, Peru then Panama City before transitting the Panama Canal bound for Kingston, Jamaica.From Jamaica we sailed for Portsmouth via Gibraltar. On arrival in Portsmouth I found Erna and Timothy waiting and by this Timothy was talking; but Norwegian and I could only talk to him through Erna. We went on leave first to Jersey where we left Timothy with his grandparents while we flew to Gibraltar and on to Torremolinos long before it became the resort it is today On completion of leave we went back to Eastney Barracks where I took over HQ Company on a temporary basis for a couple of months. We once again lived in “Teapot Row” In 1965 we returned to Singapore; I had been appointed to 42 Commando as OC Lima Company. This was during the period of confrontation with Indonesia. .Once again we lived in a guest house whilst seeking accommodation. I was sent to the Jungle Warfare School in Johore before taking over the company. Whilst there I was told that an officer who had been sent out to command the SBS did not feel that he had sufficient experience for the job. I had a “pier head jump” into SBS. Not only did I take over the job from my predecessor but also his house, his amah, his dog and his little motorbike. Although I enjoyed my time in SBS it was not a good move careerwise. SBS was part of HQ 3 Commando Brigade RM. We always had a section deployed in Borneo and in Singapore we worked very closely with the 7th Submarine Squadron developing techniques for exiting and re entering raiding parties from dived submarines by night having previously joined the submarine at sea by parachute. One of my officers was Paddy Ashdown, later to become Leader of the Liberal Party and now Lord Ashdown. Together with 7th SM Sqn we had a good liaison with the US Pacific Submarine Flotilla and the Commander SM 7 and I visited them in the Philipines and in Japan to exchange views. The Vietnam war was at it’s height. We had an interesting trip in USS Tunney, a troop carrying submarine, from Yokosuka, Japan to Naha, Okinawa. Tunney had been involved with landings in N Vietnam. Whilst still with SBS I had an opportunity to go to Australia as an umpire in a Brigade amphibious exercise. Post exercise we were in Brisbane. I had only had one previous brief visit to Australi,to Sydney. Socially life in Singapore continued to flourish with much of our time spent with the submariners. In1966 Ian was born in the British Military Hospital. His godfather was Mike Wilkins who was to become our Commandant General and later Governor of Guernsey. I did a Colloquial Malay language course which I passed. In 1966 we moved into our first quarter in Nepal Park and Timothy after some time at an Anglo/Chinese/Malay kindergarten started at the British Army Primary School. In January 1967 I returned to 42 Commando and was to become OC M Company. The highlight of my time in M Company was the covering of the final withdrawal of the British from Aden. 42 were the very last to leave. Unfortunately M Coy were to suffer two casualties through gunshot wounds. The only other casualty suffered by 42 was one marine in K Company killed in action. Some time after the withdrawal we were to return to the Gulf in the Commando Carrier should we have to go back into Aden. A month at sea. My next appointment in August 1968, was as the exchange officer with the US Marine Corps as a Major. We travelled as a family to New York in the French liner France. We went by rail to Quantico, Virginia where I was to do a USMC Amphibious Warfare Staff Course before joining the 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune North Carolina. We had a quarter on the Base and Timothy went to the Base Primary School. It was at Quantico that I was to play my first golf. On the course were officers from the Marine Corps of Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Philippines, South Korea and Taiwan. Collectively we were known as Foreign Military Trainees and as such were invited to the inauguration of President Nixon in Washington DC. We also we were taken to Cape Kennedy to see the rockets before the moon launch. One of my USMC classmates was to become Commandant of the USMC. Another friend at Quantico was to become Marine aide to President Nixon until Watergate. Before moving to Camp Lejeune I visited the USMC in Nevada and California; in 29 Palms, Barstow and San Diego. On arrival in the 2nd Marine Division we moved into another quarter on the Base and Timothy started at Stone Street School on the base. I was assigned to the 8th Marine Expeditionary Brigade as Assistant Operations Officer for a large NATO amphibious exercise in Greece. We wrote the orders for the exercise, which included 41 Commando RM, and sailed for the Mediterrean in USS Francis Marion from Moorhead City NC to join up with the remainder of the units taking part. En route we called at Gibraltar, Barcelona and Naples. After the exercise we returned to the US nonstop. The Brigade HQ was dispersed and I was assigned to 2nd Marine Regiment as Executive Officer (2i/c). The regiment consisted of three infantry battalions. I was later to instruct in cold weather warfare training at Fort Drum in Upper New York State. Socially we had a wonderful time and really enjoyed our time in the States. Timothy went to yet another US school. On return to UK in mid 1970 we moved to RM Barracks, Eastney and I was appointed to command R Independent Commando Company; a recruiting company which sent teams all over the UK to schools and shows to publicise the Royal Marines and the Royal Navy as I had naval ratings under command. I even managed to get the whole company to the Channel Islands together with two Sioux helicopters and an MFV from Poole. It was from Eastney that Timothy first went to school in UK at the age of nine, St Peters Prep at Lympstone where they called him Yank. We got a red setter puppy called Roff. We lived in a very nice quarter right on the beach front. RM Barracks is alas no longer except for the officers mess which is now the RM Museum. In February 1972 we went to the Depot RM, Deal where I was to command the Commando Wing where all the junior marines joining the Corps spent their first 26 weeks before completing their commando training to qualify for the coveted green beret at Lympstone. I also had all adult recruits for the first two weeks of their training and where we sorted out those who would never make marines. My time at Deal was most rewarding. We were living in a lovely Georgian residence but we decided that it was time that we bought a house and this we did; a small new house in Sandwich in 1973. While at Sandwich Erna qualified as a District Nursing Sister and worked on the district. At the end of 1973 I was appointed to the Staff of the Commodore Amphibious Warfare as a local Lieutenant Colonel. We were part of Flag Officer Carriers and Amphibious Ships staff based at Fort Southwick on the hills above Portsmouth. We remained living in Sandwich and when in UK I commuted weekly. This job was a NATO job and involved a lot of travelling and time at sea on major NATO exercises in N Norway, Mediterranean and the West Indies. I visited Norway, Denmark, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Gibraltar, Sardinia, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, Malta, United States, Puerto Rico, Aruba, and Curacao. Most on more than one occasion. The biggest event was the Turkish invasion of Cyprus when I was deployed to Cyprus with part of FOCAS staff to organize the evacuation of tourists by sea using the amphibious ships and their helicopters. The two units to land as a precaution were 40 Commando and 41 Commando. FOCAS was later to plan a run the last major NATO amphibious exercise in the Mediterranean, at Saros Bay in Turkey. The UK commitment alone was the two LPHs,two LPDs and five LSLs and of course 3rd Commando Brigade. Fortunately there were still enough experienced people around in 1982 to provide the expertise when the Argentians invaded the Falklands. It was during this time that Timothy moved to Bethany School and Ian started at Grenham House. Whilst at FOCAS I passed the Colloquial Norwegian course. From FOCAS I was appointed to RM Poole as Chief Training Officer, an appointment which did not please me as I considered it a non job as Landing Craft, SBS and Technical Training all had their own training officers and there was no co ordinating to do. At this time we bought a house in Wimborne. At Poole I was able to keep up my minutes under water to qualify for my diving pay and get in the occasional parachute jump. After three years at Poole I fell out with the Commanding Officer over my non job and ended up being appointed to HQ Commando Forces in Plymouth in December 1978. I was with HQ Commando Forces for the remainder of my time in the Corps and I commuted weekly from Wimborne, living in the Joint Forces mess at Mount Wise during the week. My first task was to command the landing craft detachment of British and Dutch landing craft at Ramsund in North Norway for the annual winter deployment from early January to thr end of March 1979. I also liaised closely with the Norwegian landing craft squadron and in effect I had operational control of them in the final exercise. I spent the remainder of my time preparing an outline proposed scheme of complement and equipment tables for 539 Amphibious Squadron which was to be formed. My final action in the Corps was to revisit Ramsund in December to prepare for the 1980 landing craft winter deployment. On 17th December 1979, my 48th birthday, I retired from the Royal Marines. 1980 – For the first nine months of my retirement I was desperately trying to find employment, sending off countless job applications. We live off my paltry pension (I had retired during a pay freeze), the dole and Erna’ earnings as a district nurse. It was at this time that we elected to send Ian to Allhallows. I did a six week government residential course for a diploma in Export Marketing Management. In October I finally secured a job with Cerf Oil. Cerf Oil was an oilfield service company supplying expatriate contract technical personnel to major oil companies in SE Asia. The principal client was Mobile Oil Indonesia. I was the Manager based in Singapore on an unaccompanied basis with home leave every six months. However Erna was able to come out to visit me. Timothy and Ian also visited, I eventually had a flat in Singapore. My parish included Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand plus one visit to the Phillipines . Most of my time however was spent in Medan and Djarkarta. National oil companies began to cut down on the numbers of expatriates employed in the industry and Cerf ceased operating in late 1982. I was again unemployed. As I had been working abroad I was not entitled to unemployment benefit but I still had to sign on fortnightly to qualify for old age pension purposes. After three months in 1983 I joined JBI, an insurance and investment company. After training in the finance business I set out to sell insurance and investments to expatriates in my old parish in SE Asia extended to include Brunei, Sabah and Sarawak. This involved much commuting between UK and SE Asia before I spent a couple of months in Cyprus. I was then persuaded by a friend in mid 1984, to join the Saville Row branch of Allied Dunbar to continue selling to expatriates in SE Asia, more long distance commuting. I tired of all the commuting and decided to give the local branch of Allied Dunbar in Bournemouth a try in January 1985. It was awful and I stuck to it until I visited my mother in Jersey and happened to call on my cousin, Dick Shenton, who asked me what I was doing and whether I was enjoying it. I told him that I was not and he suggested that I went to see Rossborough Insurance Brokers. This I did and had an interview next day and three weeks later at the end of October 1985 I joined them and was eventually to be a Director of the Financial Services until my retirement in December 1996. For the first year I lived with my mother and commuted back to Wimborne at weekends until we found Baudains House and moved in in September 1986. For several years I was the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Jersey Scouts Association and then for ten years I was the President of the Jersey Sea Cadet Association. I was for a time also a committee member of the Jersey branch of the British Institute of Management. Latterly I raised about £30000 for the Trinity Sailing Trust to enable under privileged youths of Jersey to sail in their Brixham trawlers. Socially I was a member of the Victoria Club for nearly twenty five years before resigning when the club experienced problems. I was also a member of the St Helier Yacht Club. For ten years we owned a Westerly Centaur, Boondoggle, which we used locally and in the other Channel Islands and the French coast. It was when we sold Boondoggle that we bought our house in Brittany in July 2004. In 2006 I took Timothy and Ian on a crosscountry skiing holiday in Norway. My mother and my aunt owned property in Albert Street and before they died my cousin and I demolished the property and built eleven one bedroom flats, Franchard. Most of them were sold off but my mother gave one each to my sister and me. Mine is No 6. Ian lived in it from new for a year. In the nineties I joined the Scientific Exploration Society and with them I went on seven expeditions; two to India and Nepal, one to Burma (now Myanmar), one to Sarawak, two to South America and one to Ethiopia. Those to India and Nepal were to seek an unusually large elephant, Burma was to look at river dolphins in the river Irrawaddy, look at the working conditions of working elephants and to visit the mangrove in the south which was being cut for the making of charcoal and thus affecting wildlife in the swamps. The two in South America involved sailing reed boats down the rivers to the Atlantic to examine whether it would have been possible for Incas to do so. The first was from Bolivia to Buenos Aires down the Paraguay and Parana rivers and the second in Brazil using the Madeira and Amazon rivers. In Ethiopia the purpose was to rerun parts of a previous expedition on the Blue Nile using inflatable boats. This one I finished two weeks before my seventy fourth birthday. I am currently a Trustee of the Jersey branch of the Scientific Exploration Society. In 2008 a monument was unveiled in Stanley, Falklands Islands to commemorate the long association between the Falklands and the Royal Marines. I was fortunate enough to attend. I remain a member of the Royal Marines Association, the Association of Royal Navy Officers, the British Legion, the RNLI and I am a founder member of the Special Boats Service Association.
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My Jersey cousin Patrick Troy’s life story including his interesting career in the Royal Marines.
Written by him for the benefit of his grandchildren. |
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Major Patrick Troy Royal Marines |