Hi Jim and welcome! Thank you so much for your lovely response about my dad. I am so grateful to you, Willum and Rod as it means a lot to me to read your words. I just wish I had discovered this forum whilst dad was alive as it has thrown up a lot of questions I would ask him. I am lucky that my mum kept those diaries and also kept all the letters dad ever wrote her from aboard ship (there are 495!) so do have some written record to refer to.
During dad's second stint on QE2, I was on board with mum in both July 1980 and July 1981 for the Norwegian Fjord cruises and also in April 1982 for a cruise to Madeira and Lanzarote. My final trip on the QE2 was in October 1982 for a Southampton-New York-Bermuda-New York-Southampton voyage.
We used to stay in dad's quarters and I was on a put you up bed in the sitting/office area. I loved the dinners in the Columbia restaurant and meeting the passengers who were sitting on dad's table - was a bit of a lottery who you had but remember that most were great (with a few horrors). In particular I fondly remember two lovely American couples who were travelling to Bermuda who were very lively and one of the ladies who had a good singing voice used to get up in the restaurant and serenade us with a rendition of 'Fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly'. They also used to take me to the piano or theatre bar after dinner (mum and dad went to bed) and on one occasion I probably had too much wine (I was 17 at time - dangerous age) and was spotted wobbling along back to dad's quarters carrying a black forest gateau by Stan Childs who told dad and then I was grounded in the cabin for a day!!
I remember Stan Childs and also his wife Brenda who was on board for the Madeira/Lanzarote trip and who was very nice. Mum kept in touch with her until she sadly passed away. I know that mum was also friendly with Doreen Farmer (mum travelled on old QE on final trip to Las Palmas and was seated on Bill Farmer's table along with Doreen - Dad was in Glasgow at time so she was on her own). Mum used to take me to visit her when I was a toddler as don't think they lived too far from us. The other person I recall was Ray Divett (who was always coming in for a chat - I liked him) and know that dad was very sad when he passed away - he even kept a cutting of the death notice in his address book. In fact Gwen Divett sent me a condolence card when dad died which was very touching. Other names that spring to mind are Michael Blake (who left Cunard in the 70's I think to run a travel agency in Atlanta and kept in touch with us for many years - his son is the one playing in the paddling pool with me when we were toddlers on that proving voyage in 1969), and Arthur Yardley, Ken Allen, Geoff Mills, Jack Marland and Maurice Tate. Am sure I will be reminded of more when I read the letters. I am not sure how all of them fit into the Cunard and QE2 picture as some might be from when dad was on QE or the Adventurer/Countess/Princess days in the 70's.
After he retired dad spent most of his time pottering at home in his workshop where he built two steam locomotives and joined the local model engineer's club. Sadly my mum had MS so he also spent a lot of time as her devoted carer until her death in 2002. Am very pleased he continued to live independently, albeit with increasing aches and pains, and he was delighted to have two grandchildren. He led a remarkable and fascinating life and I am enjoying putting the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle together. Thanks again, Jane.
Topic: New Member - did you know my father, Ron Bateson? (Read 14887 times)
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Sep 02, 2015, 10:37 PM