Bob Venning (Security Officer)

[Stephen Venning]

Hello everyone.

Ive joined this site to acquire information on the late Bob Venning, he was a security officer on the ship.

I am the grandson of Bob and never really got to know him on an adult level or what he did on the ship, as he sadly passed away 16 years ago when I was 7. Brenda Venning who is Bobs widow and shares with me stories about there time on the ship and it fascinates me. Brenda has had a hard time recently due to her son Jeff being taken from us so young at 58.

Hence this is why Ive signed up to find out about any stories or pictures anyone has of my grandad to cheer my Nan up through these difficult times, I look forward to hearing back from you.

Regards

Stephen Venning

[Isabelle Prondzynski]

Welcome aboard, Stephen!

It is amazing to see the impact QE2 has had, in this case as far as the third generation at least. She was that sort of ship...

I look forward to reading some of your memories of your grandfather's time on board, the stories he or Brenda would have told you.

You have material here already, to start your search with -- if you use the "Search" button on the blue stripe at the top of the page, and enter Venning, quite a few mentions will come up. I am sure that other memories will appear here over the next while, as people have time to reminisce, dig out photos and reply.

Enjoy the Forum!

[cunardqueen]

Hi Stephen

I do know your Grand Father went or had the nickname Bob the Bomb, now quite why or how he got this nick name is anyones guess, but hopefully someone can shed more light on this.
If you go onto Youtube and look for Alan Whickers Fast Boat to China programmes from all the way back in 1983 when  he did the Great Pacific and Oriental cruise there is some nice footage showing him on the beach dealing with some crew trouble.Need we say any more than Bangkok....

I always remember his phrase on dealing with crew and passenger liaisons ...That the Passengers could but the crew could not and while the passengers can do no wrong being a passenger the crew can do a lot of wrong being a crew member.   

[John Grace]

Bob Venning .... was a gentle gentleman. As far as I recall, like all of us, he liked to have a quiet drink and like all of us when one drink leads to another in the quest to be social too many are consumed. It was the way the ship was when I was on board - very sociable. Anyway, the incident I believe that can be attributed to Bob was the lost hand gun... by all accounts the ship had two hand guns on board, one was kept with the master and the other was secreted away by the security officer. According to ships folk lore at the time, I wasn't on board when this happened, as the story goes Bob hid the second hand gun while less than sober consequently when asked where it was his memory drew a blank. I believe a search was made of the ship, but, honestly anyone intent on hiding something who had a good knowledge of the ship could find nooks and crannies nobody else would think of looking in.....the search was an exercise in futility. To my knowledge the gun was never found and Bob became something of a folk hero. I'm not sure in those days we took much seriously, of course it was serious, but, for most of us it was just something to smile about.

[Peter Mugridge]

Is it just possible that the weapon in question is still hiding away on board to this day?

[John Grace]

It is possible although the ship has gone through a lot of iterations of change since then, but, I'm sure there are parts of the ship that haven't been touched over the years...not in the public areas of course as a lot of renovation and change has occurred there. Maybe somewhere "below decks" the weapon lies waiting for someone to retrieve it..... who knows

[riskygizmo]

Bob was "the Bomb" because he was an ex Royal Engineers bomb disposal officer. After the bomb hoax in '72, it made sense for Cunard to have him on the payroll, I guess.

[Alan Snelson]

Such a lovely kind man who became a good friend, he dug me out of trouble on a couple of occasions.

I was often invited to his cabin for a 'couple of liveners' usually after Captains inspection, here are a couple of photos. I know I have posted them elsewhere on the forum but just in case you can't find them.

[June Ingram]

Welcome, Stephen, to The Forum.  It will be great to hear more about your Grandfather both from you and from his colleagues.

June   

[Rod]

Welcome to the forum Stephen.
So delighted to hear that Brenda is still with us. Wonderful lady!
I knew Bob well. Lovely man full of "get up and go".... well most days, partying could take its toll!
He came to us, as Riskygizmo, said after the "big bomb scare". Quite frankly, before then security on QE2 was a joke. Even afterwards, it could get quite amusing.
As mentioned, he got the name "Bob the Bomb", his relief, also ex army, Pete O'Neil, became "Plastic Pete" and the third of the trio, Bob Lockwood, became "Baby Bomb"
Bob was the one, who created the Wardroom shows on the World Cruises and actually enlivened the Wardroom considerably. Mostly by arranging "nights" in the Wardroom, with various themes of entertainment. I  took over the the arrangement of the Wardy shows from him.
I also took over his cabin on a couple of occasions due to cabin shortages and he told me to have fun with his "toys" in one of the closets! Several dummy bombs, that he used to practise on! I did not do too well!
Before he joined the Army, or during his Army career, he was also a carpenter. He did all the wood panelling in the kitchen of the house that I used to visit from time to time.
On one world cruise, he also got some of us invites to the Indian ANA Ball, (Army, Navy, Air Force) Great time,! At that event he also got me entered into the beauty contest! I won!!!! Still waiting for my prize though.
Regarding the pistol thing............let us just say that some things get slightly exaggerated for the benefit of a good story.
I will say this though.
Both Bob, and Pete were on the Wardy darts team. We were playing a match against the Sailors in the Wardy just after leaving port.
Bob and Pete were throwing the crappiest darts you could imagine. They were both wearing the heavy blue uniform jacket.  I told Pete..."Come on man we are going to lose this! Take your jacket off!" He took me to one side and opened his jacket. There sitting in a shoulder holster was a .38 Smith and Wesson revolver. Bob was the same. We did win.
If Brenda is on the internet, PM me her address pls, I would love to get in touch with her.

[Jeff Taylor]

If anyone can contribute, I'd like to hear what the typical duties of a Security Officer on QE2 involved.  Obviously bomb threats weren't daily occurrences, but there must have been the odd theft from cabins, lifting of wallets, perhaps someone cheating at cards, sneaking contraband onboard, drugs found in suitcases or concealed in cars booked for passage, stolen diamonds concealed in some dog's collar, whatever.  It would be interesting to hear

[Stephen Venning]

Thank you all for your replies. It seems Bob was a well known character aboard the QE2. Im aware that he was called the "Bomb", this i believe is because he was a bomb disposal expert in the army before joining the QE2, he mainly carried out missions in Ireland during the trouble with the IRA, very dangerous job indeed. Before this he was a bandsman in the Parachute regiment, but to get more money he joined the Bomb disposal regiment, the highest paid job in the military at that time. He was an avid carpenter in his spare time and I always remember as a child going to craft fairs where he had his old stand, his workshop round my nans house still has all his wood working equipment in. Im sure I have more stories of him which Ill post as I remember them.

Thank you all!

[Peter Mugridge]

It is possible although the ship has gone through a lot of iterations of change since then, but, I'm sure there are parts of the ship that haven't been touched over the years...not in the public areas of course as a lot of renovation and change has occurred there. Maybe somewhere "below decks" the weapon lies waiting for someone to retrieve it..... who knows

I would suspect that even in a less than sober state he would hardly have been likely to hide it in any of the public areas and had a concealed weapon been found in a refit the chances are we would have had the story on this forum by now, so my gut feeling is it may indeed still be on board somewhere.

[Yvonne N]

Hi there

I remember Bob the Bomb - I was a Petty Officer on the QE2 1972 -1974.  I remember one particular time when he and Plastic Pete were in search of a bomb somewhere (they could hear this ticking sound) - turns out it was a fridge making the noise.  False alarm!
Yvonne

[riskygizmo]

Bob on the job...