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It was a big surprise to me when I came back after my next leave to find that he had been taken ashore during the previous month with a nervous breakdown. Les Dennison and Ken had been on station at the time, and they were still aboard for my first month back, slowly things emerged, that they had played him up badly, but the crux of the thing did not finally come out till Chris returned to the station from the Mental Hospital.
I had been told that he was painting the crane and could not stand heights when balanced on the steps. What they had not told me was, that whilst he was doing this, they were shaking the steps in between swinging the crane round just out of his reach or whilst he had hold of it hoping that he would lose his balance. Whilst Chris was in the Mental Hospital, Uncle Tom was there as well, and they got on quite well, playing tennis and other sports together, so no doubt there was no reason for him not to, learn of the full circumstances.
During Chris's absences we had another S.A.K several times, he was Phil Griffith, he lived close to Ken and they got on well together as Phil was a 'creep' and performed many tasks for him like cutting his grass and digging his garden.
He had been in the job before, but because he did not get the station he wanted on being made A.K., had resigned. When he came back on the second occasion he tackled me as to why I had not given him an excellent report in all aspects.
I told him that I did not consider him worthy of it. Bearing in mind that he had been in the job before and had done several periods of duty at this station during that previous service, I considered his knowledge of it, and work, poor.
The next month, Phil remained on station with Ken and myself. Ken was very peeved of my treatment of his pal, and would do anything to get at me. Coming near to the relief, he instructed me to wash the engine room ceiling.
I told him that I was going to stop the engine while I did so. He told me I was to leave the engine working. I told him that, in the circumstances I will not wash the ceiling, as it was unsafe because one would have to arrange a pair of steps to work over running machinery.
I also pointed out that the mains distribution board had open contacts, and because this was D.C. power it was extremely dangerous. I told him I would carry out any other work but not that under the conditions he wanted. I left him and went to the lantern and cleaned the lens, which was part of the relief clean routine, whilst the other was not.
When I came down later I found that Phil was doing the job I had objected to, under the conditions that I had rejected. The following day I was instructed to clean under the lantern gratings, access to this is in the Service Room. A nasty, filthy, choking job as soot from the chimney collects there as well.
It was not a regular job for the clean up. As I neared completion, Phil called me to dinner, I remarked that I still had one section to do and would complete it the following day. When I went to complete the task I found it had already been done.
The following month was Xmas relief and I was ashore. When I came back and reported to the depot, Capt. Carsten was in the Chair as Tom was having another spell in the Mental Hospital, he told me that Chris was there too. He had missed the turn with me but gone back the next month, but had come ashore again on Xmas day.
He also told me that he had had a telephone call from Ken complaining of my conduct and blaming me for Chris's condition, as well as making other allegations. I replied to these as I considered justified. Capt Carstens then said he approved my reasons, then went on to tell me that he had visited Tom in hospital.
When told of the list of the complaints, Tom had told him that he had complete confidence in me.
When I arrived on station, Ken came ashore. After a few days I had occasion to use the report book, and discovered that Ken had followed up his telephone complaint with a written report, included in it was a request that I be removed from the station.
This would have suited me, as after the first month on the station, and finding what an idiot he was I had requested a move myself. In consequence I made a retaliatory report covering all the points and adding that he had made erasures in the official books of my reports upon a keeper and substituted his own. In his report he stated that I refused to work and left jobs undone that others had to complete.
The outcome was that Ken did not come back to the station and finished up on the Wolf Rock. On the next relief Les came back and I learned what had happened over Xmas.
The lifeboat had come down before with the gifts from various organisations, then on Xmas Day Vic Stallard had arrived with Old Man Marks, who was the concessionary holder of Alum Bay. Vic had brought out his own gifts and some from the local clergy. He brought Marks out with a view to making a contract with Ken for all the novelties he made, which he did. In the process they all got drunk, the tide went out and the boat settled on the rocks and they could not leave.
Chris had not consumed any alcohol, but Ken in his drunken state had tried to force some on him, in order to do so had chased him all over the building, cornering him in the store room which is above the engine room. In that room was a rough wooden stool which some how Chris was straddling.
Ken got an axe from the tool box which was also kept in that room and chopped to pieces the stool as he straddled it. Chris was a screaming heap by the time Ken had finished and I think Vic took him ashore to the Hospital. No doubt Tom soon became aware of the true situation.. After that Chris resigned.
Another one of Ken's stupid antics concerned the chairs. There were three nice carver chairs for the keepers, but because he wished to lay in these chairs with his feet on the table, he had cut about two inches off the rear legs, which meant that the seats sloped backward and you could not sit comfortably in them.
With the chair I used I found a length of timber and brought the height back up, thus joining the legs together. The other chairs, had been thrown out of balance with the shortening of the legs. Every two or three weeks they were involved in trying to glue the legs in place again, whereas with my chair, I used a loop of string and a piece of wood to put a tourniquet and draw the legs together.
Because of his antic of feet on table, which he would do as soon as he finished a meal; whether everyone else had or not, I threatened him that if he continued putting his feet on the table I would serve his meals on the floor.
Apart from one or two keepers I never had any complaint of my conduct in the job, although I had a bad character by word of mouth. On more than one occasion I had the sort of remark passed to me afterwards, that they had been told I was a difficult person to work with but had found me to be very reasonable and sensible.
The departure of Ken Chapman heralded the arrival of Ken Monk, on promotion from Sark, where he had married the daughter of one of the islands shop keepers. He was a down to earth Yorkshireman from Bradford, a Sgt Pilot during the war and A Palestine Policeman at the creation of Israel. He was a very unhappy and begrudged the difficulty of the flight from Guernsey to Southampton to cover the relief. Every day would longingly look for the De Haviland Dragon as it made the regular trips to and fro.
Continued in part 3.
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