Merchant navy

And I've also got a huge amount of experience from my previous careers.

I was in the Merchant Navy as a ship's cook and baker as a young boy at 16.

I was a trucker.

I was in Dublin Fire Brigade and Ambulance Service.

I brought these little sculptures in.

So my dad, he worked in the Merchant Navy in Ireland in the 50s and early 60s.

So he would travel... all over the world to places like Japan and Indonesia and Africa and South America.

But he brought back different little mementos or souvenirs.

After her death, Mrs. Clarissa Wilson, one of her daughters, succeeded to the business and continued to make flags for the arsenals and navy yards and for the mercantile marine for many years.

But being conscientious on the subject of war, Mrs. Wilson gave up the government business but continued to make flags for the Merchant Marine until 1857.

The earliest history of the national flag, of which I have knowledge, was written by Captain Schuyler Hamilton, U.S. Army, and published in Philadelphia in 1853, 64 years ago.

captain hamilton makes no mention of betsy ross and does not give to any one person or group of persons the honour of designing our flag The next, History of Our Flag, was written by Ferdinand L. Sarmiento and published in 1864 during the Civil War in Philadelphia.

Today, I would like to make some suggestions as to how one might go about picking the branch of service that is best suited to them.

Be that Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, Merchant Marine.

For some, this is a no-brainer.

They've had their heart set on this branch or that branch from a young age.

You may have a similar story about how you came to favor one branch over the others.

At the same time, there are people out there who have no such predilection.

They have no preference for Army over Navy or Marines over Air Force or Coast Guard over Merchant Marine.

They're working with a clean slate.

The epigraph is a little bit shorter this week than it has been for the last few episodes.

This is an excerpt from Captain Banrop's Advice to Merchant Mariners.

And it's basically talking about how there are civilizations beyond Jamalia.

Yes.

And I think, you know, at some point, even Churchill gets quoted as endorsing footballers being good for the morale of the entire nation.

Well, yes, it's interesting you say that, but some footballers definitely are not exempt, but some footballers, say, may find themselves in slightly better postings in the Army and the Navy and the Air Force than others.

You're jumping the gun.

Maybe we'll come on to that as we go on.

On the 17th of October 1944, among the men who lost their lives in the heroic action at Arnhem was Sidney Guerin, a Ramsgate man whose name is well known to all local lovers of football.

The tragic news of his death was received last week by Sid's mother, who lives at 298 Margate Road, Ramsgate.

And those who knew him on the football and cricket fields of Thanet will join in sympathy with Mrs Guerin and her husband, who is a skipper in the Merchant Navy.

Sid Guerin showed all the prowess of a footballer while St George's Central School and his skill won him a place in the Ramsgate Schoolboys team.