I took this photo while waiting for the ship, with my wife Virginia aboard, to dock at Liverpool. The crossing had been in mid-winter and the Atlantic was extremely rough. The wind coming up the Mersey from the sea was really bad and at least two tugs (see in the picture) were needed to keep the ship stable enough to dock successfully. Virginia had been sick with a mixture of sea-sickness and morning sickness for the entire crossing. It was due to this that a steward who was assigned to give her a lot of personal care, found that Christine Kushner was also an RCAF wife and introduced the two to one another. Art Kushner travelled with me from North Luffenham to Liverpool in the RCAF station wagon that I was allotted to pick up the two women. Art and I spent the night before the ship's arrival in digs at the "Lord Nelson" hotel in Liverpool. It was quite late in the day by the time we had our wives and their luggage through customs and immigration and all in the station wagon with us. So, we drove only as far as Macclesfield that day. We spent the night there in a little pub. They told us that the rooms were "centrally heated". The central heating turned out to be a single water pipe along one side of the room. It felt barely warm to the touch! They were very proud of their "modern heating" as opposed to a fireplace. The next day we drove down to Edith Weston and 1 Wing. Art and Chris Kushner went into the small row cottage which we were to occupy one year later while we moved into a very small 15 foot caravan in the station trailer park.
Updated: April 28, 2003