Interview with Cliff Turner

Interview with Cliff Turner who was born in 1921 at Hastings and raised in Gisborne. Mentions family moving to England and schooling there before going to sea at 15. Talks about being baker's boy in the catering department on the SS Inanda travelling the West Indies. Recalls Jean Batten was a passenger. Explains on the outbreak of war, the crew painting ship grey before return to England. Mentions losing discharge book in Cardiff air-raid.

Discusses other memorable trips: waiting outside Montevideo when the Admiral Graf Spee blew up on the River Plate, as well as leaving London on the Rimutaka during the Dunkirk evacuation, 1940. Mentions transporting troops on requisitioned MV Aorangi and on Winchester Castle sailing to the Middle East via Cape Town. Talks about taking photographs in spare time and going skating during shore leave, as well as meeting local people.

Talks about joining the hospital ship Llandovery Castle that took part in the invasion of Sicily, 1943, and the Italian mainland, 1944. Describes collecting wounded soldiers from barges and taking them to Algiers where the ship obtained food. Explains one of the wounded was Major General Kippenberger, the only other kiwi aboard ship, and returning him to Southampton. Recalls visiting Kippenberger in Roehampton. Later mentions Kippenberger assisted him obtain an overseas bursary to study at the National Bakery School in London after the war. Explains being assistant baker on Llandovery Castle, describing shifts and demanding conditions in the galley and bakery. Admits shipboard training benefited his career.

Recalls transporting TB patients from England to Canada; many of the patients died and were buried at sea. Talks about participation in D-Day and being anchored off Omaha Beach and then going to Cherbourg. Mentions meeting wife when sailing on a Liberty ship. Discusses VE-Day photograph of him at the head of a celebratory march in Piccadilly that also appeared in the New York Times.

Talks about post-war life at bakery school and baking awards before returning to New Zealand in 1947. Mentions managing Adams Bruce Bakery, Wellington, and then working at Griffins biscuit factory. Also mentions starting own business in Waiwhetu where he made novelty breads and wedding cakes, including a cake for Joanna Porritt, the Governor General's daughter. Discusses returning to London in 1995 for the 50th anniversary of VE Day.

Interviewer(s) - Neill Atkinson

Quantity: 1 C60 cassette(s). 1 transcript(s). 58 Minutes Duration.

Finding Aids: Abstract Available - transcript(s) available OHA-5411.

Alternative form available: A listening copy if available at OHLC-008635