Karl "Jan" LEEMING
Andy "Jiff" LEMMON
Joined 6th June 2012 (276)
Neil "Eddie" LEWINS
Joined 2nd May 2010 (220)
(Andrea)
82 - 85
Neil aka Eddie Lewins joined Pusser UK as a Seaman specialist in 1980, and in an action packed seven year career with the Grey Funnel Line he went to sea on London - the old Fountain Lake Guardship and Diomede, but the bulk of his service was as a first commissioner on the one and only D95! Eddie rates Manchester as his best ship and West Palm Beach on the way home from the Falklands as his best run ashore, however further possibly incriminating details were not forthcoming due to the proximity of an AGI! Eddie, who still lives in his native Yorkshire, not far from Halifax, and his beloved Leeds United, rose to prominence at Association HQ by immediately slapping in for six tickets for Re-union 9 before actually completing his Association joining routine! Eddie heard about the Association from Gilly Gilchrist.
Kenneth P. "Ken" LEWIS
Joined 16th June 2008
84 - 87
Ken Lewis joined the Pusser in '71 as an acting junior seaman 2nd class, and in a 19 year career oscillated across the oceans onboard Insipid, Ye old Rusty B, Matapan - a converted WWII Battle Class Destroyer, Bristol, Invincibubble and the Dark Royal before retiring from the grey funnel line in 1990. Yet another passenger on D95's world cruise - 1986 in case you've forgotten - Ken does not class his 84-87 experience as his best ship but prefers to recall the 7 month deployment on Matapan to the States in '76 which just happened to coincide with the USA Bi-Centennial (We Brits having had ours of course in 1266) which enhanced his grippoeing skills considerably. During his time on the Mighty Manch, Ken claims proudly that he was in fact the Top Petty Officer, but this sadly relates to the part of the ship he was working at the time! However, he easily won the 5th Destroyer Squadron Trophy for the most expensive way of landing an accommodation ladder whilst your ship is in a Pompey dry dock - by hiring in a huge mobile crane from Southampton!!.....which arrived with a blues and twos Police escort to boot!! Now happily domiciled in Vancouver with his wife Kath - they just happened to meet at a social on a Type 42 doing a world cruise in 1986, Ken has returned to the sea and is a 2nd mate for British Columbia Ferries, an occupation that frequently allows him to relieve the First Mate too!! - his words not mine; honest although I may have jumbled them up a little! Ken learned about the Association by entering "Great British Warships" on Google.
Paul "Lou" LEWIS
Joined 23rd April 2012 (266)
Dave LITTLER
Joined 15th December 2016
(323)
Kev "Doss" LIVING
(Jacqui)
Kevin "Doss" Living joined Pusser UK Ltd in 1976 as a baby stoker, and in a pensionable career, he clanked his way around the main machinery spaces of Apollo, Intrepid, Leander, Ark Royal, Glasgow and Invicibubble...as well as enjoying not one but two drafts to the Mighty Manch! (What a lucky bar steward I hear you all chorus!) As it happens Doss's two drafts to D95 are tinged with a certain degree of sadness - his first draft ended just prior to that soddin world cruise and the next one started as soon as they got back! Drafty can be a right miserable bxstard when he wants to! However, Doss states that warship wonderful was still his best ship, and Singapore 89/90 gets top marks for a run ashore - ahead of Ark's numerous trips to the States! Among his many adventures on the mighty Manch, Doss recalls the time he was unfairly fined for his efforts to create an auxiliary sleeping position in the Avcat Pump space below 3Q Mess. Granted that he didn't return onboard until 03 buffalo, and was slightly socially confused, and the fact that while Doss was crashing out the zzzzz's the rest of the ship's company were at a JMC sponsored action stations - but that is minor detail. However, this is not the reason Kevin is called Doss.
He owes that one to a Chief Stoker on a previous ship (Charlie Pettit, Intrepid) in 78 and that has followed him around to the day he left in 99, (and still does at our annual gatherings!). The stokers had become poor timekeepers whilst billeted in Nelson, so he used to muster the stokers in the ERUS at 0750 each morning. One morning our hero was suffering a particularly baggy head, "MEM Living" he called out, "I've never seen anybody so far removed from his name! Should be MEM bloody Doss!"...and so a legend was created.
Since leaving the Pusser, Doss has become a climatic and environmental test chambers consultant for a firm in Segensworth, and he lives with his wife Jacqui in Gosport. He is also a keen photographer as this www will testify, just a shame he is a Chelsea supporter!
