Obituary
Petty Officer John Marlow
06 September 200406 September 200406 September 2004
Chief Engineer Her Majesty’s Motor Launch ML 1329
Hong Kong Flotilla 1953-
I can only put my sadness and grief into words. Maybe it will mean something to my mates.
Today at 1300Hrs. That’s 1pm for ‘Civvies’, my Mate, My Oppo, Petty Officer John Marlow of Nottingham P/SKX847199 died.
He loved The Royal Navy, as I did, and still do. Those days, it was the best of times for us.
We served, not together, in the Hong Kong Flotilla. Just ten small Motor Launches that patrolled and 'deterred' the Communist 'Menace', as it were, in the fifties, after that bitter Korean War. And also after the nasty HMS Ameythest incident.
Then there was the tragic incident with one our Hong Kong Flotilla Motor Launches HMML 1323 in the Pearl River, when seven of our comrades died after Red Chinese Communist Gunfire.
John Marlow died today after a long time trying to defeat Asbestosis and Cancer. He fought a very good battle. It seemed to me, sometimes, all that chemotherapy, all that fighting, just was too much. The 'cure' was such an ordeal.
But I think there was a chance that he might have beat it. And he wanted to ‘Beat The Bugger’ to use his own words. But he would have had it no other way, he wanted to fight. He did win, win lovely magnificent precious months with his beloved family, months he might not have had otherwise. Everyday is a bonus he told me. A lesson we all should learn now.
Yesterday, only yesterday we spoke, and he was in good heart. We talked for half an hour. I was a National Service Able Seaman, so ‘Chief ’ John was my ‘expert’ and that which I did not know, and there was much, I asked John.
Just yesterday, I asked John about certain Naval terms when describing a situation with an ML battling against high seas, Lt De Bere Gibbs, the Skipper, and having to make way, unable to turn to Port or Starboard.. I related this episode with ML 3510, and A B ( as he was then, before he became a PO GI ) Stuart Robertson. We had a laugh, and although he found it hard to breathe, he gave me the correct terms, and he was coping, and all in all yesterday, Sunday, seemed a ‘good’ day. He had a new oxygen making machine, and he talked long and well.
Just yesterday we talked about Castle Peak Jetty. We got really animated in our discussions and I tried to describe the view from the Bridge one day in 1956, on the 3510, looking across to the actual Castle Peak, that large amount of land before one's view before it rose up to the Castle Peak. When someone had said to me ‘ We have to give all this back in 40 years times, that is why there is no large scale building development here’ then it was beyond my British comprehensiveness.. I thought we would govern and give good order everywhere for ever. Why ? because it worked, and I could see it worked. I witnessed it. Give it back ? Absurd.
We, the British ‘ give something back’ . Something that did not exist before our enterprise and effort. It was beyond my imagination. We talked about all that, John and I, just yesterday.
We also talked about Castle Peak Jetty. That slab of cement, than went some metres back to the shoreline, and where I used to sit and gaze at Rhode Island Red Chickens reared to perfection by the wealthy owners of the property that abutted that Jetty. That was just yesterday, Sunday.
But today he died. Today Chief died. Tonight his wife, his beloved Beryl, our dear friend, rang me to tell me that John had passed away.
I have known John for just four years. But he loved the Flotilla, and so did I, and we still do. So we had lots in common. Then last year with our wives we went to Hong Kong. The ‘Return’.
As the huge A4300 Airbus lifted off from Heathrow, he leaned across the aisle and said ‘ Hey Pete can you really believe we are returning after all these years’. Absolutely some magical memory moments. So we went back home to Honkers, and the ‘Hong Kong Hairdryer’ weather was just the same, we walked and toured, and our wives bought and bought. We breakfasted and then in the evening we danced. We tried to avoid too much chat about Wanchai, of course 'Robby' & Tug were indulging like mad, but we just smiled and changed the subject, rapidly.
We Rock’N’Rolled, and then we danced to ‘Love is a Many Splendour Thing’ just like the old days. And on that Ferry which went up and down the Harbour we took a magical rainy evening trip, and we ate and danced.
‘My Beryl’ as he called his wife, he knew so well, as she him, and they loved each other so much, and she cared for him, watching his every step,, especially as her John, had just come successfully out of a replacement hip operation, Beryl watched over ‘her’ John like a Hawk.
We had a wonderful time. We enjoyed dinner together at ‘Jimmy’s Kitchen’ which I was so proud to arrange. A meal I could not afford in 1955 and a place I dare not enter, but we were back with the Bucks to buy.. We went to so many places. We looked across the Waterfront, on a wonderful balmy warm evening. The evening winds soothed our faces as we gazed from Kowloon to Victoria, across to all the dazzling, dancing, shore lights.
We had Afternoon Tea in the Peninsula Hotel. The girls and we ‘sampled’ the magnificent (separate) loo’s. We went to Macao. We went to Lan Tao and Tai’O.
I will always remember as Gordon Cleaver and John looked across as our trip Boat swept into to Tai’O harbour, it had always haunted John that maybe had he not been ill, at that time, 1953, in RNH At the Peak, he might have been able to assist ML1323.
John’s ML 1329 was on South Patrol and the ill fated ’23 was on West Patrol.
Finally on our ‘Return’ we spent our last few hours at Stanley, the day before we
were to fly home, and we both looked out to sea we both said ‘ We don’t want to go
Home’ -
That is what the Royal Navy can do for you. So tonight, it is 'Canada Dry' and San Mig' So tonight in my great sadness which is mine, and so little compared with his beloved Family, I am aware that John has no more pain, but I wished so many times I could have stopped the suffering.
But I could do nothing, so tonight, he is free from pain, and worry, and my grief is nothing, is absolutely nothing compared with his Lovely Beryl , and his Son and his lovely daughters and wonderful grandchildren whom he loved so much, and told me exactly that. His footballing playing grandaughter. They have to bear the real loss.
But tonight we are with them, and maybe in some small way, by sharing their sadness we might help. So we are thankful for his life. For his sense, and for what I remember as is his tall presence. I told him this just a few days ago. You are a ‘Big Bugger’
Now he is gone from earthly presence, and yet, some last words I spoke to him yesterday , in my talkative ‘over the top’ unthinking way, I said ‘Chief I know you are going to Heaven, but I am a bit scared, but I won’t be scared if you make sure there is a bunk for me’ and he laughed. I thought as usual I might have said the wrong thing. He just laughed. He just laughed.
These are just a few memories of my Oppo John.
I was his ‘Winger’ and he told me about ‘His Navy’ and ‘Sods Operas’ and stuff, and our Royal Navy, which we loved so much. So ‘ Oppo, Your Wings Yatesee, is still down here with no one to talk to anymore.
So tonight John, ‘ Chief’ I have drunk even more wine than usual, you knew I would, I know you told me I should not, but bollocks to all that, but now, later, in the evening, in the quiet evening, I have walked in the garden and watched the wind in the trees, our garden lights as I walk in my sorrow, have lit up the trees, the night, and the flowers.
Earlier in the year John told me he wanted just a yard square of garden so he could grow some wild Flowers, I don’t know whether he did, but I tried to find some seed packets for wild flowers to do the same, I never did find them.
But next year John, there will be wild flowers for you in our garden. I promise. The wonderful growth we have had this Magnificent Autumn is now evident in our little garden here, just as your life comes to it's end, and tonight I walked and thought of our Oppo. And I know he all right now. He is safe. And it is alright with us down here.
Cheers Chief.
The life that I have is all that I have And the life that I have is yours.
The love that I have of the life that I have Is yours and yours and yours.
A sleep I shall have A rest I shall have, Yet death will be but a pause,
For the peace of my years in the long green grass
Will be yours and yours and yours.
