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Articles
THE SWIMMING POOL, RM DEPOT, DEAL
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Originally the site had been the coal yard; long before trains came to Deal and the East Kent coalfields had been discovered coal was delivered by sea. There are reports of the Napoleonic prisoners of war being used to unload barges dragged half ashore at high tide. This may have been the true use of the naval capstan that was situated on the central verge between the entrance and the sea.
On 7 January 1852, the steam auxiliary transport that had been converted to the troopship ‘Birkenhead’ ran onto uncharted rocks approximately 100 miles east of Cape Town. Having only enough lifeboats for the Officers, women and children, only these were saved. The troops 479 private soldiers and NCOs ‘fell-in’ and stood in three ranks to drown by numbers. No one had ever thought of teaching the army to swim. In the history books, this act was known as the Birkenhead drill and only three men broke ranks.
Queen Victoria commissioned a memorial that is in the Chelsea Hospital, London, in honour of the gallantry and discipline of the 445 who died on the Birkenhead. The outcome was that the Government debated the building of swimming pools for all service establishments and in 1890. The Depot was granted money to dig the pool out by hand. The first attempt was a cold salt-water pool that was completed in 1898. When it was decided that officers could use these facilities everything changed and fresh water was introduced plus a coke-fired boiler. The last known proper ex-Royal Naval stoker to be employed on the back end of a shovel was Fred Chandler, a rather rotund gentleman, being an excellent swimmer volunteered to ‘stooge’ as the victim for qualifiers passing their Bronze Medallion.
The heating was connected to the main barrack boiler house about 1960. When the Depot closed, there were many meetings and discussions as to the viability of keeping the old swimming pool. Firstly, the building as we knew that was opened in 1898 was very antiquated, full of naval type asbestos lagging and a large part of the roof corrugated asbestos sheeting. With two pools already in Deal, ‘Tides’ is only a splash and play pool but Walmer School does have one suitable for teaching, all the arguments were lost as the cost did not equate to its usefulness.
Stories from the Deep End
It had always been taboo to take classes fully dressed in PT gear – not only could you get splashed by recruits but your own colleagues were known to apply a gentle nudge to any unsuspecting instructor. So it came to pass that the opportunity was presented to a well-known Sergeant called Frankie Pratt, fairly early one morning. With the slightest of movement of his hips Frankie managed to assist Sticks Hirst to complete a perfect belly flop. The air turned blue – the language was colourful to say the least. Taking hours to rinse through his kit to remove all traces of chlorine, plus the jumper had to be hung up to retain its shape, his classes were given to other instructors. Just before dinnertime when everyone was treading very carefully, watching your back to say the least. Sticks had strayed down to the side of the pool in ‘walking out gear’, fully booted and spurred, peaked cap, the lot. Frank thought the opportunity too great; a quick stumble followed by a shove and Sticks was in again. Only this time, when he surfaced he was laughing. Frank asked: ‘What’s so funny?’ Only to be told: ‘I’m wearing your uniform!’ At that stage all the other instructors evacuated the pool!
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