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Ninety-two year old Harold Newman tells Jack Perkins about his childhood in London at the turn of the century and his experiences as a wireless telegraphist on submarines during World War I.
His father and uncle were master mariners and his own naval career extended over thirty years.
He begins by recalling the Boer War during his childhood and the tremendous patriotism that accompanied it and recalls singing "The Boers have got my Daddy" as a boy. Although his family were not poor, he recalls other families who ended up in the workhouse, and high rates of child mortality.
The army and navy were recruiting and he describes picture shows featuring battleships that were put on on in town halls to encourage boys to volunteer. He was 15 when he joined the Navy in 1910, as a second-class seaman-boy at sixpence a day.
The first part of training was learning to swim and then they were kitted out with uniform and went on board the HMS Impregnable (HMS Howe), a training ship moored at Plymouth. He describes the daily routine during training and his decision to become a wireless telegraphist, which was a new role at the time.
During World War I he joined the submarine service, which was also relatively new technology. He describes life in the cramped conditions, rations and how the battery-powered submarines operated.
He describes an encounter with a German submarine, listening on hydrophones. He explains that they carried kites on board to carry their aerial wire higher to improve transmission.
If sea water got into the batteries they would give off poisonous chlorine gas, so they would have to put on gas masks.
He recalls being washed overboard while trying to mend a broken radio mast.
On Armistice Day they came into Plymouth Harbour but didn't know the war had ended and wondered at first what was going on.
Years later, he went on board a modern submarine and was surprised to see there was no polished brass anywhere, all men had bunks and there were showers.
He ends by explaining how the men on board a submarine were all brothers in a small boat, with much less pomp and ceremony than on surface Navy craft.