ronald milligan

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Ronald Sidney Milligan

Ronald loved ocean life. He was in the Merchant Navy before the war and stayed in throughout the war. He was based out of Liverpool and was part of the Merchant Pool - they would report to the office to be assigned to a ship and traveled most of the world that way including Far East, Australia and South America. The ship he appreciated sailing on most of all was the Queen Mary. He wrote back to Agnes "I've nailed my suitcase to the deck of this ship" He sailed with her for 12 months. They would dock in Scotland and go back and forth across the Atlantic bringing American soldiers across because the Queen Mary traveled faster than the U-Boats.

Another ship he sailed on was The Condessa. It was smaller than many of the other ships but very luxurious. It carried prize bulls to Argentina and had a 'minder' on board for each bull. They docked at Stanley road in Bootle and Ronald brought home a bounty of meats and huge fruits. Once he came back with big white boxes of ice cream. He gave them to Agnes' mother and told her to put the boxes in the bath while he negotiated with a butcher friend to store them for him. All of these foods were very precious at the time and not normally available.

Ronald worked for 12 months at sea after getting married then gave it up on Agnes' request. He then went to work on the docks (the next best thing to actually sailing!). He started off as a dock worker, moved to craning, then onto the train engines after an accident at sea. He was a butcher by trade - this is what he had done at sea and at one point tried to open a butchers shop but the meat was rationed for too long after the war and people went to their own butchers for their rations.

Agnes and Ronald enjoyed sailing together as they grew older taking cruises around the globe. The QE2 was their favourite ship.

[top left] Ron going to sea from New Brighton, Wirral

[bottom right] Ron driving the dock train

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