Welcome to a new Web Site.

One Sunday afternoon about 3 months ago I was messing around on my PC wondering where I could look for some interesting reading.

During this tour of dross and adverts I decided it was time for a brew. Next to the kettle, sticking out like a sore thumb was my Christmas Island Tea Tray.

Inspiration struck like lightening. I’ll surf for the Rock. Upstairs I rush, open Google and type in Christmas Island. I couldn’t believe the result. 1,010,000 hits in one attempt. Should have some fun here I thought.

After endless hours of Indian Ocean,  Kiribati, Kiritimati, and other completely alien names I discovered that there was no mention of HM Forces involvement. It was as though the pages 1956-1964 had been torn from the history books as far as “The Grapples” were concerned.

It was then that I decided to try and compile a small web site to cover those years. As a starter it would have to be mainly photographs, and a few pages of script and anecdotes. This would hopefully jar a few memories and encourage others to donate stories, photos (Temp Loan).

If the Christmas Island Veterans Association can be persuaded to include a link to their Web Site, there’s no knowing where this site could end up.

I’ve got a few kind people who have already supplied photos, and also a few who I am slowly working on to add their memories.

As you can appreciate it is a slow process, but hopefully in the end this will be a site to make any “Ex Islanders” mouth water

I will hopefully be attending the Reunion at Weston-Super-Mare in October next year. This alone could be a valuable source of information and resources.

It would be really sad to think that all we did, no matter how insignificant at the time, could be brushed under the carpet as though nothing happened.

Pass the word to all your ex Christmas Island comrades, they shouldn’t need convincing of the importance of this project. 

If anyone out there would like to contact me to discuss any points, offer the loan of photos, add a few stories to the site, then feel free, NO in fact I insist that they contact me by any of the following methods. How else can we build a site to grab everyone's attention?