INTERVIEW
By the Dart INTERVIEW
NICKO FRANKS
By Phil Scoble
Association sailing instructor, was born in 1941 in Londonderry where his father, Captain Robert Franks and his convoy escort destroyer, HMS SCIMITAR were based. The family came to Dartmouth in the 1950s when his father was appointed to the Admiralty Interview Board then located at the College. He and his two brothers like to claim responsibility for the family settling in Dartmouth. They were exploring the hillside above Warfleet, stopped to admire the fantastic view and suggested to their parents that they might like to build a house there. “It was built by Pillars,” Nicko remembers, “and it cost £4,000. Not a bad investment!” “It never really occurred to me to do anything other than join the Navy,” he says, “because of what I’d seen growing up. We moved often as the Navy dictated and I particularly enjoyed two spells in malta whilst I was at school. Looking back I suppose I would have liked to go to a university but that was not an option at that time. If you wanted to be a naval officer, you had to join straight after school at the age of 18. I joined to be a Seaman officer but was ‘persuaded’ to transfer to Engineering as I had the right Maths and Physics A
N
icko Franks, retired naval officer and also recently retired Royal Yachting
level passes.” After passing out of the College in
1962, he flew to Hong Kong to join the aircraft carrier, HMS BULWARK and then joined HMS ARK ROYAL, also in the Far East. He was meant to be in the Boiler
Room but it was a hot, sweaty and noisy place. Two brand new aircraft, the very first Sea Harrier and the Bucanneer were carrying out deck landing trials and he found it much more exciting watching that!
Naval folklore says that he, after a few drinks, fell asleep with his head on the Queen Mother’s shoulder.
He spent a couple of years at the
Royal Naval Engineering College at Manadon studying for an engineering degree but the cancellation of the proposed new aircraft carrier, CvA 01 in 1966 enabled him to change branches back to Seaman. He joined a brand new
Guided Missile Destroyer HMS GLAMORGAN where one of his fellow officers was Robin Shiffner whom he’d in fact first met when they were schoolboys together in Malta.
In 1968 he married Katie
and Robin was his best man. GLAMORGAN set sail on an amazing Round the World voyage via the Panama Canal and Hawaii but stopped for 6 months at the Singapore Naval Base. Katie was able to fly out to join him and they lived together for the first time in an apartment in Johore Bahru across the Causeway from Singapore. “We discovered it used to be a brothel!” laughs Nicko. “It was a most exciting place to live though and we had a crazy social time with half the Navy seeming to be out there.” Next appointment for Nicko was as Gunnery officer of HmS TENBY which was a frigate based in Devonport and part of the Dartmouth Training Squadron, training young officers from the College. His 2 daughters, Tamara and Nicola were born during this period. After TENBY, Nicko was sent to
Hong Kong for 2 years to command a Patrol Craft, HMS MONKTON and this was perhaps the favourite appointment of his naval career. “To have one’s own ship command is what every Seaman officer aspires to,” he says, “ and to do that in such an exciting place was unbelievable”. The couple’s son, Cameron was
born during this time in the British military Hospital, Kowloon. First Lieutenant of the Royal Yacht
67
RETIRED NAVAL OFFICER AND A FIRST LIEUTENANT OF THE ROYAL YACHT BRITANNIA
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