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U3A is a movement of retired and semi-retired people who come together to continue their educational, social and creative interests in a friendly and informal environment.
www.u3asite.org.uk/kingsbridgeestuary
by Liz Hext
KEU3A SUMMER MEETINGS
BILLY “SCRATCH” HITCHEN The speaker at the June U3A meeting was Billy “Scratch” Hitchen who gave a very informative, entertaining and lively talk on his life as a seafarer. Scratch was one of the country’s first NHS babies to be born in the ear- ly hours of 5th
July 1948 and, with his
fearless character, took full advantage of the freedom offered as a young boy in post war Britain. At the end of the Easter school
holidays in 1963, Scratch, at the age of 14, decided he didn’t like going to school any more even though his mother was the teacher. She was taking a class when Scratch ran away to sea. He slipped into the Saucy Sue and rowed the one hundred yards to the Norian. He went aboard leaving a note on the Saucy Sue saying “Gone to sea on Norian. Be ok. Billy” He came up on deck when the Norian was at sea and met the Chief Engineer who asked Scratch who he was? He replied “I’ve signed on as cabin boy.” Scratch says, in his book, that that was the moment his childhood ended. He left home illiterate and innumerate and told us by the time he was 19 he had been around the world five times. He returned to this country to join the Merchant Navy, and said the only tests he had ever taken were one for his eyesight and a 25 yard breast stroke certificate. It was much later in his life that he was found to be dyslexic. In his first five years at sea he trav-
elled from Cape Horn to the Indian Ocean and the Pacific and from the most southerly tip of New Zealand
to the North Atlantic and Canada and was able to teach himself to read and write during that time. Following this adventurous time in his young life he had risen to many amazing challenges. These includ- ed oil drilling and exploration in Argentina to the construction of oil pipelines in the swamps and jungles of West Africa. In 1973, Scratch finally returned
to Salcombe and went on to spend the next 30 years working in one of the most dangerous industries in the world - fishing. He quickly became skipper and fished everywhere from Dover to Rockall. There were many accidents, collisions, storms and groundings so eventually he decided to “swallow the anchor” and come ashore. Scratch set up two businesses
after forty years at sea. He has very successfully run both businesses for the past twelve years, one being an export business selling live shellfish to the Far East and the other a boatyard and sailing business. Both are still running today. The audience had a really enter- taining time and are looking forward to Scratch’s return visit to U3A. During the month between
Scratch and Miss Ann Widdecombe’s talk, the Kingsbridge Fair was vis- iting and a stall for U3A was set up on the Quay outside Creeks End on the Saturday morning where leaflets about all the clubs in U3A were available and photographs of the clubs displayed.
ANN WIDDECOMBE MEP The July U3A talk was by Miss Ann Widdecombe MEP. Ann is a highly engaging speaker and started with her adventures with Anton du Beke in Strictly Come Dancing on the BBC. We were all waiting excitedly in the Malborough Village on Friday 26th
July,
then in walked this petite, charming lady who captured us from then on with her self-deprecating anecdotes. We were all delighted that Ann kept her promise to talk to us in Kingsbridge Estuary U3A, especially as she had very recently been elected as an MEP in the European elections. Ann had turned down going on
Strictly Come Dancing for many years because she was a serving Member of Parliament, but after she had left Parliament, she was less concerned about preserving the dignity of an MP’s work - she also had time on her hands. She was well aware of John Sargeant’s own attempts at dancing, so she was not bothered overmuch about that part of it. Anton became Ann’s partner and quickly decided that she should spend as little time as possible actually dancing, so he devised every conceivable distraction to achieve this. Anton never referred
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