Now, remember this, it’s very important.
My earliest memory is of seeing a great big ship go past. My father had a little boat, a rowing boat which he kept on the river, and my earliest remembrance is of being in this little boat with father on the river. There was this great big thing went past and he said to me “Now, remember this, it’s very important”.
When I asked him afterwards and I said, “I was sick on my bonnet strings”, he said, “Yes, you were”. (I was no good on the sea) and he said it was the Mauretania going out – but I didn’t realise it at the time. He just told me to remember it, and I did remember it, but when I asked him after, that’s what it was – the maiden voyage in 1906.