Having received an email from Mike Morley, I am responding for inclusion in the U.C. Staff Register. Email 2013

Although you suggest the web page is easy to navigate for forwarding one's details, I cannot find a link to do so.

Therefore I am sending an attachment with details, and hope it is satisfactory.

As I mentioned in the attachment, I sailed with a 3/O Chris Isaac, when I was 2/O on the Tantallon Castle.

He was a Spurs fan - especially when they achieved the double in the 60's - and we celebrated somewhat in Hamburg !

Look forward to hearing from you and swinging the lantern !

I live in Spain after 20+ years as a Pilot in Gibraltar.

Still playing golf and staying young.

Email 2013

Hi Tony

Same person!

It was more than Tantallon, we first sailed together on Roslin Castle, my first trip as 3rd Mate and your first as 2nd. Then on to a double header on Tantallon.

The Spurs celebration was in Durban, it was 20th May 1967 my 21st and Spurs beat Chelsea 2-1 in the cup final on same day.

I have given up playing golf but did spend 10 years as a professional but now at nearly 67 I cannot play to the standard I used to be capable of.

I now live in Cornwall and still work a bit as a paralegal.

I am also dad of 19 year old triplets.

Do you ever come back to UK, do you attend Pursers do in Sept, I have not been before but plan to this year. I do tho attend Reg Kelso’s do in May.

Kind regards

Chris

Hi Chris,
What a small world thanks to internet ?
I went to the Purser Do in 2010 and hope to go over again for this year's Bash.
If I see you, I'll remind you of the Zillertal in Hamburg, when I conducted the Band on your behalf.
This was also a celebration of Spurs Double, and you wanted them to play 'MacNamara's Band' .
When they realised I was 'Englander' they piped up with 'Colonel Bogey', instead !!
I think you still owe me for the Band's round of drinks !   Ha !
I didn't know about Reg Kelso's do. I sailed with him on the Windsor, and know him well, being both members of the Southampton Master Mariners.
Please let me know more about his do, and also, if you have any more info about the U-C Staff register ?
Hold onto your parts in the meantime,
Yours aye,
Tony.

Captain Anthony John Ireland, M.N., Lt.RNR. Retd

Born on The Isle of Wight in 1943, Tony Ireland was educated at Taunton’s Grammar School and Warsash Maritime Academy before joining The British and Commonwealth Shipping Company as a Cadet in 1959.

He served in a wide range of vessels and his final appointment with B&C was Second Officer of the mailship “Edinburgh Castle” .During that time he became a “Cachalot” and joined the RNR where he attained the rank of Lieutenant.

Thereafter, in 1970, he worked as a Compass Adjuster in Southampton until 1972 when he was appointed Master with Bulk Acid Shipping, reverting to Compass Adjusting in 1974.

1978 saw Tony serving as a Trinity House Pilot in Workington until 1982 when he moved to Libya as Mooring Master with the Americanowned Occidental Shipping.

In 1986 he reverted to Pilotage, in Gibraltar, where he remained until his retirement in 2005 – when he married “Tete”and settled down in Sotogrande, Spain.

In retirement he was a keen golfer who also enjoyed gardening and tending his fish pond.

Tony never lost touch with his seafaring friends and organisations and in 2015 he returned to the UK to march with the Union-Castle section of the Merchant Navy Contingent at The Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday. He also attended the UC Reunion ( hosted by Mike Morley) in 2016 and again in 2019 -despite his failing health.

Later that year he was diagnosed with cancer and this took its toll, culminating in his “Going Aloft” on May 23rd.2020.

Tony will be remembered as a popular and efficient Officer with a keen sense of humour which he retained throughout his illness.

Those of us privileged to have known Anthony John Ireland extend our sincere condolences to Tete and his family members