SOMERSETSHIRE

I sailed back to the UK in 1945 from India where I had lived for nine years with my parents. On the ship were servicemen who had fought in Burma, they were from the U.K. and West Africa. She was late leaving Bombay due to a damaged engine, so we sailed alone to the Uk through the Med and bay of Biscay.We will always be grateful to the navy convoy who escorted us back safely.

ARRIVED IN BRISBANE JAN 1948 ON MV SOMERSETSHIRE

My family,Alfred my father,Jenny my mother,Kenneth and Peter my brothers, my sister Jennifer and me,Donald. We came to Australia around July,1951 in the Ship MV Somersetshire and Our first stop was Fremantle,Western Australia. We settled in Adelaide where dad worked as a boilermaker welder. He was born and lived and served his apprenticeship as a ships riveter in Birkenhead, England.

In 1952 the Ms Sumersetshire brings me from Indonesia to Holland. Rudy van Egmond

My family (grandparents Florence (Flori) and Alfred (Alf) Snr. travelled as migrants to Australia, with my father Sydney (Syd), my mother Beryl (nee McVay) and my uncle Alfred jnr. They came on the Somersetshire which was the 1st RSL Boat out of Great Britain after the end of WW2. My Dad (Syd) died 10 years ago (2011) after a wonderful life in Australia. My mother survives them all and lives in Deagon Qld. She is 90 and recalls the entire journey on the Somersetshire including both good and "very bad" memories. However she laughs at them all and considers them part of this lifes great adventures.... Mum and Dad never regretted one moment of becoming Aussies and worked hard to build a wonderful life and repay the generosity of their new country. She has a few physical souvenirs of the trip and the stopovers. My Mothers parents and her siblings followed as migrants in the early '50s on the Malaya. They settled in Brisbane and her 3 siblings survive their parents Samuel and Alice McVay. Roy McVay 94, Billy McVay 81, Helen McVay (Campbell) 79. It's nice to find this site and record this information.