As a Pusser's brat I well remember the half-yearly promotions signal, and the importance of being near the telephone that morning. Pere Artist was a Signals Officer so normally managed to get a copy dropped off from HMS Mercury which was a couple of miles away.
The form was that those on the list (for Commander/Captain as this was in the days of automatic promotion to 2.5) hosted a party that would start at 12.01 and finish much later.
Unofficial perhaps, but certainly memorable
