The Empress of Scotland...
This might just creep in under the thread-bar. Its May 1948. At Port Said boarding is taking place by tank landing ship to the outer mole where a great grey three-funnel troopship awaits, vast in the morning sunshine. We're going home. I'm only five so I'm carried up the gangplank by my Dad. Terrifying! The Empress was huge and my mother and I shared a very nice cabin with a large porthole and another family. Our Dads were required to bunk down with their troops but joined us at all other times. It was great, the food was good, there were games, a swimming pool, and loads of chocolate. I particularly liked Gray Dunn's Chocolate wafers which I had not seen before. We'd been in Egypt for three years since joining my father there, so I was sure that it was always warm and sunny everywhere, and that the sea was always warm and blue. When the great ship called in to Malta my uncle and aunt came out to see us. He was resplendent in his naval uniform. Then our world crashed when we arrived in Liverpool after our seven-day voyage. The Pool was cold, grey, dingy, damaged, dreary and distinctly depressing as we lined up for our brown stew and grey lumpy mash at a dismal Army family reception centre. Egypt and the Canal Zone seemed liked a far-off dream.
Postcript: while messing about on the internet recently I found Findmypast.co.uk and was surprised to see that all the Empress of Scotland's passenger lists were available, and there I was, duly recorded. I then found the old ship's deck plans and photographs on a Canadian Pacific site and wallowed in some good old-fashioned nostalgia. Highly recommended!