NavList:

Frank Reed you wrote: I bought a copy of Rantzen's Little Ship Meteorology for a few dollars. After opening it, I remembered that I had enjoyed it years ago, and it's quite good even today, though obviously limited by the great changes in weather forecasting that have occurred since it was written. According to the book, Rantzen was actually trained as a meteorological officer and served aboard a Royal Navy aircraft carrier during the Second World War. Can we figure out which carrier he served aboard? Do your copies of his books have jackets with that information (book jackets often have biographies that go beyond the text)? I found a photo of him and his graduating meteorology class... see below. He's the guy with the beard, top row, right.

Frank

Yes all four of my Little Ship volumes have dust covers, but I’ve found nothing yet.  I did find where you got the course photo from http://cloudobservers.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2012/01/02.-Feb-Officers-1-of-6-1939-1946.pdf

If you look further down, there’s quite a bit of history there.  You can see how the size of the course increased from 1941 as the RN Carrier Fleet and FAA shore stations grew and then how it was reducing again by 1946.  Also, by 1943 the course was approaching 50% WREN Officers for employment in shore establishments.  Continue looking and you’ll also see Captain L G Garbett who was director of Naval Meteorological Services from 1937-1945 in some of the photographs.  Capt Garbett wrote the Preface to Little Ship Astro-Navigation.  He is described here [dead link].  I hope this link works.  I think I spot a bit of my email address there, so it might have arrived by a funny route.  My VPN is so slow, I often switch it off.

DaveP