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Nicko Franks and family aboard HMS Britannia
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Nicko Franks
Nicko Franks
Nicko Franks, retired naval officer and also recently retired Royal Yachting Association sailing instructor, was born in 1941 in Londonderry where his father, Captain Robert Franks and his convoy escort destroyer, HMS SCIMITAR were based.
The family came to Dartmouth in the 1950s when his father was appointed to the Admiralty Interview Board then located at the College. He and his two brothers like to claim responsibility for the family settling in Dartmouth. They were exploring the hillside above Warfleet, stopped to admire the fantastic view and suggested to their parents that they might like to build a house there.
“It was built by Pillars,” Nicko remembers, “and it cost £4,000. Not a bad investment!”
“It never really occurred to me to do anything other than join the Navy,” he says, “because of what I’d seen growing up. We moved often as the Navy dictated and I particularly enjoyed two spells in Malta whilst I was at school. Looking back I suppose I would have liked to go to a university but that was not an option at that time. If you wanted to be a naval officer, you had to join straight after school at the age of 18. I joined to be a Seaman Officer but was ‘persuaded’ to transfer to Engineering as I had the right Maths and Physics A level passes.”
After passing out of the College in 1962, he flew to Hong Kong to join the aircraft carrier, HMS BULWARK and then joined HMS ARK ROYAL, also in the Far East.
He was meant to be in the Boiler Room but it was a hot, sweaty and noisy place. Two brand new aircraft, the very first Sea Harrier and the Bucanneer were carrying out deck landing trials and he found it much more exciting watching that!
He spent a couple of years at the Royal Naval Engineering College at Manadon studying for an engineering degree but the cancellation of the proposed new aircraft carrier, CVA 01 in 1966 enabled him to change branches back to Seaman.
He joined a brand new Guided Missile Destroyer HMS GLAMORGAN where one of his fellow officers was Robin Shiffner whom he’d in fact first met when they were schoolboys together in Malta.
In 1968 he married Katie and Robin was his best man. GLAMORGAN set sail on an amazing Round the World voyage via the Panama Canal and Hawaii but stopped for 6 months at the Singapore Naval Base. Katie was able to fly out to join him and they lived together for the first time in an apartment in Johore Bahru across the Causeway from Singapore.
“We discovered it used to be a brothel!” laughs Nicko. “It was a most exciting place to live though and we had a crazy social time with half the Navy seeming to be out there.”
Next appointment for Nicko was as Gunnery Officer of HMS TENBY which was a frigate based in Devonport and part of the Dartmouth Training Squadron, training young officers from the College. His 2 daughters, Tamara and Nicola were born during this period.
After TENBY, Nicko was sent to Hong Kong for 2 years to command a Patrol Craft, HMS MONKTON and this was perhaps the favourite appointment of his naval career. “To have one’s own ship command is what every Seaman Officer aspires to,” he says, “ and to do that in such an exciting place was unbelievable”.
The couple’s son, Cameron was born during this time in the British Military Hospital, Kowloon.
First Lieutenant of the Royal Yacht BRITANNIA came next in 1975.”I didn’t meet the Queen straight away – our first trip was with the Queen Mother to the Channel Islands and this was tremendous fun. On the last evening bad weather stopped a group of VIPs coming out by boat to a reception on board. The Queen Mother declared “Well, I still need entertaining.” So she led a sing-song of sea shanties in the round with her leading one group and the Admiral the other.” It was from this night that one of the most contentious parts of Nicko’s career stems. Naval folklore says that he, after a few drinks, fell asleep with his head on the Queen Mother’s shoulder.
Nicko denies this completely – but it would be wonderful if it were true, I say. He smiles, says “malicious gossip by my friends” and that’s the end of the matter.
In 1976 HMY BRITANNIA crossed the Atlantic to attend the American Bicentennial celebrations in Philadelphia and then the 1976 Olympics. The next year was the Queen’s Silver Jubilee tour of the South Pacific taking in Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand and Australia where Nicko left and flew home from Perth.
He told me the Queen adored her time on board.
“The Queen particularly loved BRITANNIA. Once we were away from harbour she could completely relax. I enjoyed my time on board and was privileged to have dinner with her on one occasion which was marvellous.”
Three years as First Lieutenant of the aircraft carrier HMS HERMES followed and then a NATO appointment in Naples where he was awarded an Italian medal for assisting in the relief effort after a major earthquake. After this, he ran Southampton University Royal Navy Unit.
“I was taking undergraduates to sea in HMS WOODLARK, an old converted inshore minesweeper – it was great fun – a little like the Navy Lark!”
His last ‘foreign accompanied’ job was acting as Assistant Queen’s Harbourmaster in Gibralta and the final appointment in the Navy was to HMS ILLUSTRIOUS (his fourth aircraft carrier) as Executive Officer for her refit and then as First Lieutenant when she went back to sea in 1993.
“I came out of the Navy in 1995 at the age of 54. I had plenty of good years left and was very lucky – I became the project manager for a charity that ran a 72ft yacht taking underprivileged young people to sea for sail training and this was hugely rewarding.” He did this for 7 years and then became a part-time yachting instructor, working freelance for different sailing schools before finally completely retiring last summer.
“ We came back to Devon during this time and I’m very content. Our lives and lifestyle over the years have been brilliant and I’ve hugely enjoyed everything I’ve done!”
First published Buy The Dart March 2014
