SIR – I wonder if your readers realise just what power a ‘Letter to the Editor’ has.

Local newspapers across the country recently printed a letter from me seeking those who had served in the Royal Navy at the Shore Establishment HMS Collingwood at Fareham in Hampshire, and who would like to be reunited with their old shipmates through the HMS Collingwood Association, possibly meeting up again at one of the reunions we hold every year or even joining one of the visits to HMS Collingwood.

Well they came out of the woodwork, which was what was hoped for, because I doubt if there is a single hamlet or village in the UK which has not had someone serve there since it was commissioned in January 1940 and up to the present day.

After the war, HMS Collingwood became the home of the Radio, Radar and Electrical Branch and the Cooks, Pay Clerks and Stores personnel.

Any reader who didn’t see my first letter and would love to ‘swing the lamp’ again can contact me on mike.crowe1@btinternet.com for either the HMS Collingwood Association or the Royal Naval Electrical Branch Association.

I look forward to the prospect of reuniting many shipmates.

Mike Crowe, 7 Heath Road, Lake, Sandown, Isle of Wight PO36 8PG