Because my father was often absent on naval duty, my mother suffered me to do much as I pleased.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
My grandpa was in the Navy, but it wasn't something that was expected or planned for me to do.
My father-in-law was a nuclear-submarine captain. My father was in the military.
I grew up in a Navy family.
I received my parents' permission and went into the Navy on June 3, 1941.
My parents were very pleased that I was in the army. The fact that I hated it somehow pleased them even more.
My dad sacrificed many things in life for me. He abandoned a very promising and lucrative career of an army officer just so that he could continue helping me with my chess and accompanying me to tournaments.
I grew up in a family full of strong women. A great aunt on my mother's side had been a matron on a hospital ship in World War II, and one on my father's side had served in the Women's Royal Naval Service.
As a Naval officer, I've been all over the world, and one of the foundational lessons I learned was that parents everywhere would like to raise their children to a higher standard of living in a peaceful environment. That's a universal goal for families.
In my early years, my father was away as a soldier in the war. When he came back, work was very difficult to come by. Even though he was a highly skilled man, a maker of furniture, the payment for that work was very poor.
Dad was in the British Army and my mom was in the Royal Air Force, so both of my parents believed in discipline.