The story of my M2


My very first posting in the Navy was two years in Singapore (1968-1970).  The 40 or so lads in my training group all got UK shore bases or ships in UK/European waters. Me, I got to go 'far flung' to the Far East station. Had to fly there with the Royal Air Force stopping for fuel at  Dakar (Senegal), Gan (The Maldives), and Dhaka (Bangladesh).

Singapore was another world, literally, for a 17 year old lad. It seemed to me that two worlds existed side by side. The Chinese/Malaysian one and the dying British Empire. Outside the dockyard was Sembawang Village which only existed because of the Naval Dockyard. The rest of the area was jungle. Sembawang Village is long gone now and has been developed beyond recognition.

The Naval base and dockyard were situated on the north shore of Singapore island. The Club in the Naval Base was colonial style with a big veranda around the first floor with a view across the Jahore Bahru strait over to Malaya. We used to sit on the veranda in the evenings drinking Tiger beer and sipping Tom Collins or Singapore Sling cocktails whilst watching the crickets matches and stunning sunsets - the British abroad!

The RAF base at Changi had the luxury of their own sandy beach in the base. Saturday nights were usually spent getting drunk down Buigis Street where I first learnt that some men like to dress up as very, very convincing women!!!!!!     Sundays were spent in the Tiger Balm Gardens nursing a thundering hangover in the peace and quiet of those beautiful, tranquil gardens.

During my time in Singapore the world was dominated by the Vietnam war. A few of the photojournalists who were over there used to take their R&R in Singapore. At this time I was photographing with a Nikon F which I had bought in Singapore. Cameras, watches and audio gear was so cheap there and you could haggle and get a real bargain.

I was out with the Nikon one Saturday photographing the famous Raffles hotel when a chap approached with a Leica M2 in his hand and we struck up a conversation. He was an American photojournalist called Charlie on a break from Vietnam and staying at Raffles. He was married, from New York and was expecting his wife to fly in the next day to spend 10 days with him. He invited me in to the hotel for a drink and we talked photography, cameras and Vietnam all evening. I was in awe that this guy was able to wander around a country at war and take photos at will.

I was mesmerised by his Leica M2. I had so wanted one but even at Singapore prices and haggling they were too expensive for me at that time. Late into the evening the drink was taking its toll on the both of us and we played cards, Black Jack (Pontoon). We were playing for fun but eventually moved to money. In the wee small hours, both the worse for gin, I had virtually cleaned him out and his final bet was his M2!  I cannot describe the feeling in the pit of my stomach as we turned the cards and the God’s made it worse, as I ended up winning with a “5 card trick”.

I met up with Charlie the following day and asked him if he really meant to bet the M2. He was adamant I keep it and said he had another and a couple of Nikons as part of his kit. Beside, he could say he had lost it in the field and claim a new one if necessary.  So I showed him and his wife Barbara Singapore and we became firm friends. I met up with Charlie several times over the next two years until I was posted back to the UK. But we kept in touch via mail and exchanged Christmas cards. Charlie was killed in a car crash  shortly after he returned to the US after covering the Vietnam-Cambodia border war in 1975. His wife wrote me to let me know and said it was ironic that Charlie had covered so many wars and conflicts but ended up dying in a head-on with a drunk driver. C’est la vie.

As for the M2, I still have it. It has been all over the world with me and survived annual Artic Warfare & Survival Training in the winters of Norway. Active service in Northern Ireland, Belize, Falklands and both Gulf wars. Peacekeeping in Africa and Kosovo. It has been drowned, frozen, bombed, dropped, blasted a distance of 200 yards, covered in sand or mud, suffered desert heat and jungle humidity and it just kept going.

When I left the Royal Navy I sent it off to Leica for a deep clean and lubrication along with some refurbishment ready for a more peaceful life in 'Civvy Street'. Not a bad life for a 1963 Leica M2 single stroke and a 1959 Elmar-M 50/2.8

I kept in touch with Barbara until she died a couple of years ago. She continued to live in their apartment in New York (Central Park West) where they had lived since their wedding and although frail she was as feisty as ever and had Charlie’s other battered M2 and a Nikon on a sideboard with her little gallery of photos showing Charlie posing in some of the 'hot spots' he covered.