After completing the six weeks basic training, I received my first posting. This was to be in the British Military Hospital, Fayid, Egypt. Long distance air travel was only just beginning in those days and was not the regular method of transport for long distances. The journey was therefore by sea. We joined our ship, the Empire Ken, at Southampton. I had never been on a sea voyage before and this was obviously a great experience. It's novelty offset some of the apprehension at my posting being so far away from home.
We sailed through the Mediterranean and had a fine view of the Rock of Gibraltar as the ship turned into the Mediterranean. The ship had one stop en route at Algiers. We were not allowed to disembark there because of the Algerian uprising against the French colonial occupiers at that time. It was considered too dangerous as we would almost certainly been targets for those opposing the French.
After a 24 hour stop at Algiers we proceeded on our way to Egypt. In the evenings there was some entertainment on board, usually bingo. On one such occasion I had extraordinary good fortune and got the winning numbers three times. On the third time I did not collect my winnings as I thought the other ranks might think I had some magic dodge in order to win three times!
On the tenth day of the voyage on waking in the morning when looking out of the porthole, instead of looking at the sea, we were alongside the stone quayside wall at Port Said, moored ready for disembarkation. The ship's docking had taken place unnoticed while we were asleep and came as a surprise.
On leaving the ship, an Army lorry was waiting to take me along fifty miles or so of the Suez Canal road to reach the British Military Hospital at Fayid. Sadly I never knew what happened to any of the other RAMC officers on that voyage.