George Rebbeck Tall Tales

Family Stories and Tall Tales

Stories of and from George Rebbeck R. N.

The Parrot
The Orange from the Rajah's garden
The Business of the Beard
Another Beard Anecdote
The Visitor
A Whale of a Story
Apples Galore
Cough Medicine?
The Last Story
A Matter of History

The Parrot His sister, Bess (Elizabeth) Vincent also lived in Ringwood, in a thatched cottage in Nouales Lane and Bess had a parrot, which had been given to her by George. He had acquired the parrot on his travels and the bird had spent several years on board ship. It is not clear whether the parrot was originally intended as a gift for his sister, but there is an understanding in the family that Helen Eliza was house-proud and would not accept the bird in her house. The parrot, however, proved to be something of a liability. The Minister used to call on her regularly and the parrot, once settled in, was found to have a vocabulary which was somewhat vulgar, to say the least and which it had learned while aboard ship. The parrot regaled the Minister and Bess stopped it only by throwing a cloth over the cage. This she had to do whenever visitors of a sensitive nature came. Her great-niece Kay (Kathleen) says she also kept a spoon handy and she would throw it at the bird cage when the parrot became too much to bear. They had what could be described as a love-hate relationship. Bess would ask, "Does Polly have a headache?" and the parrot would lay its head in her hand. The Minister, it appears, was still a regular visitor in spite of the parrot as there is a story of a day when he remarked on the delicious smell of her dinner cooking. She invited him to join her for the meal which was her favourite delicacy, lamb’s tails. In those days lambs tails were amputated at birth, among other things and in true country fashion nothing was wasted. Was the parrot a companion to the young George on his 5 year posting aboard H. M. S. Dido? It would be the sort of thing a young man would buy, an exotic pet for his wife or sister. In fairness, perhaps Helen Eliza could not accept the bird’s language.

The Orange* from a Rajah’s garden

There is not much in this story but the ship’s company had assisted a Rajah in a crisis and he had rewarded the crew with oranges from his garden. That must have been a real treat as naval food became very boring and unappetising during a long voyage but George did not eat all he was given – one he preserved. It is still kept safely, in his stud-box along with the tartan handkerchief embroidered "Frae Bonnie Scotland" that he gave to Helen Eliza.

*It is actually a mandarin or a shrunken tangerine.

The Business of the Beard.

Beards were worn by most men of those days and were long or short depending on the wearers taste. The Admiralty finally issued an order that all beards had to be of a regulation length, which is still the same today, but George’s then luxuriant beard was the pride of the ship.

The Captain said, "George, you can't cut your beard but regulations are regulations and the Admiral is going to inspect the Ship’s company. You must be there so what are we going to do?"The Admiral came and the Admiral went and George Rebbeck’s beard was still as long as ever. "How did you manage it, George?" asked the Captain"I rolled it up, tucked in my chin and hoped no one would speak to me, Sir!".

As far as we know he never did cut his beard to the regulation length although he remained a long time in the Service. Certainly in his old age he had a beard that would have served Father Christmas admirably. Did the Admiral know all about the ruse and turn a blind eye? Or did George simply use the same ruse and tucked it up under his chin. Read on.

Another Beard Anecdote

George always had a beard but never had too much hair on the top of his head. He told his grandchildren it was because he was "such a good little boy when young that everyone patted him on the head and pushed the hair down to his chin".

The Visitor

One day in 1933 a chauffeur-driven car arrived in front of the house in Ringwood and the driver asked if George Rebbeck lived there. The passenger emerged and spent several hours closeted with George in the parlour. The visitor was a retired Admiral, Sir George Robinson and they swapped stories and recollections of shared experiences while the chauffeur sat in the kitchen drinking tea. Elsie Brenton, then about 14, listened at the door to an argument about who was the eldest.

Admiral: "I am older than you, George"
George: "With respect, Sir, I am older than you. "
Admiral: "No, George, I am definitely older than you are"
George: "Sorry, Sir, with respect I am the eldest"

The conversation went on in the same fashion for hours and Elsie said she could never understand why they just didn't state their ages or birth dates and be done with it. They finally did decide who was older. I believe the result was that our George was the eldest, but not by much,Sir George continued to visit regularly and usually brought a plug of naval tobacco (a tight roll of tobacco mixed with molasses. The tobacco was shaved off the plug ). Kathleen believes a quarter bottle of navy rum was also presented to Gram on these occasions.

A Whale of a story (as told to Margaret Rebbeck Brown)

A sailor was on deck, sitting in a ship’s boat, stitching a sail. The sea was rough and waves washed upon the boat. Suddenly a massive whale rose up from the churning waters and swallowed both man and boat. There was a shout, soon after, "Land Ahoy" and the ship put n to replenish supplies. Meanwhile a whale had been wash up onto the island, so the sailor shouted "fresh meat!". They split open the whale’s belly and as it opened who should they find sitting inside, happy as you please, still sewing his sail?

Apples Galore.

Grandfather George used to live in the New Forest when he was older with his daughter Alice and her family. Margaret and her brothers and sisters sometimes visited them and enjoyed playing on the swing attached to the apple tree in the garden. Edie and her twin, Bill, asked Granddad if they could have apples from the tree. He said "only if there are fallers", then, with a twinkle in his eyes, would shake the branches so that lots of apples fell down.

Cough Medicine

Granddaughter Violet remembered the Grandfather clock. Every night before he went to bed George would open the case -where the bottle from Admiral Robinson was kept - and had a dose of his "cough medicine"! She also remembers that he used to pour his tea into the saucer, why, we do not know, but it tended to dribble down his beard at times.

The Last Story

The last story was related by Elsie Brenton Hale and confirmed by Kathleen. The family was woken at midnight one March night in 1935 by a sound like a shriek from George’s black marble French Mantle clock in a downstairs room. They could find nothing wrong except that the clock had stopped at midnight. George Rebbeck died 12 hours later at midday and the clock never worked again. The best clockmaker, a Mr Hext, in Ringwood could not understand why the clock had stopped at all or why it should make such a sound but his best endeavours could not make it work.

A Matter of History

What we must consider is few retired C.P.O. ’s have Admirals, retired or otherwise, come for home visits. There is a lot we will never know about George Rebbeck RN. A couple of truths come to mind. First, his son Edgar was in serious trouble in World War I with a charge of desertion brought against him and this was a Capital offence. George "pulled strings" and the charges were dropped which means he must have had some very influential contacts. Second; Sydney was sickly as a child and the doctor advocated a sea trip to "strengthen his chest" so George arranged for his son to accompany him on one of his tours of duty - not a common occurrence even in those days. The boy was washed overboard during a storm at one stage, but remarkably was rescued. George was a colourful character, to say the least, and a very, very, dark horse. It has been suggested that George was offered a commission at some stage in his naval career. The reason he did not take it was simple economics - The mess bills would have swallowed any increase in salary. The picture on the front page has been questioned. There is no doubt that this is a picture of George Rebbeck, the family likeness is too strong, but the uniform is that of an officer, Lieutenant in fact. Did George take that commission and then refuse it? Did he take the commission and then lose it? We know he could "pull strings" for he prevented his youngest son from being executed for desertion. Perhaps he had "strings pulled" on his own behalf. Maybe we shall never know but someone, somewhere may know more.

Next Page:- Timeline of personal and world events during the lives of George and Helen Eliza

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