The ‘Newhaven-Dieppe into a second century’ article (SM, Feb) reminded me of my first trips abroad as a student in the late 1950s, which were via this service, with one on Londres. However, as an Immigration Officer in the 1960s I have more vivid recollections of carrying out passport examinations during the Channel crossings on that route on many of the car ferries mentioned.
I also recall the fourth Brighton, just a few weeks before she was sold, when she undertook an extra relief service on a particularly busy summer day. The normal crossing time then was just over three hours, but she went from quayside to quayside in three hours exactly – said at the time to have been something of a record, and to have earned her the title ‘the fastest ship on the Channel’.
In the late 1960s I was privy to a senior officer weeding out some (very) old circulars and instructions to the Immigration Service for destruction. One, from 1939/40, related to civilian next-of-kin of members of the British Expeditionary Force travelling to visit service personnel hospitalised in France as a result of serious illness, accidents or wounds sustained in the various skirmishes that took place during the ‘Phoney War’. These family members were only permitted to travel via Newhaven-Dieppe and had to use a special travel document, a sample of which was attached to the circular. This suggests that the route did not close down immediately on the outbreak of war.