The Shore Establishment
HMS St. Christopher needed hundreds of people to run it. There were over a hundred pay office and supply staff, cooks, stewards and supply staff, alone while, in addition there were some 30 full-time instructors. The base headquarters building was the Highland Hotel in which could be found the Captain, Senior Engineering Officer, Supply Captain, the Training Officer and the pay and supply offices The Aircraft Recognition office was situated in the town square while 'Maybank', near the Highland Hotel served as the sick bay together with another building in Onich. The town pier, now the Crannog restaurant, was where a lookout post was located, the outline of which can still be seen in the present building.
A number of hotels in the town served as accommodation for the men and women of the base. The Grand Hotel was used as accommodation for Senior Officers. The WRNS were billeted in the Imperial, Palace, Grand and Station (House of Clan Jamfrie) Hotels. The Station Hotel also housed the galleys and main mess, while officers under training lived in the Waverley and Palace Hotels. The Palace Hotel (then known as the Palace annex or 'Plex') is known today as Ossians Hotel while the Waverley Hotel stood on the site now occupied by the Job Centre. As the size of the base grew, Nissen huts also provided further accommodation and a forces canteen was built on the lawns at the Parade end of the High Street.
Corpach seems to have been the main engineering and mechanical support location. The slipway and some of the various sheds and outbuildings can still be seen today. The buildings that still exist and are of particular note are the main torpedo stores which still have some of the internal fittings dating from that time and a long Nissen hut which was a small target shooting range is still used as a target range. Visitors today will find a memorial outside the front door of the Highland Hotel and in the foyer, information about the Coastal Forces Veterans Association is on display. A number of anti-aircraft batteries and searchlights were located in the area. While they probably provided protective cover for the wider area which also included the nearby and important Aluminium smelter. The foundations of one gun emplacement can stilll be seen protruding from the grass area in the middle of Caol shopping centre!
More pictures on the RCAHMS website
HMS St Christopher, Engineering And Mechanical
Support Base
Also a 1945 aerial photograph on the NLS website