Hi All - many thanks for the replies and apologies that it took so long to reply - I have been travelling for a while. Great information - you all really know your stuff!
So we can conclude that he was a telegrapher in the Royal Navy and that he took some care with his uniform, keeping it as trendy as regulations allowed! Possibly a product of having a lot of time with not much to do ... the family story has it that his ship was operating in the Indian Ocean when the Japanese entered the war. So they were posted in Ceylon for the remainder of the war.
There's a good shot here of the trouser pleats/folds (not my father, an unknown sailor off the internet)
Really happy that you could identify the telegraphers badge.
Now to try and find the name of the ship.
Many thanks again
Steve