I

. The

Royal Army Pay Corps '

Journal

VOLUME V

1946-1947

INDEX TO VOLUME V
Page
Bermuda ...... .... ........ ... ...... . . . ........ . .. ..... ..... ..... ..... ......... .... 374:
Book Reviews ............. . .. . . . ... .. . . ..... ... . ...... . ........... . . . .. . ....... 4:72 558
B.A.O.R. ;No . 2 Base Clearing House ...... .. .... .......... . . ............ .. ....... .. . . ... 160
The Wehrmacht in Eclipse, by Capt. P. J. Stead ........... -. . . ..... . . ... .......... .. 239
R.A.P.C. in B.A.O.R., by Cpl. H. Clayton ........ . ... ...... ... . ... '... . .... ....... 298
May Blossom, by Capt. G. E. Penny ........ ..... . . ...... ..... .. ... ... : . ...... ... . 356
165 Field Cash Office .. . . .. ..... . . ... . ......... . .... .. . ........................ 369
British Paymaster, 1st Canadian Army . . ... . . ...... .. ... . . ...... -. ... .. . . ... .... . 4:33
Open Air Banking ... .... ....... .. ..... .. .. . .. . . ..... . .. .. .. .. .. . ............. . 4:83
Ceylon-an Air Crash in ........ .. ...... . ..... . . .. . . . 557
Chess. . . .... .. .... .. .. ... . ....... .. ... .. ..... . ................. ..... ...... 115 177 236
Corps News-Officers .......... .. . . .... . . ... .. . .......... 108 164: 237 304: 34:7 4:24: 4:82 544:
Corps Notes and News . ........ .. . . . . . .. . . ... .. .. . . .. . . 124: 182 244 312 376 4:36 502 560
Cyprus .... . . ... ....... . ... .. . ...... -. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . 302
French Indo-China :R.A.P.C. in-by Lt.-Col. T. H . Sweeny, O.B.E. . ..... .. .... . . .. . ........... .... 232
Financial Disarmament of Japanese in .. . ........ . . . . .. . .... . . .. . . .. ...... . . . ~ . . . . 4:88
Frontispiece :facing page
H.R.H. Princess Arthur of Connaught .. .... .. .... .. . ... .. ..... . . .... . .......... 101
Major-Gen. Sir Guy Riley, K.B.E., C.B. .. . .. .. .. ... ............... . .. ......... . . . 153
Colonel J. Feehally, C.B.E . . ....................................... '.' ....... . .-.. . 217
Major-Gen. R. G. ~tanham, c.B. .. . . .... ........ .. .... . .. . . . ..... . .. ... . .. ..... . 34:5
Brig. L. J. Lightfoot, C.B.E .. .. . . . . . . .. ..... ....... ..... . . .. .................... 537
Hong Kong, December, 194:1 . ..... . . ... . ...... ............ .. .... ... .. .. ... . . .. ........ 306
Humorous Articles :" Operation Octopus" ....... .. .. . . . . ................ .. .. ... .. .. . ........ ... .. 165
Shakespeare and the R.A.P.C ..... ..... ... . ......... .. .. .... ..... .. .... . ........ 178
In Praise of P .M.A.s . ....... . . ... .. . .......... ... . . . .. . ... .... . ......... .... . . 372
Classification . . .... ... . ...... . ........ .. . ............ . ... . . .. .. ............ .. 4:25
Snake-charmer in Piccadilly .. . . ... ... .. ... ......... . . .. .. . . . ... .. .............. 4:94:
Black Magic ... . . . . .... ............................ . ........ .. .. ... ... .. ...... 559
India ;The Taj Mahal, by F. H. A. Kempe . . ...... . ... ... .... .. .. .. ... . . ................ 154
A Kashmir Holiday, by S/Sgt. H. Swinton ................ . .. . ... ... .............. 173
Delhi, the City of Eight Incarnations .... ... . ... .. ......... ... .. ... . .. . .... . . .. .. ... 218
Trip to Hardwar .... .. .... ..... ... . ... . ....... ... . ............... . ......... . .. 310
B.A.P.O., Meerut .... ... . .. . .. ...... ...... ........ .. .......... .... ...... ... .. 368
Jerusalem ;Jewish Terrorists Attack Syrian Orphan age . ..... .. .. ........ .......... ......... ... 421
" I Was Posted to " . ....... .... .. .... .... ..... ................ . ......... ...... . 4:31
Jerusalem .......... .......... ........ . .... ............. ..... ....... ....... ... 545

THE

ROYAL

ARMY PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL
THE

Corps Sports :', N ews~'J

Spring Meeting.
We are going to hold a Spring Meeting
this year at Fulwell on 17th April. This
meeting is t o take the place of the Autumn
meeting that had to be cancelled owing to
the "Crisis" . The Competition for the
"Cliff Cup" and the "Young" foursomes
vvill therefore be played for at this meeting.
Entry forms and particulars should be in
the hands of members by the -time this issue
is printed . The day of the meeting is the
2 ~Jd day of Summer time so there will be
plenty of daylig ht to spare and it is hoped
that as many members as possible wi.ll
attend.
Army Golfing Society Annual Meeting~
1939.
This meeting will be held on the links
of the Royal St. George's Golf Club, Sandwich, on Monday , 24th April, and succeeding days.
We are hoping this year to enter tVi/O
teams for the Challenge Cup. There are
now nine or ten members of the R.A .P .C.
Golfing Society whose handicaps are in
sing le fig ures ; unfortunately not a11 are
available, but we hope that the 2nd team
we put in ,;vill all play below their handicaps and cover themselves vvith g lory.
Matches.
The follm;vin g matches have been
arranged ;IIth May v. Roya l Army Service Corps
at West Hill.
18th May v. Royal Army O rdnance Cor~s
at Bramshot.
30th May v. Royal Army Medical Corps
at Wentworth .
IIth Oct ober v . Royal Army Chaplains'
Dept . (probably at No rth H ants Golf
Club . Fleet).

R.A.P.C. GOLFING SOCIETY.

Campbell=Todd Cup, 1938.
The \\'inner of this Cup for 1938 \\'as
Colonel H. Geng;e-Andre\lvs with a score of
S up on bogey . Colonel Genge-Andrews
played this winning round over the Cooden
Beach Golf Course when he "vas home on
leave last Aug ust. His score for the round
was a nett 6S and, with the exception of the
short 12th hole of 170 yards, \vhere he had
a bit of an argument with a few bunkers
and took a 6, he played very fine golf.
Needless to say his handicap has been
suitably reduced .
Captain Thompson, last year's winner of
this competition , whose handicap was reduced to 3, returned a card of I up. Captain Beauchamp, who has to play off
scratch, went round High Post Golf Course
in 72 to be 2 up . Major Garratt also sent
in a good card from Ashford Manor, "where,
in spite of being round in a nett 66, he was
only 2 up owing to winnin g some holes
without using his strokes.
Half=Yearly Spoon Competition, 1939.
This Competition runs from 1st January
to 30th June and consists of 18 holes sing les
against Bogey under handicap, played over
the course of any recognised golf club
either at 'h ome or abroad. There is no limit
to the number of cards that may be entered
by anyone competitor but they should be
sent to the Honorary Secretary in the
calendar month in which they were taken
out. This competition should appeal to
those members w h o find that they are beating their usual opponents with such regularity that th e latter are n ot even prepared
to back themselves for a modest half
crown.
Summer Meeting.
The Annual Summ er Meetin o' will be
held at the Went wo rth Club, Virginia
Water, on Wednesday, 28th June. Most
members \-vill ag ree that the East Course at
Wentworth, over which we shall play the
sing les , is an easier course than West Hill
where we played last year, and in addition
there are other amenities at Wentworth that
tend to enhance the pleasure of this meeting. Full particulars of the meeting and
entrance form s will be for vva rded to members at a later date.

HOCKEY CLUB NOTES.

Althoug h un able to report succe~ s in the
Army Tournament we have had a ve ry good
season with ou r friendly fixtures, having
won 6, drawn 4 and lost 2. Goals were 38
for and 24 against .
Our successes included victories over the
Woolwich Garrison and the Training Battalion, Royal Engineers, both formidable
opponents .
Having drawn a bye in the first round of
2

-,I

!
I .

ROYAL

ARMY

the Army Hockey Cup in the Aldershot

Command, 'we Vi/ere defeated in the second
round by the 1st Bn . Royal Berkshire Regt.
-but only after a g reat struggle in which
we. forced a replay. In the first game,
played at Aldershot on 23rcl January, the
weather was not very kind and conditions
far from ideal. When the final whistle blew
the score was 0-0, so extra time was
played. After ten minutes each way the
score relTuiil1ed unchang ed.
The game was notable for the very close
marking on both sides but there was little
constructive play . Rooney in g oal broug ht
off many fine saves and Groom, at left back,
was brilliant in tackles and first time clearances.
The half-back line-Malpass,
Thompson and Nye-was very sound but
the for wards did not really combine and
seldom appeared dangerous .
The replay took place on our opponents'
g round at Blackdown on 1st February. This
time our opponents were too good for us
and we had t o admit defeat to the tune of
0-4
The game started promisingly for us and
our for wa rds threa tened more than once. In
fact there was a feeling that could they have
then scored the result l1i ig ht have been different. They did not score. however, and
our opponents , making the 1110St of th eir
opportunities, scored t wice in each half.
The other matches of the season have included many even games and exciting
struggles.
Throug hout the season the
strength of th e t ea m has been in the h alfback line, ,,,,here the play of Captains Malpass and Thompson and Sgt . N ye ha s been
consisten tl y g ood.
Captain Rooney has
proved a very efficient last line of defence
and the acq uisition of CpI. Groom, during
the last half of the season, streng thened
the defence considerablv .
L / Cpls. Boy ne and Duclley, recent transfers to th e Corps , h ave firml y established
themsel ves in the side. Boyne has been our
outstanding fOr\\ 'a rd and h as also played
reg ularly for H ertfordshire, for which he
dese rves congratul ati ons .
Dudley h as recentl y had to withdraw
from th e side o\\'ing to illn ess, but it is
hoped tha t he \\ill be fit by the beginning
of nex t season and will have lost none of
hi s skill and en ergy .
Cp l. ' N ewman h as again produced the
constructi ve hockey w hich last season con tributed so large ly t o our success.
3

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

""!e ?ave recently converted Sgt. Nye into

an 1l1s1de forwa rd, a move which has been
most successful. His combination 'with Sat.
Lee at outside ri g ht was the outstandi~lg
feature of the crushing 6--0 defeat inflicted
on the R.A.S.C. Aldershot team .
. The following represented the Corps dur1l1g the current season, the number of
matches in which they appeared bein o'
shown in brackets : -Captains Rooney (I2)~
Malpass (II), Day (12), Thompson (II),
Jones (~3), Noel-Clark (3) and Cubitt (I) ;
Sgts . Rlchard son (6), Lee (13), Nye (8) ,
Geddes (3 ), Cooper (2). Pilking ton (3) ,
Gregory (I), Hewi tt (I) and Wills (2);
Cpls. N evvman (II) and Groom (7) ;
L / Cpls. Boy ne (10 ), Dudley (8), lVlitchell
(I ) and Russ (I).
The follo\\'ing appeared in the "Hockey
World" of 3rd F ebruary:It seems almost certain that Barn et are to lose
two Qf their inside fo rwa rds, T. NEWMAN, and R .
BOYNE. The Army Offices at B arn et are being
moved. t? Cant~rbUl'y, and a mongst those going
down It IS certam th at t hese t wo will be included.
Th ey have been a g reat help to Bal'Ilet this season
and their leavin g will cause a nasty gap. Both
have scored ten goals for Barnet thjs season . R .
Boyne played for R erts again st Sussex, a nd T .
Newman has played fo r R eds A."
H.esults to date :
v. Military College of Science*
Lost 1-6
v . T.B. , R.E.
Wo n 2--0
v. A ld ershot XI
Won 7-5
v. vVoolwich Garriso ll
"VOll 4-2
v . 2nd Bn. Dorset R egt.
Won 6-1
v. 2nd Bn . D.L.I.
Draw 2--2
v. Houn slow XI
Won 3-0
v. Aldershot XI
.. .
Draw 1-1
v. 1st Bn. R. vVelch Fu s.
Draw 2--2
v. T.B., R.E.
...
Draw 2-2
v. \iVoolwich Ga rrison
Lost 2-3
v. R.A.S .C .. Alders hot
Won ~
*Onl y 9 l;layers.

RECORD AND PAY OFFICES

SMALL BORE RIFLE LEAGUE.
A very successful Christmas Shoot was
h eld by the L eag ue and over 100 entries
,,,,ere receiveo.. Thi s cOlJ1petition was conducted as a 'Pairs S hoot'. Each member
was draw n ,,,ith anoth er as his or her partner , and the score obtained bv each we re
added together.
~
.
RESULT:

1st.

31'd.

S/ Sgt,. Lan e (Perth) 98 and Mr. Averies

(War wick ) 94 , total 192, t ied with
:"[1'. Thol'll e (Chat,ha,m) 97 a nd Miss All en
(Hilsea) 95 , tota l 192.
L / Cp!. Bl'ophy (London) 96 and Capt. Coate
(W;)l'wick ) 95, tota l 191 , tied wit h

THE

ROYAL ARMY

PRY .CORPS

Sgt. EIgood (Chatham) 96 and Capt. Coate

(Warwick) 95, total 191, and
L /Cpl. Holmes (Chatham) 96 and Sgt. McDade (Hilsea) 95, total 191, and
Capt. Cubitt (London) 96 a nd S.Q.M.S. Alexander (Perth) 95, total 191.

JOURNAL

THE

S.Q.M.S. Vincent won the 'Daily Telegraph' Certificate .

S / Sgt. Anderton won the 'News of the
World' Certificate.
A new competition was held under the
name of "Inter Rank Team Match", and
comprised teams from Officers, Other
Military ranks, Ladies and Civilians.

NEXT BEST SCORES:

M1'. Cheadle (Warwick) 96 and Sgt. Daly

(Perth) 94, total 190,
Sgt. McDade (Hilsea) 95 ' and Sgt. Woodthorpe (Aldershot) 95, total 190.

RES -LT:

The League Table, compiled up to the

time of going to press, shows a great alteration from that last published as regards the
position of most Clubs.
Aldershot A Team look like winning the
Championship of the 1st Division and retaining .possession of the League Shield, and
the new inscription on the Cup for the
winners of the 2nd Division will, unless a
miracle happens, be London .
S.Q.M.S. Peasley and Mrs. Peasley have
been awarded their Marksmans Badges.
There must have been some keen competition going on here. I wonder if they were
fi ring 'shoulder to shoulder'? and who ,;vas
the Coach?
It is also noticed from the January issue
of the 'Rifleman' that Sgt. F. A. Cozens
(York) has now won the Bell Medal and
all Newspaper Certificates which are given
to each affiliated Club for competition. He
therefore joins the very few in the League
who have earned this distinction.
The C.P .O . (Aldershot) team were defeated in the first round of the 'News of the
World ' competition by the R.A.F.,
Uxbridge. They were also knocked out in
. the first round of the 'BulToughs & Watts'
competition by Exmouth B team. Miss
P ott made the top score for Aldershot, roo
and 98 . A fine shoot.
The 2nd team were more successful and
beat Dumfrieshire & Galloway B team by
one point . . Unfortunately they were dismissed from the competition by the British
Legion (Abingdon) in the next round.
Congratulations to Mr. Thorne (Chatham) on making the highest possible score
of 10 inner carton Bulls in a League Match
against York . Mr. Thorne is also an active
member of the Rochester (Kent) Rifle Club.
It is also noted that the Leith Office Club
have held their shoot for the Bell Medal
and Newspaper Certificates.
Mr. D. Harold-Hayes (Secretary) won
the Bell Medal.
S / Sg t. Bessant \\, (, :1 the 'Daily lVrail' Certificate .

5 BuLL
T eam s

1st .
Other
Milita ry
Ranks.
Silver
Medals

2nd.
Ladies.

3rd.
Civilians.

N al1 ~cs

iH et,i c
Ca.nt

CorpI. Johnson .. . 99
(Aldershot)
Sgt. Cooper
. .. 97
(Aldershot)
S / S8 t. Hawkins .. . 95
( 'ha tha m)
S.Qi. M .S. Peasley 91
(Aldershot)
Total of Team-769.
Miss Pott .. . ...
Mrs . Rooney
.. .
Mrs . Peasley
...
Miss Allen
...
Total of Team-

98
95
94
94

M~atc h

T otal

Cald

99

198

99

196

96

191

93

184

99
98
97
91

197
193
191
185

100
96
92
97

198
190
189
186

766.

Mr. Bermingham . 98
Mr. Thorne ... .. . 94
Mr. Cheadle
.. . 97
Mr. Norrington ... 89
Total of Team-7'63.

4th.
Officers.

97
193
Ca pt. Malpass ... 96
96
188
Major Edinger ... 92
93
186
... 93
Capt. Cubitt
94
185
Capt . H.oon ey ... 91
Total of Team-752.
Corpl. Johnson (Aldershot) and Ml'. Bermingham
(Hilsea) are to be congratulated upon making the
highest individual score.

At the time of going to print we are

waiting receipt of entries for a Grand Final
Competition "vhich is a members Own Start
Handicap. Each member chooses his own
start, which, added to his Gun Score, makes
up his total score. Should, however, the
total score exceed lOO, two points are deduct ed for each point obtained over 100.
This promises to be a big affair judging from
the entries so far received. We are very
pleased to have received entries from our
Office teams at Egypt and Malta. It is not
often that we have these from our Offices
abroad, mainly because of the time, but on
this occasion other arran g ements were made
which enabled them to compete. The winner will receive a small Silver Cup in addition to a cash prize, and several further
cash prizes will be awarded.

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY. CORPS

I have also been asked to hold a Team

O'vvn Start Handicap this year. I am sure
this would be very interesting , but unless
there is time, I am afraid it must stand until
next season .
; I would like to say here that if arrangeinents can be made, the Annual General
Meeting of the Rifle Leag ue will be held
again this year at the same place and date
<;>n w hich the Corps Annua l Dinner is held,
llnd it would be g reatly appreciated by . the
Committee if each Office nominated a representative t o be present. Further notice regm-ding this ,,ill be sent out in due course.
W.H.S.
Stop Press.
I wonder ho,\" man y captains of teams
took serious llotice of my comments in the
last issue of the Journal reg arding the m01"e
careful use of the \\"indg aug e or elevation
movements . I stressed the point that with
a little more care a shot in the 'nin e' rin g
could be made into a 'ten' or Bull just for
the sake of a little extra adjustment.
Now how about this. A club in the 2nd
Division has loste; matches this season so
far by only I point. What a lesson. That
club could no\\ be a t the top of the Leag ue
Table. They are onl y 4 points behind the
leaders . Hard luck , you may say . Yes ,
but EVE RY P OINT COUNTS .
W.H .S .

From "The London Gazette

T o be Lt. =Col. and Staff Paymr ., 1st Class .
Major G. W. Butler, 22 / 2/39.
To be Major.
Capt. and Paymr. R . S. E llicott,
20 / 12 / 38 .
Capt. (now Major) J . B . Cooper (Paymr.
on Prob.), 23 / 12 / 38.
Capt. (now Major) 1. S. Hogge, 1/ r/ 39.
To be Captains and Paymasters.
Capt. W. G . Harker, r/ If39.
Capt. R. H. M. Campbel1, 1/1/39.
Capt. R. C. Thompson, 1/ 1/39.
Capt. D. G. Carter, 1/ 1/ 39.
Capt. R. D. Coate, 1/ 1/ 39 .
(All above with Seniority, 1/1/37.)
To be Pay mrs. on Pro bation .
Capt . R . E. Noel-Clarke, R . Tank Corps,
7/ 9 / 38 . .
Lieut. P. F. C. Bloxam, W. Yorks Rgt .,
Oct., 1938 .
To be Lieutenant (Asst . Pay mr. ).
Staff Sgt. Major J . J. Moss, 15/2 / 39 .
Retiremen ts.
Major and Staff Paymr. 2nd Cl. W.
E adie, M.C ., 7/ 12 / 38.
Major (Asst. Paymr.) F. C. Robins,
15 / 2/ 39
Major (Asst. Paymr.) E. W. Cooper,
15/ 2 / 39.
Col. and Chief Paymr. F. P. Vidal,
O .B.E., 22 / 2/ 39.

L eague Ta bl es up to and fo r 28th January, 1939 .

DIVISION 1.
Cl llb

Aldershot A
Chatham A
Hilsea A
Aldershot B
ViTarwi ck A
Egypt
P er th A
Edinburgh
York
,1

C lu b

London
Chatham B
'iVa.rwick B
Hil sea B
Salisbury
Shrewsbu ry
P erth B
Malta. ...

w.
13 11
14
11
13
11
13
8
14
8
12
4
12
2
13
2
]4
1
DIVISION
Fi r ed

F ir ed

11
13
12
11
13
11
11
12

'I '.

10
10
8
7
5
5
2
0

Agg.
Pts.

D.

L.

P ts.

0
0
0
1
0
1
0
0
0

2
3

4
6
7
10
11
13

22
22
22
17
16
9
4
4
2

L.

P is

Pi s .

1
3
4
4
8
6
9
12

20
20
16
14
10

5154
5968

2,

6290
6758
6222

T HE K I NG'S L EVEE (7 / 3/ 39).

Among the Presentations to the King
\\as : Booth, Lieut.-Col. Eustace, M.C., Royal
Army Pay Corps, on Promotion, by the
First Lord of the Admiralty .

II.
D.

0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0

J OURN AL

"/ gg.

BIR THS .
INGLE. - On 19th January , 1939, at
E dinburgh, to Major and Mrs. C. T. Ingle
(N orma, n ee Bilderbeck) -a daughter .

10

4
0

DEAT H S.
CUH.TIS . -On 6th December, 1938, at
Ches ter, Maj 01" John Lindsey Curtis , late
Royal Arm y Pay Corps, ag ed 64.
ROvVLINSON.-On 16th December,
1938 , at Lewisham, Captain Alfred Henry
Rowlin son, late Royal Arm y Pay Corps,
ag ed 73.

NO TICE .

Officer's Club.
The address of t h e Hon . Gen . Sec. a nd Hon .
Tl'eas . of the Officer ' s Club , Ma jor S. F. Ba n att ,
lVI. C., will be, with effect, from t he b t Mav. R.ecord
and P ay Offi ce, Winchester, H ants .
,

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

THE

JOURNA L

MAJOR

W.

76579.44 S.Q.M.S . F. M. Laws, 211 /11 /38.

6279914 S.Q.M.S. FJ. E. Matthews, 15/ 2/ 39.
To be Warrant Officer Class II and appointed
S.Q.M.S.
7657923 S / Sgt . C. Bolton 14/ 11 / 38.
7734161 S/ Sgt . A. J . Woife, 28 / 11 /38.
9030 S/ Sgt . F . G. Holt, 2/12 /38.
7733251 S/ Sgt. A . Wickes, 10/ 12/ 38.
7733407 S / Sgt. A. J. R owley, 18/ 12 / 38.
~91472 S/ Sgt. E. A . Wilson , 1/1 /39.
7733714 S/ Sgt. T . Bl'owett, 1/ 1/ 39.
7871527 S / Sgt,. T. M cCririe, 1/1/ 39.
6279286 S/ Sgt. J . G. El. Rippin , 5/ 2/ 39.
To be Staff Sergeant.
1025592 Sergt. G. F. Finch, 7/ 11 / 38.
7733545 Sel'gt . A. B. Lewis, 16 / 11 /38.
6337613 Sergt. G. F. W. P ard y, 21 / 11 /38.
7733939 Sergt. W . R Cc Brick , 26 /11 / 38.
1414999 Sergt. W . W . J . Herbert, 121/12/ 38.
5280909 Ser gt . C. A. P ankhurst , 14/ 1/ 39.
6335458 Sergt. F. W. Norrell, 19/ 11 / 38.
7733601 Sergt . S. L. S. N orman, 30/ 1/ 39.
7657770 Sel'g t . E. G,. H allett, 20 / 1/39.
7733906 Sel'gt,. R L . Shaw, 16 /2/ 39 .
To be Sergeant.
5107450 L / Sgt. ~ VV. A. Binks, 2/12/ 38.
786823 L / Sgt. P . S. P alm er , 10/ 1/ 39
2973752 L / Sgt. E. Gordon , 23/1/ 39.
5379494 L / Sgt. ~. H . Briggs , 8/ 2/ 39.
To be Lance Sergean,t .
6844953 CpI. E. W . Blackmore, 1 /1 / 39.
2322424 CpI. M. Clark, 1/ 1/ 39.
3053730 Cpl. R N. Lauder , 1/1/39
3385386 CpI. W . H . Lackenby, 1/ 1/ 39.
6562101 CpJ. L. W . Cook , 1 /1/ 39.
1869994 CpI. C. E. Jones, 1/ 1/ 39.
7883809 Cpl. H. C. J effrey , 1/ 1/ 39.
3244218 Cor poral B. McDade, 1 /1 / 39.
4913693 Corporal B . Wilson, 1/1 /39.
3054373 Corporal T. N. John ston , 1/ 1/ 39.
To be Corporal.
7262943 Pte. E. W . Cooke, 14/ 11 /38,
7884537 P te. J . R D . R ob el'ts , 1 /1 / 39.
835200 Pte. A . J . Clark e, 1/ 1/ 39..
4857400 P t e. L. G. Smi t h, 1/ 1/39.
7884749 Pte. ' N. Slater, 1/1 / 39.
4613376 P te. Hj. J ones, 1/1 /39.
6086290 Pte. C. E. Godcl ard , 1/ 1/39.
408112 P te . T . Prin gle-Scott, 1 /1/ 39.
3385281 P te . E. T . .Ashurst , 1/ 1/ 39,
3526865 Pte A . G. J eeves, 1 /1/ 39.
838155 P te. G. Bre\'.-is, 1/1/ 39.
2875934 P te. J . Ainsley , 1/ 1/39.
3385495 Pte. N . 1VIerc~r , 1 /1/ 39.
7885573 Pte. K. T . Pmuer, 1 /1 /39.
819848 Pte. A. J. Gaunt, 1/ 1/ 39:
7885921 Pte. A . B . Simpson, 1 /1/ 39.
2657290 Pte. P . R n.tchford , 1/ 1/ 39.
61628 Pte. J . W ylie, 1/1 /39.
3187178 P te. J . A. Dodcls, 1/1/ 39.
5826710 P te. W . F. Gro om. 1/1/39.
6202613 P te . A. H a rt.ley , 1/1/ 39.
Probationers.
The underm ention ed join ed th e offi ces a.s stated :On 1/1'1./38.
7262080 P te. K . VV. I3inn s, Wokin g.

F. P. VID.U , O.B.E.

Ma jor Eadie first donned khaki with the old

South Devon Yeom anry. Th e Grea t W ar saw hi m
first as a " Sapper" and later as a "Gunner" . H e
tra nsferred to the C.M.A . after th e W ar.

Major Robins beg<m his ser vice with th e Glou cestershire R egt. in '97. H e was in S. Afri ca durin g t ha t
war and returned fo r a to ur of duty in 1906. In
1927 he went to China wit h t he S.D .F. a nd Jater
served in E gypt

MAJOR

F. C. ROBINS .

Drawn by

CAPT.

D . Y.

JOURNAL

To be Warrant Officer Class I and appo,i"'ted S.S.M.

Brennan, Capt. J . ' iV ., l(h al'toulll to E gypt,

2 / 11 / 38.
Brewer, Capt. E. C., Aldershot to Gibral tar ,
13/ 12/ 38.
Golding, Colonel H. , O.B.E. , Sing,apore to Scottish Cmd. , 4/12/ 38.
\
Groves -Rain es, Capt. J . A. R, Ea st York s R,
joined on prob ation ('''' inch est er), 7'/ 12/ 38.
Haggard , Capt. G., E gypt to Kh a rtoum, 22/ 10 /38.
Hogge, Major 1. S. , London to "Varley, 1/ 12 / 38.
Howell, Capt. H . A. A., M.B.E. , Canter bury to
Malta , 14/ 12/ 38.
K elly, Lt.-Col. T ., M.B.E., Eastern Cmd . t o
London , 7/ 12 /38.
Line, Capt. G. F ., 'W arwi ck to . Ald ersho t ,
28/ 11 / 38.
Lines , Capt. E. \iV ., Hon g K ong to Shrewsb ury,
10/ 12/ 38.
Ma rsball , Ma jor 'N., "Var Offi ce t o Eastern Cmd.,
1/1 / 39.
OliveI', Capt . J. L., Hounslow to Jamai ca,
12 / 1/ 39.
Overton. Ma jor E. C. , Chatham RE. to Canter bury , 2/ 1/ 39.
P earce, Li eut. C., commissioned 21 /11 / 38 (York).
Ro gers, Capt . S. C. Scottish Cmd . to Leith ,
2 / 1/ 39.
'
Spilsbury, :Ma jor F ., Exeter to Malta, 12/ 1 /39.
Thom as, Capt. J. C. L., L eith to W arley , 4/ 1/ 39.
Thomas , Capt. F . ' iV. C., Sha nghai to Southern
Cmd ., 10/12/ 38.

EADIE , M .C.

Colonel Vid al, who retired ill F ebruary, join ed th e

N o. 2 ' iVoolwich Office as an Acting Paymaster in
1915. In 1920 he t ook out to India t h e lar gest
draft of th e Corps ever to leave Engla.nd- 212 all
r anks.

CORPS

PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS.

POSTINGS~OFFICERS.

Retirements

COLO NEL

ROYAL ARMY PAY

CUBITT.

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURN A L

_ _ _ __T_H_E__
R_
O_Y_A_L__A_R_M_y_
T _P_:A_Y
__C_O_RPS JOURNAL
3527075 Pt.e. F . T. ArmstrollO' Canterbury
318838 Pte. H. A. Reeves, ch~tham (RS \ .
845386 Pte. C. H. Lumsden , D el~tford.
2657009 Pte. Hj. W. K. Offer, Deptford.
1872537 Pte. F. Kitson , York (R ).
2657117 Pte. W . E. C. Lander, P erth.
2754733 Pte. O. K. Dewar, E xeter.
853363 Pt e. A. G . Smyth, Foots Cray.
7886561 Pte. W. R Carey, London.
856069 Pte. C. H.olding, Foots Cray:.
7887094 Pte. S. Johns tone, Foots Cray.
3243741 Pte. T . H. Leggett, Foots Cray. 5382410 Pte. H . C. G riffith, Hounslow.
868777 Pte. H . C. Pipkin , H ounslow .
3448809 Pte. F. 'Wallel', Houn slow .
7264209 Pte. H. F. 0. BDown, Hounslow.
838047 P te. K. Eskrett, W arwick.
5380620 Pte. J . Hustwitt, W arwi ck.
7887983 P te. H . Lowe, Warwick.
On 12/12/38.
792851 Dmr. N . Smith, Leicester Rgt. , W arley.
5048024 Pte. H. J acks, T. Stafford R. , Aldershot.
3385484 Pte. F. S. Knight , E. Lancs. R. , Belfast.
6913334 Pte, L. Denson , Rifle Bde., Southern O.
1871334 Sp r. S. R Andrews, RE ., Southern C.
7885996 P te . T . E. Gulliford, RT. O., Sthn . Cd.
788E035 P te. J. A. Warner, R.T.C, Sthn. Cd.
1872420 Spr. D. J. Cassidy, RE. , North ern Cd.
34;47731 Fus. R C. Corker , Lan cs. Fus., N. Cd.
5048637 Pte. W. J. Pallister, N . Sta ffo rd R gt. ,
Woking . .
1872820 Spr. D. E. Pri ce, RE., Nor th ern Cmd.
853237 G111'. W . G. H etherington, R A . , W a rley.
3908685 Pte. E. R Commander, S. Wales Bord.,
Western Command .
7886502 Pte. R F . Br,a dsh aw, RT .C., P erth ,
4388982 Gnr. H. J . Mason , RA ., "Varley.
6011875 Pte. L . A. Freeman, E ssex R gt.. Ea st ern
Comm and.
.
7886967 P te. J . F . McCloI'Y , RT. C., H ou nslow.
7887126 Pte. R Bentley, RT.C. , Barnet.
7536358 P te. J. N . Dou glas, A. D .C .. Wadey .
1874460 P t e. A. Pearce, RT.C., Hil sea.
1873961 Spl'. V. S. H . i\Iitchell , RE. , Chatham
(RE.) .
7887572 P te. \ V. VV. A. P eak e, RT .C .. Foots
Cray.
408537 Pte,. B. M. Corke, Sherwood Foreste rs.
Barnet.
1874201 SpI'. F. A. Shellock, RE. , Chatham
(RE.) .
2819806 Pte. A. Cameron, RT.C .. Southel'l1 Cd.
1874258 Spl'. G. S. RobeI'tson , R.E. , Chat h am
(RE.) .
1874335 SpI'. J . Pratt, RE .. SOlifh em Comm and .
2754514 Piper J . Neil son, Bl ack W a tch. E st n. Cd.
1874570 SPI'. S. E. P . Doyle. RE.. Cant el'blll;Y
4975575 P te. R.. A. R K ennec1y . Sherwood
Foresters, Barnet .
7888765 Pte. M. Sparrow, RT.C., Ba rnet.
838057 Gnr. R F. McOarvell, RA .. H oun slow.
5381997 Pte. S. Smi th , Oxf. & Buck s L .I., East
ern Command.
.
2613854 Dmr. M. El. T a nner, Grenad ier Gd s.,
Wadey.
T [64980 DvI'. P. J. Deva ney, R A.S.C. , H ouns
low.
872934 Gnr: R M. Gl'iffin , RA, .. vVarley .
2323995 Sgm. G. A. CU l't is, R Sigs. , Perth.

880259 Gnr. K. J . Rice. RA., Hilsea.

63003 Pte. J ,. P . Hills, K.S .L .I. , London.
On 13 / 12/38.
2819870 Pte. V. T . H enshaw , Seaf.orth Hdrs.,
Scottish Command.
5048392 P te. G. J . C. Parratt, N . Staffs. , Alder;
shoh.
On dates stated.
6201883 Pte. R F . Wickens, Middlesex Rgt.,
Hong Kong, 17 /.10/ 38.
3528386 Pte. P . Green'field, Manchester Rgt.,
'W oking , 17 /12/ 38.
838342 Pte. G. Harty, R l'.J.V. C., Foots Cray,
19/ 12/ 38.
6978330 Pte. G. McAuley R Irish Fus., Perth
22/ 12/ 38.
'
,
402465 Tpr. E. Howchjn , 5th Drag. Gds ., Foots'
Cray, 2/ 1/ 39..
2819746 Pte. J. T. Keabl e, Seafm'th Hdrs., Edinburgh, 4/1/ 39.
1874496 Spr. J. P arker, RE., Salisbury, 11 / 1/ 39.
872484 Gnr. N . S. Griffiths, RH.A ., Hilsea,
16/ 1/ 39.
818410 Gm. J . Gorman, R A.. , Warwick,
20 / 1/39.
1871057 Spr. ' TV. A. E vans, RE. , Chester,
30 / 1/ 39.
850847 Gm. R C. Kirby, RA. , Ald ershot
31 / 1/ 39.
'
5826157 P te. L. Beckett, Suffolk R gt. , Malta
30/ 1/ 39.
'
1072062 Gm . O. Probert, R A ., Shrewsbury,
13/ 2/ 39.
2615355 Gdsm. J . L . Duro se, 3rd Bn. Gren. Gds .,
Woking, 15/ 2/ 39.
.
295056 Tpl'. A. "V. Emb erson , Th e Life Gds.,
Shrewsbury, 16/ 2/ 39.
828520 Gm. J. Crawte, RA. , P reston , 20 / 2/39.
2615533 Gds lll. W . Vil. C. Richard s, Gren. Gds.,
Hi lsea. 20/2/ 39.
T ' 61533 P te. F. H . Rothwell , RA.S. C., Hilsea
27 / 2/ 39.
'
Th e undermentioned were transferred to the
R A .P.C. with effect from dates shown.
Trans ferred 11 / 5/ 38.
Service to count from
12 / 5 / 38.

4613272, Dml' . J . C. Mitchell , D. of W ellin gton's

Regiment..
Tra nsferred 15/ 5/ 38.
Service to count from
16 / 5 / 38.

6;;;99317 Pt. G. Vl . Mitch ener , Sussex R egt.

Tl'a nsferred 19( 7/ 38.
Ser vice to count fro m
20 / 7/ 38.

826559 Gm. F. L . Sm it h, RA,

Tra nsfer red 2/ 8/ 38 . Service to count, from 3 / 8/38.
837892 Dmr D . J ones, Welsh Guards.
7885394 P te. C. T. Shooter, RT.G.
5249253 P te. J. C. Wil son, 'Worcester Regt.
4123593 Pte. J . O. l{aylor. Cheshire R egt
3711301 P te. R W J Kni ght, K.O. l1,. Regt.
6459303 Fus. R P. Whale, Royal Fus.
2323428 Sgrn. M. D. Sn' ith , H.' i:;l gna.J s.
3711656 Pte. H. H. Daviso n, KO .R R egt.
7263949 P te . H. E. Shilcock , RA.M.C.
T ransferred 12 / 7/ 38. Service to coun t fro m
13/7/38.

7884735
8~

Pte. J . McKown, R.T. C.

Transiel'l'ecl

2/ 8/ 38.

Service

to

count

pro vision lof a n invalid chair for Mr. C. N. Facer

(now tot,ally incapacit.a ted) , five pounds ha.ving
been gra.nted Ly our Association Funds, the
balance of 12 2s. 6d. was generously contributed
by the British Legion. Th e chair had been deliver ed.
A letter from ]\11' . Facer II'as read in whi ch he
expressed his thank s a nd appreciation of the
chair received .
The Meeting wa info rmed of the fa vourable
progress in regard to the case of Mrs . J enner.
3 . Deaths o.f Old Comrades.- The: Hon. S ec re~ary
report w lth regret , t.he followmg deaths Sll1 ce
the last meetingNo. 121. W. C. H . Jones, 27.10.38.
No. 122. W. Chi sholm, 12.12.38.
4. Matters Refe.r red from. the Management Committee.-Application for Assistance-No. 189 Mr.
H. S. Smith. Several previous grants having
been made to thi nonm ember, it was proposed
by MajlOl' F eehally, and seconded by Mr . Thurgood that a fin al gra.nt of ten shiliin gs be a pproved-carried.
5. Subscription Arrears.- Mr. Browne proposed,
and S.S.Major Pott seconded, that since repeated
~.pplicati ons for payment had failed , the followlI1g seven lVl emb ers be struck off t he HeO'ister
under Rule V. Carried.=.'
No. 172, J. Blyth. No . 333, F. E. H a rtman.
No. 826, W . W . Isaac.
No. 937, W. H .
Cronill . No. 996, G. E. C. Wigg. No . 1111
A. B. Hud swell and No. 1037, T.- Hun t .
'
6. Sale of Corps Ties.- Th e Hon . Secretary submitted his report, and a detailed statel~1en t was
Major Lidstone
circulated to t h e }Iembers.
hand 3d in ,t ch: Il ue for a further sum of 5.
Th e Bene volellt fpll (l. of the Associat,ioll h;l\'e
now benefited by 15 f rom t.his source.
Mr. Browne expressed the appreciation of all
con cem e'l. a nd add ed t hat he hoped that the
Secr etHrv's good work. so obviouslv ben efi cial t o
t h e Associa tion. would continue . .
7. Co~responden.?e :-Le t,ter from Colon el Duesbury ,
in which he stated t hat as he wo ul d this year
got.o r etired pav. he lll Ust notify hi s in tention of
resigning the office of Treasurer' was read.
Lieutena nt Oolonel Robson and Mr. Bell had
also not ifi ed th e Hon. Secretary. t hat it would
be n ecessarv to seek other Aticli tol"s after the
current yeai.
8. Annual Dinner.--l\lr. Browne proposed and
S. S.Ma ior Svme second ed t hat. the draft circu. lar. sh.ow ing parti culars of t h e Annual. Meetin g
and .Dinner be app l'o\'ed , and th e cost of print,in g
be borne bv Associ'lt.ion fund s- ca rried.
It Wl'I S prol)osed by Ma jor Feel)3.11y and
seconded bv Li eutenall t Thon1Pson t h at Mr.
Brow ne , S'-S.M. Svme, S.S.M. Mitch ener and
S.Q.M.S. Lent. be elected to serve on the Dinn er
COJ11l1littee with power to co-opt--caLTied.
9. Copies o[ Accounts a nd ba lance sheet as at 4th
J an ua r y 1939, were circul ated to t he Meeeting.
It wa s' proposed by S.S: Ma!or Mi tchener, a nd
seconded by Lieutenant 'l'holl1Pson. t.ha t t.he snm
of fiftv pOlmds be tran sferrecf from the General
Fund to t he Charit,able Fund- carl'ied.
Th e Meeting closC'd a.t 5.45 p.m .. t h e next Meeting
b eing arranged fo r 5th April. lPAQ.
_
.
G. LIDSTO~E , MaJOr,
Hon. Secretary.

from

3/8/38:-

840779 Gm. J . E. King , R. A.

845992 Gm. H. T. Steggles, RA.
4527583 Pte. W . Q. T. Fraser, Gordon Hdrs.
833777 Gm. ,.,.,i. .J. McMiUa,n , R.H.A.
400091 Tpr. A. Bliss, 4/ 7t h Drag. Gds.
5724974 Pte. R. E. Pepper, Dorset R egt.
4858248 Pte,.C. C. Turner, Leicest er Regt.
1874456 Spr. R G. Barford, RE.
5499088 Pt. H. N . H. Smith, Hampshire Regt.
3856355 Pte . .T. W at son, Loyal R egt.
5568131 Gm. W. J. Hampton, RA.
Returned to Unit.
847492 Pte. G. O. Young, Warwick to B,. A. ,
2/ 12./38.
7885673 Pte. ' TV . Brown, Chath am (RE. ) to
RT. C., 10/.12 / 38.
3908685 Pte. E. R Commander, Chester, to S.
Wales BOl'derel's, 27 / 1/ 39.
5048024 Pte. H. J ack s, N. Staffs, Shrewsbury ,
11 / 2j39.
408622 Tpr. J. M. Pearson, 5/ RI.D . Guards,
Shrewsbury, 15/ 2/39.
5048392 Pt. G. J . C. P arratt, N. Staffs, Ald ershot,
16/ 2/ 39.
'Restoration to Establishment.
7869945 S/ Sgt. R
Worsley, from Shallgh ai
Volunteer Corps, 1/ 12/38.
Transfer to Army Reserve.
2752705 L / Sgt. T. C. B . CULT, 10/ 1/ 39.
Discharges.
658164 S/ Sgt. T. F'. H a rris, 27 /9/ 38.
6448390 S / Sgt. E. O. Kirby, 25 / 11 / 38.
7733410 Sergt. J. Ross, 29 /11/ 38.
7869945 S/ Sgt. R Worsl ey, 1/12/38.
1408677 S.Q.M.S. F. C. Ulph, 11 /12'/ 38.
7657273 S.S.M. W. EYerett, 2/ 1/39.
7809687 S.Q.M.S. lVI. McDonald, 13 / 1/ 39.
538835 Sergt. \ V.. P earce, 15 /1/ 39.
7657912 S.Q.M.S. E. H . West , 29}1/39.
7733714 S. <l.lV.LS. TI. Browett, 15/ 2/ 39.
7657375 S.O.M.S. W. H . Poyser, 19 / 2/ 39.
5718618 S/ Sgt. V. G. Stevens, 26 / 2/ 39.
Death.
7733048 S.Q.M.S. W. Forsyth , 19/ 1/ 39.
ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS
OLD COMRADES ' ASSOCIATION .
COMMITTEE NOTES .
Mi nutes of the Meetin g of the General Commi t
tee , h eld at. 80 . Pall lVhtll , S. \.,.,7.1, on Wedn esday,
4th J anu ary, 1939 at 4 p.ll1.
.
Present :-Acting Oh airman, Mr. E. J . ' TV. Bl'owne.
M embers :-Ma jor ,T. F eel1 ally , Lieut. P. G . .Thomp
's on , S.S.M.s D . Syme, G . "V. Mitchener a,nd F.
Po tt, Mr . ,10hn Thurgood , and S.Q..M.Sgt.. H. J.
Lent. Hon . Secreta ry, Major G. Lid sto ne. Asst.
Ron. Secretary, S / Sel'gt. T . F. Pond .
A telegram was received from Mr. H. C. B. Sharp ,
th e Chairman of t h e As oelation , t hat h e was un abl e to attend on acco unt of illn ess. In hi s absence
Mr . E. J. "V. Brown e wa.s voted to the Chair.
Colon el Duesbury also Wl'ot,e reg rettin g his non attendan ce t hrou gh ill h ealth.
1. Minutes.- Th e minutes 0- t he Meetin g held on
Wednesday, 2nd November, 1938 , were read and
confirmed .
2. Matters Arising from the Previous Minutes.The Briti sh Legion had materially assist ed in the

THE

1--1 E

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

ROY AL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

J OURN AL

(( Put Not Your Trust .0. "

BE FOR[--=s:..:o.

By S.Q .l'vI.S. W. S. BARFORD.

11.;1 . DE.AR . EV~P"'ITHIN(j WENT wl'?olV(j .

Sol'?~Y 5/~
TNINJ:r
THIS

THE

G-OT HIS PROMOTION

THE NIGHT
/ S-'Mll

J OURNAL

1 DONT KtYOW

ST~ ,'J I'?IISP"IIlf.Y IF

WHATS TI{E: MIlTTER

WITH M THE:SE DAYS

H""P~",.t .q911 1N

TE:u. ME:

DO<'

To ME.

WHAT CAN 1
.1)0 To STOP
THIS PE.~p
TlII'lL
WA/{ltYSS

THAT
TROUBI..E IS
/VI<jIfT ST"IRY/lTIOtV

You

tYEED 'NONltY;'

Fa/?

T.J-(AT.
ST"I/'{T

IfND

SOl/HoT CUP OF

NON/NE
~

.(y~IfY

NI(jH T

liT

BD1IM

tHAT EV~N //Vg AT nlE. BUMFSHII?S BIII..L

CoNqlfhT'(JI...!fTIoNS
SG.M.S. !X,qF?y.
tHANKS TO

you~ 1(1f.C"~lYTqooD

WOI?K. H/fS

NONINE:

Ln\uc.~'"

D,qRI..I"'lf !flf
yo(/ N:T~JYI",q
THISf

10

an ad vertis ement in a local paper from ~.

\\'ido\V \\'h o wou ld like to get in touch with
a pen-friend . \,vell , just for a lark, I
answered it and g ot a very nice letter in
r eply , and-\\'ell-I wrote several times, and
I'm afraid I g ot a bit friendly in my letters.
Of course , I ne ver intended to follow it up
seriously , I only started it for a bit of fun,
but \"h a t am I g oing to do now , Jimmy?"
Jimm y t ook a long drink, re-read the letter
and r emarked "Blimey, but you've. put your
foot in it properly now , Bill!" Bill shook
his head sadly , " I know ," he said, "but
how am I g oing to get out of it? You see,
Jimmy , she h as m y address so if I ig nore
the letter she'll probably come over to see
why I didn't answer her letter, and I don't
want to g et seriously mixed up ,;vith any
w oman, especially a\;vidow . She 's probably
fat and forty and just looking for 'Sap'
number two." Jimmy thoug ht for a while
and then suggested brightly "Why not
write and sa) that y ou are g oing- on leave
next week." "That's only shelving the
trouble," replied Bill. After a short period
of silence Bill shouted "I've g ot it; she
d oesn't know \\'hat I look like, _so what
about y ou g oing over to see her in my place
-no wo man w ould ever fall for y ou, what
with your duck's disease and your bald
patch!" ]i mm y 's eyes opened in dismay,
"What, ME?" he stammered, "No fear,
I'm not doing that, Bill." "What a pal !"
said Bill, "This is the first time I've ever
asked you to do any thing for me, and you,
refuse . "

"DOOR (", shouted a dozen voices, as

Sg t . Bill Wiggins flung open the
door a 1ld, accompanied by an icy
blast , ente red the "Glory H ole " of the
Mess . Bill t urn ed, scow led at the company,
then lifting a heavy "Ammo", kicked the
d oor back into p lace. Turnin g to the bar
h e shouted " Gi ve me a pint, Caterer, and
ge t a m ove 011 ." Everbody stared-Bill,
usu ally th e soul of g ood humour, was
evidently ill a very bad temper and, more
remarkable s till, had called for a pint, Bill
who al ways drank "small ones" and derisively refe rred to a pint as a bath!
"\iVhat's up , Bill?", came in chorus from.
all sides , but Bill merely g lared around and
muttered "Shut up!" His pet 'buddy' and
dart partner , Ji1l1l11 Y Prince, crossed the
fl oor, sat d owll beside him and enquired the
cause of tl e trouble . "This!" replied Bill,
fling ing a le tte r upon the table. Jimmy
opened an d read the letter, which ran as
fo11o""s :15, Hig h Street,
Andover.
:\l y d ear Bill ,
I was de lig hted to receive your letter
a nd was \'e r)' pleased to read that you
\Vere h oping fo r an early meeting. It so
happen s that, by the same post, I had a
le tter from m y sister asking me to spend
next week with her, and as I shall then
be within te n miles of you, we should be
a ble to a rra ng e to meet occasionally. As
y ou have not yet sent me the promised
p hotog raph , perhaps you can suggest
some way by \\'hich I shall. be . able to
recog nise you\\'hen you com e over to see
.me at Kl1 owlsdon, and a tim e and p lace
at which we can meet. Hopin g to see
you 111 t h e near futu re,
Yo urs very sincerely,
Ed ie Farley .

He looked reproachfully at Jimmy who

averted his g aze , and then muttered "No,
Bill, I wouldn't know w hat to do or say,
and I sh ould only let you do\\n." "Let me
down?" snorted Bill. "That's v/ hat you are
doin g . There is nothing to be afraid of, all
y ou have to d o is just to meet her and be
your natural self, that will be enoug h to
brown any woman off." Jimm y looked
doubtful, so Bill continued "All that is
necessary is for y 611 to g o for a walk, be as
g rumpy as y ou can, say nothing , and that
will fin ish thin g s off nicely and easily. Go
on, be a pal, Jimmy , and. 1'11 never forget it,

" W ell , wh at' s the matter with that?",

asked Jiuuny, "It's a very nice letter,
althou g h I didn't kno w that you kne,,\i a
g irl at Andove r. Besides, what does she
mean about h ow is she to kno,,,, you?"
"I' ve never met the g irl," replied Bill.
"It' s like t his-about a month ag o I sa'AI
rr

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

t promise you!" Ji111111 Y nodded his head

dolefull y and then rernarked "I'll do it,
Bill, but I don't like it I tell you ! Half a
'm inute , thoug h," he said, "how is she to
know me, for I've only g ot myoId sports
coat and flannels, and there are hundreds
of sports coats like mine." That stumped
Bill for a bit, then he said "That' s O.K' l
Jim111Y, I'll lend you my brovvn suit, that
will be easy to distinguish. Come on, let's
concoct a reply to her letter and get it
posted this evening."
_ Their combined efforts eventually resulted
in a satisfactory epistle, and contained the
information that 'Bill' would go out to
Kno wlsdon ~n the follo wing Monday, and
wo uld be attIred in a bro\yn suit and \vea ring a white buttouhole, so that the lady
should experience no difficulty in reco o-nising him "vhen he arrived at the railway
station a little after six o 'clock . The letter
posted, the conspirators returned to the
Mess for a last drink and then went their
respective ways-Bill jubilant and very
effusive in his thanks, Jimm y very despondent, and already regretting his promise
also by this time fully convinced of th~
dangers and difficulties of his self appointed
task.
The J?-ex t few days passed slo wly, Bill
alternatmg between th e heights of hope and
the depths of despair, Jimmy permanently
engulfed in the mire of misery. Eventually
the fateful Monday arrived, and turned out
to be a bright sunny day, but all the best
efforts of Bill and Old Sol failed to raise a
corresponding brightness in poor Jimmy
w~o, however, felt himself too deeply com~
tmtted to back out at this stage. So deeply
was h~ affected that he even refused the pint
that BIll offered as a sma ll token of his g ratitud~. - Eventually Jimmy set off, clad in Bill's
best brown suit, and wearin o- a buttonhole
also an air ?f melancholy. b That evenin~
s~em.ed to :SIll to be the longest period of
hIs hfe, bemg spent in alternate periods of
intensive drinking and dashes t o the door
to ~ee if J~mmy w.ere returning. When I 2.3 0
arnved wlth no SIgn of Jimm y , Bill decided
to hope for the best and go to bed .
A~ 6.30

in the morning he was pounding

on J1mmy's door, and ig noring all Jimmy's
sleep.y protests, insisted on an immediate
and full report 'on the events of the previous

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

evenin g , "How did you get on; what 's she

like; and is it O .K.?" he demanded.
Jimmy's reply, g ive n after a moment or
t,,o of reflection, was to the effect that "She
ain't too bad to look at , but I don't know
quite what to say. You see, Bill, I found
that I couldn't keep up the pretence of
being you, so I had to tell her I'd come
over in your place as you had been thinking things over, and being a reg ular booser
-you see I had to make some excuse Bill
-you had come to the conclusion that it
wo uld be unfair to any woman to carry on a
friend ship that couldn't come to anything,
because you felt sure no \roman would ,,'ant
to marry a booser. She's naturally a bit
upset, and although I did 111y best, I'm not
sure h ow it will turn out, Bill. You didn't
tell me you had written so many letters, and
from what she told me, she seems to think
that she has a good case for Breach of
Promise ag ainst you, if she decides t o make
things awbvard for you," Bill gasped
"Breach of Promise ? She wouldn't d o that,
surely . I know I put a lot of sloppy stuff
in my letters." "You certainly did," broke
in Jimmy, "What about this bit yo u wrote:
'As
As
As
So,

the flow er needs the sun ,

the coelfish needs the sea;
the currant needs the bun,
dear, I need thee'."

"Yes, but surely she didn't take me

seriously, did she? " asked Bill . "And is
she really going to sue me?" Ji111111Y sh ook
his h ead. "Well, Bill, she didn't actually
say she 7.vould sue, but if sh e does I think
she has a perfect case, and I can see you
being stung for a hundred or perhaps a
hundred and fifty pounds if sh e p resses the
case,"
Bill's ja w dropped,
"Why I
haven't got fifty even, I' ve only g ot just
over t wenty quid all told . Now what am I
g oing to do?" ll e asked. Jim1l1Y could only
suggest that Bill could sell his delapidated
two-seater, but Dill snorted "I'll see her
somewhere first, the . , , twister, let her
get on with it, I' ve never even seen her!"
Jimmy sm iled pitying ly. "That doesn't
matter, it's what you wrote that counts no"" ,
and you laid it on pretty thickly." , .
After a sullen silence Bill remarked
"Let's leave it now, p'raps we'll be able to
think out something during the day." So
things were left, but mid-day brought a new
development that threatened the whole

THE
-

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

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JOURNAL

--- - - - - - -

and g ive Ji111m y a chance. Anyway , it wiU

be cheap if I can get out of it for h venty
quiel. "
A whole fortnight elapsed before Jimmy
-w rote again, but Bill did not worry unduly
for he had g reat faith in Jimmy's abilities,
which hope seemed justified when Jimmy
wrote to say that things were "going on
very we! l" . As days passed without further
wo rd, Bill told himself that 'no ne ws is good
news' and almost managed to put the whole
thing out of his mind. Eventually, one day
broug ht a packag e, addressed in Jimmy's
well-known spidery scrawl, containing a
copy of a weekly local newspaper and a let,
ter from Jimmy, which read:-

structure of th eir plans, for Jimmy was

called to Central Section and g iven orders
to report at C.P.S .C ., Salisbury, at 9 o'clock
011 Wednesday morning.
Bill was almost
overwhelmed by this disaster.
"That's
torn it!" he said when Ji111111Y imparted the
news . "Now what about it?" "I don't
kno\\', unless you lll arry the girl and settle
it that way, " remarked Jimmy .
No more "vas said of the matter until after
tea, when Ji111111Y had an idea . "I've got it 1
Bill; I'll have to leave t o-morrow for Salisbury, so I'll write and arrange to meet her
at Andover one day next week. That's not
far from Salisbury, and it will give me a day
or two to think of a way out," Bill beamed.
"That's a brain--w ave, good old Jimmy.
And how's this for an idea? Suppose you
t ell her that I am prepared to pay her 20
as a bit of consolation, it mig ht make things
easier to get free of her. Mind you, that' s
only as a last resort, if all arguments fail."
Ji111111 Y replied thoug htfully "It might help,
Bill, but it's not much, and I can only do
my best. I must get my things together
now, and I'll let you know what she says.
I'll write to her now," and went off to his
bunk, He saw Bill for a fe w moments in
the Mess prior t o leaving for Salisbury, and
in reply to Bill's repeated requests and instructions, he promised to "do his best" and
Bill had to be content \yith that.
The next few days seemed interminable
to B111, ' and a telegra m t o Jimmy on the
fourth day b rought merely a postcard in
reply telling- Bill that Jimmy was meeting
the lady on the followin g evening, and that
Bill would be notifi ed of any major developments in due course. Bill spent a further
five wea ry days and ,,-hen the long awaited
missive arri\-ed he quickly tore it open and
eag erly scallned the contents.
"Dear Bill," the letter ran. "I met Miss
Farley last nig ht and although we spent the
'''Th ole evening tog ether, \ye didn't come to
any d efinite understanding , I think you
had better leave things for a week or so ,
th en I will v. . rite ag ain. I think it would be
a good thing if yo u sent the twenty pounds,
as she doesn't believe yo u mean it. Best
w ishes to a ll the boys and yourself, yo ur
old pal, JimlDY." Bill's first reaction was
a blind rage ag ainst all and sundry, and
JilHlIlY in pa1:.ticular, bllt later his inborn
good humour asserted itself and he said ruefu11y "Well, I suppose I must wait a bit,

Dear Bill,
I'm sure you v,ill be g lad to hear that I
have arranged matters satisfactorily, both
to you and the lady . In short, old man]
I have married her myself, and I think
that the enclosed newspaper report will
tell you, better than I could, all you want
to know. Best wishes from Edie, ane!
your pal,
Jimmy.
Bill's jaw dropped, and in a dazed man.
ner, he opened the paper. On the centr~
pag e was a large h eading : WEDDING OF MISS E. F ARLEY
AND SGT. J. F. PRINCE
AT ST. ALBAN'S CHURCH.
Beneath this \\'as a very fine photograph
of Jimmy, looking very well in (yes, it wa.s
Bill's own brown suit), with a pretty and
very sma rtly dressed young lady on his arm J
su rrounded by a bevy of bridesmaids, etc.,
and presenting the perfect picture of a
happy, newly-wed husband. By this time
Bill was almost inarticulate with rage, but
pulled himself together and read the report
of the wedding. Quickly passing over the
list of g uests present, he read on : "Miss Parley, a charming blond of 28 1
who \\'as wido\\'ed h\ 0 years ago as the
result of a road accident, is well-known in
Andover. Everybody has admired her
courage in not only carrying on, but ex.
tending so g reatly, the business, left by
her late husband, which now gives em.
ployment to nearly 300 local inhabitants.
It is understood that her husband intends
to leave the Army and devote his entire
(Continu ed on page 16.)
I3

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS JOURNAL

~--------------------

Contract Bridge
By Lt.-Col.

J.

GROSE (late R.A .).

+ J,10.8
\} 10.5
0K.9.6.4 .3
';'S.7.3

APOLEON said that in action men do not think

but use only preconceived ideas, and .although
the excitement of Bridge may not be quite so
petrifying to the grey cells as that of a Napoleonic
battle, the fact remains that players who can keep
a cool head throughout a ha nd are scarce. Any declarer who makes a habit of working out a sound
scheme for the play of the hand as soon as he sees
his D ummy, may be classed as a good player, but
one who having d ene this, is able to change his plan
to meet developments is outstanding.

N
.

Dummy

~J\el 9 .6 .4 .3.

\} A .7.5

\>.f\
""1<:.5 .2
Z is playi ng a contract of "Seven pades".
A leads \} K, and at this point the' reader is as ked
to put out the cards as in the above diagram and make
out hi s scheme for th e phy of the hand.
Z s plan was to take the first trick w ith \} A , to
make hiS 0 A a t once, thus clearing Dummy's 0 K;
then to lead a small H eart which A wo uld have to
win. - D ummy would now be in a position to trump
the thud round of Hearts and lead his 0 K on wh ich
Z cou ld slc ug h off a losi ng Club.
Th e ga me proceeded as fo ll ows:Z
Trick
J\
Dummy
B

+ J, 7.6.4.2
\} K. 9
0K.5.4.3
~ 8.5

+A.K.Q
\} Q.J,6
O A.Q.8.7
4J, 4.2
Score: game all and YZ 40 -10ve.

1 NT
2 NT

\} K

\} 5

\}8

\} A
OA

2
02
03
05
3
\} ]
\} 10
\}4
\}3
4
\} el
)
Z now changed his plan.
Why)
B has petered in Hearts, playing r) firs t and \} 4
afterwards, and since he can see that Dummy will
trump, he would not have petered u nless he could
trump hig her. B therd o re is marked w ith ~K , and
If Dummy trumps, B w ill pe t in and lead h is best
Club throug h Z 's King. 1\ is marked from the bidding with 4tA, so Z is sure to lose three tricks in
Cl ubsplaying it that -yay and thi s wi ll put h im down.
So Instead of trumpIng the Heart at trick 4, Dummy
threw a C1~b. B cleverly trumped his partner's winnIng \} Q 10 order to lead Clubs up to Dummy' s
weakness, but after the loss of two Club tricks Z
became impregnabl e and made his cont ract. The four
hands were:+ J,1 0.8
\} 10.5
0 K.9.6.4.3
"-8.7.3

D ealer Z .

Bidding (AB did not bid):

+ 8.5.3
\}7.5.2
010.6
-"K.Q.I0 .7.3
y

The following example, from the Bridge M agazine,

of an average player driving right on past the red
light, is chosen because it also illustrates the rewa rd
of a patien t defence.

+10.9
\} A.I0 .8.4.3
J,9.2
4tA.9 .6

Y
2~

Pass

. 1:-

led \}4, B won with \} K and returned \}9 en

w~lch Z played \} J and was aJJowed by A to win the
tnck (one tnck all). Z 'won th e n ext trick with
(two-one), and then led ';' 4 to Dummy 's -' 10 which
was also allowed to win , A holding up th e Ace (threeone). Dummy's 4-K was th en led to es tabli sh the
suit, but A, getting in with 4tA (three te YZ-two to
AB), cashed his three Hearts (making AB fi ve tricks) ,
and then led
10. Z needed aJJ the rest for his
contract, but was compelled to lead away from the
Ace, Queen of Diamonds and so went dow n one.

"J

. What he should have done, of co urse, was to change

his pl an . when the Ace of Clubs was held up the
second time. The lead was then in Dummy with
-' 1O? and Z 's <:J nly chance of bagging the eight tricks
re9ulred for hIS contract, was to try the finesse in
Dlamends then and there. It wo uld have co me off
and given him th e rubber.

+ 5
\} K.Q.J, 9.6.2.
010.7.2
ft A.Q.6

B
Z

+ A.Q.9.6.4.3
\} A.7.3
OA
" K.5.2

On the other side, here is a hand played by a weJlknown Amencan who was sufficiently expert to take
the rig ht turning.

14

+K .7.2
\7 8.4
O Q.].8. 5
6 J,1 0. 9.4

ledge is power and many openings will occur for him

to use it al most subconsciously.
Here is a case which happened some time ago, and
the details of the hands have slipped the writer' S
memory, but the situation was something like this:+ x.x
\} x.x .x
O A.J.lU.x.x
4tK.J.IO

On the morning of the Battle of Waterloo, Napoleon

thought he had ge t his opponent just where he wanted
him, but as the day wore on and he saw him adjusting his motley forces to meet the s uccessive assa ults
of the veterans of the Grand Army, he must have
told himself that there was at least one exception to
his rule that in action men do not use their brains.
And yet the D uke himself, th e finest exponent of Battl e
tactics of his time, afforded in his strategy a notable
instance of the rigidity of the hum an mind in times of
stress. Being convinced that the enemy was sure to
come round his right flank , he was not able to shake
off this conviction when the situatien cleared , but
kept a considerable part of his army away out on his
right, doing nothing all day I H ad he lived in these
present-day piping times of peace and had lei sure to
enjoy his rubber, we may suppose that at the tactics
of the game-the play of the cards-he would have
h ad no equal, while at the strategy- the bidding-he
wou ld have been no match for th e Corsican. It is not
any wonder that the Duke failed to grasp Napoleon 's
s trategic p lan, depending as it did on psychology, then
an unex plcred sc ience. It was a neat exploitation of
the characteristics of his two opponents, the headlong
Blucher and the cautious W elling ten, so neat that four
-colossal blunders by his subordi nates, and much illluck besides, were needed to rob it of success. ,

+ A.I0 .x.x
\} K.x .x
O K.x
~ A . Q . x.x

+ x.x
\} A.J,10.x .x
Ox.x
" x.x.x.x

+ K.Q.].x.x
\} Q .x
O Q.x.x.x
" x.x
Neither side was vulnerable, but both h ad made scores
above the line. B had doubled twice and got YZ
down each time. True it was only by one trick, but
he had had the' bad manners to chortle, and Z had
suffered hi s transports with distaste. The bidding
started thus : Z
B
Y
A
2 \}
2 +
2 0
1 NT
No
No
Dbl

T o follow th e grea t Emperor's example and tty to

make use of the oppone nts characteristics is not diffi-cult at Bridge. For one thing, the same opponents
are met again and again in the club, or wherever we
play, and their idi osyncracies do not change. The
o ptimist who has incurred an as tron omical penalty
does not desist from his gambols; we expect him to,
but he doesn't. The burnt child 's dread of the fire
is mere proverb , th e moth a t the candle's fl ame (obsol ete on ly for lack of cand les) is reality. And overbidding is not by any means the on ly eccentricity in an
opponent w hich may prove useful. There is the
opponent w ho das hes into No-Trumps without expl oring th e suits, so that w hen we have a cast-iron
mine.r sui t, it may pay us to D<1SS auietly and let him
go n g ht ahead rather fhan warn him of hi s danger
by intervening.

Z decided to retreat into his partner's suit, but he

wanted to have the contract of "Three D iamonds"
doubled by th e tri umphant B. H e therefore call ed
" Three Cl ubs". A doubled thi s and after Y and B
had passed , Z called " Three D iamonds" . A left this
for his partner to deal with, and B, not doubti ng that
Z was a worm wriggling on his hook, doubled g leefully.
Y made his contrac t and the game.
Problem I.

+10 .6
\} K.3 .2

There is the opponent who much prefers th e role

o f declarer to that of dummy, probably because he
fancie s himself as a card player.

0:1.2
" none
D umm y

There is the opponent who is prone to rescue his

p ar tner fr om a double because he himself has not
much trump support and the one who takes out his
p artner's " D oubl e" for the sa me reason.

These and many o ther odd habits do opponents

prac tise. . Often they cut with us as partners, and
then theu fOib les are conspicuous, not to say obtrusive.
But .Time, the. hea ler, is a pt to make us forget our
prevIOUS suffenngs when later we cut against the same
players, and so we fail to ga ther dividends on o ur
p ainfu ll y acquired kn ow ledge .

+J

\} A.J, 5.4
O A.4

Z is playing a contract of " Four Spades", and has

already lost two tricks, so she can afford to lose only
one more. The adverse trumps have been drawn, but
none of their hearts has been di scarded or located. AB
each hold several D iamonds.
.1. H ow would the ordinary Z play the rest of the

The student should watch for the tendencies of all

the players he comes across, make a mental note of
them at the time and write them down afterwards.
Then when he cuts into a rubber, he should recall
them t.o . mind . A ll this is not tedious but highly
entertalmng. He does not have to look out eagerly
for an opp ortunity to profit by his know ledge. Know-

cards, it being her lead now ?

2. How did Mrs. Culbertson play it?

. (So/u/ions

15

O'/Jel'

page.)

1 HE

RUVAL

ARMY

PAY

Solution I.

1. Without thinking the ordinary playe r would

probably lead a small Heart to Dummy's King, and
lead back a small H eart, fin essing the Jack if the Queen
was not put on.
2. Mrs. Culbert son led her Ace of H ea rts fi rs t and
then a small H eart to Dummy's King. It happened
that the adverse Hearts were distributed:
A. \) Q.x
B. X.X .X.x
So Mrs. Culbertson made her contract, while the pl ay
in paragraph 1 wo uld have cras hed. This is not luck
but play ; the on ly distribution which would have
downed her was for A to hold at least four Hearts to
the Queen, and that distribution would be equally
fatal to any play.

0]

Z
\) 6.2
O Q(now led)
A is now squeezed. H e dare not th row his tltJ and
when he was seen reluctantl y to Dart with a Hea rt
honour, even th is defeatist Z could hardly fail to
observe that it gave Dummy a nother wi nner besides
the King of H earts

FTER fourteen day s in a very unpleasant ship , which was constantly

tossed about by a tempestuous sea,
there appeared on the h orizon, a bla~k,
ba rren, forbidding looking rock, standmg
Q...
of the ocean like a g igantic ~ortress ,
~vh.ich seemed t o be utterly desbtute of
,.:;eo-etation
;;:.
, ~ r any other form of life, and so
inhospitable, that ol'ie felt sorry for the men ,
women and children , ",';h.9, in a fe w hours,
,vould be left on that lonely spot for three
years.
When it was first sighted, it must have
been at least forty miles off, and was , t o the
mrk'ed eye , an impenetrable mass--a big
black backgr ound--which "ve filled in, from
time to time, as \\-e gradually reduced the
distance between the ship and the sh ore. It
-f irst became necessary to :fill in large bumps,
deep lines , and small white spots, which
eventually had to be enlarged to lofty , bare,
rugged hills, intersected by deep gorges ,
w ith houses dotted here and there and
:finally , \V hen we were not far off, we had to
insert at the bottom of a very deep gorge,

"P ut N ot Your Trust .. "

(Concl uded from page 13 .)

attention to further proposed ex ten sions

of the business. Among the many interesting and useful presents "vas a cheque
for 20 from an old Army fri end of the
brideg room, \\'h o \\'as not p resent at the
ceremony, but whom, ""re feel sure, must
at this m oment be joining us in wishing
the lucky brideg room and his lovely bride
every happiness, and a g reater mea sure of
prosperity in th e future."

it

~\

Birds in Factory Share inl Lunches

Form er ' iVoolwi ch Arsenal work ers tra ns ferred to

Sidc up, K ent, during t h e crisis complain that" Birds nesting within t he building fl y on to
the officials' desks to share t h e sta.ff sandwiches ."
The work ers, thro ugh t he Civil Service Clerical
_1ssociation , have complained to Mr . Hore-Beh sha,
Minister for vVar , following a protest meetin g at
Sidcup, las t night.
"Daily M i,,ror" .
Army's "Black Hole"

Two hund red Army clerks have bee n mov ed fwm

decent quarters at vVoolwich to an old factory at
Foots Cray.
.
Th e place h as sto ne fl oo rs, w\lldows ?O I~ Ot fit .
and t he mell ."1 l1d women clerks SIt sll1 vel'lll g all
day- for t he only h eating is provided. by a. portable
oil stove, which one man bnngs wlth hlln every
morning!
" Jobn Bull" .

(Bill remains a bachel or, but if anyop,e. seeks

a short cut to the Hospital, they have only
to quote, in Bill's hearing , the old adage
"Put not yom- trust in Princes. ")

r6

J OU RNAL
------------------

may be bold en ough to call it such, of St.

Hel ena .
The interior presented quite another
vie\\, \\-hich was so 'widely in contrast with
ever y thing outside, that it was necessary to
treat it as a distinct and separate subject.
A couple of smears of dull, dirty g rey paint
by any amateur would ha ve sufficed for the
barren rocky sides of the valley in which
Jamestown rested; but beyond, there was
such a wea lth and va riety of delightful
scenery , enlivened by every conceivable
g reen shade and tint, wonderful waterfalls J
and indescribably beautiful flowers, that no
ordinary artist could reproduce it to the
satisfaction of anyone who claimed to be a
connoisseur. The hills, protected by trees,
tropical and non-tropical , and g rass, with
g reen p lains nestling between them, or
forming natural plateaux on their summits,
0vertoppecl by gorgeous mountain scenery ~
must have broug ht the attractive parts of
the British I sles very near to many . The
absence of lakes did not mar this beautiful
picture, as some parts of the Atlantic, and
particularly those which passed the ordinary
shore limits , could be seen from almost any\"here , and provided a perfect substitute.
N or is this all. The island is very
health y , the chief cause of d eath being old
age . It is fanned by the East South East
to South East Trade Wind, which k eeps the
tem pera tu re from reaching Ull beara ble
heig hts and unpleasant depths. It has the
finest climate in the world. It possesses
the kindest of people who , moreover, are
intensely British in sentiment.--What more
could one \\'ant?
Yet, like most "perfect" places, there
was a catch. In this particular case it was
mO'n ot owy , which was intensified .by . the
chang eless routine, lack of commUl1lCatlOns
--only one mail from home a month--the
unnatural quiet, like th e va ulted silence of
an empty church, and th e peculiar feeling
of loneliness which seemed to invade one's
soul. Napoleon did a double tour there--

His Oil Stove

You can't blame one of the head clerks for taking

his own oil stove to wo rk with him .
Mr. Hore-B elisha, Mi nister for ' iV ar, kn ows all
auout hi s chill ed civil ser vants. Th ey have compla ined th roug h t he Civ il Service Cleri cal A ociation.
Th e assistan t general secretary, Mr. L. C. Wh it.e,
told me tonight, "If we do not get satisfaction, or
better h eating facili ties, questions will be ra ised in
P arliam ent and, perhaps, the matter will be brought
up in t he A rm y Estimat,es ."
" Daily H erald".

CORPS

By BEHIN D THE SCENES.

You would see nea rl y 200 ma le Civil ser va nts.

sittin g round barrack -room tres tle tables grapplin g
w it h some of the na tion 's intricate problems, but
so cold they work in cOlLts an& muffle~s . - >
B'ecause t he concrete Haors of t h e ma in room send
a chill to t he feet, each ci viI servant uses a strip
of cardboard as a carpet.
1'~g. crevices of t.he rattling window -frames are
stuffed '\vith strips of brown paper. Du rin g recent
storms, gusts of snow swept through t he badly fitt ing joints on to t he documen ts of the Royal Artillery R ecord and Pay Office. That is the offi cial
name of t hjs chilly War Office Depa r tment.
A lit tle t hermometer ha ngs on tl)e wall. It never
regi sters more t han 48 degrees. But sometim es it
ha s been down to 43 degrees.
Ask a ll Y Civil serV<1 nt and h e will tell you t hat
the H ome Offi.ce regulation pro vides a temperature
not lower t ha.n 55 deg rees for j ail ed cO ll victs.

\)8.7

PAY

(The Last Phase)

Paper Wedges

Dummy

ARlvlY

ST. HELENA

Foots Cray , K ent, vVedn esday.

Behind the scenes, halldlin g som e of Britain 's defence figures , I have found the nation's coldest Civil
se r van ts.
If yo u could get past the yellow walls of a disused
factory h ere, you would fin d girl clerks so cold
with t he icy blasts from r att1ing windows and the
chill from sto ne fl oors, that they have borrowed
khaki overcoats from chivalrous soldiers to keep
them warm at their work .

tit 8

ROYAL

War Offica Girls' Cardboard Carpets

Solution 11.
Y es, provided that Z threw c ne of Dummy's Clubs
and not \)9 the fi rs t time he had to discard .
Z said, " I make four Spades, the Ace, King, Queen
of Diamonds and the King of Hearts ... " When he
led O Q, the position would have been :-\) K.9

THE

JOURNAL

AS OTHERS SEE US.

The fo llow in g extracts fro111 the Daily
Press are reprod uced \\"ithout comment .

Solutions.

\) ]'10
tltr

CORPS

JAME STOWN BAY .

numerou s houses, large and small , a church,

with a tall spire, and a street, v,rhich ,ye
subsequently discovered was Jamestown, the
sleepy capital, in fact, the only town, if one
17

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six years--and then passed out- This feat

for a man of his capacity was infinitely
greater than Austerlitz, Jena or Marengo,
for it was nothing short of a miracle that,
under the conditions prevailing at the time,
he lived there more than a few months_ He
must have felt, at times, like a man in an
iron room. with the distance - between the
ceiling and the floor decreasing every day,
looking fon\'ard- to extinction in the near
future and suffering from agonizing nightmares,. the like of which could only be described by Edgar Allan Poe. With this refined form of torture, one with any knowledge of the place, can only conclude that
it must have been the continual caviling and
bickering with his jailers that saved his
reason.
The administrative offices, civil and
military, were situated in Jamestown, about
a hundred yards from the sea. A room in .
these buildings was used as a pay office. In
order, ho\yever, to save the guard on the
treasury chest, the pay office was moved,

CORPS

LADDER HILL BARRACKS .

who promised to escort his wife and

daughters home from a Sergeants' Ball,
which was held in the gymnasium at Ladder
Hill Barracks. After his family had left
for the dance , he succumbed to the irresistible charms of J ohnny Walker" and found
his company so congenial that, after a few
hours, his mind became rather blurred,
except, of course, the little matter of the
promise to his family, which stood out very
boldly, and a prom--ise is a--er--promer--ise". He, therefore, proceeded up the
ladder armed \vith a lighted Army Service
Corps octagonal stable lantern, and was
eventually found swaying at a very
dangerous angle on the top step--a drop of
about six hunched feet behind him--by a
sentry, who was so scared that, for a few
seconds, fear robbed him of his speech. He
was not sure whether it was some weird
apparition or an escaped lunatic. After
blinking a few times, however, clearing his
throat, and swallowing nothing, he called
out in a nervous voice, "Halt, who comes
there!" to which the bibulous old man replied "The light of the
v,rorld", and
then fell forward, smashing his lantern. He

shortly before the island was evacuated, to

Ladder Hill Barracks Guard Room, which
IS immediately above the administrative

18

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------------------------------------------------~-

offices and is connected by a long zig zag

mountainous road, or, for the more ener~
getic, by seven hundred steep steps, - the
climbing of which is no ordinary feat.
Nobody attempted to ascend or descend
these steps after dark, as a slip might
mean a fall of hundreds of feet. But to
every rule there is an exception, which, o~
one occasion, \,vas provided
by an old soldier..
.

The Pay Office is situated in the right hand

top corner.

TH E LADDER--700 STEPS.

THE

JOURNAL

-------------------------

What with pay, engineer pay, corps pay,

service pay, proficiency pay, messing allowance, kit allowance, etc., and worst of all
clothing compensation--a perfect nightmare--all governed by separate regulations,
each one different from the other, and all
frightfully invo1ved--one felt at times that
tbere was no end to a soldier's entitlement.
The unfortunate colour sergeant had, in
addition, to attend to the messing of his
company, perform the duties of company
sergeant major, attend nearly all parades,
all field days, route marches, take his turn
at battalion orderly, battalion guard, keep
clothing and equipment records and carry
out various other duties which took up no
small amount of his time . Yet he managed
it all; but heaven only knows how.
\Vhen one looks back on the appalling
amount of work these N.C .Os. performed,
one is bound to admit that there must have
been N apoleons in the nineteenth century
besides Bonaparte.
But let us drift back to the pay office
perched on Ladder Hill where the \\ ork
was the same, day after day, month after
month, which added to the monotony of
one's existence, and which was so' fixed,
that one always seemed to be travelling.in
an endless canyon devoid of colour, variation, or life. There was a very small
quantity of each class of command 'vvork~
the auditing of the accounts of the troops.
mentioned herein, payment of a few pensions, compilation of office account, and the
receipt and issue of cash.

must have had in mind Ho1man Hunt's

farpous masterpiece. The next occasion the
family went to a dance, father accompanied
them both ways .
In 1905 the follovving troops were
stationed in St. Helena:-I Company of Royal Garrison Artillery
about 300 strong.
t Company of Royal Engineers about
40 strong .
t Battalion of Infantry about 400
strong.
A fevv individuals of the A.S.C.,
R.A.M.C., A.O.C. and one of the
Army Pay Corps.
The Infantry left early in 1905 and the
remainder moved out late in 1906.
The pay, etc., arrangements at that time
were as follows:-(a) Officers' pay was paid by Command
Paymaster or Agent. If paid by
the former, a claim was rendered
by the unit.
(b) Officers' Allowances were paid by
. the Command Paymaster as at
present, but the claims were made
out by the unit or individual concerned.
(c) All other Command services were
dealt with in much the same way
as they are to-day .
(d) Payments to men and stoppages,
other than public stoppages, were
recorded against their names in a
pay and mess book.
(e) Pay lists in duplicate were made
out by the unit. The total charges
against the soldiers in the pay and
mess book vve re carried into a
column in the pay list, in much
the same \<\Iay as is done under the
Mod ified "London" System.
In those da ys, i.e ., before the introduction of the "Dover" system in 1906, the
company accountant, especially in the in fantry, had a most unenviable task . Units
were strong, 1\.vo pay lists (orig inal and
duplicate) and a pay and mess book had to
be made out by hand--there was no
"Adrema"--and the reg ulations governing
the admissibility and issue of emoluments
were not only complicated, but numerous.

JAMESTOWN,

the Capita l of St. Helena.

There were no banks, so every requisition

and claim had to be paid in cash, which
I9

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-------------------------remittances again under the usual conditions, which \,ve did.
Having disposed of this small matter, we
g lided back into the same old g roove, moved
along in the same old \\ay, in the same old
time, until ,;. /e were shaken out of our
slumbers by the order to evacuate, which
electrified everybody. The military v,:ere
all itching to pack up and clear out, leaving the place and its Napoleonic memories
to those who have a flair for history or
travel. The civilians, on the other hand 1
were very much ag ainst the move, because
they kne w their existence was at stake.
Transport drivers, clerks, messeng ers, R.E'J
A.S .C. and A. O .D. labourers, skilled and
otherwise, g rooms, domestic servants, etc.,
had to be given notice; and the trading
community, who supplied the military with
nearly all their commodities, must have
felt that their doom was in sight. One could
not, at first, believe that the move wou14
have such a disastrous effect upon the inhabitants, but after a little thought, one
could not fail to realise that, either
directly or indirectly, the \Nhole population
were, more or less, affected. These unfortunate people were, consequently, either in
a constant state of panic or anxiety according to their feelings, vvhich were influenced
by shadowy hopes of possible assistance,
rumours without foundation in fact, and the
hopelessness of the situation.
It was not till the end came that they
realized to the full that they \vould be compelled to depend on their own resources,
which were practically nil. At home there
were ways of alleviating distress, but here
there was no such machinery. At home, one
could, at worst, move from place to place to
find employment, but here one was tied to
the Island. At home there was the dole or
its equivalent, but here such a luxury was
unknown. What could these unfortunate
people do? It "vas, therefore, not surprising to find them terribly depressed, which
reacted on many who were leaving and who
realized the hopeless outlook of these men
and women, who were . so unfortunately
placed by circumstances over which they
had no control.
The ship S.S. "CLUNY CASTLE", detailed to convey all troops, etc., remaine<t
about a week or ten da ys , durin g which time
all modern g uns and arms were transferred
to it, together with live shells, all kinds of
stores, includin g supplies \\'orth the

necessitated nearly all the payees travelling

-considerable distances to receive payment.
'As, however, most of them had horses and
had to use them every day, they didn't mind
the journey.
In addition to the above, there was the
'\lork of raising of funds for the treasury
-chest, which were chiefly obtained from
local sources. When these proved inadequate, the home authorities arranged for
supplies to be brought by passing \Narships.
The local Colonial Treasurer, from whom
we received most of our money, obtained it
from the business men, etc., on the Island
for remittance to England.
Instead of
sending specie home, however, he brought
it to us, and obtained a bill on London for
it. We also accepted remittances from the
Postmaster, who, similarly, received, in
return, a bill of exchange on London.
On all the monies brought by the Colonial
Treasurer, a charge of i % was made . He
charged his clients more. No charge was
made in respect of Post Office monies. The
Colonial Treasurer could not understand
why he was charged, and contended that
the converse should be the case as he was
supplying the commodity. In reply, he was
informed that we were not entirely in his
hands, and reminded him that he Vi'as
simply using us to save the expense of transmitting his money to England. As, however, nothing short of foregoing the charge
would satisfy him, the local authorities were
informed that further monies would not be
accepted, which left them no alternative but
to ship specie and which, unfortunately for
them, proved so costly and ruinous, that,
eventually, they requested us to accept their

The only street in

JAMESTOWN.

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------- -----------~

LO NGWOOD,

ing a two gallon thin tin contammg high

explosive chemicals, slipped unseen on to
the lighter, placed the tin on top of
the shells and sat down beside it. When
the light~r "vith its deadly cargo reached
the "CLUNY CASTLE", the Chief Officer
thereon on seeing the label on the tin, nearly
had a fit. He immediately ordered the
native to put the tin in the shade. It was a
very hot day--midsummer--quite hot
enough to make the tin of chemicals explode; and had it done so, a portion of the
Island would have been lllissipg and~
possibly, the "CLUNY CASTLE" "too. The
poor fool of a native--hopelessly illiterate,
of course--had the impression that because
red fla gs Vi/ere flying on the wharf, on the
lighter, and 011 the ship, everything was all
right.

ST, HELENA,

The house in which the Emperor Napoleon died

in 1821.

~\

..

carnage. The animals, transport vehicles,

old junk, and stores not \North removing,
were sold to local inhabitants, who, like
most people, could not resist a bargain, and
purchased many things they could ill afford
to buy. But a bargain is usually an absolute
necessity until the novelty disappears, and
then one asks oneself the question "N ow
what did I buy this damn thing for?" and
usually the wife is handy with her "I advised you agaiust it", \vhether she did or
not. The g reat stores of the world have
made fortunes out of "bargains" and will
continue to do so, as bargain hunters are
always on the trail.
The transfer of the stores from the shore
to the ship \\'as an ordinary routine \\'harf
business, but the guns, their shields, and
mounting s, each weighing several tons, \\'as
quite another J11a tter. The old hand cranes Oll
the shore were not intended for such heavy
loads; and \\'hen a pedestal of a six inch
sieg e g un \\'eighing some thirteen tons was
bein g lowered into a lighter, the chain of
the crane snapped, and the pedestal crashed
into it ahnost submerg ing it. Had the bottom of the lighter not been lined with the
steel backs of bed cots , the pedestal \\'ould
have gone rip:ht through it. When it fell 1
all those standin g close by closed their eyes
and placed th eir hands over their ears in
terror, because they knew that half a dozen
men were in the lighter. But, fortunatelYl
they were all looking over the side instead
of paying attention to their work. Had they
been at their posts, sorne of them would
have been crushed beyond recognition .
On another day , as a lig hter full of live
shells moved off to the ship, a native carry-

Stones on the wall of the Castle, St. Helena.

When at last the ship hauled up her

anchor and moved off, the troops cheered,
while the people on shore waved handkerchiefs, doing their best to give them a good
send off, despite the fact that the vessel was,
carrying away their means of livelihood.
After the ship had been about half an hOl\lat sea, one could observe the people returning slowly to their homes. Smaller and
smaller they became, as the ship gradually
moved away on its course, until they 'disappeared from sight, leaving nothing but
the faint outline of the huge rock, \yhich
slowly faded a\\'ay ' into obscurity as the:
evening shado\\'s descended upon it.
21

20

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STATION PAY OFFICE, KINGSTON-ON-THAMES, OCTOBER,

THE

1899.

ROYAL

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4..30 p.m. and was attended by the Brigade Comm ander, Brigadier W. T. Brooks, M.C., A. D.C. and
Mrs. Brooks, Officers of Brigade Headquarters Staff
and many others. 'Warrant Officers and men representing all units in the Garrison were present. The
firing pa rty and band was provided by the 1st
Battalion, The R.oyal Sussex R.egiment, and the 42nd
Field Co mpany , R.oyal Engineers provided the
escort.
vVarrant Officers and Sergeants of the
Engineer Services acted as bearers and SquadronLea der A. J . Potts, was the officiating Chaplaill . It
was stated by people r esid ent in the district for a
long time to be the most impressive fu neral for
many yea rs.

The death occurred in London on 26th

December, 1938, of P. Cottrill, aged 69
After a short spell with the North Staffordshire Regt. he transferred to the Corps and
had served with us for twenty-one years
when he went to pension as S.Q.M.S. in
19 18 .

CORPS

The death occurred at Kempton, Beds.,

Qn loth january, 1939, of R. Williams (1a1::
S.Q.M.S. No. 7657296), aged 47 . Enlist ing in '05 h e served with the Bedfordshire
Reg t. and the Connaught Rangers before
transferring to the Corps. He was S.Q.M .S .
at the date of his discharo'e in 19 27.
j. B. Fanar, \"'Those death occurred at
Fareham on 20th january, 1939, at the age
Qf 62, enlisted in 1900 and, after a year
with the Royal Lancaster Reg t., transferred to the Corps. He was with the
Corps until 1925 \\Then he left the serVIce
with the rank of S.Q.M.S.

Standing: -S/ Sgt. H . J. (Daisy) Arnold. L/ eD!. Atkinson .

Seated : -L/ Sgt. W . E. (Joe) Burg~, Major G. Duberley, S/Sg t. E. Heath.

24 years with the Corps.

eluded the '98 Soudan.

OBITUARY
The death occurred at Chester on 6th
Dece.mber, 1938, of Major John Lindsey
Curhs, aged 64. He began his service with
the ?outh Staffordshire Reg t. in '97. Tran sfernng to the Corps in 1903 he was made
Major in i9 17 and retired i~ 1929 . From
1934 until his death he was re-employed III
the Command Pay Office Chester.

Ill-

The d ea th occurred at St. Albans on 12th

December, 1938, of W. Chisholm (late
S.Q .M.S., No. 614), at the age of 74 . He
enlisted in '86 and served nine years with
the Infantry before coming to the Corps,
with which h e remained for nearly nineteen
years. His service abroad included tours
iu India and Burma.

Captain Alfred Henry Rowlinson died at

Lewisham on 16th December, 1938, aged
73. The deceased obtained his commission
.as an Assistant Paymaster in 1912, after
t wenty years service in the ranks and nine
as warrant officer. H e became Captain III
1917 and retired eight years later.

His medals

C. P. Harlin g died at Beckenham at the

age of 68 on 17th December, 1938 . Enlistin g in th e Middlesex Reg t. in 1886, ne
transferred, after a few years, to the Corps
with which he served in Malta and South
Africa. No. 430 , he ,;vas discharged in the
rank of S.Q.M.S. in 1909.

C. J. CroLlghton, who died at Worcester

on 19th December, 1938, aged 60, left the
Corps in 19I8 after nearly 20 years with it
as a S.Q.M.S. He enlisted originally in the
South Lancashire Reg t. but only remained
\\ith them for two years :

J. H . Robinson, who died at South amptC?n on Qth pecember, 1938, aged 65, began
hIS serVIce 111 th e Cavalry in '92 and afterwards served with the Royal Fusiliers for
two years. Before going to pension as
S.Q.M.S.-his No. was 598-he had spent
22

The death occurred at Shrewsbury on

29 th january , 1939, of F. Wells (late
S/Sg t ., No. 7657071), aged 61. Enlisting
in 1898 he served "vith the King 's Own
Scottish Bord erers , the Northumberland
Fusiliers and the Royal Warvvickshire
Reg iment during his first three years of service. He remained with the Corps, ho'Yever, for nearly t wenty years before going
to pension in 1920.

M. H. B. Hattersley (late S.Q.lVI.S., No.

475), died in Lond on on 3 1St January , 1939,
aged 68 . He enlisted in 1889 , served for
four years with the 4th Hussars and 21
years "vith the Corps . His service included
a tour in Sierra Leone .

The late S.Q.M.S. W.

FORSYTH.

All'. Forsyth was more or less the "father " of the

Garrison and there are few whom he has not assisted
at some time 01' another.
.
He always found t ime som.e how to assist in running Garrison function s when requested, he was
always ch eery and his presence will be greatly missed
by t hose who worked with him.
There was evidence of t he great r ega rd in which
he was h eld throughout the Garrison when, at th e
conclusion of a boxing tournament t he day after
the funeral, the Brigade Commander addressed those
present and after referring to Mr. FOl'syth as a
personal friend , r equ ested t henl to proceed quietly
to their messes, barracks and quarters as ~ mark of
respect to " 'on e who has been left alone".
The late S.Q.M.S. FOJ'syth enlisted in t he Sign al
Section of the Hoyal Engin eers and served with
that Corps un t il he transferred to t he Co.rps of
Military A ccountants . On the disbanding of the
Q.M.A. he transferred to the Corps.
He ser ved in Irelan d, Jam a ica and Egyp.t.

The death occurred at Hammersmith,

Loudon, of P. Douglas on 2nd February,
1939, at the age of 61. H e enlisted in '08
and served wi th the Royal Field Artillery,
the Labour Corps as well as our own Corps.
He saw service in India and France.
Our Egypt Offi ce R.epl'esentative sends us the
following :We deeply reg r et to a nnounce t he death of
8.Q.M.S. ' N. Forsyt,h on t h e 19th January , 1939.
His sudden death from Cardiac Thrombosis, was
a great shock to everyo ne in the Garrison , w here
h e was a well-kn own and great ly r espected ' Narl'ant
Officer.
Th e fu neral took place the same afternoon at

23

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The Rhine 'Re-Visited

~'~~

CORP5

By Y. CURTIS.

NOTES

AND

HAD been re-visiting old haunts-before crisis followed cnSIS in Central

Europe. At times happy thrills possessed me, at others quite the reverse.

yards of crusty bread so beloved of their

race ,

The Church, also, where the Cameron

Highlanders worshipped.

Wiesbaden is once more a typical German

Spa.
Instinctively my steps turned to our old
eN affi'. but alas! no real hom e-brewed tea
and cheery blue-clad waitresses ,,,ere there.

Standing outside it I almost expected to

see the Highlanders emerge and hear the
stentorian VOIce of the Officer-"Quick
March ."
Back to my mind came the memory of
Helene, my German maid who , on seeing
the kilties for the first' time, queried,
"l\l[adame! Femmes?"

No Eng lish voices "velcomed, instead

came memories of the g ood times spent on
this alien soil in our own friedly 'N affi' ,
gone now with many another British landmark.
Perforce refreshment had to be sou o'ht at
an erstwhile favourite cafe of The F~ther
land , and it ';.vas g ratifying to be told by the
very polite manag er how much the British
Army was missed after th e evacuation.

Hurriedly I explained: "No! Helene.

Tl?-ey are not women soldiers, they are
HIg hland men who always 'Near the Kilt."
H elene shrugged, as only a German can
but outside our Cinema, a few days later,
sa Vi' h er practising her two En o'1ish words.
and gesticulating happily to a ~articularly
fine specimen of the Camerons-so I concluded her incredulity was overcome.

.That it was the British 'baw bees' they

mIssed, I well knew , but I knew also that
money talks in other countries as ,,ell.
~a~ indeed I found it to pass by the
bmldlllg that was the French canteen, and
not penetrate those confused scents of stron o'
cheeses, white meat , terribl y red meat,
vegetables of alL kinds and strong yea sty
black b read, to do my sh oppin g on the floor
above.

Those were the days of the silent film

and to enjoy the sig ht of youth at .ease, on~
should have seen 'our' Cinema. It was used
specially for the British troops and Bin
Hart, H oot Gibson, Tom Mix and the like
never had more sincere audiences or mor~
appreciation.

Oh! those litres of Eau de Cologne, the

rare perfu mes, the sweet-scented soaps and
pO\\'ders we bought so cheaply there .

I oug ht to mention that H elene was as fair

a Saxon as ever lived in The Fatherland.
Then, for a fe\,,' hours, I re-visited Mainz.
sa w ag ain its famou s Dom, and heard how
much has been done to sa ve such a wonderfu l Church from destruction, through the
rotting of its foundation s .

The liqueurs , the mag num s of champagne, and every vintag e of French wine
that I, for one , ha ve never boug ht since,
were ours for th e askin g almost, OIl account
of the then value of the Fren~ h franc.

In Mainz I missed the swagger smartness of the blue-caped French officers, and
it was unusual not to skip briskly out of the
\Nay of seeming ly endless horse-dra wn Army
wag ons, ' \V hich used to s \\'ing down the long
strasses (streets) holdin g up tram-cars and
pedestrian s alik e .

The French poilus , too ! No more are

they to b~ seen staggering under loads of
merchanch se, and Arm y paraphernalia .
They, t oo , shopped here, and no matter
hovv lad en the back, th ey still f ound room
for pint bottles of milk and th e yard s and
24

NEWS.
"
,

Home Stations

-7

donor was L t .-CoL A. 17I! . M. Campbell Skinn er a n d

the gift is bein g r eco rd ed for post erity by affixi ng
to the piano a silver plat e suitably en gra ved. This
gift solves in advan ce one of the problem s wbi ch
promised to face the m embers when the promised
new Mess m aterial:ises- towards the end of t he
yea r, we understand. We hope to b e able to k eep
t he tone a nd digni ty of the new mess furni shin gs
in k eepin g with t. he pia no-but thi s stand ar d will
he a very high one.
Billiards.-Ther e h as been a r ev ival of interest
in thi s game and we a r e makin g a show in t he
Ser geants' Mess Billia rd s L eague. In our Pal'ti cular section of t he league we h ave t ied for leadership with th e 1st E n . Gor'don Hi g hlanders, wit h
wh om we h ave to play a decid er in th e near fut ure.
The following h ave r eprE'sent,ed us, in t eams of six.
durin g th e present seaso n :Lt. .-Col. Stanh am, S. Q.M.S.s Malloy and Westcott, S / Sgt s. Bl'ookea lld McDonald , and Ser geants
Cook. Pink , Lew is B en tley and L auder.
Unfortunately , P ink a nd Bentley have left usto t h e ad vantage ot t he billi ard s t eam s in th eir new
m esses- bu t we ar e luck y in having ,ot her t o fill
t h eir places .
Vil e h ad a m a.t ch 0 11 t he 7th F ebrua ry \\it h the
civili a n st nfE of t he o ffi ce and won a.ll ~i x gam es;
alt hough t here were som e verv close ca ll . Our
guests showed us a few pre- war shots just to convin ce us t,ha t t.h ey ha d played t he ga m e in yea rs
gon e by, but t.hey suffered from lack of practice .
Th eir team compri sed :Messrs. H enderson , w[acN a mar a , R ason , Salisbury, Self and Th Ol'nt on ,
nam E'S well known to t hose who h ave serve d in th e
Aldershot Com man d.
V'l e a re to b e l'epresen ted in th e Comman d Individu al Billi:1rds Cha mpi onship by Sgt. Cook a nd
by L j Sgt. L and eI' in t h e Snooker Championship.
Hockey.- Th e seco nd half of t he season , whi h
openecl a ft er t he Chri stmas and N ew Y ea r Holid ays ,
ap pea r ed, aft.el' t he fi rst match , to be the com
mencement o f a very successful er a in t he a nn als
of th e D et a chm ent H ockey Club. A n overwhelmin g
victory bv 5 goa ls t o 1 again st " A" Cor ps Si gnals,
followed by a dr:1w wit,h the Corps Tea m seem ed t o
show t hat ~ ne\\' st ren gth and confid ence ha d b een
foun d .
U nfort nn ately, a r eo. huffl e of t,he esta bli shm ent
caused several member;; of t.h e Club to t l'avel t o t he
" fa r flun g outpos ts" of 't he Comm a nd, a nd, as there

ALDERSHOT.

Arrivals during the past quarter included Sgt.

R yan aild family, from Singapo'r e, Cpls. Dolan a nd
Groom- who cam e south from Preston and L eith
--and Pte Howell, from Woking. Gm. Kirby has al so joined on probation .
' Ne have lost old fri ends in the departures of
S j Sgt. E vans to Woking , Sgt s. Pink a nd Wood
tho rpe, to E gypt a nd Sgt,. McL auchlan. to P alestin e.
D el~artUl'es-thi s t ime from the ser vicealso include S. Q.M.S.s COl'bett and Browett a nd
Sgt. P earce. Messrs. Corb ett a nd P earce, however,
rem ain wit h the fold , whilst Mr. Bro",-p,tt has
f,o und a nook in t he v'iTar Offi ce.
Sgt. N Ol'man is n ow Staff Sergeant Cpl s. Cla r:,
and L auder have qualifi ed fo r th e' Sgts . Mess
Cat er er 's Host,er and S j8gt. BroweU became
S.Q.lVLS. in between t h e cha nge from soldier to
civilian. Th e L.S. and G.C . medal proved too mu ch
for 8 . Q,.1"1. S. Nblloy who n ow lan g ui shes in t ile
Cambrid ge H ospital.
Sergeant's Mess.-Th.e a nnual Se rgean,ts' Mess
B all was held on F riday, 3rd F ebrua ry, in t he
R A/. S. C. Th eatre. Th e labours of t he Ba ll Com
mittee wer e very well reward ed by t he unqualifi ed
success of t h e evenin g. At 9 o' clock th e B and of t he
2n d :Battalion Th e North Sta fford shire R eg iment
set th e B all rollin g and un t il 2 a .m. the affair we nt
with a swin g- this term, in t his sense, is bot,h fi gure
of speech a nd one of th e nomencl atures in th e
t el'psichorean vocabular y .
Th e incl emen cy of the weath er prevented t h e at
t end ance of some of t he would-be guests, a very
thick fog havin g visited us in t he late r afternoon,
but a mongst th e v isito rs wer e Major-General a,nd
Mrs. Rilev a nd Li euten ant-Colonel H olm es who
ca me wit l;' Colon el .nnd Mrs . Ormsb y-Johnso n.
At such {un ctions one usually gets a hint of t he
passin g of th e h ours by th e dw indling num bers of
guest s as th e evenin g progr esses, but 2 o'clock came
with scar cely any lessenin g in t h e numb er of people
present . If thi s can b e r egarded as a crit,eri on ,
t hen t he B a.ll will be writ t en down as a not.h er
notable success in th e history of th e R ,. A.P. C . . Ser geants ' Me.. s ,a t Ald ershot. 'Our t.h anks al'e du e in
full meas uJ'e to the Committee under t h e di rection
of 8.S.M . Gear f.o r prov idin g us with such a
pleasant evening.
vVe are very pleased and ver y gra t eful to be :1 bl e
t o r ecord t,he gift of a B l'Oadwood Gra nd Piano. The

2S

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

are,
present, no stu~ellts at the Pay Costing
Schools, we have some dIfficulty in obtainin a
full
te~~l, but perhaps ill du~ time, the " pow:rs that
be Inay grant the postmg of some t.alented enthUSIasts to Aldershot.
. Th~ Corps Team visited Aldershot to play their
tIe WIth the Roya.l BerkshIre R egiment in the Army
Cup, and a thnlh ngly contested match ended eve;l
after twenty minutes extra time, in a go~l-less
draw. The repl ay, at Blackdown, however, proved
fa.tal to our chance.s, as the Berks gained an easy
WIn by 4 goals to 1111. Better luck next tim e !
Ri ll e Notes.-N ext week brings the last of the
R. and P.O. Le~g ue matches and the approach of
the end of the wInter season. This season has been
one o~, u~,s and downs for both " A " and " B" t eams.
The B . ~eam was pr.omoted last year from the
second dl vISlOn .and with the changed conditions
of the league th eIr prospects were a little uncertain.
Th eIr start was certainly not very encouraging but
they gradually settled down and by Christma s were
capable .o f perform an ces as good as any in the
league. In fact, at one time they were b~tter than
the "A" t~am and scored 490 t\;'O weeks running.
The committee of the Aldersh0t Club were rather
concerned about this, but short of droppin a members of the "A" team completely out of both teams
th ey could not promote any member of the "B"
team, ~o memb er of th~ " A " team having b een
lowest 11.1 .three con secutive matches and therefore
bemg. eligIble to fire in the " B " team. Fr.om the
e~penenc~ of t~e Aldershot tea:ms , the rule dealing
WIth the mclUSlOn of members m the "A" and "B"
te.ams of clubs might well be reconsidered. Chatham
wIll probably appreciate this as Aldershot "A's"
two defeats at the time of writing were inflicted by
9hatham whereas Aldershot " B " defeated Chatham
In b.oth matches.
Th e "A" team were not altog~ th er too cOI1:fident of t he result of thei r m atch
WIth the "B" team, but unfort un ately for the ~'B"
team, Ca:pt. Rooney b rok e a fin ger- of his ri ght
hand whIlst playing football t wo days before the
match with th;- rei'ul t that his score " (91) was not
up t.o stand.ara (97). Old Ald er shot shooting enthUSIasts mlgh t b e interested to know that both
teams are found from military memb er s assisted by
~r?. &oney , Mrs. Peasley a nd Miss Potts. Our old
CIVIlIan stalwarts ar e still with us, but for various
reasons do not shoot.
Considerable interest has b een added to our shoots
by the presentation by Mrs. Roon ev of monthly
spoons. They are .aw(~l' d e d on a handicap basis, the
actual. scores beIng those obtained in a predetern-m ed R. & P.O . L eague match. Just to 'set
an exa!llple, M I:s. Roo ney , alt hough of course not
competmg, qualIfi ed for one of t he first! Th e winners
to date are:Miss N . Pott
Sgt. L. Cooper
Mrs. E. Peasley.
In the national competiti oil we have not had
any s ~ ccess up t? the present. \Ne a re still inteJ'~sted ltl .the NatlOl~al ~eam H an dicap (even if our
ltlterest IS only malntallled until the resuHs of th e
first round ar e r eceived I) Two teams were entered
and s cor~d. ~'es~ectivel y 597 a nd 5(11 ex 600. Our
other actIVities Include t he H ampshire L eag ue. Div.
IT and the North H ants L eaaue. \ Ne a re e'xperi
encing fair success in both. '"

dt

PAY

CORPS

THE R OYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

J OURNAL

CANTERBURY.

" Time .Marches On " a nd apparently Canterbury

has got 111 the way of ruthless time. W e are lIO
lon&er conn ected with true Cavalry , the horses
hav1l1g passed completely out of our ken in the
recent exchange with ~ a rn et . vVe h ave, of course,
been graduallJ: becomll1g "M. T ." mind ed and all
that rema1l1s IS for us to get accustomed to the
rumble of the ~a n~(s . One .is afraid though, lest
the '?lOre roma.ntlc tItle ,of' 'Kmg's Dragoon Guards"
for lI1 s tan ce~ IS doo.m.ed fo~' substitution by a mere
cypl:er. StIll traditIOn dI es hard and the notice
outSIde the door <;t.ill reads "Cavalry Reco rd and
Pay Office".
During the past few weeks , tradesmen of all
classes have b een making their presence h eard as
well as fel t. Th e Buffs Museum- now dubbed the
"Glass Hou se" has been converted into a Record
Offic~ and quite a number of clerks h ave qualified as
furmture removers and some even as demolition
squads ., as for the m essengers , wel1-1914 a nd all
that .
V.,7 e would ~ike to take this opportunity to greet
our new Regimental P aymaster, Lieut. -Colonel C.
E. .Gresham~ .Major P. Fryer and Cap-tain E. A.
Sm~th who JOll1ed this office from Barn et and also
MaJor E. C. Overton who we hope will soon be
fit again . . V..re hope too, that the staff . . "ho had to
leave thelr beloved Barn et will find that Canter bury is an excellent substitute.
Social Club.-This years' activities are confin ed to
an outing (Stag) to London. Suffi ce to say that not
all that were present, at the b eginnin g were in .a t the
death . Th e ladi es pl ayed th eir pa rt a few days after
t h e Stags .and th~ form er .confess to having a
wonderful tIme. It s too obvIOUS.
S:port.-A Nil return, but with our in crea,sed
numb ers, we are sure that Ca nterbury will soo n
become one of the places, if not th e place.
EFJAEL.
CHATHAM (R.E.).

N,otes for this quarter ar e somewhat meagre, but

the Offi<:e Repr~sentative, bearin g in mind th e exhortatIOn s of hIS comrades, a nd thE' pleas of t he
Editor, h as to ma ke "zumm at out of nowt " so
h ere it is.
'
Arrivals.--To Pte. Adkins, and Sp1's. Robertson,
Mitch ell and Shellock , we extend our welcome and
tr~st that th ey will. survive th e probationary p'eriod
WIthout undue stram.
.DeP~rtures. -M aj or Overton to Canterbury, Co rpl.
GIlchnst to \ iVarl ey , A / L / Cp!. Fl'eegarcl to Leith
and A / L / Cpl. Boyel to York 'Ne wish them all
good luck in t heir new stations
~ppoi~tments . -L / Sergt. J effrey shipped hi s third
strIpe WIth due honout's on 1st J an uary, and the

figuratively he finds them quite attractive.

vVe have begun the year by giving all an honourable mention, all in good part, and like th e voice
in the new s reel, "For the present we leave you".
LODDE1\.

~xtra weight has as yet. shown no signs of bearing

~t is in~el'estillg to see Mrs. Brasier (nee Molly

W llson firmg for Egypt in the R. and P.O. L eague.
B ut where a r~ t~e other members of the C.P.O.,
Aldershot .LadIe~ Team who won won every match
th~y fired Includmg th e S.M .R.C. La,dies' ChampionshIp 111 1936J37-Mesdames Deeble, Flux, Gibson,
Halle, Pledge.r, Plowman and Scott ? Perhaps their
local secretanes haven 't heard of theil' ability! One
or two are, of course, at non-shootin a sta ti~n s but
some might be expected to fire in th: league t~.1l11S .

him u nder.
Transfers to Corps.-Congratulations are due to
the following on trans fer: A / L / Cp ls. Briggs, Bed-clow. Boyd, Freegal'd, Smith, Gray and McKowll
Miscellaneous.-The annual Christma s Draw and
Dance 'was held ill the Cl ub room on 21st December
amidst sceues of re velry, snow, and a n outside tem'perature remini scent of the Arctic.
Several of th e Civilian staff have left us for duty
a.t the Royal Artillery Record Office at. Foots Cray,
and certain sections of the office look positively
bare.
At the time of going to press, Dame Rumour is
11al'd at it rega.rdin g the prospective 1I10ve of the
office , and the only place at present not heard of
:as the possible venu e of the offi ce has been ChathaIll.
Football.-Only one match has been played since
C hristmas, r..gainst "M" Co., D.B.R.E. on 8th
F ebruary, and the result. was a 6-0 win for llS.
Shooting.-The two t.eams which compet,e in t he
1ntel'-O ffi ce Sma ll Bore Lea g ue co ntinu e to plug
away , and results to hand show the "A " T eam 3rd
in Division 1. and t h e "B" Tea.m 4t.h in Di vision n .
Great hopes 'are held of bettering these po sitions.
" ELMER"

EXETER.

A considerable number of changes in Staff has

occurred since mv last notes. These ha ve ,o ccasioned
severing of m<Ln-y long-standing acquaintanceships
a nd in some instances of th e renewing of old asso ciations with the offi ce.
The retirement of Colonel L. D. \ iVoollcombe and
the appointment of Colonel T. E. M. Battersby
(TIE Devo nshire R egt .) to Offi cer il c Infantry R.ecords occurred in J an uary . 0ur recollection of Co l.
Battersby is connected with the smack of leather on
willow, and we hope that local averages will contian refer ences to hi s prowess once again. Mr. H.
Stratford retirecl from the post of Chief Clerk of
R ecords at the end of Decemb er, and our b est wish es
go with him to his well-earned retirement. One
wonders if the history of the R.egim ent will now
r ecei ve undivided attention.
Another cler.arture
from the R.ecords has been the posting of lVIr. L.
Salter to the Record Offi ce at Foots Cray. His
unaccompanied departure is regretted but we hope
that the process of settling down will not prove too
unpleasant.
The R egimental P aymaster, Ma jor F. Spilsbury,
embarked for Malta, also in January. Captain F.
\ N. C. Thom as joined on temporary loan from Salis
bury pendin g the arrival of Lieut. -Col. F. A.
vVoods , whose acquaintance we made on the 7th
Febru ary ex E gypt-.
Sergeant 'Tom ' Ter ry renewed his conn ectilOns
w ith Exet er in t he new year, and S.Q_M .S. J. Lawrence (ex Malta ) is joining from disembarkation
furlough on the 27t h February. Pte. C. H . Dewar
(Yes, you're quite correct-of the Black \iVa.t.ch)
joined from t11e Scho.ol on 1st Decemb er, and was
successful in his test as Group C, Class III (b)
R.A.P.C. Clerk in the space of on e month . Congratulations! I Anoth er probationer-Gunn er Hudson- is du e to anive from the 6th A.A . R.egim ent
(how queer t,h e new title sounds) , R.A. in a few
davs.
Major J. B. Cooper (Gloucestershire R.egt. )
having ,1ttained th at 1':1,nk on ?i3rd December . 1938,
comes in for a special quota of oongrat,ulations.
Pt e~ . Shilcock,. David son and \iV ilson have now
emerged from the probationary peri.o d anrl our congrat,ulations a re extended to these fully-fledged
members of the COl'fls.
Corporal Raleigh left for vVarl ey in December ,
Corporal Makin for 'Warwick on 1st February, and
Pte. \iVilson leaves us for York on the 22nd February. Th e distress at lea.ving Ex eter in the cases
of the two Corpo rals a ppea rs to signify t,heir adop
tilOn of t.he city as a Sj:>ll'itual Hom e so no doubt,
week-ends may see them re-appearing in this localit y . 'Ch erchez 1<L femme! I'
Th e single men of the. Deta chm ent have now
moved their qnarters to Topsham B arracks. The
accommodation at. t he Depot. Devon Regiment was
n eeded t.o cope with the extraordina.rv ru sh of r ecruits. (Again 'chechez la femme, j 'espel'e'.)
Con sequ ent shufflin g of sta ff duties have now been
negot.iated, and the usual 'L' plates hav e now been

CHES,T ER.

..'

VIl e welcome Major F. vV. Coo per who h as join ed

u s from Eastern Command and :Ma ior E. F. Cox
who h as taken over the Command Costing Branch,
'on his arri val from E ast,em Command.
At the time of goin g to press we anticipate wel.coming S.S.M. T. H a.ll from Chatham , who needs no
'introduct ion t,o Ghester.
May all the above gentlemen see the sunny side
of Ch ester when it comes.
.
Pte. Commander, S.\iV.B., paid us a visit on pro
bation, but did not like his 10cal surroundin gs and
r eturned to hi s unit after a short stay.
V.,le h ave Sapper V,,7 . E. E vans with- u s on probation and hope he find s the Corps congenia l.
A Bright Young Thin g has arrived in the perso n
of a lady typist to brighten our surroundings. Now
we are quits wit h the R egim ent.-lJ Offi ces in th e
Com mand which have lon g had the feminine inftuel1l:e from their Adrema Lo velies.
'Ma jor H. E. \ iV arr and Sergt. A. L. Brown haye
returned to the fold from t heir trip to \iVarlev. The
l atter arrived on Xmas E ve after an absence IOf 12
weeks, so those who visited \iVarley and got away
early may thank their stars, etc. for their earl y
departure from th e wild s of \N arley.
The whole staff , without doubt in "oommon with all
OUI' oth er offices at I-Tome fa.ithfully slogs " Pro
bono Publico" , but at t h e ame time while the
civiii an staff grumble at a fickle D epart.ment, we
'soldiers growl at t,he infinitesimal number of promotions in QUI' Corp s.
S.Q.1VLS . Bee is paddlin g t,hr.ough the Offi cers'
Allowances due to T. A. Officers for the Em ergency
P eriod . 1938 and find s it dry work as we do the
job in ' th e evening, after normal offi ce hours.
S.Q..M .S. L ee h as been our Chief Clerk f,ol' many
mont,hs now and Sergt. IiVoa n will be glad t,o see
him back in his Section again.
S.Q.M.S. Griffin "Bills hi s Debit,s" as merrily as
ever.
L /Co rpl. Tupholme is sLudvin g local "form " and

27

THE'. .ROYAL
'

ARMY PAY

discarded in many instances-. Presumably 'Askytoff ' has been snpplied.

The Sports Club reviewed past .activities, present
f inances and future prospects recently , and the Committee are hopefully planning a programme of
events , which we are keenly anticipating.
So , when the sun doe::: eventually shin e, and the
exigencies, etc. permit, we hope to avail ourselves
of the pleasures afford ed by their endeavours.
BUKRA FER 1vIISH 1vIISH.
FOOTSCRAY.

The usnal reminder fnom the Editors has arrived

so the Offi ce R epresentative ruefully surveys his
pad. P lenty of Part I and Part IT Orders , Reminders
to Sports Secretaries and Others but littl e else.
There are a few newspaper cuttings in th e file butdare we submit them for inclusion. These cuttings
must have been rea d by many and no doubt caused
much wondering. To those who know the r eal
truth wme of the reports were ludicrous.
"BIRDS IN FACTORY SHARE IN LUNCHES" .
Well! 'Well! The sparrows here evidently grow to
some Slze.
"ARIV[Y'S BLACK HOLE"-"for the only heat ing is provided by a portable oil stove. whl ch one
man brings with him every morning!"
Struth!
Having intmduced Footscray, it is easier t o carry
on with the usual news:
The Office.-By the time these notes appear in
print six months will have elagsec1 since t.he office
moved from the Royal Dockyard , 'Woolwi ch to
Footscray and now that the workmen show signs
of finishing their present tasks the pl ace is begin ..
ning to look more like a Record and Pay Offi ce.
As one tUI'llS off the main road and enters the
drive a board is seen proclaiming to the publi c the
existence of the Royal Artillery R ecord and P ay
Office. On the right is the residence of th e H ead
Messenger-a house whi ch, for size, would be th e
envy of many occupying married quarters (including
W .O. s Ij at other stations. Garages also on th e
right give ample room and covering for th e ea rs of
personn el and visitors. The gardens bord erine: th e
roadway are now b ecoming ship- shape and will do
mu ch to set.-off the buildings nearby.
A large white house is th en a pproached and to th e
stranger it must present a puzzle-for surely this is
not the offi ce? It is not. This is Centr.al with the
Heads of Departm ents. A well-planned and substanti.ally built place id eal for the departments
hou sed in it. Its good floors , large windows,
radia tors in each room E.L. fittings ampl e for each,
give amenities far superior to those found in many
other offices.
Continuing down th e road, one observes ahead of
him wooden huts. These contain the Canteen, coal
sh eds and Boiler Houses. but to the left there is a
large til ed a.nd cemented buildin g and it is in thi s
that all oth er personnel spend their days.
As the visitor turns left h e will ob'serve Pilrtl y
due: trenches , more garages and-th e latest addition
-the corrug.ated iron fence wllich se gregat.es us
from th e r emainder of Kolster Brand es Radio
Works.
And so into the Main Buildin g.
At first t.he
interior must give on e a n un expected view. P assin g
the huge rack s of do cum ents on on e side and th e

CORPS

J OURNAL

strong room, machille rooms, etc. Oil t,he oth er th e

plac e then o pen s out giving a general view of the
whole building a nd me' s first impression is of
miles of pipes and girders running horizontally
about 14 feet a bove one's head, It is beli eved th a t
there are three miles of hot water pipes which give
warmth to the place. The girders supporting the
roof and the E.L. lines run perpendicular to the
wa ter pipes and so the onlooker view s a vast maze .
The rooms of the Assistant Officers are arranged
on two sides ,of the building. Those facing North
will have th e countryside and sports grounds with
the adj acent water-cress bed s to view. Th e remaining room s are now being fitted with the windows,
which will help to extend the area of light.
Radiators ha ve not been installed in all , but the
whole heating system is to be re-modelled and rem'ranged to meet the change from factory to offi ce.
The entire E.L. fittings have to come down and be
re-ins talled to meet the requirements of th e perSOllnel meanwhile the length ening hours .of daylight is
very much looked forward to.
Rome was not built in a day and no doubt after
longer residence here the bui ldings will be as well
set out as any others.,
R.eferen ce to Birds reminds on e of the usu al warning now given t o visitors. The SDI-llTOWS get into
the building in large numbers and a certain amount
of inconveni ence is caused th ereby. Tt is becoming
quite th e thing to issue th e warning "Mind your
trouser s" when a nyone a ttempts to sit down on
chairs and tables which st and b elow th e fa v,oured
gathering pbces. It might also be th e solution to
the break -downs with the Machinery.
e hope to provide further informa tion rega rding
Footscray in later issues , when pa rti cul ars of the
surroundin ~ distri ct and other data useful to newcomers will be included.
Before concluding th ese notes, we submit t he
followin g from another subscriber:'Ne have now settled down in what we hope is our
P ermanent Orga nisa tion. <t,nd are gradu a.lly lo sin g
all previous ties with ' i'iToolwich. Wh en one looks
ba ck and rememb er th e condit ion s und er whi ch we
worked at vVool wich Do ckyard th e present aCCOJ1lmodation show s up t o great. advanta ge . Instead 'of a
smoke and germ-lild en a t.mosph ere, th e ail' is clean
and exhijar.a ting, plenty of room between clerk s a nd
above an room to expa nd within th e existing build
ing in an emergen cy.
Th e main buildin g b ein g on on e floor , stair climbin g is obvia ted and a clo se conta ct between R ecords
a nd Pav is possibl e.
F a cilities for Sport a re next door and arrange
ments have been mad e for th e use of pl aying fi eld s,
t ennis courts, et c.
Endeav our i b ein g made to obtain a Ser geant M ess wh ere we call ent ertain vi sitors . a nd we are
looking forward to good tim es and making "Foot cray" th e most; covet ed offi ce in th e R.oyal A rm y
Pay Corps.
Sport.- There is pl enty of spare ground a.djoinirw
the building bnt until th e ga rd ener 'ha s cut anu
mowed the gra ss it is not p'ossibl e t o con sid er th e
g round for bowls. t e n:ni ~ .. t enni-quoi ts or oth er
games. but meanwhil e th e Deta.chment h as an al"
rangement with IVres rs. Kol ster Bra nd es Social <t,nd
Athleti c Club .a nd memh ers ca n now t ak e pnrt in

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admi ssion of Supplementary Reservists to the Old

Comrades' Associa tion has since been before the
General Committee which has agreed to include the
matter in the Agend a for the next General Meeting .
Let' s hope that meeting will decide in favour. Of
course, a " mobilization" would supply the key of
admi ssion-but th e k ey by other mean s would be
sweeter.
At the time of writing these notes the "February
Class" is up for training, having duly 10~'\ted"Fo?ts
Cray. Also there have bee? othe~' thmgs 'up wlt.h
the aid of Bombs, etc. , vlde dally Press. ';Vhat ' s
the connection ? Only this :- Each night-at 10
pip emm a-wh en th e clas s is dismissed , th.e two
instructors have to switch off the hghts 111 the
immense building offi cially known as "RA. Rec~rd
and Pay Offi ce, Foots Cra.y" , before fina~lJ: lockmg
up. On about the second evening of t~'amm g , ~n a
fin al glance round, it was se.en. that a dlstant sWltch
had beell missed. The omlSSlOn was rectifi ed and
then commenced the "long" walk back to the door,
with the aid of torches (purchased by the said instructors from a Millionaire's Chain-store). " Well
-that' s that" said one-but. it wasn't. At that
moment a decided "TICK-TICK-TICK-TICK " wa.s
heard from th e middle of the building . Being regular soldiers , prepared for allY emergency and ,Imowing that "TICK " is n ev er .allowed (tfllnkmg ?f
recent articles in the daily papers?) and unabl~ m
the darkness t,o see each other' s faces-they deCided
to investigate. Guided by the "TICK-TICK-TICKTICK" and their torches they at la st lo cated,
covered with a sheet of brown paper, a dirty looking metal box, once round, now slight.ly dented ,
but nevertheless recognisable as- a c1ock. ' Nellthey still couldn't see each other's "clocks" -but
they ' d carried out their duty .
Cpl. W. J. Clark e and Pte. R. J . T . Smith are
unfortunately on the sick list. May they have speedy
recoveries .
The detachment is sorry to lose on transfer to
vVarley , th e ser vices of Supplementary Reservists
r esident in Essex. Still, for them , it' s "one less
ri vel' to cross " .
Congratulations are extended to L j Sgt. J. 1\. W.
S. Goddard, on having qu alified to complete Army
Form 0. 1734.
"AGGY".
"THE FIRST YEAR"
\"l e chaps who are training as pay clerks
Are facing a diffi cult task
Alld our only hope of succeeding
I s to list' to the P erman ent. Staff.
Th e lectures are all interestin g
To learn them we each on e must strive
And it' s a s a fe bet . t hey all take effect
From- 26 / 10 /,25. '
Th e fact s all seem very confusing,
But for those who the course can survive
Th e rates tha.t, are new , and old , quite a few,
Date from 26 / 10/ '25.
Th e soldiers may be most pmficient
ViTit h badges th eir arms be alive
But if their book th ey blot, they lose all the lot
After 26 / 10/,25.
"Wh en in doubt. about compilation
This fact in your milld try to drive

all forms of Sport and use the gl'Ounds adjoining

the office.
No notes are vet to hand from the Sports Secretaries but it is hoped to includ e informa tion under
this heading before going to press.
.
' Ne were interest ed in the Rifle Shootmg notes
in the last issne. There a re several here who have
helped other offi ces in the past and are the proud
possessors of medals, etc . . Footscray, however , I S. ::i t
present without any faCIlIties and bemg T miles
1'1'.om vVoolwi ch no range lS near enough to get
going. Many of the Staff still l.ive some distance
away and that is a d e te rr e l~t . F1l1,ln Clal conslc1.erations also enter the fi eld. To bUIld a range might
b e a possibility but . with the . new offi ce buildin gs
and ground which l111 ght b e sUItabl e ma y have t.o be
allocated for other purposes.
A. R.P.-The crisis of ].ast Septemb er brought us
here and now A.R .P. is very much to th e fore. Th e
trench es mentioned abo ve will no doubt b e extend ed
and eliminate any id ea of th e .l a wns b eing used for
other purposes. Cpl. Beattie recently returned from
an Anti-Gas Course (where he got a "D " ) and th ere
are a bout 14 RA .P.C. and Civilian Staff a ttendmg
lectures twice a week 011 ..'1 .R.P. measures. In addition the Detachment has its reguiar pa rades for
Anti-Gas instruction , L / Sgt. Stevens being the
Detachment Instructor.
Departures.-Sgt. T ennuci sailed for Egyp't in
November. Cpls. Mon gom ery .and "M ercer to v'iTarley ,
Tpr. Pearson to Shrewsbury. S.Q.M.S.. Ulph to
pension on 11th Decemb er . Sg t. Sowerby to Pres
ton, L / Sgt. R eed to Hong Kong , S.S.M. Ev el'et,t
to pension. All Costin g Personnel -to E.C. Cpl. D.ay
to Jamaica . S.Q.iVI.S. Botfield to Warley. Ma jor
Park to Tien(,::;in.
Arrivals.-Gnr. Smith , Gnr. Holding, Pte. Johnstone, Pte. Leggett from the School, Gnr. Robertson
and Gnr. Sharp from RE. , Chatham, Pte. Peake
from RT.C .. S.Q.M.S. M. McDonald (now pensioned), Pte.' H arty fmm RA.V.C ., Tpr. Howchin
from 5th I.D.G., Major H . de V. Ask.in from a broad.
Births.-To Pte. a nd Mrs . Harns-a son-11th
January, 1939.
To L / Sgt. and Mrs. Parkinson-a son-2nd February , 1939.
Marriage. -Cpl. S. Beattie a nd E. Dockerell on
25th December.
Promotions and Appo.intments.-Pt,es. Pinder and
Hartley to Cpl. , 1st January, 1939. Captain R E.
No elCla l'ke, RT .C. , t,o Paymaster, 7th September,
1938. L / Sgt. Binks to Sgt., 2nd December, 1938.
Temporary Dut y.- Captain R E. Noel- Clarke to
Chatham for a short l~ eriod.
R.A.P .C. Sup plementary Reserve.-Training has
again commenced and we record the following
enlistments :Ptes. H. H. Wilkin s, F. H . Russell, J. A . Fren ch ,
H. Greenwood , R J. r . Smith, A. C. Puddephat and
F . C. Hillyard.
Pte. Smith is unfortunately in hospit.al and unable to comm ence his tra ining at present.
Discharges :L / Sgts. J. E . Jackson, H. L. Penni son , J. B.
P arley and '1'. R A rch er a nd Sgt. D . P. R.erld all.
Promotions :Pte. F . IN. Gardin el' to Cpl.
" Supplementary " Notes. - R.egarding the promi se
given at. th e Dinnel' last October, the subj ect of th e

29

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Yo u 're probably st uck, ill t he same old rut

Through 26 / 10/,25.
W h en I t hink of t he Corp 's famo us motto
That t he women 's pay we must connive
W it h us I'm afraid , th ey ' ll lik ely be paid
About 26 / 10/ '45 .
E. E. NEAL .
HO U NSLOW.
Parties, farewells a nd enter tainments have been
the order sin ee t he last issue. On t he evenin g of t he
8th December, 1938 the warra nt offi cers, st aff sergeants and sergeants were 'at home ' in the Sergeants ' Mess to t he officers of the' Hounslow Record
and P ay Office. Billiards, snooker, darts and vocal
efforts ~ere indul ged in and, at the end of a good
evening , offi cers a nd 'other ranks' fini shed honours
even . The 'piece de resistance' was t he rendering of
" The Nlonntains of Moan " by t he Mess Male Voice
Choir, composed and conducted by S j Sgt. Mlll'phy.
Our sta.r t urn of the evening was Q.M.S . Cable of
the Royal Engineers who was at his inimitable best.
To those who have h eard 'Lofty', this will convey
a wo rld of meaning. This occasion also served to
say fa r ewell to Cap tain J. L. Oliver who , with
family, h as left us for J a maica. Both t he Corps
and the offi ce ho ckey team have s uffered a great
loss. To Captain OliveI' and his family we wish
a pleasant soj ourn in t h at beautiful station.
'On 10th J an ua ry t he Mess became yet again a
rendezvous for the senior r anks gathered to say
farewell to two more stalwarts of the D etachm en t.
This time it was L ance Sergeants L eader a nd Porter
who wer e leavin g us for Malta and Gibralta r resp,ectively . L j Sgt. Leader is acoo mpanied by Mrs .
Leader and yo un g 8ylvia whil st Mrs~ Porter is
remaining at Ca mberwell until quarters become
available. We hope t hat L j Sgt . Porter will not be alon e
long before h e is joined by Mrs. Porter a nd t he two
yo ung P orters. T,o them both we say 'good work,
chaps. we'll be seein g yo u-maybe' .
Although we have lost three of our h ock ey players
in one fell swoop, we are holding our ,o w n. The influx
of new blood h as strengthened the sid e ~ll1d we look
forward to new victories in the fu t ure. A drawn
match with t he Depot, Th e Roya l F usiliers and a
hard-earned win over the Fairey' Aviation Company
came as a toni c in a seaso n fraug ht with losses.
Our fixture with t he Record and P ay Office, Foots
Crayon Friday next, 17th February is eagerly being
looked fo rw ard to b ut I'm a fra id the resu lt will
not be notified un til next issu e of the J ourn al as
t hes e notes have to go to Press before t he game is
played. Jn the last issue of the Journal we gave everyon e to understand t hat we'd be gl ad to meet t hem at
B ad minton. Thi s chall enge ha s been tak en u p by
the London office whom we meet at th e end of M arch
in London. Thank you London I we are looking
forward to meeting Y1OL1. Any more please? t he
season is getting on. In closing, we offer con gratulations to Corporal Gaun t on hi s promot,ion to that
ra.nlc and to L ance Sergeant vVeaire on hi s adm issio n to t h e Married Establishment.
Sig nin 'S off.
G.W .H.
LEITH'.
Departures.-The whole Staff at L ei th wish 'Good
Luck ' to Captain J . C. L . Thomas on postin g to

CORPS

JOURNAL

\ Va rley, and to CorpI. G room on posting to Aldersh,ot.

Arri va ls.-vVe also ex t end a heartv welcome tOo
t he following Officer and othe.l' ranks on joining
this station :Captain S. C. R.ogers from Scottish Command ,
Pri vates Fregard a nd H ay from C hatham an d
Private Kin g from P erth .
\ iVe expect several others but so far th ey have not
a rri ved .
Christmas Treat.-Our A nnual C hristma s Treat
for children a nd adults was held in our Socia l Room
on vVednesday , 23rd December, wh en a company of
over 80 sat down to tea. Amon gst t hose present.
were Colonel and Mrs. Gordon, Lieut. -Colonel
Gedge, Capta in and Mrs . Sweeny, Li eu t. alld Mrs.
Plowman and Li eu t. and Mrs. Oram . Th e hall was
tastefull y decorated. t hanks to the efforts of our
Sergeant-Ma jor, 8.S.M. Hudson, ably assisted by
1V[r. Painter , ML Duce, Mr. H ayes, supported by
some of t he yo unger members of ou r Milita ry Sta ff. After T ea presents fo r t,he children
were distribu ted by Mrs . Gordon , who received the
gifts direct from t h e bag of F ath'er Chri stmas. A n
amu sin g Sketch entitled 'C hristm as Day in t,he
Barrack H.oom' wa s p rodu ced by t he Co rporals and
Privates of t he Co rps a t L eit h , and was much enjoyed . 'Vlle are all loo kin g forward to next Chri stmas fo r an en core.
Th e r ifl e club sti ll carries ,on and M r . H aves has
been amongst th e "Spoon s" aga in-bu t mOl'e next
time.
MACSHEMI.

LONDON , COMMAND PAY OFFICE.

Nat ur ~ Lll v bv t he time t hese notes a re read we
a t 80 P all' M all (a nd other offices) will be loo kin g
forward to better weather a nd the activities associated with such weather . bu t before leavin g winter
behind us we m ust not forget, to r ecord t he Xmas
P arty (o stensibly for children) held at 80 Pall Mall
on Sat urday, 17t.h D ecember, 1938. At t he close of
work on t hat particular day , work by most was
entirely for gotten . except by t hat en ergetic band of
b elpers who to iled below stairs, makin g the necessa ry a rran gements; ;lnd by 3.30 p .I11 ., t h e lar gest
roo'm in t he offi ce h ad been t r a nsformed in to a res taurant. tastefull y decorated and fully laden w ith
good t hings to eat,. vVe h a d t he very great pleasure
of welcomin g Maj orG eneral and Mrs. H. G. H.iley;
our C.P .. Colonel E. E. E. Todcl , O.B.E., t he
A.C.P .. Bt.-Colonel J:\. S. S. H el'bert, M.C. , and
oth er officers of th e detachm ent an d t h eir ladies,
together with th e small detachmen t of tbe Corps
from \Var Office. E verythi ng ran smoothly and t he
tea \Vas followed by games for the children ; and OUt'
thanks are due to our MI~. Stan ley Randall fo r
k eep i n~ u s and t h e chil dren amused wh ilst Mc
"Punch" was h elnin g "Judy" to get his "show"
ready . Th e usual "piece de resistan ce" arrived in
t he shape of Father Xmas, whos e end eavo urs to
disguise his voice failed him after presentin g but a
few of the gifts; even t hen quite a number failed to
r ecognise our S .Q.M.S. "Erni e" W est. However,
all th e child ren wer e fully satisfied and extremely
hap pv with th eir g ifts , and it was very apparent
tha t t he "grown-ups" also enjoyed themselves.

30

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the rank s as Showll-also to Pte. Mitchener on his

transfer to the Corps .
S.S. l\1!' C. R ooke r, 11.M. has been p'osted to this
office, but we ha \' e Jl ot been able to enjoy his
company u p to thi s ow in g to other du t ies :1 ssig11 ed
to him in th e office of th e Com ma nd P~1V master)
E. C. \Ve are hoping to have him amo ngst, us in
due course an d trust t he streets o f go ld \Iill hold
as much attraction as th e sa nds of t he desert he has
just ret,urn ed frol11 .
Our departure list th is period includ es th e name
of Ma jor F . C. Rob in s, \\' ho after so manv long
years of serv ice in t h e Army .h as been placed on
th e r et ired li st owing to haVIn g at.ta1J1 ed t he age
limit. ',"le t,ru st his health will be spared to him
to enjoy his lon g ea l'llecl rest and our good wishes
as w ell' as those o f his m any friend s serving elsewhere are with him.
Cpl. Blatch h as left us for Wadey-or rumour
now says still further away-well, wh erever he may
be the best of luck is wish ed him.
F.J.L.

To the Committee, Messrs. Richbell, Barry,

Stewart Os borne, Bam b rid ge, Scattergood, R.ow land s , ~tc. , the lad ies Mesdam es Richbell, Ba l'l'Y,
Scattergood, Miss Fountain, Miss Brown , Mi?s
War ne (coupled with a very helpful and ener~~tIc
friend), " Rosie" and, needless to say, our untIrm g
Mrs . Strong ; we accord our very h earty thanks for
such a splend id show.
Sin ce the last issue of notes we have h ad the
m any usual changes of Staff an? have the pleasure
of welcoming t.o t hi s office MaJor W. V ero (from
Woolwich) Ma ior K. N . Floward (from Chester),
S.S.M. C.Y. E. Rooker , M.M . (on temporary duty),
S.S.M. R Scott (at the timfl of writin g is still on
furlou gh . ex foreign service), L /Sgt. Geddes ,. Cor pI.
Di xo n , CorpI. McCann, an,d t hree probat.lOne)'s ,
Pte. Freeman , P te. Smith and Piper Neilson.
D epartures include Major F .. W . Cooper (to
Ch ester , 1st February, 1939) , MaJor E. F . Cox (to
Chester, 1st February, 1939), Ptef Stap'leford . to
York . Anot her departm e we have to record wlt,h
r egret is that of S.Q.M.S. E. H. W est who t.ook ~IS
discharge on 29th January , 1939, and we WIsh hIm
the very best of luck in his new sph ere. To Sergt.
(23rd J an uary, 1939) E. Gordon we o.ffer our h earty
congratulations on hi s recent promotlOn.
Sport .-vVit h th e ar ri val of sunny weather ,
thou ghts of ma ny t urn to the "willow." and our
cricketers are gettin g ready fo r the co mm g ~easo n.
Our lar ge room has seen many ~emonstratlOn s of
batting st.yles, chops, cuts a nd sh c.es. and all that
apperta ining to t he bat (ot her val~le~Ies are found
on t he top flo or), and on e wo nder s If 111 du e course,
a ball will ever be utilized in the building to assist
111 t hese demonstrations.

Rifle Section.- Having end ed last season most ingloriously , bein g placed at the bottom of the First
Division of the Inter -Offices L eague, we fo nnd t hat
quite righ t.ly we had been relegated to the Second
Divi sion , and in all probability would have fini shed
this season well down the list again , ha,d it not been
for a stroke of lu ck aid ed and abetted by in crea ed
enthusiasm on th e part of our members .
LT p to th e clo!'e of last season \Ye have ha d to ,fire
:1 11 our matches under t he mo ' t t rying conditions.
'fh e ranae was cold and damp with lar ge cracks
in t,h e ,,';a)] s a nd roo t t,hl'ough which rain and fog
wo uld pour . In fact , many a t im e has a match
shoot been postponed whil e London indulged in one
of her 'P ea-so upers ' .
Bnt at Jas t our lu ck changed . After the first two
0 1' three shoot s of th e se:ISOll we were able to procure t he loan of t he new Rifl e H.ange belonging to
the 331'd (St. Pa ncr as) .\ .A . Battn. , R.E. This
warm and comfo rtable ra nge, wit,h its excellent
li ghti ng. enco uraged t he shootin g members of the
S~orts - Club and altho ugh we cannot claim to be
able to produ ce a team strong enough to beat t hose
in t h e First Divi sion , we feel t h at we could at least
hold our own withou t bein g shamed. There was a
cl ay when two of Olll' regular team were un abl e to
fir e, and t heir places were taken by reser ves who
came u p to scratch with scor es of 97 and 95 I
A1t.hough we ar e h appily in a strong positi?~ in
the 2nd Div ision of the In ter Offi ces CompetIt Ion ,
there are still too many 'off days' and m emb ers
who shoul d do much better, drop to an unh eaHhy
92 01' even lower. Th.i s perhaps, is due to t he
limited t.ime at our disposal. havin g hut two hours
a week.
However , we a re still tryin g.
H. A .F.R.

LONDON, REGIMENTAL PAY OFFICE.

Sports.-The L ondon Office has at last become a
convert to the id ea that 8PORT and WOH.K go
together.
.
During t h e la st few mont hs Indoor g~ m es. h ave
been progr essin g mo re t han favo urably m spI t e of
handicaps in t he shape of accolllmo~l atlOn .
Da rts B adminton and Table Ten111s are at present
in fu ll ~w ing , and with the k eennest of keen secr etaries doing their level b es t, ~ it is ha rd t~ .find a
singl e p er son not indulging 111 one competItlOn or
a no t her during lun ch hour.
Cricket fixtur es h ave also been arranged and w e
hop e to dwell on this br an ch of Sport to a greater
extent in our next number.
But ou r most successful enterprise during t he last
few months was wit hou t doubt t he dance held on
F ebruary 4th. Adm i r~b ly sup.ported by large .contin gents from surroundmg Offi ces, w~ passed a Jolly
n ice evening and also, to the surpn se 0.. everyon e
con cerned , were not out of po cket. ThIS ~uccess
has whett ed our appetites a nd we ar e h opll1g to
continu e to run dances a s regularly as work, etc. ,
permits , hoping for t he ame splendid support w e
received at OUI' fir st attem pt,.
So keep vo ur eyes open and come ,a long and Sl~e!I CI
an enjoyahle eveni.n g with th e reJuv enat.ed spmt.s
of our London Office.
J .RW.

NORTHERN IRELAND DISTRICT.

Ente.rt a inments .- Th e members of t he Detachm en t. civ ilian sta.f and fam ilies were en tertained
b y Major and Mrs . Vint at tIl e Opera House Belfast , to t he pantomim e " Babes in th e Wo.o d" , an
entertainm ent which was t horoug hly app recIated by
all . This was followed by t he Social Club ' s first
endeavour to provide a n X mas P arty whi ch took
place at t he Queen 's Hotel , Belfast, where all mem-

We have been able to offer our co ngratulations to

\<V .0. 2 C. Bolton, L j Sgt. Lack enby, Corporals:
Gorld ard , Roberts a nd Smith on th eir pl'omot,ion to

31

THE

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PA Y

bel's and friends took t h e opportunity to revive

their waning Xmas spirit w it h all the appropriate
delicacies w hich were prO\-ided with epicurean consideration. Dmin g t he evening games were indulged
in a nci t he atmosphere was ellliYened with melodies
from a piano by a pianist obtained through the good
services of our Committee. This, our first attempt
to hold such a funct ion , being so very successful ,
it is our wish that it will be sustained for future
o ccasions .
Dinn er P arty .-Th e arrival of new mem bers again
gave t h e Club the opportunity to hold a Club Dinn er
at th e Queen 's Hotel on the evening of the 27t h
January , 1939. T he Chair bein g occupied by Ma jo r
L. E. James , M.C., R .'\ .P.C. The Loya l Toast
bein g pwposed by t he Chairman was passed with
the usual honours. Speeches as were necessary and
appropriate to the occasion were delivered to greet
o ur new n:embers-Major-s C. D . V int, C. H . P arratt, L /Sgt. Wh elan all d L / Cpl. Knight (o n probat ion) an d 1r. MacDonald and were replied to in
a very colloquial and witty strain.
Obituary.-It is with regret we have to report
the death of our late esteemed Grade III Clerk ,
Mr. V idor J. Mackey, whi ch occurred at Belfast
on 11th J a nuary, 1939.
The late MI". Mackey joined the staff of the Command P ay Offi ce, Dublin on the 4t h October, 1919
as a temporary clerk . On 30th March, 1921, he
was ap poin ted a Permanent Writer. On the formation of the Command Pay Offi ce, U lster, h e elected
to be a member of the staff of t hat office and proceeded to K ewtownards on 14th June, 1922. On
1st July, 1937, he was promoted an Unestablish ed
Grade lIT clerk and wa;:; di scharged, owing to
reaching t he age limit of 60 years, on 28t h D ecember,
1937.
On the outbrea,k of the Grec'1t 'War he was on t h e
reserve of (City of L on don) The Royal Fusiliers,
w hich he rejoined for duty and served in Turkey.
\ iVhile serving in that co un try h e was tra nsferred
to t he Royal Army Pay Corps in which he served
to date of demobilization .

CORPS

JOURN AL

thought t hat if a larger number were together th en a

better show could be given , and so this proved.
COl1'~bined with t he famili es of t he D epot, Th e Loyal
RegIment, we had a ,fine treat. At least 120 persons
sat down to tea and then ad journed to t he Garrison
Library to heal' entertai nment by a Boys ' Harmomca
Band. This fo rm of m usic was well applauded.
One youngster would persist in shouting, "More
Band! More Band!" whenever a number ceased .
It .was a relief to the players when someone exclaI.med, "Here he is, F ather Christmas has
a rrIved !"
Outdoor SP?I'L. has faded away, wh at with postings
and InJunes It IS not. possible to t urn out a Foothall T eam , so we now h ave to be oontent with
Ta ble T ennis and Darts (dinner hour of course).
On one occasion our Club Secretarv wa s heard bemoanin g the fact that som eone had- mo ved his D art
Bo-ard (put in position after much skilful labolll' for
wh ich he was recommended to draw Pion eer's Pay)
but, after car eful observ<1tion it was fro und that a
cer tain individual, who would shn.ffle his feet over
t h e lin e a few inches and co uld put the arrears in
WIt h ease, looked suspicious, but it would take
In sp~ctor H?rnleigh to solve t h e mystery.
Since
t he ll1staJlatlOn vI the Dart Bo ard a considerable
amoun t of overtime has been found neces;;ary and
amongst the things we want to know are:- Sllould
t h e beloved be told that Staff h as been cut down
or should we be honest and tell t h e truth?
Th e installation of the Darts brought abo ut a
challenge match between t he Military and Civilian
members of the Clu b. The resul t ended with a win
for t h e Civilians , The soldiers, however, had t heir
rev~ng~ wh,en it was suggested .that they play off
at Cri ck et w hereat t h e lads 1Il kha ki saw the
Civ ies' boot,s off. Ably led by non e other t h an our
Regim~ntal P aymaster- suppor"ted by Captain Carter
~ nd LI eut. Plowman, it was agreed that t lle evenlI1g had been well spent. \Nho said D arts was a
t hi rsty game?
Once again the stork has passed over t he D etachment leaving in its wake a son for Cpl. and Mrs.
Smith.
Congratulations to L / Cn1. Wh ale (R Fus. ) on his
successful entry in to t h e Corps.
P .S.-Our Ann ual Dinner is scheduled to take
place on the 25th February, at the Bull a nd Royal
unfortunately too late for inclusion in these notes:
MACNOON SHAWISH.

PR ESTON .

Since our last notes appeared in the J ournal much

has happened in this office. Cpls. Dolan and Lyle
as fo resh adowed in last account , left u s for service
in t he Comma nd P ay Offi ce Aldershot , and Cl)1.
Gl'egson, who successfully passed t hrou gh t h e Costing School has been posted to Northern Comm and.
As to arrivals, we welcome Sgt,. Sowerby and fami ly
to our circle.
Cp1. Blackmore and fam ily have left us to join
the D etachment ,a t vVarley and it is hoped t h at his
tour there will not end in the same abrupt manner
as did his tour with us.. After being given very
sh ort noti ce to move, obtain ing leave from his new
RP., h anding over his quarter, and then the postponing of his posting for one month, well-to be candidt he detachment did not know wh ether to sympathi se or con gratulate.
Speaking of Congratulations, however, 1 must not forget to mention llis
nppointment to Lance Sergeant and the more im po rtant factor , having been pl'esenteel wit h a daughter.
\i\Tell done Bl ackie!
The CLldren's P arty t hi s yeal' was a great succe, s.
Not having had much support in past years, it was

S,ALISBURY .

There must be hund reds among the past and prese nt m embers of t he Corps who have met Mr. Jimmy
vVoodward-c-the cheery office keeper of t he quart,el:s
whi ch we used to occupy in vVilton. J immy has
b een seriously ill since the beginnig of the year but
it is good to know t hat whil st his progress towards recovery has been slow, t he movement is in
t h e righ t direction. \file hope to hav e much more
ch eerful n ews of him in our n ext notes .
Colon el Vida l leaves us this mon th on ll is r etirement-whicll w e trust will be of long duration
ooupled with health and h appin ess. Colon el Bildel.'b eck is coming to occup y t h e V<Lcant chair-a return
visit which we hone h e is anticipati ng wit h pleasure.
Ma ior R H. S;lyers has go ne to Egypt-a tour
which we hope will be en joyed by him .
Sk1.ff -Sergeant Stevens has taken his di charge and
accepted a nost with t he TelTitorial Army at R e<1 d-

32

THE

ROYAL

ARMY PAY

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JOURNAL

"Heavies" of the Roya.] ..'\ rtiJlerv without having

to tie t he rope a rouncf a capstan f
SA RUM.

in g. M r. 'Wa rren (ex -Staff-Ser gea nt) has also accepted a sim ilar appo iu tme nt.
Pavllla sters co n
ce rn ed should now be warv of ini tiati ng ol;servations
on T .A. ;) cconnt" fl' om RC<1din g. R<l~I.S. Craddock
has gone to seek hi s fort un e ill (,he Scott ish Com manu a nd Lance-Sergeant Cnl'l' ha s r eturned to the
lounge sui t s tatu s. Om bc:; t wishes go w it h all
these old c0!ll l'acles.
Sergeant,:; Pearso n a nd Rea have joined t he office
from Shanghai <1 1lL1 Egypt respect iy ely-o ul' con gratul ati ons- to Lh em both on being permitt ed to join
sllch a niCe cro wd of cklps as w e <1 re.
Our militarv sta ff ha s also ueen increased by t h e
adven t of "e\;en probation ers. To t he see ker' after
k nowledge Co rps Ord ers w ill provid e ot her details
of t hese buddin g Assist<1 nt PaY llwsters, but we welcome them and tr ust that the knowledge ga ined in
t his offi ce will seCLlre fo r them entrv into t he Co rps.
Our best wishes are d ue to Pte. Hemstock 'on hi s
recent maniao'e a nd we extend a welcom e to :lVIrs.
H emstock on'" joi ni n ~ th e Co rps. Congratul ations
are. ~ls o du e to COl'P1. Cla rk c on his pl:omot,ion -to
that rank:
St,aff-Sel'l~ea ll t K eJso has in cuned certa in liab ili ties due to his accept,ance of t he L. S. & G.C. medalli ab iliti es which ,v e hope will be " liquid ated " in
due course ,
Our P.A .D. ex pert- MI'. Doe-has gi,en a series
of lectures on t he advantages of wearing respirators durill <T o-<1S attacks, etc. a nd we have now
reached th~ stage when we are becoming speciali sts
in decontamination , fir e -fi ghtin g, etc. In view of
"\IIr. Doe's statrment t hat t he deconta min ation folks
can only 'do work for short pe riods each day, we
understand that, it number of applicatio ns for t he
posts had to be t u rned dow n.
From a poin t. of view of numb el's parti cipati ng in
t he sport, t he Rifl e Club has h ad a very succes ful
and enjoy<t ble seaso n. Thi s has Lee n clue to the
influ x of -probationer::: who haye been k een to beat
t he three Sel'gea nt-l\rlajors who ha\-e fi red fol' our
team.
W hy is it, t hat the old soldiers are t h e hest shots?
-is it because after years of trinl s a nd tribulat,ion s
t hey are endowed wit,h ,a calm and patience whi ch
a re ' so n ecessar y to a good rifleman ? Or is it du e
to t he good beer <1 nd supervision of t he martinets of
the old days)
A noth er facto r co ntributing to t,he good attenda nce at the r ifl e r ange h as b een t he presentation of
a spoon by Colonel Vidal fo r <t " Phoerlix H andi cap" .
Co ngratulat ion s to Mr. Stone o n being th e w inner
of this compebtio n .
'
The Ph oenix ha ndi c<1]) is unique in asmu ch as a
competitor ca n be knod,ed out two or t lllee t,im es
and th en eventuall y carrv off the troph v . The
co mpetitioll hns bee n ye ry nopuLII' a ncl ~",e have
twenty e)1trants for th e next one to be fir ed in
l\[arc1i.
\ iVe were unln cky in -thE' leag ue compet it ion t.his
:vear, fi ve oE OUl' match es bei ng lost by one p oi nt.
(Apparent:- it is just t he ext. r<1 "pint" that
counts) .
In conclus ion , thank s a.r e due to Colonel V id al
for the encourageme nt he has giy en to th e R.ifl e
Club. Does he recall the day wh en h e gave -the
RA.P.C. Tug-oE-war team on hoard H.T. " H a rcl in o-e" e ro ute to Indi<1 in 1920. t h e necessary
e n c~ ura,gen: e n t to win their tussle ag<1 in t t h e

SALISBURY PLAIN.

That's torn it . I t's t he 20th in st.-see Editors'

r emincl el'- 9 o'clock at night and t.h e la st, post
gO li e. SLill we' B ma ke th e effo rt, perhaps it may
get squeezed in .
Cha nges are in t he ai r t hi s q uarte r. Sel'gt. McQu ade was wafted off to t he fl eshp ots of Egypt
on 4t h Febru a ry, unfort un ately having to leaye his
wife a nd fam ily behind him. Need less to say, t he
best wishes o( all ill t he deta chm ent go with him
for a good tou r.
Everybod y in Tidwol th was sO\'l'y ,\hen Charl es
Fowler had to le,we for sunnier shores in Siug<tpore
Oil 15t h February. Ch<1l'les proceeded on hi s way
without kno win g he had r eached th e dizzy heights
of Sta,ff-Sergeant. A n a ir mail letter to Gib. has
put t.hat right. Bad staff work t hou gh ; t hink of
t he beer we've m issed by one short d,'1Y, bu t, beer
or no beer, our cOll gr<1 tlil ations are h,eai,ty a nd sincere.
Tidworth is not to be without a l'epresentatiY e of
the Fowler fam ily as Q.1\I.S. Tom my Fowler is t o
join us on expiration of hi s oyerseas furlough. Close
work t lw t. Q.M.S. Fowler disembarked from Bermuda on the morning of t he 15th whilst Sergt"
(sorry , Staff-Ser~eant) Fowler embarked on the
eveni n g of t he 15th . so t hev were able to have a
day together. vVe all got quite excited as to whether
th ey wo uld ma ke i.t and very pleased when they
did.
L j Sgt. Willis left us for P ortsmout h on 211st J <1 nuary. I' ve .told yo u before "th e ai l" h ere .is lovely" .
It mu st be, as I heal' \iVillis comes dashing back at
le.ast once and som etimes t wi ce a week. I suppose
it must be t,he 11 ir he com es for.
Corporal s F ish a nd Gidl ow h aye joined us from
Yo rk for Tidworth and POl'tOIl resnecti,-elv. Let 's
hope t hey have a good t im e 011 the PI<1in. I ' ll spa re
t hem that one abo ut t he ail', it's gettin g stale.
\i\Te heal' to-day t hat S/ Sergt. Stewal't ;) nd Ser
geant Kirke disembark fro m Chin a on 27t h Feb. , so
we hope t hat shortly we shall be offering them our
usnal welcom e.
In add it ion to Fowler 's promotion mentioned
above we have to con gratulaf,e Sergt. P almer <tnd
L / Sergts . .Iones (Di clcot) a nd Wilson on promotion
to Sergeant and L / Sel'gt,s. r espectiv ely.
Short, if not sweet , t his qua rt er but t h e fire 's
gone out :md I'm going to do li kewise ,
STONEHENGE.
SHREWSBURY.

\ Ne a re pleased to welco me Captain E. VV. Lin es

and family from Hong Kon g, Sergt. A. E. \i\ ellt
fro m Singapore, Gnr. C. Probert and Tpr. A. \i\.
Emmel'son who have joined on probation . vVe trusb
their stav in "proud Salopia ' will b e a happy one.
Capt. T. Cork embarked for Gibl'l1 lta r on 11 /1/ 39,
and our los is Gib's gain;. CpI. P. J . Sk'1ck embark ed on 16t h l!"'ebl'uary, 1939 for Sin gap.0 re. \i\Te
wish him " bon voyage" a,nd are led to wonder why
t h e confetti wa.s flyin g about at the station when
h e left-wa.s it rom a nce 01' just high spirits?
\i\Te offer our hearty co ngiatula tion s to Staff
Sergt. R L . Shaw 'on his promotion-although
we don 't see much of him , t he IFomd ioll was celebrated in the usual way ; to PriYates Ka ylor, Jones

33

THE

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ARMY

PAY

and Smith 011 t h eir transfer to the Corps .

vVe are pleased to see that Colonel Block<ay
Officer i / c Records has now returned to Cfuty afte;
a sp ell on the sick list.
The u sual Christmas P a l'ty was held at our future
n ew office, i.e. ' iVhitehall , where two rooms had
been decorated and a hu ge cracker erected. After
tea t here were games and t hen the children became
excited when t hey heard t ha t Father Christmas
(Sgt. Shawl was on his way. The lights were put.
out and then the cracker was lit up a nd there was
Father Christmas in ide; he found his way out and
distributed a present to each child, and , after a
short talk to the children l eft to complete his
task in other parts of the country. A ventriloquist
then am used the children and grown-ups for a
while, and afterwards t here were many h appy but
very t ired children all ready fo r hom e a~l d bed. We
should like to congratulate S.Q.M.S. Cashman who
was in chal'ge. of t he anangements for t.ea, etc. ,
and Sgt. Che]]m gsworth who was responsible for
t h e" decorations and t he huge cracker.
Our rifle club continu es to flourish and we h ave
now won five matches and hope to reach do u bl e
fi gures before the en d of the season.
A trip to Villa P ark to see t he match Arsenal
v . Villa was ma de by a good n umber of the deta chment and all en j oyable match was witnessed.
Co nt inuing OUl' feature " vVE KNOW ", w e ha ve
to th~:lk all those office r eps. who have so kindly
s upplied us WIth matenals ; we regret we cannot
pubh sh all the contribu t ions. received in this issue
a nd unfortunately som e have been held o\, el' until
t he next issue.

CORPS

JOURNAL

THE

foot the in smallce com panies wo uld be delving

deep into their coffers and some on e would be
" one up the roll " .
peG-G LED.
WARLEY.

Departure.s .- Corporal J. C. Alexa nder le ft us on

15t h February . 1939 to tal;:e passagE' in H .T.
" L ancashire" fol' Singapo re and Oul' yery best
wishes go with him . .A nd h e did try so llard to
impress upon us t h at t hig was no t his 'firs t trip ou t.
Corpo ral L. ' iVer encl el h as proceeded on furl ough
pending embarkation for a statio n not v et. kn own .
.
I s he pleased- why ask me ?
Arrivals .- Captain J. C. L. Thom as .i oin ed 011
4th J anu ary. Probat ioners : H. J . 'Maso n , Vol. G .
H eth erin gtol1, R. l\1. Griffi n (Royal Arti llery) , N.
Smith , Leicestel'shire H eg im cn t. J. -:\. Dou gla s,
Army D en ta l Corps, a nd M. Tann er , G ren.a d ier
G uards, joined on 12th D ecember . COl'Pora1 \N. P .
Raleigh, Corporal L. ~. TavIor and Pri vatE' D ocld s
j oined on 19th D ecem b el' ,' Corporal ' V. Blatch
Corporal J. Gilchris t join ed on 12t h J a nu ary,
L / Sel'geant E. W . Blackm ore j oin ed 19Lh J a n uary
a nd Corporal N . Brown join ed on 16th F ebruary.
They hal'e come to t he l'ight pla ce and a L the ri gh t
time for a good g l'u ellin o- . ' iVe w ish th em all t he
best of luck and everv s uccess durin g t heir tay
with us . Th e Probation er s a re still looki ng for t h e
"cush y t im e' in t he Pay Offi ce.
P romot ions. -To t he rank of Corpo r ;] l, P . atchford , N. Mercer, and J . Dodcl s, 0 11 l ~t January .
H eartiest cOll g ratulati.o ns on t heir b ein g elevat ed to
t hat r a nk.
Marr iages.- Cor po r>l l P. RatchfoHI too k u nto h.im self a wife 011 22n d J anu a l'Y , 1939. Presentation s
from t he Offi ce rs and Sta ff w er e ma de b)' t he R egimenta l Paym aii Ce r, togeth er with ton s o f good
w ishes. advice, " Do ' s a lld Don 't s" , et.c.
The last of out' T empora l'Y Em ergency or C risis
Staff have lefL ll S a lld h aye r ejoined (.heir nOl'111[11
duty s ta tion s , but we ha w' four new fa ce ' in t heir
pla ces , namely- S .Q. l\1.S. Bri alt, S .Q..M.S . McC1'il'ie.
S / Sel'geant F oll ev a nd S /Sel'gea nt E gan. a tta h eel
for t.empora rv duty. Th eir ev ery d[J\" qu e t ion is
"any n ews of t he el ate we al'e to l" et UI'll t o 0 l1' own
stations" .
(Th ey say 'civilization ' bu t 'sta tio ns '
seem s 1110l'e sui table her e.)
S.Q.M.S. H . .T. (P>l d c1v) I-l oran w a~ [J.drn iU ecl to
R.oyal H erb el' t HO"Ditiil , ' iVool wich . 011 9t,h J .1l1 u al'Y
and S .Q. .M .S. i\JcC riri e fo llow ed him on 6tll F ebr ua ry. ' Ne hope they a re by t hi s t im e w ell on t he
1'.o ad to recoy el'Y and good h ealth , .1n c1 t hat t.h ey
will soon be back w it h us a gain .
Our Civilia n St aff is still a t " u ps and dow n '" :"1I1d
\'.- e havc had. el'er al trans fers to our str en gth from
Sidcup sin ce we were last in p r in t.. Now we a re
anti cilJatin g som e t ran s fer s out. The W.1y th e st[lff
comes a nd goes here, it is diffi cul t to know from
week to w e~ k wh o we ha l'e on pay .1 lld I feel sure
t hat one of t hese f'ridnv s someo ne will !J(' le ft ou t .
POOl' Blighter. Stil l it hasn 't happened. 0 fa r.
Many were fort,ull nte in be ill g ahlE' LO enj oy a
break (v erv bri ef thou gh ) over t he Chri :-;i.nl.1 s Hol.idays and ret u1'Il ec1 to wo rk full o f b ea.lls-HO. 1 salcl
BEANS. It, is sa i d t hat one m ember o f the D et ac hment bec:-1use he could ' not affo rd a t ri p t o Switzer land ,' did t h e next b es t t hin g [Jnd , eq uip ped with

WE Kl'WW . . .
Vi/ho grumbled at his Corps diary because the
r ibbon .wasn ' t .big enough to rilake
t ie. P erhaps
t he EdItors wdl make a note for future iss ue of
t he diary.
'W ho thou g ht because a ma n was absent without
leave . his al c sho uld be debited wit h 6d . H. W.
' iVho is now known as " Un conscious " and she
is still a nxiou s to vi sit th e treacle min es at ' iVem.
Th e followin g has been r elated by a member of
t he Corps :- W hilst a ttending cla sses for his "1st "
a l'eCl'Ult l'el1l ark ed to t he A .E. C. ViTarrant Offi cer
instniu tol'; " Sir, I ain ' t got no pencil", t hereupon the ' i\T.O. r eplied , " Now , Smith. in corr ect
grammar you must say 'I have no pencil ' or 'Th ou
h as no pencil ' , ' he has no pencil', 'w e h ave no
pencil ' , 'you have no p encil', .a nd 't h ey have no
pen cil' ." Smith 's reply was , "Then where are t he
- - - - - - pencils ?"
Those who h ave pa ssed throUp"h th is offi ce will
be intel'.est ed to leam tha t M r. oUrion (Pop) has
now retIred a nd on leavin g was t he recipient of a
clock suitably engraved, .a pipe, po,uch and tobacco
and a box of ma.t ches . T h ese were presented to
him by Major G. W. Butler, t he Regimental Paymaster ; Mr. Urion r eplied wit h a short speech.
Vile regret to an no un ce t h e death of Mr. M.
' iVells, who wa~ an .old memb er of t h e Corps, ~nd
was employed Ul thiS offi ce up to last year when
he retiled . A wreath w as sent f!'Om t Ile st~ ff and
the Regimental "Pa,ymastel' and several m cmbers
attended t he funeral.
The S.S.M: has tak en unto hi_m self a Cc'),r, and
members of t he detachm ent spen d their spare t ime
dodgin g ou t of t h e way; if some were less fleet of

34

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

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JOURNAL

to present Mr. H epbul'n with t he goose for hi s

succe3S at a shoot and to present Cpl. Prlll gle-Scott
with a canteen of cut lery as a to ken of esteem on
h is impending marria ge to l\~ i ss DOl'Othy Clark.
T he presen tatio ns were made by Co lonel Johnson
a nd both recipients su itably J'eph e ~ .
..
Th e chil d rens' toys were t hen kll1dly dlstnbuted
by Mrs. Hughes ctnd the pa rty, after a , spot of
dancing by t he not so old, graduall;y b~'oke up , ~nd
as all these even ts end "A n'lost enjoyable tlme
was h ad b y all" .
Late News.- Arran gements have been made f,o r a
s upper an d " sing-song " (men only) for the 24th
F ebruary. This is a llew d epartUl'~ a nd a. very
o'ood attenda nce ha s been promIsed, 1Il fac t , It 1'e~eived a record support when . proposed. Officers
and Sergeants ' Mess memb ers of T he .D epot , Royal
vVarwickshi re R egiment and other umt s ha,:,e be~n
in v it ed it looks a s if t he Offi ce RepresentatlVe WIll
hav e s~meth in g of in terest to report in t.he next
iss ue of t he Journal.
i\IIDLANDER.

h atchet crow-bar and shovel, proceeded in the

early h~urs of the mOl'lling of Box in g Day, to the
roof of the office where h e 'enjoyed ' some pl"ll" atc
I ce Sports, paddling in t he slu sh a nd chopping up
"ice for a n hour or so, in order to r el ea s ~ t he fl oo I
water caused Ly t he t haw, wh ich had been rUllning 'through Uie ceilings a nd floors of t he offi ce
to t he Di spen sary and Offi cer's Quarter on the
gro und tioor.
.
.
Anangemen t s were pr oceeih ng fo r t he formatIOn
of a Sports a nd So cial Club , b ut t hey hav e ha d to
be temporarily shelved 011 account of tbe anti cipated
re-organizat.ion of offi ce staff and work, whi ch will
mean t he departure :o j' a bou t ten oE Oul' wonlcl-be
mem bel'S to other offices with t he A nti- Air(; l"::rft
Division s of t h e T.A.
vVe are looking fOl'w ard with hope an d anxiety
to t he earl y cessation of overtime an d to a r e\"i nil
of some of the old glories of th e Warley offi ce (b efore
it became t he C.D. & A.A. office) .
Prevwusly, so I am told, t his station was r egard ed
very much in t.h e ligh t of a Rest Camp wh er e des er ving Pay Corps personn el a nd Civ ilian Staff we re
'fil ed awav ' a s a r eward for past labou rs. 1] [l S !
all th is has been changed and ' iVarley- a hi ve o t:
indu stry-is now it Tes ti ng place in which only t he
fittest sur vive .
At present t he spectr e of th e
Co un ty Institut ion adjoinin g loom s omi nous ind eed
a nd even invit.es t hose who cannot t ak e th e stra in .
But all t his may yet be avoided if reli ef does no t
com e t oo late. . .
Still , all Wa rleyites arc T OUGH and th ey CAN
t ake it.
TANKY.

WOKING.

VarioLl s chanues haye occurred :;ince the last

notes from th e ~ta ti ol1 ap peared in prin t . Captain
J. R . Burne has embark ed fo r servic(: in Sin gapore
-a n unexpect ed blow to us, if not to hi m. vVe
wi sh t ha t h e had though t to pr esent either hi s c~r ,
or motor cycle, to the Sergea nt s' Mess. !ust Im aglJ1e
t he enha need prestige had it been pO SSIble to ~'~fe r ,
in f ut ure notes, to " T he Ser geants' 'Mess Car' , or
eve n ~ motor-cycle ! ' Nell . Cap,tain and MrS . BUl'n e ,
t he lil st of t ll is D et achnl ent.-the t.hin red li nea ll join in w ishin g you both, yery happy clay s in
y ou l' H B V'; statio.n . . ., etq.
. .
Sergea nt Phillips, too , has Jo m ec1 other I~eve !.
makel's, hav lll g gon e to Palest In e. ViTell, 11111 ,
here 's to 'ivishin rr yo u a plea sant tour- a.nd pl enty
o f fi ~h : YOll kn~w~ th ere ani ved in t his office so me
dnys .a go, a most bea utifully illustrated ~ I rc ul ar ,
<l ldressed t::> Sergea nt Pllllhp by a certam w ell:
kn ow n trav el agency. Y ou all know th e t ype 0 1
invitation ex t ended in such do cul11ents- " Pl ea-se
complete below t ell U th e kind of t.rip in whi ch
you a.r e in t erested, and lea ye the r est to US " . . ~\. s
old / you ng Phil ' was in Pa les hne, and .qmte pOSSIbly
in 110 fit state t o r ecel\re such temp LlJ1 g literature,
certain ind ividual elect ed to dea l wit h (his part icular com munication :l nd . uncleI' the he[ld i.n g
.il ready m en tio ned ill el'ted the simpl e but stil'l'in g
st.aten;ent . " darned in t.eres ted i n a r etUl" U passage
to U .K.".' VIle now hope t ha th is circular does not
E' 1'entually fi nd it ' s way to ot hel' q uarters for fal'o nr
of ' furt her ingt.l'uct ioll s please' .
Serg ea nt, a nd M rs. ' iVilli am s haye also sailed, th eir
destination b ein g E gypt. Th e l\Iess does not seem
t he same withou t Willi e and hi s \' ery able ne.
' Ou r Bunty' is also sorely missed. Lncky E gypt.
Cheerio V\filli e, Ch ee ri o Bnnt y- her e' s wishin g you
a hapIW t.OUr.
Sergea ll t :l ll d M rs . Pu nt el', not to be out-don e.
decid ed . ill Svo's ow n wo r ds . to " h[lve a basin-fup
,- s well " . a: lcl Jul y denarted fot' EQ'vpt. OM of hIS
l ast :lctioll S was ' to in vent a mal:yellous type of
stra.in er w hich, he g ua ra nt ees . w ill effect ively I'e.I11o\" e sand from beer. H e ojJenlv .1 hni t tecl t.h at
, ome improvelT;ell t s wo uld havc to be carried out.
be fore he could Sep:lr,lte bee r f r0111 t he sand . Let

WARWICK.

Sprin g in lea fyvVarwick and t he prospect s of

s unshin e and out-cloor games in sight; surely t he
fin est t hough ts possi ble, except for our energe tic
a mateur ga t'den ers who w ill h av e t he so bel'i n g
vision of diggin g .and its co unt.erpart, ba ckache.
Tw o of our stalwart s have left us duri ng this
qua rt er for wa rm er parts, Sg t . Pockling ton t o
Palest in e and Cpl. Banni ster to E g ypt. S / Sgt. V in e
from Egvpt and Cpl. Ma kin from E xeter a re our
n ew memb er s t ogeth er witli foul' l~rob a t i oJl e l' s . ' i\ie
w ish t hem all success and h ope t heir sta y w ith us
will b e a happy one.
Congr[ltulations to Cpl. PringleScot,t in att.ai nin g that ran k and also upon hi s maniage. .-\. double
event within on e week ; w hat prog ress I , b ut can h e
keep it up ?- on ly t im e can tell I
Spor ts.- Not. a dea l to r epo rt under t his heading
a t t hi s time of t he yea r, but ou r sliooting" t eam
a re still havin g goocl fun . Unfortu nately though .
our popular Secretary of thi s secti on h[ls beel1 t ak en
su ddenly ill. We si ncerely hope he will haye a quick
'a nd perfect recovery a nd that th e fo rm of our
lifl emen 'will not b e up et over t hi s bad luck.
Christmas Party. -A s uccessfu l Xmas party W<l S
held on 21st D ecemb el' at t he vVa l' w i c k~hire Y eom a nry Drill Hall loan ed fo r t. he occasion by kind
permission of t.he A djutan L
Th e wen ther was ap11rolJriate ; a, sligh t. f<lJl of snow
a dd in g t. he old-fashion ed Xma,s touch. Abo ut 120
p ersons sa t clown nnd d id full just ice to t he E'.\"cellent t ea p r ovided. !\ [" t er tf' <l. gam es for t he chil ch en were o rgani zed by Q.lVT. S. ' Nhit e a nd his
c omm ittee. A ch a n tage W:l S t[l ken oE the occ[l sioll

35

THE

ROYAL

us not. say goodbye, uut a u-revoil',

P.-good huntin g!

ARMY

Syd , and Mrs.

Private How ell made good hi s threat to break

into the news agaiu. Yes, he join ed t he ranks ot
m arried crocks. vV ell , one supposes that it has to
h ap pen t o most of u' - with va ry in g d egrees o[
fortune. ' N ell , yo un g Robert , we do very sin cerely
congratulate you, a nd wish bo t h yo urself an d Mrs.
H owell, th e u tmost ha ppiness.
Th e ,\.ld ershot ofllce hea rd of thi s too, a nd de
cided t hat. Vi:oking was no place for a young ma rried couple . . . result . . . post.ed to A ldershot..
' Veil well , and so me I Ser geant PoLtet has t.he
di stinctio n of being the on ly third di visio n m emb er
of t he Co rps on th e station.
H e as1,s, if t hese
rieople must leave us, wh y t he **? !i\.* don't they
take th eir work wi t h the m ? vVe have a newcomer ,
Guardsman DUl'ose, who hor es to e" entu a ll y .1 0 111
th e r ank s of t he oppressed. Sto nt hea rt , i f not bigh eal'tecl .:\.r t hur!
I wOlrder-Ilbw n1u ch of th is will be censored I Hot
new>, . Scene is t he Sergea nts ' Mess .. . d e h at ~ ' hot
new s'. ::\ew arri"al in mess, Sergeant- Maj o r ri 'es
from t he paper upon whi ch he has bee n f; ittin g
and offers hot news to newcom er! U g h !
Pri Yate cut-gla ss mu gs are in t he fashi on ju st
now , Sergt. Po t ter in troduced one from Glesca a n!]
the d isease is rapidl y s preading, bu t 110 l all arc
irnp eria L Pi llt s!

S .Q.:M.S . vVilso n was promoted to thi s ra nk o n

1st J a nuary and, of CO Ul's e. the even t was ce leb rate d
in t he sa me old way . Co ng ratulat iqns Tu g. Ve ry
pl easin g was t hi s pron!otio n. we t hciugh t ' tlif> ' 131'0motion board had fo rgo tt en 'Wokin g'
S / Ser g t.

The weddi ng of

PAY

CORPS

JO URNAL

THE

EvallS ha s bou ght a ca r' If yo u don ' t believ e me,

you ca ll <ee hi m durin g any w eek- f> nd on th e r oad
to Beckenh am, loo king lOt' ot her cars to beckon 'em
pa st ' Two ug hs.
'GHILLIE '.

CPL. AND MRS. HORNSEY .

ARMY

PAY

YORK, COMMAND PAY OFFICE.

.'

CORPS

JOURNAL

t hl Eoa.:. Lilat we would be beaten next t im e.

As a r eturn m atch, the Sergeant,s of the ' Ves t
Yorks R ee-t. , ha ve cha ll enged u s to a match on
t he open l~lII ge wit.h service l'iR es and real ammunit ion . Needless to say we lla Ye accepted the challenge, wit h t he condi t ion that t he shoot takes place
durin g th e comin g s ummer.
T he D etachm ent R.A.P. C., York , a re t h erefor e
open to recei ve grlttis- shooti ng. sticks, dea:rstalkel'
or so mbrero hats, have rsacks (pmt bottle SIze) .and
<l ll V oth er gea r that m.ay be a n aid to goo d shootm g,
an '~l mak e us at h ome on the range.
As t he wind an d elevat ion tables (as taught t o
rec ruit,s) are easy to und ersta nd as m ark-time r<1tes
and mix ed in crem ents, we do not care whether a
gale blo ws or if the sky is as black as ink ; whatever
calculation W E'. maLte a nd doubt, 0.,\ 11 always be referred to the S.I.M. who w il/. g ive hi s decision on
t he spot.
. .
In t he next iss ue o[ t h e J ournal, 11. lS hoped t.o
r eport each indi v i ~ual performanc~ in detail , haying
ill v iew A.RP ., N. n C., and NatlOnal R at W eekalways providin g that ~:lUr ca.sualti es whil st. on tl~e
r ange are no t. too senous a nd t hat we are st.lll
permitted to carry firearm s.
. . .
F ixtures in t he Sergeants Mess bdhards league
.h ave nearly all been played , and on glo ing to press
we hold second position with two matches t o play
(if w e lose our po~ition will.be the reve rse).
Our An nual Bilhard H a nch cap and Share Out Club
hold s its yearly to urnament ill t h e n ear futur e,. to
dE:cid e the bilii ard champion for t he forthco mm g
year. T he vast resources of the 3d . per week per
per son fund w ill have its bottom knocked out (plus
acc ru ed interest) in the f101:m of va.luable pnz~s,
r efreshm en ts fo r a.ll a nd !Jerh a!)s one or two tripS
to th e seasid e.
'W ith gold and silver at it,s pre s ,~nt, price, ])0 c~p
will b e offered , but as ther e is a vVoolworth s III
t,OWIl t.h e winner nee d haye no fear, and as it is not
anticipated t.h.at t he tax on beeT will rise . a h ,1Ppy
.
a nd eventf ul evenin g will be expecte d. . .
A ce:t.aill V'l .O. has th e ch an ce of aclllevln g t he
" hat-trick" in t his to urn ament" but will he hoodwink t he ha ndicapper s t.his t im e?
Apart from t he abo'e billi ard news , t he ;:; kill of
Sgt.. Stew<l rt must be reported. H e has r~ach ~ d
the fin a l of t.h e Vilest R lcl1n g Area of York slll re. III
t he Army Bili a rds ch ampion~ hips . Th e. skill he d isplayed in his first a nd only g~me of thl ' challlplOnship was wond erfu l.. ~Ild he w tl! p ro~ "bly ~o a. long
way in t he co ill RetltlOl1 . espe clnlly If he 1:S drawn
awav from h ome--Good lu ck.
A" h earty welcome is ext.ended to a ll who have
join ed th is sta.tion recent}~r, and it is hoped. that
t h eir stay wi ll b e pleasant, and one t.hat vnll b e
full of happy m emories.
"NUR-O. "

the door, 'B' remnin ed out side. Presently 'A's '

trousers appea red ove r t he top of t he door a nd
'B', pl us t he tronsers,
fell into 'B 's' ha nds.
t hen emero'ed in to the ou tside air a nd proceeded
to a pawl~-sh op n ear~y. when t he tronser s, for
a cO llsideration of 51- r cceived a t emporary
domi cile.
<B' , plus t he 51- on acco un t of t he trousers, t hen
wended his wn y to wh ere a sale ,o f clocks was
bein g held. Bv laying down 5/ as a deposit,
he obtain ed temporary ownership of a clock
which; t aken round to :the afo r esa.id paw n- shop,
realised 2. F ive shillings of t his 2 r edeemed
' A's' trousers a nd , c1,rmed with the balan ce of
358., 'B ' l'eturned to 'A's' downstairs habitat ion and r elegated t h e t rouser s back to 'A' wh o
duly emerged a nd th en shared the 35 / - with 'B'.
' OR N ER

WOOLWICH, DETACHMENT.

Owing to t he mo vill g of t h e R.A. Office to Foot' s

C ray, t her e are onl y a few RI. A .P.C. now domicil ed
in t hat "gay v illage"-Woo lwich. Althou gh ou r
numb ers a re few, we feel th at. it ",-ould be of interest to som e t o kn ow t hat t he f12.; is still fl yin g
in V,' oolwich. L et us introdu ce ourselves-at om'
head is Majo r Vero , th en S.i\ !. Sco tt, Q.M.S.s
Dove, H a ll , Payn e, Wanen a nd White , L j Sgts.
Bmd 211 and Till ey a nd Cpl. Horn sey. L j Sgt . Till ey
who has r ecen tly joined the ranks of " cost ers" has
iu st taken ove,' from Q.M.S. Hopt ro ugh . (Did we
hea r lou d cheers from t he Depol Sgts . ' M ess?)
Th e D et a.c hment on decidin g that " all work amI
no p la~ makes , J ac.k a dull boy " .has recently
form ed a So"cial a nd Spo rts Club.. Owing to th e fact
t hat, we a re so small Spo rts wi ll hardl y feature in a
big way. H ow eve r, we wi ll be able to get together
and ta lk on th in gs other t ha n work.
"Ve un derstand t hat t he fo ll owing st.ory is t rue,
but we will not ,"ou ch fOl" that fact:S.M. 'A' a ncl S.i\!. 'B ' -bo t h broke a fter last
year 's Old Comrades' Dilln er, their total cash
assets bein g one penny, desce nd ed, a fter a short
co nve rsation, as to strategy a nd . tact ics, to the
reg ions designated oye rh ead "Ge ntlem en".
'1'\ ' , t he ow ner of t he penn y then produced it a nd
pIn ced it in t he slot of Cl ce rt.a in type of. door.
T h3 doo r o pened: '. \ ' went in side a nd dosed

ROYAL

Not long after t he end of the Chri stmas a nd K ew

Yea r festi vities, t he staffs of t he Comma nd P ay
Office and Regimen tal a nd R eco rd Pay Ofll ce in
Yo rk , broke the monotony of th e Old City with t.heir
Annu al Ball. TIl e fu nction wa s held in th e Assem
b ly Rooms on Thu rsday, 19t,h January and was at
ten ded by ahout 300 peopl e who cl a nced to mu . ic
p layed by i,h e R-ialtoni a ns.
Among those present 'I' ere Major General E . C.
G epp a nd Major Genera I R Vi,T. L eslie, Colonel a.nd
Mr s. Forde, Colonel Cutb ill , Lt. -Cols. G. , V. Nelson
and E. V.,T . H art-Cox a nd .o fficers and ser gean ts of
a ll uni ts in the York Garrison .
Th e evening wa s t horoug hly enjoyed uy all who
attended. Th e ballroom is a magni.fice nt huildin g
a nd at one tim e was used as t he centre fo r a ll impOltant socia l eve nts ill t he North of En gland.
Thi s setting, with the colourful un iforms and dresses
of the guests ma de a brilliant scene in such a
hi storical Rlac~. Mr. GOltOll , t he jovial '1.- ork shire
~ ome di a n, ably perfol"ll1ed t he dut,ies of ~ J. C .
It was pleasa nt to see a detachment of the Corps
i'rom Catterick, who no doubt look ed forw ard to
-emerging from t.h e back of beyond , eyen if t hey
(lid not r emel1l bel' goi ng back.
Alas, our rifles mu st be worn , or is it the seconcl h and am munition t hat was mixed with " I CI " to
m ake t he number up ? To be serious , on e round
p er member of the t ea m h as beell put in r eser ve to
-ena ble t hem to make a gallant exit from Division
'A", and care will be taken to ensure t hat each
TOlTt1d is 110t second iJ and , and t h nt it h as been paid
for prior to distrilJUtioll.
As we use t he mini at ure range of t he D epot, ' Vest
Yorks Regiment, a chall enge to a shootin g mat.ch
was sent to th e Sergeants of that regim ent. The
c hallenge was accepted and each member of both
t.eams ha d to fire at S.M.R.C. targets with om own
.22 rifles, a nd at r epresentati ve targets with co nver ted .22 service rifies . After a close struggle t he
Pay Corps wo n by a ve ry na l' ~'ow margin. .Sgt.
Stewart won a spoon for the hI ghest score o f t h e
evening on both tar gets. It was a very int er estin g
m atch and it was observ ed that a.lthou gh members
of ou~ t eam had not ha ndled service rifl es for a,
considerable tim e, t hey h ad not forgotten wha t had
been t aught th em beor e joinin g the qorps. . :rhe
e ven in g's entertaillm ent wo un d up WIth bllha rd
and snooker matc.hes in t h.e Ser geants' l\'Iess, and a

YORK, REGIMENTAL PAY O'FFICE.

Arrivals.-Lieut. C. Pearce a,rri ved from Bm'net

0 11 21st November, 1938 and Li eut. E. O. Coo~ er
from H oun slow a nd we ext.end t.o them a conha.l
welco me. and h ope t hat, t.hei r r espectiye tO UI'S of
rluty in York are pleasa nt..
Promo,t ion.-Our congrntulat ions are exte nded t.o
S.S.M. F. E. Mat.t. hews on hi s promo ti on to t h at
rnnk.
Sports Club.-An Ou t in e- has been i1r'ranged
which will t ak e place on 25th February whi ch w ill

37

THE
t,ake t,he
between
Em pire
Comedy

ROYAL

ARMY

Club to L eeds to witness the L eague Match

Leeds United a nd E verton. A visit to Leeds
in th e evenin g will be m a de t,o see the
"Me ancl My Girl " .
Xmas Party .- 'l'he Annual P arty was agaill h eld
in the AlballY H all. _-ill10ngst those present were
Colonel A. l\ L. CuLbill , l\1.C . (Oi j c Records), Lieut.
Colonel E. W. Hart-Cox , O.B.E (Regtl. P aymaster),
('apt.. H. R. S. Sa ngu in etti, Lieut. R G. TUlTant,
Lieut.. E. O. Coo per a nd Lieut. C. P earce.
A first-class tea was pro vided and was enjoy ed by
bot h old and yo un g. This wa,s followed by a splendid enterta inm ent whi ch included a Ventriloquial
perform a nce, a nd ,a Disillusionist, with his disappearing trick " \\ hich pro\'id ed both old and young with

PAY

THE

CORPS ' J OURNAL

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

M. C. (Oi / (' Records) , Li eut.-Colonel a ud 'Mrs. E.

W. H art- Cox together with ot her Officers of t he
R.A,P.C . a nc\ variou s U ni ts in York a nd A rea.
V arious da nces, ancient and modeln , were perrorm ~' d
bv t he m ajority of the g uests throug hout t he course
of t he e\"E> llin g until the wee small hours of the

som ethin g to talk about. Mr. Lukin s was again

disguised as Father Christmas and th e sack containing t he Xmas Presents was a huge size; he,
ho wever , was equal to the task of presentin g the
goods to t he cheering and excited children ' b efore
him.
l iVe must co ngrat ulate S.S.M. Ma tthews, Chairmall, S.Q.M.S. H,igby, Mr. R ackham, Hon. Secre.
tary of t he entertainm ents committee, a nd the
ladies a nd staff who formed the comm ittee, upon
the g reat s uccess achi eved.
Annual Ball.- The Royal Army P ay Corps, York
again oombined to hold t heir Annual Ball in the
Assembly Rooms , York on 19th January, 1939.
Amo ngst t ho se pre ent were Colon el A. M. Cutbill,

J OURNAL

following morning to t he delightful mUSIC supplied

by th e Ri alto nia,ns Dance Band.
Th e Committee r epresenting the Det. RA.P . C.,
York RP. were S j Sergts. P ledger and Troops and
Cpl. Ripton, and the duties of M.C. were carried
out by Mr. Gofton.

Stations Abroad
CEYLON.

the youn g cou ple th emse lves. Sergeant and Mrs.

Hal'L received many ni ce a nd useful presents includin g one h~om Mrs . H art's pupils of the school where
she was teachin g prior to coming to Colombo. I
wo uld add that Sergeant Hart still shows a pretty
nimble foot at soccer.
Entertainments .-Fo r the children of the mi litary
here, the Garrison p,rovided a very enjoyable tea
and Xmas Tree at which t wo Fathers Christmas
ani ved, m uch to the enjoyment of the childrenit wa s discovered , however, t hat one was intended
for Singapore and he was sent On his way. One
start ul'J1, besides man y sideshows provid ed, was a
boxing t ou rnament on the punch and judy principl e, vy hich left the operators completely exhausted
a nd in Heed of alooholic refreshment.
Th e Roya l Engineers' Sergeants' Mess, to whicb
we ar e attached also gave the children a tea and
Xm as tree and altogether provided a really rattling
goo d show.
Gen ~ ral . --Chri stmas havin g passed, we turn once
aga in to sober and righteo us ways a nd now have
t,hc prospect of just two more Troopers out and
h011' e to enliyen the pro ceedings.
All pers0l1l1el
here wi ll , we anticipate, sit tight for another year.
Th e next item to which we look forward is a
chan ge of air, just a few hours travel by train and
thell <l climate comparable to an English Summer
where fires and blankets are necessary for the m aintenan ce of warmth and comfort .
And so, with one more note for the journal, on e
mor e trooping seas.on nearly gone, many more Pa y
Li sts still to be dosed until our turn comes, we
'
soldier on.
TAB.

Matri mo nia l.-Ser geant. H al t welcomed his bride,

l\1iss P. M. Leahy (Qu een 's . \.rm y Schoolmistress)
to t he I slan d on t he 13t h N Oy embel an d t hey were
duly lr arried at St. Ph ilip NO l'i 's Church , Co lombo,
on '26 th N oyemb er. The whole of t he detachment
a tte nd el! wh a t was a \'e ry pretty \\' edd in g and 1
a m SLlre t ha t all Se rgeant H a rt ' s fl iend s in th e
Co rp.:; extend t o him a nd .\l e;;. H art th eir h ea r t.iest
congra t ula tio ns a nd bes t wlsh es for t hen' urllted
hap'pines2 . T he Comm a lid Paym ast er ~ Ia.Jor J .. A.
B edford o-a\'e the uncl e aw a v Wlllh t t he bl'lcl egroom 'w~ :; supported by S j Sel'gt . l\i a ddock ,
R .A.O.C . _-I.. photograph of th e brid e and uride o-room app ears in t hi s jOL1l'lWl. S.S.M . and Mrs.
f,' l'isby pro\ ic1 ed a ve ry ni ce a lld , as the day had
heg'L1l1 t.o \\'al'l1l up , a ye ry \\elcom e l'eCeptlOl1 at
which t he oth er regim ent s and corps were well
represent ed.
~\Iajor P earson, Staff Offi cer 'A (Q'
was also pi ""e nL. E\'eryo ll e, especw llv th e ladl e ~ ;
seemed lo enjoy t,he \\'eclc1i ng e quall~' as mu ch as

,.

EGYPT.

Read ing th e Notes in t h e Christmas number, we

noti ce t hat we were not alone in pleading for leni.
ency r egarding the length a nd scope of contributions
during the sequence of event.s which h a ve becom e
known as "the crisis" . IiV e commence these notes,
however, in a state of mind which suggests that
these 'o ccurrences must travel in flocks, coveys or
gaggles since so far as the office side of things
testifies , life has latterly been "one darned crisis
a fte r anoth er" .
Comings and goings .ar e expected about this time
of t,he year na turally, but our experience has been
that, the "goings" have so far , exceeded the
"co mings" and several unJooked for movements
have also upset the pro gramm e.
Unfort,unately, the il1l'o.ads of that old enemytime-have been coin ci dent with quite a crop of
ma jor happenings which wou ld have been worthy of
better t.rea,tment in these notes than they are likely
to get. However, so far as it is possible to do
just ice to th~m, just,ice shall be done.

WEDDI NG GROUP AT SGT.

Reproduced by kind permission of "Yolkshire Evening Press" .

CORPS

B.

HART' S WEDDING .

(Left to right ) Mrs . E. A. Frisby, th~ B.ridegroom and

Bride, S.S .M . L. F. Fnsby.

39

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

On the sporting a.IId socia l side, tile transition of

the Mess from Abbassia to H eliopolis , ill the neat'
future put a brake on recent functions and beyond
the u~ual Christmas and New Year festivities and
some Darts L eague fixtures, very little in the way
of jollity has been attempted,
The Christmas attractions followed the usual well
established and popular lines and commenced with
some gold-digging effo rt.s on behalf of the Xmas
Draw. A new record was set bv t he number of
tickets sold and the subseq uent dr;'w was, as usual,
a n occasion for pithy remal'hs at the expense of the
fortunate ones a nd cold comfort for those who,
. expect.ing much , receiyed little 'o r nothing a nd had
to do some quick shoppin g. There appears to be
some justification for applying the term "fickle" to
the goddess of Fortune and some prior year winners
who tUl'lled up with suitcases and hand-barrows, h ad
a sad but busy time negotiating transfers.
The programme for the children which was
ca rried out on Christmas Eve started with a fulll ength programme of v"\Talt Disney and ,o ther Cartoons at the Institute Cinema, without which their
p a rents would probably r efuse to honour the
occasion. This year, the kiddies ' tea and the distribution of presents were calTied out in the Slade
Club. ,a fter which a Galla Galla show in the Mess,
1'0lll1ded off the day as far as the youngsters were
concerned.
The ~lsual spate of Christmas and New Year
Eve Dan ces within the Garrison gave no encouragement to the holdin g of a function ourselves and
the Enterta inments Comm ittee were probably glad
of the respite.
It may be mentioned that our new mess, which
s hould co me into being on or abo ut 1st March, is
a villa in Heliopolis, on the main traIn route and
midwa.y between the N ,A.A.F.I. and the office. As
the mily Sergeants' Mess in Heliopolis, it should
prove both a conv enient port of call and a finan cial
s uccess. A villa almost adjoining it will serve as
accommodation for the Single Members a,nd it is
understood that the structural .alteration s necessary
are already in hand .
Almost overshadowing the Xmas festivities, came
the news of the sudden death , on January 19th , of
- S.Q.M.S. Forsyth, at Moascar, where he was en
gaged on Costing duties. The tra.gic suddenness of
his death was a gL"eat shock to Mrs. Forsyth and to
all who knew him and we extend to her the greatest
sympathy on behalf of all readers of the Journ al.
An account of the funeral <1nd some personal remarks
appear elsewhere in the Journal from which it may
be judged how well S.Q.M,S. Forsyth succeeded in
establishing, both personally and in the interests
of the Corps, a very enviable reputation.
I1ITe are able to report, quite proudly , that the
departures forecast in our last notes went off without postDonement or cancellation and we have to
add further gaps caused by such vacancies on the
" Bardin Chart " as L t .-Colonel \iVood s, S.S.M.
Scott. S.Q.M,S.s Co leman, Higginson, Staff Sel'gts.
Ta oDenden, Hilling , Vine, Sergts. Price, Hill and
H all ett.
S.S.M . L ittler achieved the distinction of arriving
ex U. K. and departing to Kh arto um in the space
covered by one period 's notes and many acq uaintan c('~ of S.S.M. and Mrs. Littler who mav not h ave
hea I'd the news, will join us in congratulations on

CORPS

JOURNAL

the arrival of a daughter (Josephill e .\!ln e) on 31st

December, 1938.
Both Mrs. Litt ler a nd daughter ar e, we hear,
doing very well and looking forward to this time
next. year when S.S.M. Littler will resume h is additional r espon sibilities in this station.
Sports new s is not remarkable for it._ length Ot'
scope, but such as it is, follows below.
Tennis-Sergeants ' Mess League.-A fter a very
suceessfu l season , we were beaten by t.he R.E.s in
the playoff for championship of the league by 6
sets to 3. A very fail' reflection of th e Match. The
best set of th e day being that in which Hanson and
Giles nalTo"vly succumb ed ' to the skill :md experience of the R.E. pair-Thomas and Hun t.
Annu al Tournament.-The finals were played just
before Xmas after repeated postponem en ts <l nd resulted as fo llows:Level Sin gles- ( GI'ant Challen ge Cup).
Sel'gt. Hanson beat Sergt. MackreLh , 7/5, 7 / 5.
Level D oubles- (Riley Challenf',e Cup).
Sergts. Finn and ~l ackreth beat. SI . Boanas
and Sgt. Taskel', 6/ 2, 6/ 2.
Handicap Sin/!.l es- (Gresham Challen ge Cu p).
Sgt. Hansoll beat Sergt. Giles.
H andicap Doubles- ( Hands Challm f!.e CliP) .
Sergts. Finn and Mackreth beat Serg1,!:'. Thomas
a nd Mackay.
Once again' Mrs. Genge-Andrews kindl,); presented
the cups, after which we adjoul'l1ed t o the Sergeants' Mess for t ea..
Severat me])) uers of t he Detachm ent hav e played
in outside tOlU'Ilaments during th e season, St.'lffSergt. Boanas ' a nd Mrs. Tasker ma n<l,ged to reach
the semifinal of the Egyptia.n State Railwa,ys an nu al
handicap.
During the forthcoming season \\'e are hoping to
arrange matches in which all of ,o ur players shall
take part, and have commenced with some interesting matches within the detachment, Command
Pay Office having beaten the Regimental Office on
two occasions by 9 sets to 7 and 10 sets to 6.. In
t hese games 32 players took part, so our object is
being ach ieved and we are lookin g forwar d , to a
successful yea r in both pleasure and effi ciency at
t he game.
.
GIBRALTAR.

General .-Since our la.st notes appeared in press

things her e h.aye been moving somewhat.
The
Spring Cr uise of t h e combined Hom e and Mediterranean Fleets is well on it ' s way; ,o ur ha,rbour is
quite nicely full of ships and Main Street, a nd it 's
attractions, full of t he staffs thereof.
On th e nearby mainland, too, thin g, h[lve, been
moving with somet hin g of a rush , a.nd qtl1t~ a
num bel' of ns are wondering (as we sa.dly conSIder
OUl' in creasing girths) how much longer it will be
before the frontiers a re once again open a nd we
shall be enabled to take a little gentle exercise
through t he Spanish villages and countryside. True
,a certain amount of hiking ca,n be don e here, especi
ally if one feels strenuou s enough t.o tackle paths
usually frequented by goats; but for the most part
we have to co ntent ourselves wit,h a little gentle
tennis and a n amble through the Town or th e
Alameda Gardens for our curve ronedives at
present.
Personal .- Everything comes to thos who wait,

40

THE

ROYAL

ARl\IY

PAY

so we are advised by well-mealling eldel'~jn our

early youth; and the changes of sta ff t(lat; "'we referred to in our last notes have at long la st come to
pass.
The homing ones were:- .
Majors Askin and Williams, posted to Woolwich
(but whether that means I1ITarley 01' Foots Cray
remains to be seen) ; and
S.Q.M.S.s Owen and Booth, and Sgts. Nice and
Cater ham , to fields afresh and pastures new at
some at-present-unrevealed station or stations:
whilst the tourists were:Capts. Brewer and Cork, from Aldershot and
Shrewsbury, Sgts. Bedford a nd Binks, from Cat
terick a nd Woolwich , a nd L / Sgts. Shields an d
Porter, from DeJ?tford and Hounslow respectively.
To th e former we bid farewell, coupled with the
hop e that they ma y each enjoy a good station, and
with the further hope that they'll recall with
pleasure their respective tours on the Rock; to th E"
latter we extend it hand of greeting , with the hope
that they'll each and all enjoy their tour iu the Key
to the l\1edi terranean.
Unfortunately, owing to an acute shortage of
quarters, the 'last three of the abovementioned
tourists have had to commence their tour here as
temporary bacheLors we hope, however, that this
state wili be of shot:t duration, and that soon we
shall be able to offer their respective families a
warm welcome to the Sunny South.
To wind up on the personal theme we ","ould add
th at the prognostication given in our last notes wa s
fulfilled to the uttermost, for all of t,h e above
"homers" left here on a trooper that is believed to
be of the oldest vintage extant.
Sport .-Very little have we to record in. the
Sport 'iVodd, for a,part from anythin g else the
weath er of late has been distinctly inclem~ent. (f.or
example, the other day we were t,reated to 11 n 80
miles an hour' gale that was decid edly uncalled
for) ,
vVe lost a tower of strength in Major Askin who
will be sadly missed here, for h e was a stalwart in
our cricket and tennis circles, to say nothin g of
huntin g and racing. In Sgt. Nice and hi s wife .
too , we lost enthu sia stic tennis experts : 'A' co urt
won't be the same 110W !
Our new blood has as yet to be tried out; but
each look s to be pretty capabl e, and we're hoping
for great things when they and t.he weath er have
settled down .
Rifle Club.-Sin ce out last notes a ,22 Rifle
League has been form ed in t hi s Garrison which we
have joined. Unfortunately , mat.ch rifles are barred
(not tllat we have any, by the way) and we have to
use tubed service rifles , without the aid of slin gs or
rests : very nice, too, for t ho se who lik e 'em, but so
far as most of us are concerned as soon as we tak e
a peep a.1oncr the sights the bulls (like old soldiers)
simply fadeo away. Pos ibly because of this , plus
the fact that having to borrow someone else's range
we get a very limited practice. we're in t he rather
unenviable position of bei ng Atlas to the rest of
the L eague . . . But we keep pegging away, and
hop e to rise to high er t.hings ere lon g.
Soc ial.-OuI' mess is going on from strength to
stl'ength, a nd now t hat the combin ed Fl~ets are in
it is open every nigh t.
ViTe also mallltam Olll'

CORPS

JOURN AL

weekly Euclll'e Drives, and hold a Ladies' evenin g

every Thursday-the latter function seeming to find
more favour with our better halv es than does the
former. These and other efforts that we make to
en liven the lib of jh e garrison are becomil1g more
a nd more appreciated by our friends of other formations, and have even been the subject of very nice
pt'ess Ilotic,es in such widely diverse journals as the
"United Services Review" and the " Hop Leaf
Gazette" .
Perhaps it is a bit late in the day to mention such
things, but during the Festive Season we held
(a) almost t,he biggest Xmas Draw on t he Rock,
and
(b) a really enjoyable Xmas Party.
As for the form er it smprised everybody (especia lly the non-smokers, who seemingly could win
nothing but cigars and cigarettes, and the blue
ribbonites whose portion it was to win sun dry
bott,les with a liquid co ntent guaranteed to be not
less than 25 under proof) , and it 's success redounds
to the crec1 i t of the en thusiast ic committee who
worked whole-heartedly to ensure it. The lat.ter
was a greater success t han ever, enjoyed by both
young an d not-so -young in equal measure (to see
t he former laden with presents from the tree, the
bran tub and other hoal'ds was a sufficient reward
for t he l,.ttel', some of whom also came in for some
wooden spoons), to which the assistance of an an
usuaUy-good entel'tain er, brought to us through the
courtesy of the K.A.A,F.I. , contributed to no littl e
ext ent.
KHARTOUM.

General.-Since October faces have changed here,

and everybody know s t hat change is as good as a
rest. Sergeants Price, Blackwell a nd Backwell have
taken their's away and SISgt. K ent a nd Sgts. L ees
flUel '~I in (' h have brought their 's down.
The latter
fi re so good looki ng. t hey secured a sea trip in stead
of travelling in s tyle -via the Nile Valley. There
remain s hut two to be relieved S.S.M. Dou se and
8.0 .. '-S. Higginson , b efore the dog days arrive
their victim s bein g S.S.M. Littler and S.Q,.M.S.
Roswell.
Time has been pa -sed by several means: laun ch
trips Oll the Nile, musical evenings in. the mes, and
th e inevitable tenni s. S.Q.lVI.S. Higgmson v,a s presented wit.h a sil ver \yatch and fountain pen by the
Sercreant.s' :Mess at one of our musical even in gs as a
tok~n of our regard 'ere h e leaves us for civil life
Colonel Genge-. ndrews and Mr . Bell, the Army
Auditor, were here on inspection from 15t,h to 20th
January, returning to Cairo by ail'. The photo
graph, taken by Captain G. Haggard , shows both
beside the machin e in which t hey returned.
Christ mas. -O ur guests for dinner were Captain
Ha ggard and Mrs. End acott, and their attendance
gave the event more of a, hom ely tou?h than wo~]ld
otherwise have been the case. A Joyful evenmg
was spent with a large party of. visit,ors from t.1~'3
York and Lancs., and on Boxlllg D~y c,aptam
Ha ggard entertained us at the Blue Nile CJIl ema.
And now to hand the Notes to the new l1 epresentative .
Arr ivals.-My ,o pening remarks must ~'efer to tl:e
yerv warm welcome one gets on arnvlllg at thIS
pla ce. .A s th e train st,eams ill , t he whole office staff

4I

THE

ROYA L

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

T HE ROYAL ARMY P AV CORPS JOURNAL

umpires and judges nearly everything in Khartoum
and all for "nowt"-truly a l abour of love.
vVell , the mails don 't even wait for us so we mUS1
get these note'; away to the Editor. Cheerio every
body abroad and at home, and tb ' t.he latter our
special greetings; we hop e you find time to get to
the cinema now and then.
EL TABIA.

taken off the launch at 1L~0 p .m. a little fed up,

-et,c. and far from home .
My motto always has becn "try everything once" ;
and I'm sticking to it. It seems justified here.
Departures.-S.S.1\1. Dou se and S.Q.M.S.Higginson got us out of bed early on Sund<lY, 5th FebTuary, and th en left us sta ndin g .on the stat,iol1 where
they departed for Cairo, laughll1g up theu' sleeves
about it, too . Vile were sorry to see them go, firstly
because we have enjoyed working, singing and garg
ling with them, and seco nd ly, beca use thclatter join s
very shortly that crowd who stand watchlllg Presto n
North E nd on Saturdays, wh en they could fi.nd something better to do. Good lu ck in the n ew life, "Bill "
- we wish you good hunting and a better football
team.

KHARTOUM

D ET.KHMENT WITH COLONEL

and a few others resident in ilud out of the Fort,

beam on the new arrivals (S.S.M. Littler a nd
S.Q.M.S. BoswelJ) and quick ly get them to a place
of l'efresh~11ent. This is a good pra ctice and, e\el.l
though Khartoum I S a statio n "of the blessed .
blest", makes one look longingly t.o that "bar-diu ';
a head when olle ca n do the same for one's own
relief.
Nile Trip.-We had ~ Fort Outing on ' ''led nesday,
1st February, agalO usmg the la un ch of the G.O.C.
for a trip down the Til e. Starting at 4.30 p.m. with
a beautiful breeze blow in g, t he us ual bottles ilnd
sn ndwi cbes in the 'cabin awav we went a nd sa id to
ourselves "This is goi~g to-be good" . It was I
Dow~ the l'l ver, past Omdurma,n , we slid very
gl'acefully on a sand-bank about 5 )) . 111. Not, one of
those rough b~ll1ps ~ j u s~ a bea,hILlI glid e. .Everybody thou ght, thIS IS a httl e stoppage a nd WIll EOo n
b e remedied' . Th e crew went oyerboal'd , and 1 ushed
and pull ed . the p'assengers moved forward a nd backward to distribute t he load. but no r espo nse, that
launch wouldn't mov e. Captain H aggard went
overboard to gIve enco uragement to the passengers
to hel,P , a nd he was followed by several stout hearts.
Heavlllg, tuggmg. pushing a nd pulling, a nd still
that la un ch loved its bed. Olle of the crew walked
well out a nd dug the a nchor into t he ri ver bed.
At the other end of the rope attacherl t,o it, fi ve of
the passengers heaved so heartilv th at thev bl'oke
the rope and fell into a heap WIth t,he S.S.M. on
top. Note that; illways picl<ing cushy spots these
S.S.M.s!
And darkness came upon us without
havi ng moved an in ch . ' Ne tri ed sig nallinO' with
the binnacle lamp-or is it bal'rlilcle? No re,':'ponse ,
and then the crew left U 1 to get assistance ashore.
The choru s lead ers got to work <l nd we sa ng lik e

H.

service- rendit ion of Journal llotes-are not a.cce pt ed by the Editor we are relu ctantly compelled
to provide all your readers with <tn almost nonex istent item (as far as we il re concerned for this
quarter) to wit news and, having; scratched aro und
in vil in for some items of interest, it. is felt that if
facts cannot be inserted in t hi s issue one 01' two
odd lines of fi ction will perforce h ave to be published in li eu . However , we will 's ee how m~. ny
lines we can provide by fail' means before indulging in -tactics fi ctional.
In many ways we ar e fortllnate m this station
insom uch as all t,he trials and tribul ations which
have been he.c't ped on t,he heads of European residents- -A.B..P. , Territorials, woolly underwear and
several feet of srlJOW at Christmas just appear:! as
ite ms in our lo ca l papers and, whilst one does not
hav e the pleasure of seeing one's moth er-in-law
doing squa d dril l und er a Guards sergeant-major in
one of the new-fa ngl ed Ladies' Defence Unit,s, we
apDreciate the fact that by bein~ eight thousand
rililes r emoyed from Hom e <l nd Mother, wc a!'e in
the main leadin g a, quieter life t11.il11 many, which
is definitely the r eil son fol' t.he dearth of journalistic
mater ial in this n eighbourhood.
A.nd , talking of snow reminds us that we forgot
t.o mention Christmas in our last issue of .i,u urnal
not.es and the office r epr esentati ve will now
humble him self. do the usual crawl over broken
glass and apolo gis2 to all a,nd sundrv for
not extending t.he compliments of the '~eason
to
all
mem bers of _ the Corps on beh~lf
of D etachmen t RA .p.e .. ilril laya,. It is understood
that members of the det.achnient have forwarded
suitable N ew Year g reetin gs to their various friends
friends and enemies in stamped and unstamped enyelopes so that. the matt.er is now closed.
On Christmas., 1938.- Ch l'istm as Day, Boxing
Day . New Year's D ilY and all t.he oth er odd days
round and about this period were celebr<tted here in
the usual maimer and we have very little to report
as all our memb ers escilped the police an'd no sixpences were swallowed with the Christmas Pucldingo
It is, however , believed that one 0[' two of the
detachment h<tve qualifi ed for the initial grant of
a .. bestos allowance on arrival in the n e.xi. world
and the official Christma< and ew Year casualties
are appended hereunder:One S.Q.M.S.-Suffering from TaxiDil ncers
Knee.
Sevel'al .Miscellaneol1s
Non-Coms-Suffering
from inebriates stomach .
Two Scotch Members-Suffering from H aggistyria- Hogmanay Special.
.-\ 11 the casualt.i es reported are now co nva lesce nt and are just h<tnging around for next Christmn s and the usual r elapse.
Travelogue.- Fnrth er to our last, report regarding

GENGE-ANDREWS.

troj<tl1s. The beer ran out an d we swore like trojans

(ladies being present, it was only a gentle swear).
The shadows deepened, throats got sore, tel'llp'ers
became iu st a little tattered like the " old school
tie" that S.Q.M.S. Higginson sings about and
finally we didn't love each other any more. Th en,
out of the d<trkness, drifted a dhow, built long
before the " Bounty" . The men piled into it to
empty the laun ch , waved goo d-bye to Captain Bligh
who said he' d make us pay for it but still that laun ch
was lazy. Th e dhow began to fill with water rapidly
a nd led by the S.S.1\1. (valiant heart) everybody
hUlTiedly scrambled back to the launch and made
peace with Captain Bligh . The next move was to
form a party to get ashore-the dhow could sU1:ely
do t,hilt a nd get help . Six of us ventured, narrowly.
escaping being swept down the r iver by the curr ent. This was at 8.30 13.111. After an houl.' a nd a
half's tramp across the island in nice soft sand,
we arrived opposite the Grand Hotel, not having
met the gentleman on the way \\'ho said "Doctor
Li\'ingston e. I presume".
Our CI'Y of distress"Gl'and Hotel , send a boat over"-was roared to
t he high h envens several t im es but all that came
back was the echo, eve n though one of our members
piped a plaintive please . .And t h en we found another
dhow. Scrambling in , oarsmen took t heir places
at oars t h at wel'e ju st trees with the branches lopped
off, the helmsman got into position, and the skipper
roared "swing it you babies". ' ''le rowed valiantly
for ten m inutes and then founel we h a dn 't yet left
the shore. A noth er and better st art (t his tirne with
a new skippel') a nd we made t he crossing in style.
Using the Grand Hot.el t.elep hone and a drop of their
good cheer, we got t h e Do (!kYilrd Staff of the
S.G.R. & S. on the move, and the partv was finally

42

MALAYA.
Opening Ode.-As nil r eturns in respect of this

COL.

H.

GENGE-ANDREWS AND

P. ].

BELL,

ESQ.

Sports.-O Ul' tennis court is a boon and a bl essi ng

to men and we are go ing to get a bit of fun out of
it before the rain s " melt it" . The Fort, D etachment played the B..A.F. on Sunday, 6th February
rlllci got there by t he odd set. Bad staff: work that
for those who are hoping for a trip to Cairo by ail',
but maybe we ean rectify it in a return match.
vVe also sent a pair-S.S.M. Littl er a nd Sgt.
Endacott-to play for the Small Units Senior
:aga in st the Small U ni ts Juniors and the Yorks and
Lan cs., a.nd t.hey pl'oved <t cl ecid ed help.
Capt. Haggard a nd Sergt.. Enclacott are busy l'unl1ing the Small U ni ts Hockey, a,nd t he latter refc rees.

43

THE

R OYAL ARMV PAY

pleasure cruises on .luxury liners , Colonel Oldham

and family, Q.M.S. Brown and family, L / Sgt.
Fraser a nd Cpl. Ra.nsford have joined us for better
or worse and all a re definitely declining invitations
to the Corps Dinner for the next three years. No
official comm ents on the life tropical, the weather,
or the dollar has yet been made by any of the new
arrivals and the absence of bad lang uage in the
office lead s us to believe that they are all enjoyin g
life on the equator.
S.Q.iVI.S . Norris and family proceeded home per
H .T . "Dilwara" aftel: the usu al tour of three years
(less Sundays) in the office .cmd they carry the
best wishes of the Detachment with them to their
n ew station.
v.,re hope that a race-course is included in the amenities pro vided at Q.M.S. Norris's
n ew duty station as the experience gained by him
as O.C. Race Staff at Singapore should sta.nd him
in good stead in a co untry where one can back a
horse both ways with sixpence instead of having to
sport a modest five dollars (eleven and eighl.pence,
folks) on one tote ticket.
Major Milling, S / Sgt. H ewett, Sgt. Broadsmith
and L / Sgt. J ames are all awaiting the arrival of
their homeward bound sam pan , and it is anticipated
that their departure will be published in dek.. il
(band and drums on the quay-side) in our next issue.
Sports, Pastimes, Gardening and MoustacheGrowing.-Alt hough handicapped by Allowance
R egulations , Pay Warrant .clnd one or two other
publications issued by R .M.Station ery Office to
say nothing of the size of this Garrison, we still
on odd occasions take a spot of exercise and try
and induce the liver to keep away from t he state
leth.clrgic. Rockey has now finished and Sergear~ts
T ristram, Chappell, Thomas and Baker are awaIting the arrival of the cricket season with the usua,l
hope that they will strike form when it arrives.
We have it on good authority that Sergeant Tristram hopes to be posted to Liverpool and attached
to Messrs. Littlewood's for rations and accommodation' next year, as the experience h e has gained in
runnin o- footb all sweeps is liable to revolutionise
the fo~tball pools system in Europe one of these
days . L / Sgt. Fraser, one of our new arrivals, has
already made his mark in the dart world, and
Sergea nt Brett's moustache, havin g met with a
temporary set-back owing to making a hasty contact ",-ith a razor, is now in full bloom again thanks
to McEwen-Y,o ungers.
Scottish.-Th e Singapore Scottish have to acknowledfre receipt of a Ohristmas Card from the Wailing
' NaIl. J erusalem this year-the sur-charge on the
envelope was paid by an un suspecting Englishm a n.
MALTA.
Promotion.-Oongra tulation s to Staff Sgt. L ewis
on his "elevation".
Arrivals .-V./e are very pleased to extend very
b earty greetings to Major F. Spilsbury, and to
Captain H . A. A. Howell , and Staff Sgt. B asham ,
L /So-t . Leader and Families.
D ~partures.-To S.Q,. M.S. L awrence a nd Family
-all the very best wishes in their new Station.
Tennis.-T'h e "Ormsby Johnson" Cup for 1938
was won-just before 'xmas-by S.Q.M.$. L aw ren ce. Re had a battle royal with Staff Sgt. L ewis
in the final and we were pleased that he had the
honour in his la st effort, of his name being engraved 'upon the Cup . H e had given v~Llu abl e assis-

CORPS

J OURNAL

tance to the Detachment in all our Tennis activities.

Xmas PartY .-Anoth er wonderful day for th e
kiddies, and right well did our Commi t tee attend
to the enjoyment of us all. VVe were honoured by
the presence of Brigad ier G. C. Stubbs. Colonel
Chadton, Major Cox , Captain How ell and Family
(who had disembarked ea d ier in t he day) and Cap tain and Mrs. Jon es. The Committee were responsible for some n ew id eas which were greatly appreciated. The "Lucky " Dip-.to start t he show,
was a great s uccess. The Slide was never empty,
and it was with difficu lty the children left it (temporarily) fo r the .Tea.
After a r eally fine spread, Lieut . Grapes , RA .S. C.,
assisted by F lyin g Offi cer Harbot, R .A.F., bewildered the ch ildren (and ad ults) in a conjuring dis play, producing the Rabbits and Geese from the
familiar "empty" Hats and Boxes, etc .. etc. After
this . the curtai ns were drawn and S.S.1\I. Bailey
thanked the Officers and their Ladies. on behalf of
all present, for t heir compa ny . Th e Command Paymaster responded. expressin g hi s g rea t pleasme and
thanked Lieut. Grapes a nd F / O. H a rb ot, Mr. Jeffreys. of t he Vernoll Club and t h e Committee
(S.Q .M.S. Cole, Staff Sgt. L ewis, Sgts. May anet
Grant) for their great ass istance in producing such
a really good show. H e then asked Mrs. Jon es to
present the "OI. J. " Cup to S. Q.M.S. Lawrence,
which called for great applause. 'W hen th e stage
lights went up, a huge cake (or was it a Xmas
Pudding) was seen in the centre with two ch efs
(Sgts. May and Gra nt) preparing to "serve" same.
Thi s necess itated the use of an enormous swol'd _
wielded in a most careless manner by Sgt. Grant
to Sgt. May's a pparent discomfort (very good tremblin g effect W;"lS no ted). "\i\7h en thc sword manag ed
to p enetrate th e "crust" it was t.o disclose Fath el'
Xmas (S .Q.M.S. Co le) seated within , all Inen:y and
bright (we wonder) a nd h e soon procee ded to di s-.
pen se his gifts to the delight of all the .iuveniles .
More slid es, oran ges and sweets and another Xmas
Party was over. In the opinion of all, anot her
record show .
Billiards and Snooker.- The Det ..chment has been
well r epresented in the Garrison Sgts.' Mess Team
for t he Malta Command Sgts.' Mess League, and
the following have played:- S.S.iVI. Bailey. S/ Sgt.
Basham, Sgts. May, Grant, Lythgoe and L / Sgt.
Field. Vile do not know how many matches haye
been played , but we do know how- many we h ave
won and lost. "One" and "all but ,o ne". Of course ,
the real trouble is that all oth er messes have cham pions_ Anyho w we have had so me very sociabl e
evenings, a;ld once we almost had a "social" eyening. Evid ently Stg. G rant will not mak e a bu
conductor in civil life. Th e offer was quite honest
in its intentions, but the lady ureferred to walk two
miles to the RA.F. Station ; Kalafrane, instead ot
riding in our bus.
Veflnon United Services Club Billiards Competition.
- The following represented the Deta chment ag(l in st
the 1st Destroyer Flotilla.
R.A.P .C.
1st D. Flotilla.
S.S.iVI. Bailey
141 Henderson ...
150'
S.Q.M.S. Lawrence 146 Martin
150
Sgt. May
88 Freeman
150
Sgt. Grant
134 Ross
150
Sgt. Lyth goe
150 Timl11S
118

44

THE
L / Sgt. Field

ROYAL

ARMY PAY

110 Hocking

150

769

868

YOUR

JOURNAL

some of our matches, but we did get up to date 011

one afternoon but, unfortunately, the Tennis Committee decided to stage the Final of the "O.J. Cup"
on the same day. Can you imagine the Secreta:ry
chasing his team~ from "Service". to "SerVice
Rifles" and. ;:Lfter It was over, count111g the scores
(very small) an d mumbling 30 love minus a ricochet, off the target, fault , etc., etc.
More next time.
Garrison Mess Annual Ball .- The notes have been
held up f,or .cl few days to give an account of the
Ball, and it is the morning "after" the great e.vent:a really splendid function, a.ttended by BrIgadIer
G. C. Stubbs, D .S.O .. Colonel Charlton, M.C., the
Command Paymaster, numerous. Officers <LD,d th ~lr
ladies, and some 600 of the Gal'I'lson . The 90mmIttee (S.Q.iVI.S. Cole, Presiderit" S/ Sgt. Lewl s,. Sgts.
Grant and May, RA.P,.C. and At/ Q.M.S. Bnckell,
RA. O. C.) are to be complim ented upon the success
of their efforts. The Band , from H .M.S. "PeneloRe" was perfect, a nd the Boor of .the V ernon
Club nicely full without a crush. Catermg arra.ngements-alf that could be desired, and the sprays of
fl,ow el.'S handed to each lady on al'l'ival-a. fine
thought. In stead of the u~ual programmes, a very
laro-e p1'Oo-1'amme was fix ed III the centre of the Hall.
This wasoin the form of a pi cture, giving the order
of the dances, surrounded by very effective replicas
of the B.cldges and Ties of the R, :I\. P.C. , RA.O.C.,
and Garrison Staff. The whole plcture, very tastefu lly finish ed in tinsel, was .cl fine novelty.
General.-It may be of interest to ex-Malta-ites
to know that a n-ew slogan mav soon be required
for this sunny island. The "Bell s" are . still mu ch
in evidence. but with the introduction of the Pasteurization 'Scheme for Goats' milk, and the ban
on Goats being allowed in the streets of Valletta the
"smells" (we hope) will diminish to . a v~ry gre~t
extent. As to the "yells"-they are 111 eVldence m
all foreign countries. A photograph of th.e "Old
an d New" Milk Industry WIll doubtless be of mterest
to all who know Malta.
"BARRACCA".

How unfort.unate we were not to get the 29 point;;

in the games of S.S.M. Bailey, S.Q.~.S. La~ren ce
and Sgt. Grant. Th ey would have given u.s vlct~ry
by 4 a nd 3. ' Ne did very well as we could Just ralse
a team, and our opponents were one of the strongest sides. Vile hope to have better luck n ext time.
Vernon U .S.C.- Snoo ker Competition .-L / Sgt.
F ield, our only representative in this tournament
wa.s beaten ill the semi- fin al by Stoker Daly of

TAKE

CORPS

PALESTINE.
Christmas Day broke bnght and sunny for most,
but there were others whose further outlook was a
spot unsettled , with a slight haze throughout the
day.
What a turkey! The gay and festive season is
now over, alas!, alas!, but the memory of t,hat
turkey, and the odour of that sweet champagne
will linger on for many days to come.
Unfor t unately the detachment were not all gathered together to celebrate, but the Corporals. had
the privilege of h aving the Sergeants to wal~ on
them and did that stop the beer from flowmg?
No ~ thousand times no! The beer flowed faster
tha'n ever. and when the turkey arrived, and saw
the glean{ing knives and forks, in tl~e port arms
position, it nearly arose from the dIsh. and fle?
Still , the members of the detachment enjoyed thelr
Christmas to t he full.
A Christ.mas Tree and Treat for the children of
the married personnel of th e Detachl1l e ~t ;vas held
in the Command Pa.y Office, St. Julia,n s V\7ay,
J erusalem on T hursday, 22ncl December, 1938. It
was also ~ttended by the majority of the Detachment. A good tea was pro vided by the N.A.A.F.I.,

CHOICE.

H.M.S. "Hereward" by two frames to one. There

is a hope that he may win a token for his break of
25 in the t.hird round , ~ ' h en he took all balls from
green to black to finish the game. As we go to
press we learn that Stoker Daly has won the Competition and that. L / Sgt. Field has been presented
with a Billiard Cue. Co ngratulations .
RiHe Club.- L / Sgt.. Field has taken over the duties
of Hon . Secretary .. nd was "bucked no end" when
he read "Sa rum;s" notes in the last co py of the
J ou mal. Th ere appeared to be much surprise at
Salisbury when it was known that Malta and two
others had been beaten in the League. V-Ie had
no idea that we were so much feared and are hoping
to beat Salisb ury in the return match.
It is rather diffi cult to run a Rifle Club here. We
have service rifl es, a nd the use of the R,A.S.C. open
30-yards range. Like our Ten nis court. it is rather
out of the way except for .cl few of the Detachment,
and being open it is impossible to fire in inclement
we .. ther. For a few weeks be'ore Xmas, the work
and the bad weather prevented us from completing

45

THE

ROYAL

ARMY PAY

and this was followed by an entertainment (L j Sat.

Black being the chief entertainer, with a group of
songs) .
The concludin g item was, of course, the arrival
of . Father Christmas (ably carried out by Sgt.
Rames, of the R.A.S.C.).
Presents were di stributed and the children went off to their homes and
to bed, tired but happy.
L j Sgt. H. BraiseI' was married to Mary Florence
Wilson , daughter of the late S.Q.M.S. Wilson , at
Port Said on 30th November, 1938, and has since left
the office to join his wife in Egypt.
The Det!1chment showed their compliment,s , by
presenting the married oouple with a chiming clock .
This was presented in one of the sections, when the
whole of th e Detachment :were present, by the
C.P. , Lt.Col. F. C. Williams, M .C. Sgt. Brasier
expressed his thanks on behalf of his wife a nd himself. We trust that he will enjoy his married
life in Egy'pt.
On Sunday , 4th February, 1939, a number of the
Detachment proceeded to Jericho and the Dead Sea
with a party organised by the Camp Commandant:
Force Headquarters , Brit,ish Forces i:n! Palestine
and TransJordarr. As this was the ,f irst time that
some of the emergency drafts had been out of
J erusalem, it was a welcomed change to Pay Lists,
ana a most enjoy;tble time was spent. Quite a few
bathed in the Dead Sea, but unfortunately photographs. are not available for publication.
Congratulations are extended to L jSgt. R.
Woolley, on the award of L.S. & G.C. Pay after
13 'years' service, and to L / Sgts: J . Duckworth and
A. Dawson for the same award after 8 years' ser
vice" which g,oes to prove that there are some compensations for old soldiers.
, There' have been several- changes in ' the Detach
ment .since the la-st issue of the Journ al~SjSgt. S.
R. W alker has gone to H aifa for duty with -th e
Haifa-Baghdad Road, and S / Sgts. W. Low, C.
Meaden , and L /Sgt . H .. Brasier emb.arked at H aifa
per H.r. "Nevasa", on 10th January, 1939, fo r
posting to Egypt. S / Sgt. B asham also embarked
Oil the same boat for posting to Malta. Sgt. C. S.
Marshall embarked p er S.S. "Montcalm" on 28th
January, 1939, for posting to the Home E stablishment. Our best wishes for their welfare in their
new stations go with them.
However, in return, we welcome L j Sgts. F. A. J .
Searle and L . Bruce, who disembarked fro m H .T.
"Dorsetshire" at Ha ifa on 1st December, 1938,
and Sgts. G. W. Bellars , H . Pocldington, A. V.
Phillips, R. F. Soper, a nd C. McLaughlin , who disembarked from H.T. "Nevasa" at H aifa on 10th
January, 1939. The first six h ave arrived at St.
Julia n 's Way, for duty at the Command P ay Office,
whilst Sgt. McLaughlin stayed at H aifa for costin g
duties with the C.R,E.
.
Other arrivals are Sgt. C. F. Y. , iVraight, L / Sgts.
J. K . Black and J. T . Marsh, who joined the Command Pay Office, for temporary duty from Egypt
on 30th November, 1938. I wonder if the Pal estine
trouble really suits them.
Pte. E. J . "" are, 2n d Bn. , The Queell'~ Ow n
Royal "" est Kent Regiment, is another who th inks
that the pen i,' mightier than the sword. He joined
the Com ma nd P ay Offi ce on probation on 29th
December, 1938, and we hope that he will develop
into a full-bLown P ay Corps Bloke very soon

CORPS

JOURNAL

This must end our correspondence for this period,

as one ca nnot be expected to write, and at the same
time, wonder how the Palestine talks are going on.
The emergency members are still wondering whether
it is emergen cy or not.
Football.-At the time of going to press we have
played just ov er h alf the fixtures in our programme
111
the J erusaiem Services and Police Football
Lea,gue.
From twelve matches played in this league we
can record three wins and one draw and the seven
points t hus obta~iled \en::-~bles us to r epo s~ just
fourth from the bottom of the tabl~, with no fears
of relegation .
Our team has improved considerably sin ce the
commencement of the sea,son and at the moment
seems to be well and tr uly in form.
W ith the arrival from Malta .of Sergt. Duckworth. our defence was considerably strengt.hened,
and slllce t hen Sergts. Soper and Pocklingtoll have
also pro ved of great assistance.
The postin~ ,o f Sergt. Brasier to Egypt deprived
us of the services of a very good and safe goalkeepel'
and at the time of his posting we were rather in a
quandary as to who would be able to take his
place. However, to everyone's great surprise,
S .Q.M.S. ,Roggis came out of his retirement , and
althou gh ' at" first rather out of practice, he has
rapidly fo und his form , and these days it has to be
a very good shot th at beats him . Of course, in his
first few games for us he was rath er handicapped
as no lo ca l outfitter stocked his size of football
boots , as a r esult he had to borrow a pair of outsizes from Force Headquarters; we say a pair, but
should st ate that o ne boot was a size eleven whilst
the other was a size nine , but our custodian
managed with this after opening up the back seam
of the boot. After a wait of a few week s he has
managed to obtain a new pair to fit and we now
see t he ball from a goal kick sailing towards the
halfway lin e.
Ju st as the last iss ue of the J ournal went to press
we managed to bring off the g reatest surprise of
the seaso n in the league by defeating the Palestine
Police District El even . That was their first defeat
of t he season, and wh en we state that they could
beat most Regimental teams it will be realised what
a surpri se we ca used. ' ;V ith the exception of three
breakaways by Ollr forwards the Poli ce were continually attac king OLlr goal, but our defence was
unbeatable that day, Sergt. Brasier bein g on the
top of his form. From o ur first breakaway the
Police goalie made a wonderful save from Sgt.
J en~ in so n only to be beaten a few minutes later
by a glorious shot from Cpl. Dean . Thi s player
rep eated hi s s uccess a few minutes la ter.
vV e have also managed to defeat the P alestin e
Force , 'ignals a nd "B" Squadron , nth Hussars
The first win of t hese two gave our eleven gre.:1.t
encouragement as onl y th ree days before the same
team had defeated us by six cl ear goals.
In t he Small Units Cup C.omp'etition we drew a
bye in the first Round. In t.he second we had to
play "A" Compa nv of t he 2!ld K.O.RR Although
this team m a naged to sco re ,first against us we
eventually l'an ou t easy winners by fiv e goals to
one. In the thil'd round we h ave to play " D"
Company , 2nd Bn,. The Black ' iVatch. ' iV'e have
already tried to bring this tie to a co nclu sion , but

THE

R OYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

JOURN AL

always invited to a cinema show on board. These

are t he only opportunities we get fiOl' a v isit to the
pictures as' the nearest " Granada" is about two
days by sea. Of course, we always have the P.O.s
up for an even in g in the 1\1ess a nd, as always "a..
good time is had by all" .
'
The length of tour on the " Coast" now having
been .finally settl.ed as 18 months has considerably
cur ta Il ed t he subJects of general conversation. It is.
difficult to understand why th e tour was published
in months as th e majority ,of people here have converted it to daYi> and it is not unusual for someone
to remark "olliy a noth er 243 days " . Still there are
probably worse stations; after
we have had no
snow here.
LAMB.

after a one-g0al draw, we are still awaltill g t he date

for a replay.
Hoc key.-Towards the enJ of November we were
asked by the Command Sports Officer if we desired
an allotment of the Hockey Ground. Having only
recently produced, with some difficulty, a Football
team, it seemed, at first, doubtful whether we could
extend our ll-ctivities into anot.her field of sport.
However, the necessary volunteers Vo'ere found wit-hout ha ving to resor(' to conscription, and we began
our programme on December 5th with a mat.ch
again st the 18th Infantry Brigade, who defeated us
2--1. This was quite an encouragin g start in view
of the fact that some of our players were rather
inexperienced, whilst all were out of practice.
The hockey ground is hard and g rows no grass
but, as a result, of recent rain, weed s and even
flowers can now be seen springing up in the less
inhabited parts-by which we mean t he corner and
"tram-line" areas. Rain also seems to rouse moles
into activity, and it is understood that.on one occasion a hit from a "short -corner" was most conveniently stopped dead by a mole-hill -on the edge
of the circle; the striker, however, failed to take
advantage of his opportunity aud hit the mole-hill
for six instead of the ball '01' one.
It will therefore be evident t hat Ho ckey in
Jerusalem depend s very considerably on the
weather, and altho ugh this winter has been unusually dry, on e Jay' s rain has often put the ground
out of play for nearly a week . Several games hav e
been cancelled for this season, a nd out of the nine
played we ha ve won two and drawn one. As we
accept all chall enges (provided we are not too busy
closing pay li sts ) we have no reason to be dissatis
fied with this record ; we can gi \, e most of our opponents a good game a nd, wh at is more important,
we enjoy the fresh air and exercise!
Th e followin g are on our Hock ey list: Captains
Dunnill aurl l\IJal'dell ,. S / Sergt.. BUl'net; Sergts.
Pullin and Soper; L / Sel'Jts. Blac k, Dawson , Duck
worth, Johnston , Marsh, Pocldin gtoll, Searle, and
Smith; Cp!. Bush j and we have an enthusia::;tit:
goalkeeper in Pte. BUITOWS (The Buffs), who is
on e of our orderlies.

all

OUR FIRST ADVERTISER.

SIERRA LEONE.

Th ose of OUI' readers who have been stationed in

Malta will no d?ubt recognise this photograph of
Mrs . Mary BugeJa (centre) and her assistants. The
first advertisement to reach the office of t,he
" ] ou1'11al",. when t he forth coming pub lication was
annvul1 ced Hl 1931 , came irom Mary Bugeja and her
announcement has appeared in every issue since.
:Members of the. Corps who may be passing
through Malta WI ll find h er establishment a t
H a ba ~o well worth .a visit if time permits, and the
?ld cIty of Notab~le (th e former capital of the
Island ), wlll~h adJ01l1 s R a bato hould certainly be
seen . rhe Joumey only takes about 20 minutes by
car from Valletta.
Articles made from Malta cloth make very usefu l presents and are most mod erate in erice". EoI'
exam~~e , a set of tab le mats co~ts only 5/ -, "donkey
clot hs (u seful as cushlOn cover s or table cloth s)
are 2/ -. and a hand bag in the new R.A.P.C.
coburs IS 5/ -. Ca r e should be t aken to obt.ain a
receipt showing that purchases have been made in
~1aita . so as to avoid p<lyment of duty when brinalI1g the things in:o Engla nrL
...

The Ofllce Representative's job here is pretty hope

less. With a deta chm ent of 2 there can never be
much to report so when examining the material for
n?tes he .find.s that prom ot,ions, a l'ri vals, depaJ'tures,
bIrths, marl'lages, etc. , are a ll "Nil Returns".
Sport h ere is very limited. An inter unit Lenni s
leag~e has just been. started a nd Sergt. Morrell is
plaYlllg for the DetaIl s who have yet to start their
pro g ~'a mme . Sel'gt. MOl'l'ell has also represented the
Gal'1.'1son at cl'lcket but only in the capacity "well.
h e' ll make the number up". Averages lia\'e not
yet b een published offi ciallv but it is un derstood
that his average i now 0.0005. Th e le So sil id about
the bowlin g. t he bet,ter-after all co unty pl ayers
have been 1n L for 6 off COil S cutive ba ll s. S.8.1\ .
D' Allengel' is wielding a nifty clu b on the l,oca1 12hole go lf course. lIe was quite elated recently when
he found tha,t hIS card on ly show ed 99 for t h e
round. Caddies h er e do not "savvy t h e book" so we
have only his word for it.
.
' iVe have had a few visits from naval boats on
th eir way to i1l1d from South Urica. These visits
certainly relie\'e the monoto ny ~ little as we are

47

THE

ROYAL ARMY

PAY

Editorial Notes

CAPTAIN

JOURNAL

Suuscribers are requ ested to notify. at once any

The Editors cannpt be responsIble for dehvery of copies unless this is done.

~hange of ~ddress .

All correspondence shou ld be addressed to:

JOint. Edit01'5:
CAPTAIN

CORPS

THE EDITORS,

O. P. J. ROONEY ,
A. R. HAMILTO:,\.

THEROYALARMYPAYCORPSJOURNA~

COMiVJAND PAY OFFICE, ALDERSHOT.

THE ROYAL AR~IY P.w CORPS J 'OURNAL is pub.
lished quarterly, viz., Spring (in March), Summer
(in June) , Auttunn (in September), and ChristwLaS
(in December).

(Telephone Aldershot 380. Ex . 074.)

Local Representatives hl.ve been appointed in ea.ch

Command and Regimental Pay Office, to whom all
Corps News and Notes should be sent for transmission to the Editors. Other articlE-s intended for
publication may be sent either to the Local Repre
sentative or direct to the Editors.

For 12

Through Office Representatives

By post

Siug'le

mon th~. Copies

4/-

1/-

4/6

1/2

Back numbers of all issues can be obtained on

application to the Editors, at the ordina,ry rates of
SUbscription.
Subscribers can have their own copies bound by
sending them to the Editors.

The cover is in dark blue, with lettering and

Corps Crest in gold.

Articles , photographs , etc .. should be forwarded

to the Editors by the 20th o[ February, May, August
or November, if intended for publication in the issue
of the follow~ng month.

Charges for 'binding on application.

Readers can materially assist us in our advertisements. Remember to deal with firms who advertise
in the Journal and always mention the Journal in any
correspondence with our advert\sers.

All articles printed in this Journal are copyright,

and application for reproduction should be made to
the Editors.

Vol. V.

The rates of subscription to The R.A.P.C. Journal

are as follows:

All letters , articles , etc., should be clearly written

in ink or typed on one side of the paper only and
should be signed. If the signature is not intended
for publication, but as a gu a rantee of good faith. a
nom de plume should be given.

Spring, 1939

No. 33.
CONTENTS

Editorial Notes and Notices

Corps Sports News
Corps News-Officers
Promotions and Appointments
O .CA. Committee Notes
" Put Not Your Trust
Contract Bridge
As Others See Us
St. Helena (The Last Phase)
Obituary
The Rhine Revisited
Corps Notes, etc.-Home
Abroad
Our First Advertiser

2
5
7
9
11

14
16
17
22
24
25
39
47

48