The Royal Army Pay Corps Journal

Vo!. V. No. 34

Summer, 19 39
The annual dinner of the Old Comrades'
Association at Thames House in April
ixo \ed a great success and \"as at.tended by
large and r eprese ntative gathenng.

EDITORIAL NOTES.
Command Pay Office ,
Aldershot, Hants.

June, 1939
Machines ma y come and machines may
go bl1t th e Co~ps goes on-\\"orking-for
ever!

ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS,

TER R I T ORI AL A R MY .
. It has been ' decided to raise a detachment
of the Royal Army Pa y Corps as part of
the Terri toria 1 Army.
This is a departure from precedent, as the
R .A. P.C. has never previously enjoyed the
distinction of having a Territorial Branch
of its m\"11. Such a step ,,'as inevitable since
the expansion of the combatant arms of the
Army thre,, increasingly hea vy burdens
upon the shoulders of this less spectacular
but equally essential administrative service.
The Royal Army Pay Corps, Territoria l
Army, ,,ill be organized in seven detachments based on vVarley, Hounslow, Barnet,
Leith, Preston, Readin g and York . Each
detachment \\ill consist of eight officers
(commissioned as Lieutenants) and eighty
Other Ranks, enlisted as privates.
The nsual conditions of the Territorial
Army ,,ill apply, except that the aKe limits
for officers are between thirty and forty,
and for other ranks, they are thirt y-eight
and fifty -fom . Promotion will be rapid in
the R.A.P .C. (T.A.), particularly in the
case of the other ranks. Thev vl"ill be
elig ible fo r a corpora l's stripes aft~ r a year's
service; t,,o years later they can achie\ e the
appointment of lance-sergea nt: ye t a further
three years ,,ill see them attain the dignity
of sergeant. Thereafter, they
be on all
fours with the reg ulars if and when they
are called up on to serve on embodiment.
As to training, the usual drills and
Annua l Training are i-equired, blit the
times "hen the e are performed can be made
largely the subject of mutual arran gements
bet\\'een the indi,'idual and th e Commanding Officer .
The type required is the keen, alert, in telligen t man ,,i'th office and some accounting experjence. M en be:lo,, the age limits
\\'ill be accepted if they are physically l1n:fit
for other branches of the se lTice .

"

It h as become increasing ly difficult in the

past fe\\' issues to avoid the O\'er-usec~ word
crisis and it ma y be as ,,ell to cap! tula te
immediately to conscription and then have
done ,,ith' it for ever. The intel:national
views on this subject may be left to other
authorities, and in a ny case our o,,'n
thou ohts more closely r ese mble those of the
'" ial camel regarding the 1.1 1t1mate
.
proverb
stra \\".

'*

.:u..

..

This number appears at th e same time as

a number of other ne,, arrivals in our midst,
and it is hope(l that our ne,, r eaders 1I1ay
become subscribers and folIo,, the e\'ents
taking place throu g hout th e Corps by the
medium of these pages.

The Daily Press and the Wireless stations

have already introduced us to the formation
of a Territorial branch of the Corps and it
appears certain that the r esponse to this
appeal " 'ill i)rove satisfactory.

In this issue appears, for the first time ,

notes from yet another ne",: station in Reading. The change from the old snrrollndin g ~
is a g rea t improvement.

,,,ill

The prize for the best cartoon submitted

goes to Lance Sergeant E . Deeley to \\1'10111
a cheque for te n shilling s and sixpence has
been forward ed.

For the n ext competition the Editors \yill

award a pri%e of ten shillings and sixpence
for the best constructive criticism of th e
"Journal" rece ived before goin g to print for
the All t11l1ln issll e.
-+9.

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

Applications for commission should in the

first instance be addressed to the follo\\l m g:O.C. Detachrnent Royal Army Pay CorpsInfantry Record and Pay Office,
Hounslo\\.
O.C. Detachment Royal Army Pay CorpsInfantry Record and Pay Office, Leith .
O .C. Detachment Royal Army Pay CorpsInfantry Record and Pay Offi.ce,
Preston.
O.C . Detachment Roya l Army Pay CorpsInfantry Record and Pay Office, York.
O.C. Detachment Royal Army Pay Corps-Army Pay Office, Barnet.
O.C. Detachment Royal Army Pay CorpsArmy Pay Office, Warley.
O.C. Detachment Royal Army Pay CorpsRoyal Corps of Signals, Record and
Pay Office, Caversham, Reading.
And particulars of enlistment for other
ranks may be obtained from the Secretaries
of the follo\,ving County Associations of the
Territorial Army:Middlesex-20, Grosvenor Gardens, S.W.I.
Hertfordshire-Drill Hall, Hertford.
Edinburgh ( City of) - 8, Wemyss Place,
Edinburg h, 3.
West Lancashire-St. George's Building-,
Lime Street, Liverpool . I.
- .
Berkshire--Yeomanry House, Castle Hill,
Rea.d ing.
Essex- Market Road, Chelmsford.
\Vest
Ridin g
of
Yorkshire-g,
St .
Leonard' s, York.

CORPS

JO URNAL

one happens to be paddling or strolling along the

beach.
As summer holidays are about to commence, this
little ar.ticle is written with a view to an appeal to
readers, and especia lly their youngsters, who may come
across such disabled birds and to offer suggestions
how they might possibly help th ese creatures out of
their distress.
I can do thi s in no better way than to relate a true
story of fact. Thi s is a case in which a young
Guillemot was found in th e di s tressi n_~ condition described above. Hi s breast, wing tips and feet were
coated with thick black waste oil fro m ships. He had
been making frantic efforts to scrape the filth from
his plumage but had only succeeded in getting himself nearly choked with it. Th e orocess of cleaning
him had to be done by his rescuers with great care,
as he was nearl y dying of ex haustion, and although
all skin and bones, he refused the raw fish offered
him.
The oil was go t off his wing feathers with petrol,
but as this method is not good when applied to the
skin, lard and then soap and water were used for his
underparts . Cautious clipping of the thicker oiled
feathers on the lower breast, and under the tail were
resorted to. (This needs to be done very carefully
indeed, and the wings under no circumstances must
be clipped .)
Thi s bird was very ill for over a week and lay
cuddled against a hotwater bottle wh;ch was swathed
in many thicknesses of towel and placed in a box . The
warm th of the hotwater bottl e melted off what oil
was left on th e bird, and kept hi s circulation going.
He was forcib ly fed with smaU quantities of raw
fish. After a while hi s strength returned, he left his
box and began to patter about the fl oor asking for
more fish, which was given him in strips over ha lf
an inch wide and four to five inches long . These he
would take in his beak , shake as he would a live
fish , and then swa ll ow the thicker end foremost.
When he pattered abo ut he did so in an upright
position just like a littl e man in a white waistcoat
and black tail coat, g iving little grunts as requests
for more fish.

WHEN ON HOLIDAY- AT THE

SEASIDE -

This particular bird became most friendly and followe<il hi s rescuers like a dog wherever th ey we nt, and
in fact hated being left alone.
H e even loved being fondled a nd showed remarkable intelligence.
H owever, after three or four weeks he was so strong
his resc uc<rs eventually took him to some rocky cove
where he could easily take off into the deep water,
and returned him to hi s natural habitat- the sea.

An Appeal for Bird s

By Colonel W. ]. H . BILDERBECK, O.B.E.

H ow

very often when walking along the seashore

do we come across the remains of some d ead
seabird and on examination find that the death of
the poor creature has I.:een primarily due to the o il
that one sees floating on the surface of th e sea ? This
oil has saturated the bird's feathers and wings and
prevented it from being able to rise off the surface
of the water. Then rough weather has come and the
helpless bird has simply been buffeted about until
exhausted and drowned-only to be washed up ashore,
the object of a sad and tragic fate.
Sometimes, however, one comes across a live and
disabled seabird in this oily state either swimming
about on the surface of the sea whilst one is bathing
or boating, or flappin g about on the foreshore when

It is hoped th at everyone who has the opportunity

w ill endeavour to save and cleanse any such victims
of the "oil menace" . It is well worth the troubleand, in the case of our readers' youngsters, I feel this
little story will surely make an especial appeal-and
any such help they may give to a bird in distress will
be something to remember and look back on all their
lives with a measure of satisfaction.
I could give further illustrations, but hope the foregoing will be sufficient to raise interest in this subject
during the coming summer, and at any other time for
that matter.
.

50

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

Corps Sports News

R.A.P .C. GOLFING SOCIETY.
"Cliff " Cup and "Young" Foursomes.
A Spring Meeting .in p lace of the cancelled Autumn Meetin g was held at Fulwell
on 17th April, when the above ~ompetitions
vve re held. Unfort un ately, owmg to pressure of work and sickness , many mem ber'3
\ove re prevented fronl attend ing the meding. The H on . Secretar y himself did not
attend and I am afraid the uncharitab ly
minded will have no hesitation in deciding
which of the causes accounted for his
absence .
A very strong wind mad e playing conditions difficult.
Lieut.-Colonel Bedna:l
won th e CLIFF Cup with a net score of 79
and partnerecl by Captain Haynes in the
afternoon , won the YOUNG prizes wItn 1card which recorded a o'ood many more
holes lost than \\'on. Captain Hamilton returned a n et 80 for the CLIFF Cup which
vWllld have been much lower but for a temporary madness which made him take 30
strokes for 4 holes . Mr. Allen, 'a newcomer
to the Society, did well at his first appearance to retu rn a net 82.

final. Ge11f~ral Morgan -Owen succeeded ill

oettino'
an ea rly lead on General Mu sson
<:>
<:>
and although our General launched a strong
counter attack he was never able to get a
lead and so General Morgan-Owen \vent on
to beat opponents in succeeding rounds by
a larg er margin.
In the t\VO rounds for the Army Championship and the handicap events which run
concurren tly, all the fo llowin g Officers took
part: Barratt, Beauchamp, Bednall, Carter,
Garratt, Hamilton, Noel-Clarke, Stanham,
and Thompson.
St. George's was stretched to its full
Championship limit, and on the first day the
difficulty of gettin g a low score "was ~n
creased by driving wind and heavy ram.
Early starters on the second day had the
best of the weather but as the day \.vore on
a north east wind got up bringing with it
heavy sho\Vers. Thompson was unable to
repeat his success of last year when he won
the Playing Fields Cup at iV[ uirfield, and
none of the others we re able to figure in the
Prize or Sweepstake list in these g rim card
and pencil competitions in ,;v hich about 200
Officers take part.

Ar my Golf Meeting .
The Annual Army Golf Meeting was held
this yea r on the links of the Roya l St .
George's Golf Club, Sandwich. The first
round of the Generals Cup was played on
Saturday, 22nd April, the two rounds for
the Army Championship were played on
Monday and Tuesday, 24th and 25th April,
and the team matches for the Army Golf
Championship were commenced on W ednesday, 26th.
The Corps was very strongly represented
at the Meeting, in addition to Major
General Mllsson, who entered for th e
Generals Cup, nine servin g Officers went
to Sandwich, from \;"Ihom t wo teams of four
Officers each were entered for the Army
Golf Challenge Cup.
Let us take the events in tlw order in
which they were played . In the Generals
Cup, Major General Musson met General
Morgan-Owen in the first round and proved
to be the first victim to fall in General
Morgan-Owen's victorious progress to the

The Army Golf Challenge Cup is open to

teams of four Officers holding a regular COl1l mission in a "Unit" of the Regular Army.
The only t wo "Units" this year to enter
t\\o teams for the Cup were ourselves and
the Grenadier Guards. The Corps has been
g radually making a name for itself in the
realm of Army Golf and the entering of the
two teams, coupled with the manner in
which they acquitted themselves at this
meeting, has now finally established our
reputation as a Unit to be regarded as a
severe hazard in the 'path of any team that
has hopes of reaching the final round.
The five strongest teams for the Cup were
the Seaforths, The Royal Artillery, The
Grenadier Guards (1st T eam). The Buffs
and The Black Watch, and by the luck of
the draw all these teams, including th "
R .A .P.C . (1st Team), were in the same half
of the draw. Om first team had the misfortune to dra w the Royal Artillery in the
first round, whose team with a handicap
total of 8, was indeed a very tough proposi-

SI

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

tion. In the end we ,;vere beaten by the

narro w marg in of 7 holes to 3, which, considering the opposition, may be counted as
the best effort that ha's ever been put up by
an R.A.P .C. team since the Corps first
entered for this Cup seven years ago.
Actually there was a period during the
match when it appeared that miracles might
happen. Stanham, ,;vith 7 holes played was
hang ing on to his lead of I on Wood . Beauchamp , playing perfect golf, was four up
on the g unner first string-Macfarlane.
Thompson Vi'as holding Barrovv, and Bedna11 had taken the first t wo holes from
Hornby. But the -tide g raduall y turned
Stanham ended with a lead of t wo up o~
Wood, but Macfarlane, fi g hting grimly all
the way home , managed to get 3 holes back
from Beauchamp, Thompson was never
quite able to g et ahead of Barrow but the
saviour of the Gunner side was 'Hornby ,
who, after a shaky first two holes proceeded
to reel off par fi g ures for the rest of the
round .

Maj or]. M. D. W ood

M ajor A . H . H ornby
Major R. Barrow

M a jor A. C. G ore
Major W. P . S. Curtis
Lieut.Col. C. B. A.
H oskyns
Capt. L. 1. T. Whitaker

0
0

9
2

v. ~ oya l Army Chaplains' Dept., played

at the North Hants Golf Club, Fleet, on 2nd
May, 1939.
SINGLES.
Lt.-Col. R. G. Stanham 12 The Revd. B. K . Bond 0
Capt. R. C. Thompson 3 The Revd T. W. Heale 0,
Capt. A . R . H amilton 4 The Revd. H . R. N orton 0,
Capt. C. ]. D ay
0 The Revd . W . P. Cole 12
Maj . G en . A . I. Musson 0 The Revd . H. T. T ovey 9
Capt.W. H . Thies
2 The Revd . R. H. Bea ttie 0'
21

15

21

FOURSOMES.
Stanham and Musso n
Thompson and Thies
H amilton and D ay

Bond a nd H eale

o
o

5 Norton a nd Cole
8

T ovey and Beattie

13

This match was an extra match to our

annual fixture with the Chaplains, which
is played in the Autumn . The match was
played by holes at the request of the Chaplains, and the Singles, which were played
in the morning, finished all even with a
good many holes won by both sides . From
then on the Corps side had a really good
day; they were the g nests of the Chaplains
at lunch and, owing to the fact that padre
Tovey holed the loth hole in one stroke,
were the g uests of this particular Chaplain
before lunch . As a result of this they went
out in the afternoon full of confidenc~ and
- -, to win the foursomes by 13 holes to 4-

SINGLES.
Capt. H. R . Bea uchamp t T. F . P . Law
Lt.-Col. R. G . Stanham
(4 & 2) 1 Maj . G. B. M acdonald
Ca pt. R. C. Tho mpson
(2 & 1)
Lt.-Col. F . S. Clover
Lt.-Col. C. N . Bednall
( 2 & 1) 1 M a j. H . J W alch
Col. ]. C. M . D ora n
Ca pt . R. E. Noel Cl arke 0
( 2 up)
Capt. C. B. Robertson
Capt. A. R . H amilton 0
(2 & 1)
Maj . S. F . Barratt
(3 & 1) 1 Col. H . W . P. Stokes
Capt. R. W . ShawHamilton (2 & 1) 1 Col. F. P. Ba rnes

R.A.P.C.
(Second T eam.)
Capt. D . G . Carter
0
Capt. R. E. N oel-Clarke 0

1 Capt. A . R. H amil ton

3 M a jor O . D . Garratt

THE ' ROYAL

v. ~ .A.S .C . played at West Hill on rrth

May, 1939.

R.A .P .C.
( First T eam. )
Capt. H. R. Bea uchamp
Lieut.-Col R. G .
0
Stanh am
Li e ut. -Col. C. N .
4
Bednall
3 Capt. R. C. Thompson

The Rifle Brigade.

JO U RNAL

Ma tches.

Our 2nd Team, having drawn a bye in

the first round, met the Rifle Brig ade in the
next. Each member of the Team met a
rifleman with a lower handicap than himse~f and they are to be cong ratulated on the
~xcellent show they put up. Carter, playmg top man, found himself up against A . C.
Gore, who won the Army Championship in
1926, and unfortunately for Carter, played
champion's golf against him. Noel-Clarke,
H.amil~on, and Garratt all had opponents
WIth smg le figure handicaps so that the results given below will speak for themselves.
Royal Artillery.
Captain ]. K.
M acfarlane 0

CORPS

0
0

0
0.
0
1
1

0
0

2t
52

ARMY

FOURSOMES.
Law and
o Macdona ld (1 up)
Cl over and
Th ompson and Bednall o Walch ( 2 & 1)
D o ran and
N oel-Clarke and
H amilton
o Robertson (3 & I)
Ba rra tt and
Shaw-Hamilton
t Stokes and Barnes

PAY

CORPS

JO URNAL
FOURSOMES.

Bea uchamp and

Stanh a m (5 & 3)
Th ompson and
Bednall (5 & 4)
Ncel-Clarke and
Ga rratt
H amilton a nd
Shaw-Hamilto n

Bea uchamp and

Stanham

1
1

1
1

Mitchell and Pickthall

Co ulthard and
Craw ford

o
o

Else and Butler (3 & 1) 1

Bridges and
T a nner (3 & 2)
1

Our Annual
F o ur ball
Match ag ainst
F oursomes we re
our
old
and
played 111 the
friendliest of adm orl1ln g
and
is
versari es
after four very
ge nera lly a very
close struggles,
close affair and
three
matches
this yea r proved
we re lost and
one halved. The
no excep tion t o
R.A. S.C.
had
the rule. T wo
turned out a
matches all 111
s t r 0 n g side
the
morning
which were led
foursomes
and
by th e reig ning
then
a ding Army champion
don g battle in
"Tony"
La\\',
the
afternoon
so that the situwhich resulted
a tion appeared
''~~~rrD~:.:.....2~:::22~~~~t:::..::~~..::::~ in the R.A. O.C .
ra ther hopeless .
'''''
defeating us by
R. A.P.C. V . R . A.M.C. AT WENTWORTH G.c.
but once again
exactly the same
the Corps side
margin as that
proved themselves to be good "lunchers"
\\'hich "ve scored aO'ainst them last year.
and in the afternoon managed, after man y
MitcheIl holing the last 9 holes in 3S
excitements, to regain the g round lost in th e
strokes beat Beallchamp on the r 8th Green
morning and finish all square . Bea uchamp
after the latter' s last putt had gone
at 3 down and 4 t o play against La \Y ,
into the hole and out.
Rather similar
managed t o hole a chip shot at the 15th and
"might have beens" happened to the disperform other miracles to finish all square.
sol~Ted parhlers of the single and double
S tanham had a day out and was level fours
Hamilton firm . Bednall ,;vas playing winwhen he beat his opponent on the 16th
g reen , and the old hand Ban'a tt and th e
ning golf all day. Stanham and Thompson
new boy, Sha\\,-Hamilton\Nagged their reshad both assimilated the doctrines of Sam
pective tails with excellent results .
Snead to good effect. Noel-Clarke (on a
v. ~. A .O .C. at Camberley Heath on 18th
Course at Aldershot) found he was concenMay, 1939.
trating rnore on A.B.64s, than Dunlop 65s,
SINGLES.
and Garratt possibly had the "top flig ht" of
Capt. H. S. Mitchell
a Whitehall building more in his mind than
Ca pt. H . R. Beauchamp 0
(1 up) 1
Lt.-Col. R. G . Stanham
the one he was using on the Course.
(3 & 1) 1 Col. W . E. C. PickthaH 0
Capt. R. C. Thompson
(3 & 1) 1 E. J Co ulthard
o
Lt.-Col. C. N . Bed nall
(5 & 4) 1 Maj. G. R. Crawford
0
Capt. F. H. Else
Ca pt. R. E. N oel -Clar ke 0
(5 & 4) J
Maj. G. E. Butle r
M aj. O. D . Garrat t
0
(3&1)1
Capt. A. R. H ami lton
0 M . R. Bridges ( 2 up)
1
Capt. R. W . Shaw1
H a milton t M aj. W. T anner
"2

v . ~ .A.M.C. at the Wentworth Club over

the East Course on 30th May, 1939.
This match resulted in a win for the Corps
by 8 match es t o 4 .
The photograph of those taking part in
the match appears on this page, but the
details of the games ha ve been held over
and \"ill appear in the next issue of the
"Journal" .
S3

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

A t the time of writing th ese n otes H am p shire have just com p leted a match aga in st
\ iVa nl'ickshire and the R ev . S teele ' s perform ances \\'ere 6 w ick ets for 62 , and 24
ru ns n ot out!
It is rum oured , h owever , that this year
our Captain p r oposes to time his one o~er. of
b owling for the crick et week to cO l11clde
w ith th e arrival of the R ev. S teele .

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CO R P S H O CKEY TEAM, 1938-39.

Standing: -Sgt . G . W . Hewitt, Sg t. P. M . Lee, Cpl. R. Boy ne, Capt. O . P. ]. Roo ney, CpJ. F. G roo m,
CpJ. A . E. ]. Newman, L/ Sg t. ]. Pilking ton.
S eated : -L/ Sgt. G . T. N ye, Capt. R. C. Tb ompson, Capt. H . H. M alpass (Captain), Capt. C. ]. D ay,
Capt. A. H . J ones.

HOCKEY CLUB NOTES.

In the remaining four matches of th e
season we w on I, drew 2, and lost I and
t hus concluded on the whole a successful
season.
The results of the season ,,,ere :
Goals
Goals
Won Draw n Lost
for
ag ainst
8
6
42
27
3
From this, no doubt, our late honorary
secretary will be able to compile his points
on percentag e return and notify us whether
it has really been a successful season.

Jul y

s th v. R.A. O .C .
L ower g round
Officers' Club.
July 6 th and 7th v. R.A. S.C .. Aldershot.
U pper g round Officer s ' Club .

The team sh ould be considerably stronger

than that w hich struggled last year ag ainst
unexpected difficulties.
Of the 1938 side, Captain Marden ,.vill n ot '
be avail able.
It is hoped,however, that the followin g ,
n ot in last y ear' s team. will be able to play :
Major Treg lo wn, Captains Malpass a nd
H or sford, tog ether w ith new comers in Captains Noel-Clarke and Taylor, and L / Cp!.
G ray .
The Office rs ' Club of th e Corps \\ill be
'At H ome' to the R .A. O.C. durin g the
match on July 5th .
In m y n otes for las t y ear' s' summer iss ue
of the Journal I referred to the success of the
Rev . Steele in the Hampshire side at th a t
time, and suggested he w ould be a thorn 'in
our side for the match ag ainst the Padres.
In that g ame he produced a century and
dominated the play.

Befo.re ne:,' se~on it would be very m uch

appreciated tf Offtce representativ es would f orward to the Hon . Sec fetary, R.A .P.C. H ockey
Club, Command Pay Office, Aldershot, a list of
the playe-:s f1'0 1~z th eir res pective offic es wh o
t hey conslde?" suttable and available f Of t1'ials ;n
the Co?"ps hockey team .

CORPS CRICKET.
All match es durin g the Corps week \\'ill
this yea r , be played at Aldersh ot.
'
July 3rd and 4th v . A.E.C. Upper g r ound
O fficers' Club.
54

CORPS TENNIS.
Matches v. R.A.S.C., Aldershot.
T,yo ma tch es h a ve been arranged-tea m s
of thr ee p ai rs- to take p lace on the foll o\\'in g d a tes .
S unday , Jun e 4th, 2.30 p .11l .. a t Buller
Barracks, Alde rsh ot
(R .A. S .C . a t
home) .
Sun day; Jun e 25 th, 2.30 p.m. , at Offic ei's
Club , A ldersh ot (R.A.P.C. at h om e) .
Annual Lawn Tennis Meeting,
Roehampton.
vVi11 be h eld on Friday , June 30th. Th e
follo\\'in g are the tenta tive a rran ge m ents.
A . Competitions1. L evel S in g les (" lVIusson Bo \\l" ) .
2. Officers ' H a ndi cap Dou bles prov ided
th at th ere is suffi cien t su ppo rt for
th e r evival of this eve nt. All Comm and a n d R eg im ental P ay C ffi cers
at h ome have been ask ed for the ir
opini on on this subje ct.
B. Sufficient cou rts \\'ill be rese rv ed . as las t
year, to enable Offi cers a nd a ny ladi es
acco mpany ing th em to p lay mixed or ladi e
d ou bles .
The u su al circul ar \\ill be fOr\\ a rc1F:d to
Offi cers in du e co urse, a nd it is pa rticul a rl y
r eq uested th at t h e appli ca ti on s for vo uchers
sh ould be return ed to the H o n . Secr eta ry
(Tenni s) - Ma jor L. H. M . i\f ac k enzie,
R ege n t ' s P a rk Ba rr ac ks, Alba n y Str eet ,
N .\~l . I.-in good tim e to e nable th eir distri buti on to be effected p rom p tl y .
R oeha mp ton Club is a fe \\ l11inl1tE's ' \\'a1k
fro m Ba rn es Sta tion (Trai n s fr om \i\Ta terloo) a nd can also be reached b y 'bu s from
H am m ersmith.
Rhine Army Cup (Other Ranks).
The u sual circul a r has bee11 issued to all
C. P s . a nd R.P s . at h om e .
The cond iti ons fo r thi s competition \\ill
be conducted as here tofor e . N 0111i 11 a ti 0115
to reach Ma jor L. H . M. Ma ck en zie,
R egent' s P a rk Ba rrac ks . J . \ i\T. I , n ot la ter
t han th e r .=;th Jnl v.

PA Y

CORPS

J O URNAL

RECORD AND
. PAY OFFICES
.
RIFLE LEAGUE.
Extracts f rom the "Rifleman" for
F ebrua ry , 1939.
C L UB A ViTA RDS REGISTRATI ONS,
193 8 .
INFA NTRY R ECORD AND PAY OFFICE ,
\Y/ARWICK.

B ell M edai-Sgt. H . Pocklington.

Daily T elegl'Clph Ce1'tifi cate--Mr. Averies.
Daily M ail Certificate-Mr. Hepburt1 .
News of the World Ce1tilicate-Mc. Cottrell.

I think \ye can all look back on a very

successful season , but \\'hat of the future?
In March last all C lu bs who at one tim e or
the oth er h ad been mem bers of the Leag u e,
\\'ere w ritten t o and ask ed seri ously to consider ag ain joining' the Leag u e . vVe hope
that th e in vita ti on ' l'i11 bear fruit and th at
\\'e m ay aga in have th e pleasure of their
m embershi p as \yell as that of ne\ycomers.
A ldersh ot have aga in t o be con g ratulat ed
u pon winning th e S hield as Champion s of
the 1st Division. At one time th ey did n ot
look likely to d o so, b ut after Christm as
they m ad e a good recovery fr om a shaky
st a rt and so aO'ain h ea d the table .
Chatham becam e 'Runners up'. Bettelluc k n ex t year.
H ea rty cong ra tul a ti on s to London up on
\\in nin g th e 2nd Di visipn champion shi p an d
conseq uently t h e S ilvel Challeng e Cup .
C ha tha m again \\'ere th e 'Runners u p' ,
an d again , be tter luck n ex t yea r , Ch a th am .
if yo u h ave a second team .
Sil ver Medals \\'ere a \\'a rded t o th e \\inn e rs of b oth Division s , and Bronze Medals
t o th e 'Runn ers n p ' .
The entries fo r th e Final H a ndicap 'I'ere
ver y good , and p roves "hat a popula r <?~m
petition th is a l\\ ays is . This com pe tlhon
dese rves a C halle nge Troph y \\'ith a rep lica
for th e \\ inner. Perh aps so meth ing mig ht
b:: a ttem pted d l1ring th e ' close season' in
th is d irecti on.
The In te r-R allk fa tch \\'as a noth er int eres ting aff air; one t l18 t oug ht t o be h eld
yea rl y .
T h e L eag ue Med a l. p roli erly ca lled th e
S.l\I.R. C . Leag'l1e S il ver lVleda l. has been
\\'o n by Cap t ai;1 H . H . :'I l alpas .

THE

ROYAL

AR l\;l Y

As both Captain Malpass and Mr. Thotne

obtained the same average during th e
season, it \\'as necessa ry that these t\yO
members should shoot off for the Medal.
The condition s of the shoot off were one
5 Bt: ll S.M. R.C . Match Card, and one
Metnc Carel. The scores made on th e
former Card were again the same, 98 each,
so that it depend ed upon the scores made
on the Metric Card, and here Captain Malpass made 98 against the 96 of Mr. Th ome .

A nnual GeneTa l Meeti ng.

Very little time ,yas available for th e
meeting , and discussions on the Agenda had
to be g iven up a nd the presentation of p rizes
only takin g place . We were very pleased
to hear that Colonel W . J. H . Bilderbeck,
O. B .E. , R.A.P.C., had kindly consented to
be present to make these presentations. and
it is to be regretted that only a fe w representatives of Clubs ,yere there to "velcome
him. Ho wever we ,,,ish to thank him for
~is kindness and also for his very encourag m g good words.
Clubs are being communicated w ith regarding several points that should ha ve been
raised, and also on recommendations for
alteration of som e Rules .
.

Own Start H an dicap .

This was won by Corpl. J ohnston (Aldershot) w ho was the recipient of a small silver
cup. Cpl. J ohn ston had previously been
selected to represent Aldershot To wn in the
Annual Inter-To,nl shoot and made a verv
good score of 198 x 200 .
Shrewsbury had the exasperatinoexperib
ence of being beaten in each of five matches
by one point.
,

Chatham 'A' took four points from Alders hot 'A'.

Salisbury 'iVas th e only team to beat the
champions of the 2nd Division.

:QesuIts of all Competitions held duri ng the

yea r .
ChampionJ . League D it1isioll I-Aldershnt 'A '.
Runners up-Chatham 'A' .
Cha.mpions. League Di1JiJion lI-London.
Runn ers up-Chatham 'B'.
TV~nn er. Le.ague SiltJer Medttl-Cap! . H . H. Malpass .
W~nner. Pf1,al H arld,cap-Corporal Johnston.
Wmners. T ee/m l Hatch-Other Ranks Team .

PAY

CORPS

J OURNAL

THE

Before closing these not-es, I would like "

to say a fe,iV \vo rds to the Secretaries of
Clubs. From all I have received every support, consequently the work of the Committee has been made much lig hter and a
g reater pleas.ure. I know that a Secretary
gets many locks and fe w pats on the back,
so I h ope these fe w " 'o rds will be accepted
as an encouragement for them to go all out
next year to even better thin gs and better
efforts. T o th e m embers of the Committee
-S.Q.M.S. Peasly and Sergt. Cooper-both
of the AI~ershot office, I must say h ovv
g reatly theIr efforts have assisted me and
\\'ithout their help it is certainly po~itive
that only the L eag ue programme could
have been held, so we all have them to
thank for the help they have bo'iven ,yhich
enabled additional competitions to be h eld .
I hope .all raD:ks have a very enj oyable
summer 111 "vhIch to induJo-e in their
favourite sport, and that n ext September
they vvill be r eady and refreshed to take up
the more sober sport of indoor rifle shooting.
To you all, a:u TevoiT, and thank you.
W.H. S .

F in al League Ta bles for 1938- 1939 .

DIVISION 1.
F.
W.
D.
L.
16
14
2
16
13
3
16
12
4
16
10
5
16
8
8
16
6
9
16
5
11
16
2
14
16
1
15
Relegated-Edinburgh and York.
"' Winners of Shield and Silver Medals.
tWinners of Bronze Meda ls.

Club
Aldershot N'
Chatham At
. Hi15ea A ...
Ald ersh ot B
Warwick A
Egypt
Perth A
EdinburJ?h
York

Pts.
28
26
24
21
16
13
10
4
2

DIVISION 11.
Club
F. W.
D.
L.
Lond on'"
14
13
1
Chatham Bt
14
10
4
Hilsea B
14
9
5
Warwick B
14
9
5
Salisbury
14
6
8
Shrewsbury
14
6
8
Perth B ...
14
11
3
Malta
14
14
Promoted- Lc ndon and Chatham
'~ W inners of Challenge Cup and Silver
tWinners of Bronze Medal s.

A~~.

Pts. Pts.
26
20
18
6459
18
6397
12
6301
12
5830
6
0
B.
M edals.

R OYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORP S

JOURNAL

Royal Army Pay Corps

Old Comrades Association

6 . Vote of thank s to the retiring officers
and Committee. Proposed by the Chairman
and seconded by Major General Musson.
Carried unanimously .

Min utes of the E levent h Annual General

Meeting held at T hames HO llse R.estaura nt,
Millbank, S.W .I. , at 6 p.m., on Friday,
28th April. 1939.

7. The Chairman proposed that the follo\ving members of the Old Committee be
re-elected :Mr. Brow ne as Chairman, Major Fee hally, S.S.Majors Mitchener and Syme,
S. Q.M.S. Lent and 1\1r. John Tburgood,
w ith Lt.-Colonel R . H. Smyth as Hon .
Treasurer. Carried un a nimousl y .
The Chairman th en thanked Colonel
Duesbury for his past "\l ork as Treasurer,
work h e said that was responsible for the
present satisfactoi~y position of the Association. He also referred to the work of Mr.
Sharp, the late Chairman, and how sorry
he was that ill-health prevented his continuance in that position.
In consequence of the retirement from the
Committee of Lieuts. Thompson and Pott
throug h change of Station, it was propos~d
by Mr. Browne, and seconded by Colonel
Ormsby-]1ohnson, that Staff Sergt. Major
F. E. Gear and Staff Sergt. T . F. Pond be
elected to fill the vacanCIes.
Carried
unanimousl y .

Chainna.n , Colonel]. C. Armstrong, C.B. ,

C .M.G ., Col. Comd. Roya l Army Pay
Corps.
I.
The Chairman expressed his pleasure
:at seeing the large number present.
2.
The H on. Secretary r ead the. notice
.convening the meetin g.

3. The minutes of the Tenth Annual

General Meeting were read, confirmed, and
signed.
4 . It \"as proposed by Col~)11el O rmsby ]ohnson , and seconded by Ma jor General
Riley , that the Annual Reporh and Statement of Accounts for the yea r 1938 / 39, be
received and adopted. Carried unanimously.

5. It was proposed by Lt.-Colonel R. H .

Smyth, and seconded by Colonel Bild erbeck :"To admit as ordinary subscribing members of the Royal Army Pay Corps, O.C.A.
N on-Cornmissioned Offic ers and men at present serving, or w ho have served in the
Royal Army Pay Corps, S upplementary
Reserve."
An amendment b y Colonel
Duesbury "that this matter be deferred until such time as the Supplementary R eserve
wea r the uniform of the Roya l Army Pay
Corps" was d efeated.

8. Mr. Thurgood proposed a vote of

thanks to the retiring Auditors, Lt. -Colonel
Robson and Mr. Bell. The proposition was
seconded. and carried unanimously. It was
proposed by Major Lidstone, and seconded
by Maj. General Riley, that Lieut. Flux
and Mr. F. A. Saunders be elected Hon.
Auditors for the ensuing year. Carried
unanimously .
Mr. Browne said that on behalf of the
Committee and himself he would like to
thank all for their repeated confidence in
re-electing them, and would do all they
could to further the interests of the Association.

After further discu ssion, the original proposition \,v as p ut to the meeting, and carried
unanimously.
Colonel Duesbliry then explained th at he
had nothin g against the proposal, but
thou g ht that as the retiring Trea surer, he
ought to mention th e matter of claims roin
a financial point of vie\\".

57

THE

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ARMY

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R OYAL

AR MY , .PAY.

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

Tribute t o Departed ComraJes. The

Hon. Secr etary called the roll "of those
"vilo ha ve died during the past year". The
Meeting s tood in silence for one minute
afterwards.

After an excellent dinner the Toast of

"His Majesty the King" was proposed by
the President and drunk with enthusiasm
to the accompaniment of the N ational.
Anthem.

10. It was proposed by Colonel Mac'Kenzie, and seconded by Major General

Riley, that an H on orarium of /:'20 be paid
to the Hon. Sec retary. Carried.
The Secreta ry thanked the Chairman and
m embers presen t.

Th e T oast of the " O ld Comrades Association" this yea r vvas proposed by Colonel.
O rmsby -Johnson, who said : -

all you ng N.C.O .' s and many older o n es~ ha ve now a

wonderful opportunity for advancement In th e Corps.
Th~re is one littl e thin g I wo uld like to tell you.
It will interest those in D eptfo rd and Chatham, etc.
The machines , I und erstand, w hich we are at present
using in certain Offices are dea d , (Loud app lause.)
I am surprised 'at your enthu sias m,
I am sure you have had now nearly eno ug h and I
want to gratefu ll y thank tl: e Dinner ~o m1111ttee for th e
very excellent dinn er Dre vld ed and thi S charmIng room
which they have obtain ed. (Applause)
Also I think th e Comm ittee of the Old Comrades '
Associatio n should receive grea t credit for all th ey
have done during th e past yea r.
I know I am repeating w hat the Colonel Commandant said at the Genera l M ee ting, but ye u we re

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen.

I feel at so me disadvantage in speaking to- night,
especi ally before such a disting uished and, may I say,
good-I o c>king audi ence, when I think of the officers
who have previously proposed this toast, including
G eneral Mu sso n, whom I am glad to see here tonig bt, and who has almos t as perfect a cont rol of
the Eng li sh language as the late Earl of Oxford and
A squith , w ho was undoubted ly one of the best
sp ea kers cf hi s generation,

I I.
lHajor General Ril ey proposed a
vote of thanks to the Colonel Commandant
for taking the chair. Ma jor Fryer seconded
the popular resolution, and it was carried
unanimously.
Business being concluded, the Meetin g
closed at 6.50 p. m .
G. LIDSTONE, Maj.,
Hon. Secretary.

Before I proceed furth er, I am sure all old comrad es are delighted to see Sir Herbert Creedy, the
P ermanent Under Secretary of State for W ar, who, in
spite of these strenuo us times, has managed to break
away to-n ight and come to our !lath ering. We are
all extremely serry that he has to retire this year. He
has probab ly done more for the Corps than anybody
here can realise, with the excepti on of the Colonel
Commandant and other hold ers of the post of Chief
Pay master, W ar Office, who have worked w ith him.
I am also very g lad to see Sir Frederick Bovenschen,
D ep uty Under Secretary of State, whom I have kn own
on and off fe r so me years. Again, we are pleased
to see Mr. Earl , who unfe rtunately was laid up las t
year. I ho pe he has now entirely recovered from his
indisposition . I mu st not forget Sir H erbert Creedy's
private secretary, w ho I am sure keeps him on the
right lines ,

ELEVENTH ANNUAL DINNER.

The Eleventh A nnual Dinner of the Old
Comrades Association took place at the
Thames H ouse R estaurant, Millbank, on
Friday , 28th April, 1939. The attendance
was a record on e , the dining number being
36 5.
The Colonel COJllmandant held his u sual
reception imm ediate ly preceding the dinner,
and welcomed th e g uests of the evening :Sir H . J- C reedy, G.C .B., K.C .V .O. , Sir
F. C. Bovenschen, K.B.E., C.B ., Mr. A.
Earl, C.B., C.B.E., and Mr. S . R edman.
The new Corps banner presented to the
Association at the last annual meeting by
S ir H erbert Creedy, occupied a conspicuous
position, an d th e "Roll of H on our" was
prominently displayed in fr ont of th e Chairman .

not all at th e G eneral M eeting.

One other thing, I wou ld iust like to 'say how
glad we are that M a jor Lid stone, an old friend of
mine, has taken on the H onorary Secretaryship of the
Association. (Hear, h ear.) It means a tremendous
amo unt of work as yo u probably all know. I am
also very glad to see that Mr. Browne is here tonig bt and looking as yo ung and as b ~a utiful as ever.
I new rise- and as k you to drink to th e health of
the Old Comrades' Ass ociation. (Loud applause.)

Captain F. 'vV. Beech, J .P., L.C.C., replied as fo11O\\'s : Mr. Chairman, H onoured Guests and old Comrades .
Those of yo u who will have -read th e annual reoort
of the proceedings of the Association will find on

<;)

N ew to come down to the Old Comrades' Association of th e Royal Army Pay Corps, The Corps,
as yo u all know, is nowadays to a very grea t ex tent
made up of yo ung men. You will find the vast
majority have not more than twc stripes and I think
a very big responsibility rests with tbe seni or warrant
offi cers and non -commissioned officers in the Corps. I
am referring now, of course, not cnly to th e existing
members of the Old Comrades' Association, but to
the Corps generall y,
As regards the Associati on itself, I think th e fi g ures
are em inentl y satisfac tory. Th e numbers now are
approxim ately 1,300, cf which number 850 are serving members of th e Royal Army Pay COrDs.
(Appl ause .) I think you will ag ree that thi s shows
the v::ry h'a rd work which Office re prese ntatives have
done and a lso th e Committee of the Association.
Before I leave th is particular point, J think that sc me
of th e yo un ger men probably don ' t rea li se th e adva ntages th e O ld Comrades' Association give yo u,
especially in later life. It is a n enormo us benefi t in
many cases and all Office representatives should do
their very best to entice th ose n on-m e mb~ rs to join.
We always did o ur bes t at Aldershot when we had
P ro bationers, but for va rio us reasons there are none
th ere now. I somet im es have young N.C.O.'s coming
up to me and say ing there is n o ch ance cf getting
p ro mo tion, I should like to point o ut, however, th at

Colonel Armstrong , \\'ho pre~ided, \Vas

supported by :Ma jor Gen erals Riley anq
l\1 usson, Brig adier ToIler, Colonels O rm sbyJ ohnson , E . E. E. T odd , Bilderbeck,
Campbell Todd, Cliff, Vidal, Du esbury,
Cap tain Beech and 1\1r. Browne (the n ew
Chairman of tl1e O .C .A.)_
It ,\'as th e first occasion that th e Association h ad held the dinner at Th ames H ouse,
a nd the general lay-out of th e tables, seating- accoml1lodation, etc ., gave ge neral
sat isfaction .

sS

.rIllus t wted
S9

P hotocr aj'

THE

R O YAL ' ARMY

page 17 at the top that each proposer of this narticular

toast does it in hi s ow n inimical way. This phrase
is co nsidered to be the masterpiece of Mr. Brow ne.
It' s perfectl y true that th ey do it in their own inimitable way, and I bel! to suggest to you, comrades, th at
Colonel Ormsby-J ohn son is a w orth y successor to
those w ho have gone before.
Mr. Chairman, it does happen that thi s dinner is
held on the eve of the cup fin al, but that has been
so fix ed for many yea rs. It does happen that there
ha s been another meeting to-day with which I am
told we have no connection at all, because we have
no message from Mr. President Roosevelt, we have had
n o compl aints about our aggressive qualities, but' we
have had f ro m Colonel Ormsby -J ohnson a testimoni al
of the grea t work of the Association, and that testi m oni al is thoro ughly deserved ; if yo u want any proo f
of what I am say ing YO u will find it in the report to
which I have already referred.
Now so far I have been looking for a reason as to
w hy, on this particul ar occasion, I have been as ked
t o respond to thi s toas t. Y ou, ,Old Comrades, kn ow
that for ten yea rS at least, the response ha s come fro m
one whom I can now pro perly call Paymaster Brow ne;
h is civilian occupation was so pressing en him th at
he had to retire from the Secretaryship of the Old
C omrades' Association, but it was not too pressing to
p revent him joining up again, and I am told th at at
the end of his first accounting peri od, there was a
balance credit for which Paymaster Browne could
give no explanati on, but which has been dul y logged
u p und er V ote 1 Mise.
I think that to-nig ht I am responding to this toas t
m erely as a stop ga p between our old fri end PJI...xmas ter
Browne, and our new friend Maj or Lidstone. You
see Major Lidstone has other occupations apart from
Footscray. He is very ofte n so busy with certain
baJJs and bowls that he has short time for Pay Corps
work so he said to me, do step into the breach Beech ,
h old the fort for me for once, and that I believe is a
true explanation of my having been called upon to
respond to this toast. And Maj or Lidstone also said
to me "There is something w hich I would like yo u to
menti on, yo u never know who will be th ere. W e
have Comrades fro m the War Office, and oth er Offices
and you may get the chance to mention to some of
hem, or possibly to some friends of theirs , that we
h ave too few Old Comrades who have been awarded
the M .S.M, with annuity. " I have not been abl e to
speak to any of th ese gentlemen privately, therefore
I do so publicl y, and I have no do ubt th at th e
necessary adju stment will be made to o ur sa tisfaction,
Now, Sir, I don' t pro pose to detain yo ur I!a th ering
any longer because it is an evenin g for Old Comrades
each of us wishes to grip the hands of as many Ol d
Comrades as poss ibl e, and, therefore, in th e name of
the Old Comrades' Association, I do accept with great
pleas ure the kind wo rds which have been said by
Color:el Ormsby-Johnson, and conclude w ith-Th ank
you ve ry much , we deserved them all.
(Loud
appla use ,)

T h e Ch airm an said that a t eleg ram

pr essing the loyalty of th ose d i nin g
b een sent t o Hi s Majest y and th at th e
low in g reply from Wind sor Castl e h ad
been received : -

PAY

C O RPS

J O URNAL

Army P ay Corps old Comrades Associa ti on

dining tog eth er this evenin g for their loyal
g reeting s \\'hich His M aj esty much appr eciat es .' '-Private Secretary .
The Ch airman then read cables con veying
g r eetin gs fro m lVl auritius, H ong K ong .
Shang hai , G ibraltar, }VIalta and Sing ap ore .
Best wish es for a sucessful evening \\'ere
\\'ired from B elfast, and teleg rams \;"Iere read
from Colonels Y oun g and F ord e r egretting
their ina bility to be present.
Without attempting t o m ak e a speech ,
Colonel A rmstrong with his u sual qu,ips and
jovia l m anner had everyone in good spirits,
and on e of the most excellent dinners we
ha ve held since the inception of the Association, cam e to a11 end .
When the Committee sent invitation s for
this dinner, m embers were asked to t ake
the opportunity of meeting old comrades
and to r ene vv old friendships. Most of them
did their best and it was amusing t o see probationers fring ing g roups of senior officers
and old soldiers, listening to tales of South
A frica, France and the Rhine Army . tales
of the F ar East and the West Indies . The
listeners learnt a lot and are alread y looking
forward to service abroad .
The wearin g of the new Corps tie this
'y ear by m ost of those present proved its
popularity , and its colours certainly added
to the brig htness of the evening .
The e ulogistic remarks in reg ard to the
draug ht beer and drinks g en erally , the
h appy spirit of the evening , ' and the sp lendid accomm odation for every purpose, justifie s th e exp ressed desire that nex t y ear \\'ill
find us all back in Thames House.
T he Dinn er Co mmittee were:Mr. E. J . W, Brovvne , S taff Se rgea nt'Maj ors G . W. M itch en er and Syme, S taff
Q. M.S . J. L ent , St aff Sergea nt P ond, and
the H on. Secreta ry.
G. L.
NOTICE..
The ad d ress of the H on. Treasurer and
H on . Secreta ry of the O ld Comrad es ' Associa ti on is n ow , in both cases,
Command Pay Offi ce ,
Aldersh ot, H a n ts .
F urth er pa rti cula rs will a ppear in th e l1ex t
Issu e.

e~

ha d
foljust
.

"Th e Kin g sincerely t hank s t h e Royal

60

1 HE

ROVAL

ARMY

P AY

CORPS

J OURNAL

Machine Made
By SAGITTARIUS.
rig ht, they fell on the floor like spoiled
child ren . A nd th en all th eir pa p ers fell out
of them. G reen pa pers , brown pa pers , bits
of cards, and flimsy sh eets. You n ever saw
such a jumbl e . There were pathetic little
notes fr om women wh ose soldier busbands
h ad deserted them or otherw ise failed in
their oblig ation s . Crude letters fr om oth ers
\\'h ose soldier lovers h ad b een ve ry for war d
in the courting and very backward in the
Court.
Whene ver Adre lna had time , sh e rea d ,1.11
the letters written in manuscrip t. The."
\\'ere st eps in the p rogress of h er sophistication and taug ht her much about the ways of
men-especi ally soldiers .
U sually sh ~
mi sse~l O Ll t the typewritten ones.
They
\\'ere stilt:::J. in th eir dicti on and s\,va m pcd
the drama of human relationships in l'..n ..
im aginati ve en p h emisms .
If it \\'a sn't jackets , it was allo\;vance
book s . Book s and jackets were inter-re1a~ =ll
like a man and wife. The jacket was ~' e3p on sible for th e book ; like a w ife, a bit of
th e book li ved inside the masculinity of th e
jacket, stuck t o it for ever and ever. This
\\'as th e bit that h ad t o do with how 1l1 llCh
the book \\'as wo rth, and \lIih en it was "vo( :'h
it . F or the b ook "vas th e contri vance w hich
permitted its ov\'n er to ca sh in on the "weaknesses and g enerosities of men and govern1l1ents.
E ach book contained a couple of d ozen
pay able orders and each order had t o be
sepa rately st amped w ith its w orth . There
were thousands of b ooks at m ain issu e time .
The stamping pr ocess \\'as hateful. It was
n oisy with th e n oisiness of quick-firers in
acti on. The b ook was cl amped to a wooden
platfor m \\'hich ca rri ed a lever at the end
of w hich was the stamp . You wo rked the
lever with one h and and turned over the
papers of th e b ook with th e other. If you
were m aladroit, or ve ry tired, yo u mioht
g ive y our :fingers a bang with the metal
st amp tha t yo u wo uld rem ember for hours .

H E \\'h eei of the. E m bossing Machin e

had a sm ooth , Sh111 Y bevell e:1 ed ge , on
the in side of \\'hich \\'er e p rinted th e
h ierog lyhphics \\"hi ch the m ech anism cut
into the soft metal plat es. S h e sp un th e
d isc ex pe rtl y until a pointer cam e opposite
the desired hieroglyphic. Th en sh e ki cked
a t readle-and the thin g' \\' orked. Every
sepa rate sig n, letter or fig ure req uired a
sepa ra te turn and a fre sh ki ck . In action ,
t h e thin g g urg led and clucked like a brass
h en \\ith the hiccups . Glug , click, g lug , it
w ent. It did th at all day. It h ad been
do ing it for seve ral days. Th e m ain Issn e
w as a ni g htmare . It seem ed \\' orse th an
usual.
Th e etern al clucking maddened her.
O n Id re ma' s ri g ht foot \\'as an old sh oe
with thick soles . This was the fo ot th at
worked th e treadle which ruined ordinary
foo t wear quicker th an you could pay for it ;
mu ch quicker. Savagely she kicked and
stamped on h er treadmill as h er exaspera tion increased . S h e kicked until the
m u ~~ l@5 of her leg
go t cramped and
k n od ::erL Her kn ees ach ed. Her in step
began to' w ell. But sh e banged away almost
in capable of th oug ht. Turn , click , g lug ,
click , kick, bang , r attle .
Sh e S\\'or e fi er cely a nd muttered unintellig ibly t o h erself. On ce sh e spat at it-a
g esture of little moisture but surch arg ed
w ith venom.
Uilconcernedl y sh e wiped the \\'h eel witll
fin g ers as purple stained as a bl ackb erry
p icker' S. Tired fing ers th ey we re , cond iti oned suitab ly by th e n ever endin g turning , h andling the inky pla tes and turning
over jack ets. Th e jack ets \\'ere sm ooth ,
crea my affairs of stiffish paper. They b ore
th e impression s of the plat es as well as
d irections fo r th -:= a lterin g of the d etails to
be em bossed on th e plate and re-impressed
on t h e jacket,
Th ose jac kets .
T here we re piles of
t h em . Th eir smooth crea lnin ess was d ecep ti ve . H o\\ t h~y stu ck' tog eth er ! T h ey
stu ck in t \\'OS and threes , cl oser th an twin s
or t ri plets. If t h ey \\'er en't handl ed just

!!'.

In m ain issues, the st am ping pr ocess was

sh ared by rel ~ y s of resen tful clerks t aken
a \\'ay f r0111 th eir n orm al battle \\'ith the cl ock

61

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

to fight another and additional ' one with

the same foe.
A d're ma \-vas: spared the
stamping of main issues. But she had fo
do the printin g 011 the face of the book by
m ~ ans of the plate so that the owner, her
address, and her entitlement could be identified.
If the embosser \\'as a nightmare, the
printing machine ,yas a sort of delirium
tremens. Piles of jackets, piles of plates,
piles of books. First you put the plates III
one tin box and wag gled the handle till the
first plate was pushed along the guides .mu
lay under an inked ribbon. The plates
rattled in and out like tin soldiers on
parade. Having inserted a jacket or a book
in the proper place, and held it there, YOLl
pulled dmn1 a lever, controlled by a strong
spring, which smacked the face of the document against the inky ribbon under which
the plate lay in wait. Thus the p late left
its imprint on its victim, \'\Thereupon the
robot pushed the plate into another tin box
and insinuated another plate into the ambush . All the time and all the time th2
padded hammer rose and fell. Each movement ag ainst the spring meant that another
tin soldier fell in and another fell out.
It was a noisy and tiring business . The
printer was noisier and more tiring than the
embosser, it was dirtier, too. Somehow, the
ink from the ribbon transferred itself to
everything, like a trade-mark. It stained
her hands and it stained the neat smock
which Adre1na wore to protect lier clothes.
Sometimes it stained her face and there was
no time to wash it off . N or could its purple
effusiveness be bludgeoned into submission
by frantic beatings with a heavily laden
powder puff. It even got under her nails
which she kept cut to the quick in a vaiQ.
endeavour to avoid it. Ink, ink, ink. It
got everywhere.
She tried wearing thin g loves. Then she
couldn't handle the jackets with despatch.
She spilled them on the floor and smudged
their newl y impressed creamy faces. Their
horrible, meanin gless papers g ot mixed up
and they got smud g ed, too. There \NaS no
way of avoiding the inkyness from the
animated ribbon. She hated the ribbon and
its inky inventiveness. It had other tricks,
too-lots of them.
It always g ave out when her spirit was
bitter with the raw malevolence of Monday

CORPS

JOURNAL

1l10rmng . The loss of its inky eli xir spelt

its death, but A d1'e ma got n o satisfaction
from its internment in the waste paper
basket. Its obsequies meant the bringing
to birth of a ne'\ and inkier ribbon.
\iVhen it didn't die from lack of its inky
. milk, it g ot rickets and curled up, Or,
.sometimes, it g ot mumps and swelled uneven ly . Again and agaili ' the thing just
stuck; stood still as if paralysed and refused
all advances tovvards propulsion. A dr im~a
hated the ribbons. It betrayed the high
ideals of ribbons and functioned or didn't
function in ,yays that took the ducts out of
seduction, a ribbon's real purpose.
Until now, A dr em,a's defence against the
" 'hole monotonous, noisy, nerve-wracking
process had been to wrap her nervous system in a blanket of impersonal imperviousness. Normally, the sea of jackets washing
up the endless, pebb ly plates over an inky
strand was a natural phenomenon to which
she had developed an indifference invariably
vouchsafed to the feminine in routine circumstances. Women can always capitalise
submission into self-protection.
She could copy anything-even the blots
on the paper-\,vith a fid.elity that was the
marvel of every Section-leader. in the office.
She could amend the p late where its hieroglyphics were cryptic, or she could alter
easily understood particulars, such as post~
offices or names, \Nith equal nochalance.
l
They were all one to her . Just processes
that could be carried out mechanic_a lly as
something outside the ego. She altered
plates, cut new ones, banged stamps on bits
of paper in the right places for hours. She
was only semi-conscious of the subject matter, so to speak, and rarely took an interest
in the human maelstrom of births, marriages
and deaths which surged around her.
But this Main Issue was different. It had
g ot on her nerves and broken up her
emotional resistance. When she wanted to
think about Snapper Delaney . the redheaded, she found herself curiously unable
to insulate her mind from the materia l
a round her.
Snapper \\'as a Sergeant; Snapper was
also a bit of a mechanic. It was lucky for
the office that the Depot next door contained
such a man. When the! machines O'ave
trouble-and they were g enerous in this res-

62

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

pect-Snapper \\'as invariably pressed into.

service by his pals in the Pay Office . Of
-course there were much more reg ular ways
of bo'ettin bo. repairs to type\\Titers,
electric
.
\yiring, to printers, dnplicators,embossers,
.a dding machines, cupboard doors, to recalcitrant locks, telephone s'\'itchboards, cis-.
terns, taps and ,,,indow s . Y ou cert ainly
could get all these things fixed, but even
.iudged by R.E. standard s, it took a long
time.
Snapper was quicker.
Snapper was
handy. Snapper \\'as g ood-natured. Being
Irish, Snapper ,,,a s chivalrous and. susceptible to any demands u pon him. Be1l1 g busy,
the Pay Office made plenty .
In

these

circumstances,

Snapper

and

14dre m,a were bound to be brought into con-

tact. The machines were old; they were

worse . They were obsolescent. lVIoreover,
they had been subj ected to pressu re over a
period of years that would have ruined the
engines of the Queen Mary. As machines,
they were good machines, but that had been
:a long time ago. Little exasperating; thing s
'w ent v,rrong with them. Snapper fixed these
little things and by and by. it happened
that a little thin g fixed Snapper.
And this was th e way of it.
The printer had gone \\Tong. "\iVhere's
Snapper?" said the S.S.M. Snapper \\'as
broug ht along . "Little screw retaining a
guide plate has busted," h e diag nosed. "I'll
fix it." "Okay ," said hi s Nibs . "Thanks,
Snapper." He \\'ent out. " Okay," said
Snapper. He stayed put. I dr e ma watched.
While Snapper fiddled with the little bit,
A dr ema felt an overpowerin g impulse to
fidelle with Snapper. There \\'8 S a red rebel
'o f a curl that had strayed across his parting
and ruined the symmetry induced by careful brushin g . Snap per was a snappy g uy,
all rig ht, and a tonch would put the rebel
in its place.
Almost unconsciously, I dr e ma pokeel a
tentative fin g er at the little ton g ue of flame
that had beg un to burn holes in her.
Snapper looked up, and his heart missed a
beat. In Id1'e llw's eyes there was a look
tha t he had never seen before. A lmost before he knew it, his arms were around her
and that's the way they were for quite a
while . Id1'e ma. came to first. " Oh, Snapper," she si g h ed . "In the office, too."

PAY

CORPS

J OURNAL

"You're felling me," said Snapper.

I. could think of worse places."

"But

However, that's the way it was, and now

1dre 111,a ,vas struggling with the Main
Issue and her nerves were \vorn worse than
the ribbon on the printer. The noise, the
clatter, the confusion, the endless caco~
phany were g etting her dmyn. But, \,vorse
than all, she hadn't seen Snapper for a
fortn ight. Her tired arms ached for Snapper. The rag in o' tumult of noise could not
sti ll the clamour in her breast for the comfort of Snapper's touch. Her mind dwelt on
Snapper's image whilst her nerves screamed
a protest ag ainst their rpaltreatment. She
,vas close to tears.
~T here was he?
She daren't seek the
easily acquired information in the office for
fear of disclosin g a relationship that had
not yet' acquired the sanctity that goes with
posseSSlOn.
The stolen kisses, the beating urges of
the blood, the eye-glances and hand-touchings-all these thing s were commonplace
L1l1til dignified by the tacit admission of
some sort of mutual obliga tion . Adre'l1ta
shrank from cheapness. The fact only
exacerbated her . distress. Snapper, Snapper, you red-headed, sweet devil, where
are you? Her whole consciousness demanded the answer as the price for her
\yeary limbs, her exhausted faculties, her
fray ed and over-wrought nerves.

Mechanically, she pushed a jacket under

the hammer. Mechanically she banged it
dO\\"ll hard and mechanically her brain
registered the answering clicks and g lugs
of the robot. Mechanically she turned the
jacket over and suddenly there it was. There
\\'as his name stamped p lainly on the jacket.
DEL A N E Y. Only out of the corner of
her eye had she seen it, but it was enough.
She choked. The implication of his name
on a jacket for Family Allowance beat
frantically for recognition. As hantically
she thrust it aside, unwilling to recognise
th e destroyer of her dreams, inchoate
though they were.
"It's an allotment to his mother," sh e
said, fear in every syllable. And as she said
it half aloud, her heart told her otherwise.
Hardly breathing, she looked closely at the
mocking purity of the creamy jacket. It
'\'as h is regiment, rank and name with the

THE ' R O YAL

AR JVIY

PAY

CORPS

J O URNAL

THE

shattering family allo \\'a nc e and allotment

details inscribed thereon ,
Savag'ely sh e rea lit::e c1 she must h ave embossed the plate with its damning "C.A."
vI.' ithout noticing it. At thjs, her bitterness
over:S.o\\'ed. Memories ' of all the pathetic
little notes , the crude letters, the piteous
appeals she had read in' other jackets \;velled
up to underline her belief in the duplicity
of men and of soldiers in particu lar.
Womanlike , sh e ig n ored the other side of
the picture; the sober n otes of \\Tonged
husbands and the protests of dup licated
lovers.
Adrema began to cry.
And then Der
frustra ted self rebelled. She seized the
handle of the printer and banged it
violently . She h ammered and hammered
in a paroxysm of hysteria . Only violen ce
could provide an outlet for her mutiny
against over\\'ork, snppression and disappointment. A nd then, as suddenly, h er
violence expended itself.

eyes g r e\\' misty so tha t th ey leok ed like

opals in a sun set.
"Listen, Adrenol," h e \\'e nt on. \\'hilst
the tears m ade A dre rna's face look like a
football pitch. "Do yo u feel as bad as
that about it?" A dr ema nodded.
"You mouse," he said. "This jou don't
suit yo u . I' ve go t a better one for yo u."
Then he kissed her. He kept on kissing
her. Th e Main I ssu e waited.
"But, Snappe r, the jacket," she breathed.
"A picket, a packet, a nasty ye llow
jacket," chanted S napper.
"It' s my
brother ' s ," h e sa id. "I've been on leave to
see him h ome from Gib. He' s go t married
and comes d o \\' n h ere to-m otTo,,' ." " Oh,
Snapper," s he bleated tearfully. " I never
kne\\' you h ad a brother."

She looked up to see the S.S.M. rega rd ing her quizzically. Obey in g her female
instinct, she waited for the male to take th e
initiative. Obeyi.ng his own instincts, the
S.S.M. \\'as all for avoiding di scussion with
a woman in a tantrum .

Th ey turned round. It \\'as Hi s Nibs .

"I wa nt to tell yo u sOll1ething ," sa id S n apper. Then S u apper told him , n ot about
A dum,a., but about the jac k et.

"\iVhat abo ut this Ma in I ssue? "

"Crickey," said the S .S.M.

h ave overpa id yo u."

"Vie migh t

But the tantrum had gone. Gnly th e

tears r em ained. "What about the Ma in
I ssue?" he asked , tactfully . "The redh eade.d m011key," wail ed Adre1l1a . This
defea ted the S.S.M,
H e tri ed another
approach. "Is the m achin e busted?" h e
asked. S h e knew the an s\\"er \\'hen h e lifted
the handle. "The spring ' s gone," h e com m ented. He went out . So did Adre1l1a.
Sh e came back to see the familiar red
head of Snapper bending over the broken
machine.
"Hullo, Ammonia," he said
jocularly. "Why don't you try working
this one \\'ith your foot? It'd be easier 011
th e machin e ," For ans \\'e r , Ad1'ema b urst
into tea rs, " Gee, kid," said the chivalrous
S n appe r. "Wh at h ave they d one to you ?"
He put hi s arm s around h er.
"Snapper" S nappe r,"
she
moaned.
"Don't." "Ol<ey-doke, toot s, " said S napper. "But"wh y? " I n a fr esh burst of tea rs,
A d1'e l1la pointed to th e jacket . S n apper
picked it u p, H e sh ook his head and tossed
the thing aside . "You cra zy idi o!, " h e said.
Th ere \\'as tendern ess in hi s tone. His blue

MAJO R B.

SA T WHO

RETIRED IN APRIL.

ROYAL

ARMY

P AY

CORPS

JOG I~NAL

The Start of a Side ShoW",

N S t. P at rick' s Day , 191 5, th e P ay
Unit of th e Mediterranean .~xped i
tionary Force (M .E.F .) m oblhzed at
the Tower of L ondon.
At the time of mobilization we didn't
kno\\" officially what "ve we re, for the
ord ers which we had r eceived \\'ere most
mysterious, W e had been warned for ser~
.
'
vice
overseas- ' 'd est1l1atlOn
un I<110Wn " and th e on ly clue we had "vas that \\'e \\'er e
fitt ed out with sun helmets and khaki dri ll.
U nofficiall y, h owever, th ere was n o secret
about it for-unf ortunately for th e success
of the expedition-it "vas common kn o\\" ledge that a force was bein g go t r ead y for
an attack on th e Dardanelles .
The offic ers of the U nit were : -Lt .Colonel Armstrong, Captain ,iVIack en zie,
Lieu tenants Brooke and Townshend, T empora ry Lieuten ants God fr ey, R oy, EHiott
and Ca rter.
Ma jor Delacombe , A .P .D.,
m obili zed at th e same time but he \yas d etail ed for special duty with th e Intellige n ce
and did n ot belon g to the U nit. The W. O . I
was St aff Se rgeant IVla jor "Sammy" IVlartin
and the W. 6, I I was S taff Quartermaster
Sergeant Beckett, while the remainder of
the pe rsonn el were temporaril y enli sted
clerks with a few months ' training but all
of them stout h ea rted fello\\'s r eady and
wilr'ing t o do their bit. Som e are n o\\' dead
and ail have ceased to serve with th e Corps
with one exception-Ma jor G . S. Bates.
Lt .-Colon el Armstrong is now our respected
Coio nel Commandant. S,S.M. Ma rtin \\'as
inYalided h om e in 1917 : the ship in \\'hich
h e \\'as tr avellin g-was torp ed oed and sUllk
and h e was in th e \\'a ter fo r sever al hours .
H e died n ot long afte r reac h ing h e nte ,
.-\t the Tower we all made our numbers
and \\'e re sent h om e to await further o rd ers.
Th e ord ers soon ca m e and a fe\\ ' day s later
\\'e ent rained at Paddino-ton Stat ion. Even
then \\'e didn't 1<no\\' for \\'hat port of e11lbarka ti on \\'e \\'ere bou nd bcl t th e b ettin,2:
wa s on Avonrnonth and Avonmouth it
turn ed out to be.
T o\\'ards dusk ' Ne detrained and embark ed
011 th e S.S. A rcad ian. This ship had b ee n
on e of the tra nsports \\' hich b roug ht t h e
Canad ian s ac ross th e A tlanti c , She \"a s
aft :: r\\'ards fam e us 2S th e H eac1CJuar ter ( ffic e

of the ,M.E .F. and lay at anchor in Mudros

Bay durin g the ,,,h ole of the Gallipoli cam pa ig n. In th e end sh e was torpedoed and
sunk in the Mediterranean.
In February, 19 15, th e Germans had initiated their unrestricted submarine warfare, so "vh en \\'e sailed from Avonmout h
after dark \ye v,'ere escorted by a d estroyer ,
but "'hen da y broke ,,'e were out of sight
of land and the destroyer had left us . 011
board the Arcadian \\'e had a battery of
a l:tillery and practically the whole of t he
Administrative S taff of the M.E. F. \"hic h
i'ncluded seven Brigadier Generals. Not a
bad bag for a Ge rman submarine but we
n either sa \\' n or h ea rd anything of those
dreaded craft.
\Ve must h ave made a \yide s\\'eep into
the Atlantic fo r \\'e sa \\" no ships and n o
land until-late one evening-,,'e picked u p
Tarifa lig ht at the entrance t o the S traits of
Gib raltar. We did not call at Gib but some
of us, vi"l10se first voyage it\\"as, sta yed out
of bed to see the lig hts of the R ock as we
steamed past.
S h ortly after passing Gibraltar our \\'ireless gave us the news of the unsuccessful
attack of th e Navy on the Dardanell es and
th e seri ous losses su ~ tain ed by both British
an d French . V\Te\\'ere a littl e depre ~sed by
the ne\\'s but \" e felt confident that \\'he n
t he arm y a rri ved and effected a landing
t he re \\'ould be a different story t o t ell .
A fev; da ys la ter "when \\'e cam e 011 deck
ill the ea rl y monling \y e found that \\'e \\'e re

FRENCH BAT1 LESH I P IN MAL T .~ HARBOUR, MARCH,

19 15.

'

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

P AY

CORPS

JO l! R~ AL

THE

steaming along the coast of Mal ta and abou t

mid-day we anchored in the Grand Harbour
just ahead of a French battleship. The
French had recently lost a battleship ' by
torpedo attack and most of their capital
ships \,v ere in harbour for the same reason
that most of our capital ships v\'ere in Scapa
Flow. In fact, there appeared to be more
French warships 111 the harbour than
British.

ARMY

PAY

TERRITORIAL ilATTALION OF THE

DISEMBARKI NG AT ALEXANDR IA ,

ROYAL
APR IL,

1915.

LOCAL TRANSPORT ,

A lexandria \\'as fu ll to overflowing \\'it11

troops of many nationalities: Londoners
from the Royal Fusiliers, countrymen from
the English County Reg iments, Scottish
Territorials, Irishmen from the Dublins and
the Munsters , Welshm en from the South
V.T.ales Borderers, French infantrymen in
blue, French Drag oolls with brass helm ets
and horsehair plumes, Sen ega lese from the
French Colon ial Division, and a fe\\ '
Australians to represent our O\\'n Col o ni a l s~
The transport seemed t o be equally va ried,
rang ing from the n ew R.A .S ,C. mechanical
transport to the b\'o-\\'h eeled local cart \\'ith
its enormous \Vheels.

ALEXANC~!",

COMMA ND ' PAY OFFICE, MliDlIERRANEAN ' EXPEDITIONARY

FORCE, ALEXANDRIA, APRIL, 1915 .

We tied up in the next berth to a transport which had brought out a Territorial
battalion of the Royal Scots who vvere busil y
engag ed in disembarking when we arrived.
The scene on the quayside was a very a111-

Director of Remounts. It ,,'as q uite empty.

IO furniture of any kind had yet been installed. Further it had to serve as a billet
for the other ranks who slept on blankets on

66

J OURNAL

SCOTS

mated one. History now t ells how the " 'hole

force had to b e disembarked at Alexandria
and re organised for the landing, but at the
time ,,'e assumed that this Territorial battalion ,,'as destined for g arrison duty in
E g ypt . Theirs " 'as indeed a very different
fate.
We remained 011 board ship for th e nig ht
and disem bark ed next mornin g , marching
t o the Pa y Offic e ,yhich ,,'e found was to be
established in an empty hotel on the sea
front facin g th e old Eastern harbour-the
Metropole Hotel. V.,Te shared the building
\\ith the 3rcl Echelon, or Record Office of
the Force, th e Principal Chaplain, and the

There \vas some speculation .about ou r

next port of call. When we left En g land
the optimists among us had hoped that the
Navy would have cleared a "vay for us to
land somewhere on the Dardanelles littoral
by the time we had arrived there, but this,
we no w kne",,' , \vas out of the question, and
the kno wing ones told us that we would
land either at Port S aid or Alexandria.
Alexandria it was and on the mornin g of
1st Apri l, 1915, we steamed up the harbour.
Not a very propitious date for the start of
an adventure.

CORPS

the' Cashier~Major O rmsby-\Vho had

arrived in A lexandria some weeks before
us, \\'e we re all more or less idle. In those
days officers prepared their own claims for
a llowances which w ere audited and paid
on receipt monthly in arrear. . Tone could
be expected 11ntil the end of the month.
Acquittance rolls were 110t yet coming in
and there were fev,r bills so we had plenty of
time to look around.
So the days went by till one morning we
sa w from our office wind ows the French
Colonial Division march past on its way to
the docks for embarkation. Quite 'sudden ly
the streets seemed to empty of soldi ers.

the\yooden floors of the office rooms.

Officers were told to find their o\\'n accommodation wherever they could in hotels Jr.
pensIons.

We spent a nig ht in harbour and sailed

early the follo\\'in g morning. As we left
the harbour entrance we passed close to a '
tra,Y}er v,ihich was coming in. She had
evidently been hit during the attack on
the Straits for she had a heavy list to starboard. It was the first visua l evidence ,ye
had of the stern realities of \v ar.

R.A.S.C. MECHANICAL TRA!,;SPORT,

APR IL, 1915.

ROYAL

FRENCH . -COLONIAL ' DIVISION MARCHING

, " LEX ANDRIA DOCKS , APRIL, 1915.

Then after some da ys of suspense came the

news of the landing on Gallipoli and fol10'w ing that the long lists of casualties. Soon
the transports came steaming into Alexandria harbour w ith their loads of sick and
v,rounded, and our short spell of idleness
came abruptly to an end. From then on it
was collar work. The side show had started.

OBITUAny.
The death occurred at Reading, on 25th
May , 1939 , of Colonel R . W. Macfie, vvho
retired from the Corps in 1937. The deceased joined the King 's Reg iment in '97
and transferred to the Army Pay Department in 1903 . From then until 1917 he
served in South Africa and the Mediterranean and from the beginning of 191 9 until early 1920 he was with the South Russian Expedition. Once again he returned
to the Mediterranean in 1920 and remained
there , with a short interruption, mitil 1929.
Appointed Chief Paymaster in 1930, he was

. .....
FRENCH

f ..

TRANSPORT,

AL EXANDR[A,

APRIL,

Ta

1915.

We soon collected our equipment, unpacked our stationery and go t ready for
bu siness but no bu siness came . Except for

67

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c.P . , York and Woolwich before retirin g '

in March, 1937. He '~Ias a great horseman,
and as rider, trainer and expert exponent
of polo he \"ill always be remembered by
those with whom h e ser_ved in Gibralta r and
Malta.
The funeral was attended bv Colonels
Mackenzie and O rmsby-Jo lmson -a nd l\Iaj or
and Mrs. E nsolL

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THE

that country , Australia, Fiji, T ahiti and

California before his return to Eng land to
take a post as temporary clerk: in the Canterbury Pay Office, later becoming established
and promot ed to G rade I I I .
Deceased leaves a \yido\\-, son and
daughter.

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

-problem No. 27.

By F . W .

Buenos Aires.
The Argentine government has made a grant of 3
million francs towards the Hamilton RusseIJ cup
International to urney and has chartered a boat from
Antwerp for the whole European centingent. They
w ill be the g uests of the government during the 24
days duration of the Congress . The English team
consists of Sir George Thomas, P . Milner Barry,
C. H . 0 _ D . Alexander, H . Golcmbek and B. H .
Wood, the Edite r of " Chess". Scotland has not finall y
chosen her team, but it is reg retted that their famou s
expert W. A. Fairhurst cannot make the trip. It was
with rei uctance that the Chess Editor had to decline
the invitation.
Forty nations are competing and there has probably
never been so representative a I?athering of the world's
players. The troph y is held at present by America
who are sure to make a bold bid for its retention. It
is strongly to be hoped that no fin al hitch may occur
in the arrangements.
New Chess Headquarters.
Those of our readers who may be in Londe n should
make a po int of visiting the new headquarters of
Chess at the J ohn Lew is Store--entrance in Cavendish
Street. They take the pl ace of the old City of London
Club, and all visiters will be sure of a cordial welcome. Mrs. Stevenson, late Miss Menchik, the world
lady champion, is in charge.
Game No. 53. French Defence.
From the Avro T ournament.
White.
Black.
Dr. Al ekhine.
Senor Capabl anca.
1. PK4
1. PK4
2. PQ4
2. PQ4
3. KtQ2
3. KtKB 3
4. PK5
4. KKtQ2
It should be no ted that Black s thi rd move all ows
PK5 .
5. PQB4
5. BQ3
6. PQB 3
6. QKtB 3
7. KtK2
7. QKt 3
8. KtB 3
8. P takes P
9. P takes P
9. BKt5 check
10. KBsq
Much better than BQ 2.
10. BK2
11 . KtB1
11 . PQR 3
It is too ri sky to castl e.
12. PQKt4
12. BQ2
13. BK 3
13. KtQ1
14. KtB 3
14. PQR4
T hi s move was rega rded by White as a positional
error blocking his Queen's side and giving White
excellent chances.
15. QR2
15 . KtQR4
16. PKt 3
16. PKt 5
17. PB4
17. PKt3
18. KKt2
18. KtB 2
19. OQ 2
19. PR 3
20 . KtR 2
20. PR4
Better was PKt3 .
2 1. Kt{B2)Kt4
21. PR5

MARKW ICK .

BJack-3 pieces.

The death occurred on 3rd March. 1939,.

at the age of 76 , of G_ M. N ehan (late
S / Sgt. No . 372), at Sidcup. The' deceased
enlisted in the R oyal A rtillery in '87 and
fi ve years la ter transferred. to the Corps with
\yhom he served for _n early thirteen years
before going to discharge 111 1905.

The death occurred at Whitstable , on

13 th April last, of M r. R . Maune (late No.
853 W. O .I) of whom our Canterbury
correspondent writes :Mr. Maune, who was born in South Afric.l
and spent his boyhood there and in Ceylon
enlisted in the Argyll and S utherland High~
landers on 22nd :M arch, 189 7, and transferred to the Corps in July , 1900 . He was
stationed at Dublin, Aldershot H on bo Kon bo- '
Dover and Hamilton.

P. Coultate (late S. Q.M.S . No . 1 22) d{~d_

at Sheppertol1 on 9th 1',11arch , I939 ," at th'i
ag e of 82. After eleven years in the 14th
Hussars a nd fi ve in the M.S .C . , he transferred to the Corps and ser ved for six more
years .

White-6 p teces .
White to play and mate in two moves.
The above pretty little two move r has been specially
<:omposed for this column by e ne of the foremos t
British composers.
Mr. Markwick's life services to Essex chess were
recently the occasion of a testimonial subscribed to
by nearly every known Essex chess player at a most
enthusiastic meeting.
Our chess circl e will be well rewarded by a study
of its neatness and ece nomy.

The dea th occurred at St. N eots on 16th

M arch , 1939, of C. W.L. Spittal (late
S. Q .M.S, No . 7657200), ag ed 60. The deceased enlisted in '97 in the 12th Lancers
and \\'ith them sa\\- se rvice in South Africa .
After fi ve years' service he transferred to
th e Cor ps and served \\-ith us for nearly
t\yenty -seven yea rs . H e \\'en t to pension in
1929 a nd fr om 1935 until hi s d eath \yas the
licen see of th e F ox and H ound s H otel at
S t . N eot-s .

"

*
E. L . Gell , who died a t Linlith oo\\' on
3Ist March , 1939 , ag:ed 38 , \\'as a Sergea nt
in the Co rps on hi s discharge in 1930 . E nlistin g- il1 1918 h e served with the King 's
Liverpool R egiment and the Sea forth Hig hlande rs an d \\'as for fi ve yea rs in Egypt.

F . P. P. F ord (late S. Q .M.S. N o. 325)

died at Alvaston on 3rd Ap ril, 1939 , aged
77 yea rs . E nli sting in th e Derbyshire Regi:ment in 188 1, he served for nearly t welve
years before transfe rring to th e Corps . His
service in this Corps am ounted to alm ost
ten years and he was disch a rged to pen sion
111 1903 ,

TH E L ATE MR. R. MAUNE_

After leaving the service in March, 1920,

he served for a short time in th e P ay Offic e
a t Can terbury before emig ra ti ng to N ew
Zealand. F our years \yere th en spent in
68

JOURNAL

Our Chess Page

CORPS

Recent Chess Events.

Rarely in Chess hi story h ave there ~ een so many
important events staged as ID the last SI?, month ? .
Within a short whil e of Dr. Alekhlne rega lDlDg
the world 's champi onship by beatin g Dr. Euwe of
H olland came the g rea t Avro tournament in which
the eight g rea tes t mas ters competed, ending in a tie
between P . Keres of Esth eni a and Reuben Fine of
America. D r. Alekhine was fourth and Senor Capa,
blanca seve nth. Keres is to pl ay D r. Alekhine for the
world 's ch ampionship in 1940. The actual game between Al ekhin e and Capablanca excited g reat interest
and is appended. Capablanca lost by exceeding the
time limit having still eight moves to make.
The X mas Cong ress at H astings, which drew a
record entry, res ulted in the Prem ier being won by a
yo ung bank cl erk fro m Hunga ry-L. Szabe- who beat
Dr. Euwe by a full poin t. H e has a profound knowledge of th e openings and is onl y 21 yea rs of age.
Of the ten entra nts, the fore ign contingent secured the
first four pl aces, the Eng li sh ex pert, P . S. Milner
Barry, tieing with E. Kl ein fo r fifth pl ace. Sir G eorge
Thomas was . eighth .
The Scottish championship was played at Aberdee n
and resulted in the victo ry of M . Pavey a yo ung 21
yea r o ld student fro m Gl asgow and American by birth
w ho has a remarkabl e insight in positional Dlay. D r.
Aitken, the holder, was fifth . T en of the leading
Scottish playe rs competed and there were se me very
d ose fini shes.

69

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The experts tb oug ht Castles better.

22 . KtR4
22 . KtK5
23. QKt2
23. KB2
24. PB3
24. Kt(K5)Kt4
25. PKt4
25. P takes P
26. BKt6 check
26. KKtl
27. PB4
27. KtB6
28 . B takes Kt ch .
28. R takes B
29. KtKt6
29. BQl
30. QRQBl
30 . BKl
31. KKt3
31. OKB2
32. K takes P
32. KtR5
33. Kt takes Kt
:'J. Q takes RP ch.
34. KKt3
34. QB2
35. Kt~B3
35. PR4
Here Capablanca exceeded his time li mit having
still eight moves to make. This was his first loss
to Dr. Alekhine since 1927 and was on his fiftieth
b irthday.

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

The Story of a Refreshing

Beverage-Tea

T
Black-4 pieces.
Black to play and mate in four moves.
Answers to' Correspondents.
1. McD,-Hope yo u were interested in the Chess
numbers,
,~",
RT .-Very good. There seems to be a second key
by KtQ5 .
BLACK PAWN.

Many end games i.n act ual play are won by masters
oX very clever techmque and the accomoanyi ng positIon was won by Rubinsteirr who mated on the fourth
move.

H E history of Tea is very r?man~ic al~d

commenced many centU rIes ag o 111
Ancient China about the yea r 2737 B.C.

Tea was practically unknown ill Europ e

b efore 1600. Towards the end of that century, hovvever, small quantities began t o
reach Eng land, but it \\'as not until 1700
that it was drunk to any large extent. From
then on it quickly g ained g reat popularity,
so much so, that Parliament were sharp to
recognise it as a very profitable source of
reven ue and a hig h tax \\'as accordin g ly
imposed upon it. Neve rth eless , its COllsumption continued to increase.
The great Tea Industry in Ceylon \\'as
born about 1870 in very strang e cirCUlllstances. For many years Ceylon had been
a land of Coffee plantations , but a di ~e a'5c,
pecu'l iar to the Coffee p lant, struck the
Island and five years later the whole o f the
fl ou ri shing Coffee industry had ceased to
exist. This \"as a disaster of real1y g reat
mag nitude as Coffee had hitherto been the
livelihood of many thousands of people in
Cey Ion. Happily , hO\\'e ver, it \\'as found
that Tea could a lso be successfully g rO\\"ll ;
thus it came to take the place of Coffee and
as a result Ceylon reg ained its former prosperity .

CASHIER'S OFFICE, IRISH COMMAND, DUBLIN, 1905.

A TE l'.

J.

ARMY

White-3 pieces.
r;=~==

The End Game.

Back Row: - S/ Sgt. W . Tyrell, L/ Sgt.

Messenger T. Brown.

ROYAL

Fraser, Sgt. W.

J.

Coo k, Sgt. M. Crawford

Front Row:-Ca?t. Hill( ?), Lt.-Col. G. R. B. Patten , Mr. G.

S.Q,M.S. H. Pounds.

70

J.

McNeill,

'

ESTATE

AN D

FACTORY .

Recently \\'hile up at the Hill Station ,

Nuwara E li ya-a lti tude 6,200 feet-t o
which Military Headquarters moves three
times a year durin g the very hot period in
Colombo, I had the privilege and p leasure
of being sho\\'11 round a Tea Factory, th e
manager of \\'hich, Mr. C. B. Coleman , to

\\'hom I am indebted for this story, very

kindly explained to me as he took me over
his factory, all that happens to t he Tea leaf
from the time it is p lucked to its dispatch
from the factory ; all packed up in 100 lb. '
tea chests.
Here is the story, but let us begin by '
considering what a' Tea plantation looks
like. In g eneral ap pearance it resembles a
limitless cultivated hill-side field of small
ronnd bushy g reen trees about 3t feet high
planted at reg ular intervals in lines but
g rowing close together and interspersed at
broad intervals \yith long lines of A caci as
and Grevilleas trees wh ich offer the necessary shade that Tea requires. The leaf is
brig ht green, pointed and about the size of
a large rose leaf. Botanically Tea is allied
to the Camellias found in China, Assam and
japan. It is g rown from seedlin gs which
are p rotected by round baskets planted deep
into the earth. It usually tak es about 10
years t o ma ture. Pruned every three or
four years, some of the p lants have been
kno~il1 to live over 60 years.
The ideal weather for its best growth is
a suitable blending of sunshine and showers
and occasionally a little frost- by no means
uncommon in the heig hts of Ceylon-to
bring out its flavour.
The soil has to be nursed and fed, of
course, from time to time and this is done
by the application of artificial manures such
as Ni trate of Potash, Blood Meal, Sulphate
of Potash, etc . , and the loppings of th e
;shade trees \\'hich are \yell dug into the soil.
And no\\' to its manufacture . It is
p lucked-2 leaves and a bud-usuall y by
Tamil women and g athered into baskets
c.arried on their back, taken to the Tea Factory ,,,,here it is \\'eighed, chec.ked and recorded . Next it is conveyed to th e Withering Tats \\here it is \\'ell spread out and
\\'ithered. vVith erin o Tats take the form of
a series of laye rs of jnte hessian one abo\' e
anothe r -at intervals of about 8 inches. Th e
\\'eig hin g'- of Lea f takes place three times a

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. T HE

R OYAL

A R MY

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.~---------

day, at about 10 a .ll1. - 1 p.l'l1,-- - 4 p .m.-.ll1.e

10 a .m . leaf is ready for the l;~xt proces~
about 8 a.m.. next morning- the other lots
co.rres~onding ly later. For t.he purposes of
wlt henngJ:h e-artificial teil'rperature' is raised
by 50, the , 11ea t being drawn up by fans
from the furnaces below- the g eneral heat
of the room being regularised by a cham?er system of .small doors . The next step
1S t o th e Ro llIng Room where it is ro lled
four t imes for 30 minutes each roll by horizontally rotatin o' machines called Rollers-

at

up in th ei r respectiv e divisions . To our erstwhile

t eam )nates of the R. Signals Office we extend OUt'
t hanks for their assist ance, a nd hereby declare t hat
we shall fini sh n ex t season ahead of them in the
league . .
' '''le have to report that t h e R. Signals offi ce ha ye
l eft Chatham fo r R ead ing, and trust that they have
"sha ken down " in t heir new surroundin gs.
.- One item of . note before this short episode is
.closed, which proves that the department of t he
Postmaster-General does no t have all the credit for
.speedy delivery and attention. Th e birth and marriage certifica tes of a soldi er were passed to a uni t
on 29th May, 1917'. The do cun1 ents were retlirneu
t o this office on 19th May, 1939, after a lapse of 22
years, with t he no te "sent to this unit in error ".
.
" ELMER" .

pectiyely.
F~na ll y it goes thro ugh the
b lowmg machl11e where the 'fluff' is' blown
off and which yields the two lowest 0Tades
of Tea-namely , fan ings and dust. b
Before being put into the store binns,
\"hich are clearly named according to the
grade, samples of th e tea are carefully in fu sed, tasted and exam ined so as to ensu re
by taste and look th at the qua lity IS up t o
standard.
F rom the store binns where it is kept for
about two weeks , and after a fina l firin o ' it
is packed loose into Beach Tea Chests
ported from England and despatched to the
Agents in Colombo, thence to the four
~orners of the ear.t h-finally some of it right
1ll~0 your tea pot- unless you prefer somethmg stronge,r! But at 4.30 p.m . a good
cup of tea stIll stands supreme in popular
favour, and long may it be, so hope the
P lanters of Tea .
J .A.B.

bim_

TEA PLUCKING.

CHESTER.

AFTER T H E O .C.A. DI NNER

then it goes into the Roll Breacher and IS
sorted out into large and small dhools (by
dhools is meant differen t sizes of leaf).
When the required size has been obt ained
it is p laced on the ferment ation table and
left approximately for t wo hours after
:'\'hich it continues its journey to the Dry m g or Firing machinery.

(A HAZY RECOLLECTlON)

_ In ~he ~irin g (or Drier) machine, which

mamtamed at a temperature of between .
I9 0 - 200
there are six revo lving roll er
trays along. w hi~h the tea , mech anically
fed, travels m thl11 even layers. It is here
'where the tea g radually changes colour and
by .t~e time it has reached the sixth tray
posItIon on the bottom level of t he machiue
chamber it has taken on the familiar look
by " 'hich we kn o\\' it at home.
1S

r
i

1
I

There is yet a lot more \\'ork to be done

~)l1 it, and from. tl~e Drying or Firing Roo r11
It goes to the Sl~tm g Room where it is ve ,'Y
carefully exanllned and all the reddish
~ta lky bit~ :ejected. Afterwards it is p m
mto the slftmg mach ine \"hich sifts it into
t he folIo'w in g three g rades: Broken Ora nge
Pekoe, O ra~ ge Pekoe and Pekoe: being the
:fine leaf, vnry leaf and coarse fl at leaf res-

"Sh ay, A'mira l-did I really order two tax his? "

E very quarter this offi ce becomes more remin scen t

of Tennyson 's . " Brook " , our comings and goin gs
are so frequent .
Major H . H. Mon'ell began t his year 's trek when
h e left us for Leith . He was soon follow ed by Ma jor
H . E. ' Nan who set out for W okin g. Next we lost
S. Q.M .S. L ee to Preston and now we ant.icipate t.he
departure, to Foo tscl'ay, Qf Capt. vV. H. Moo rcl'oft.
I t being only human to hate ci1anges, we ar e never
t heless yery sorry to lose t hese old friends as some
of t hem have been with us for several years, but
we are unanimou s in wishin g them all t h e best in
t heir new stations. In particular we send this wish
to S.QJ\lLS. Lee at Preston as it is understood th a t
he has gone there on pl'omotion.
}Iajor F . ' N. Cooper is still with us and he most
certainly cha nged the sword for th e pen when, on
hi s r etirem ent, h e accepted t he post of Cashier,
vVestern Comm an d.
' Ve take this opportunity of welcoming Lieut. P.
G . Thompson and Major C. J. H . Treglown . Mr.
. Thompson has already sampl ed our an cient city but
t h e delilShts of t his old Rom an Camp still a.wa it
:Maior Treglown.
.
The fo ll owing laud ation is publish ed in acco rd ance
with old custom , t he customary b eers h av in g been
consum ed. a nd all at one sittin g... too ! Congratul at ion s to S j Sgt. A . L. Brown, S j Sgt. J. r ash, and
q orpl. Tnpholme on thei~' elevation to t hose resnec
t lye ranks . Our probatIOn er, Sapper E vans , must
not be fo rgotten because h e h as now been appoiJ1ted
Lance Corpora1.
As for ,o verseas news, we welcome S jSergt. C. A.
Morris to o.m fold a nd h e i now on leave. exE gy pt.
Th e i oll owmg ar e on t h e Overseas ' Nait ing L ist :-S.Q..M. S. J . W. Griffin and S (Sgt . J. Nash.
Without doubt the whole Co rps was shak en by th e
recent r evolution in our r a nk s which has brought
its glut .of Staff Sergeants a nd T wond er how m any of
us h ave been asked, I can imagin e th e answer of th e
old school , "Is the R .A.P.C. a 'Staff Corps or a Corps
of Staff Sergean t,s ?"
.
LOUDEN.

F. Smith, Pte. L. East, Gr. J. L eadbeat er, Pte.

E. S. Stark , Trooper R. vVeston, P t e. V.7. B . Thomas.
Departures.- L j Sgt. Deeley to ' Nar Office on tempora ry dut.y- it m ay be 'fol' yea rs and it m ay be for
e\"el'.
Transfers.-Congl'atulation s to PriYates Dlidley,
Lum sden, P atman and Offer on being transferred to
t he Corps.
Promotions.-Congratulat ion s to Corpo rals Bl'iggs,
Edmllnds, Morris and Swindells on promoti on to
that rank.
Marriage s.-Cpl. Bri ggs and Pte. Patma n hav ing
taken pa rtners unto themselves were dul y admitted
to the m arried establishm ent.
.
Deaths .- The staff lea l'l1ed with deep regret of the
death on 4th May, 1939 of lvh. J. A.. Tomley who
had b een employed in a civilian capacity in this
o ffi ce for almost 20 years. A num ber of the staff
attend ed t he funeraf a nd placed a wreath on the
grave.
staff I ncrease.-A temporary in crease in staff has
r esulted in t he re-employment of Mr . M. F errelly
and "1111'. Jim 'iiTright and Central is lookin g like it
was in ancient times.
Records.- -Th e staff wer e gratifi ed to h ear that
Colonel H. P . Raymond, O.E.E., our Colonel i j c
Records, had been apl~oi nted A.D. C. to H .M. The
King.
Mr. WiJletts, Chief Clerk , Records, is leavin g us
to proceed to P erth , on promot,ion to Grade L VVf.'
a re all sorry to lose him but glad to heal' of his
promo tion.
EDINBURGH.

Since our l.ast not,es we h aye had a num ber of

cha nges in our staff a nd arri vals are Colonel Gold
in g, our C.P., S.S.M. Mitchell and S j Sgt. HjJling,
all from service overseas: w e all wish them an
enjoyable stay in "Auld R.eekie". ' Ne were sorry
to lose Colon el Bilderbeck but we hope h e will
h ave a long and happy stay in the South.
Promotions appeal' to h ave come our way, nnd
we congratulate S j Sgts. Mander a nd Pountney and
Cp!. P earce on at,ta inin g t,hese ranks.
In t he world o[ spo rt .we have little to r eport,
wit h the exception tQ.1;l':t Sergeant Ru sh played in
the S cottish Ch ess Ch ampionshir.s at Aberdeen this
Spnng, a nd one or two others 'h ave in cr eased their
ability at dar ts; another member of th e deta hm ent
sent hi s flann els for cl ea nin g with a hope of a knock
in t he nets , but so far the weather holds t he upper
hand .
In conclusi.on we have t.o r eport the usual yearly
trek of visito rs to these par ts t o see the sight,s, and
it was noti ced t he oth er dav that a sin gle member
of t he detachm ent was taking the position of aI)
official guide at the Castle. It is not known whether
the "Notable A merica,n " gave him "th e usual", or
whether th e service was gratis ; anyway h e depar ted
givin g t he sa lu te like all goo d guides.
K. C. E.E.

DEPTFORD.

EXETER.

Arrivals.- A h ea rtv wel come is extend ed to Pt es.

Edmund s and Swilldell s on t.ransfer from F ootsc ray
-and to Pte. Briggs on transfer from Ch atham .
.
Probationers.- Th e following have joined a nd \\" e
wl sh them success:Gr. E. L. B ailey, DJ'. G. Sm ith , B and sma n E. T .

If t hi s co nt ributi on has the appeara nce of Part 2

Orders I crave indu lgen ce. It is necess:uy that
extracts hom the Detnchment Orders -should be
t a ken to provide the news for t his issne, and I hope
t hat th e prese ntation wi ll not, strike vour eyes in too
familia r a mann er.
'

77

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

. Once again J hav e to report movements so t hat

111 c~urse o.f ~im e it may pro ve that ,o ne sa;s 'H ello'
and Cheeno 111 one breath at this station.
~fter a very brief sLay, S.Q.M.S. Lawr ence left for
Hilsea whcr.e his ciyilia n status is now un de rgoin g
a resurrectIOn process.
S. Q ..M. S. Trussler 'ha
r ec~ntly left fol' civil life also , and to t ht-se ' two
aspIrants to ci\' ic honurs we wish the best of lu ck.
~ P~es . Shilcock (to Salisb ury) and Wilsoll '(to
10:'L\. (R)) left 111 February for those st a tion s. 'at
WlllCh we hope they will find some compensation
for t~e loss .of t l~ e Vilest. CO~lIltr.Y . T il e presen ce
of Shl1 coc.~ ~n thIS lo cahty In the Ea ster P eriod
se~l1ls to ll1Vlte the Fren ch tag ag.ain (Cherchez la
femme') .
Arrivals of Pro bationers must also be ment ioll ed .
Th e most recent of these (I say this guardedly.
because they would appear to be only th e va n of
m.o re to come-we hope! !) were Gum. -Sa nk ev (28th
Field Regt., R.A. ), L / Bdr. Cha mpion (231~d Field
R egt ., RA.!, Pte. Sall ows (Gloster R egt. \ (ca n't
k eep these Old Brags' out' ') and P te . T easd a le
(East York s ) a nd t he us ual greetings and expressIOns of g'ood luck are extended to th em
Congra~ulations. -To Lieut. A. L. H. Vi1ilso n on
the aopollltment to a Commi ssion a nd postin<z t o
London: we extend co ngratnl ations and r ecomnl end
the delIghts of R egent 's P a rk as com]Jnred with
~hos ~ of Belmont Par\;:. (Of course , the Zoo is n ot
mtended to be in clud ed . as th e latter P a rk doesn 't
p~ssess one, unless th e annexe extend s up Clift on
HIll.)
To Major Cooper on c h n n~ing his coll ar and cap
bad ges, we .extend the hc: pe th a t t he lad der to F.9
Board of DIrectors may not Drove too fo r mid a bl e.
To Staff :'3ergt. Argent-may the crown receive
the usua.l tIme-honoured elbow liftin g ceremon y at
the Outlllg . . Absence (of the Mess ) n'ake;:: ' the
heart grow fa.mter.
.
To Corpora ls Comfort, Thom])so ,~ and lOll S t he
sa.me re nHI~'k s applv. O-ne wonders if t h e h onour
W Ill. be tvvlce -bl essed bv the former N.C .O. on th e
receIpt of hi s First Class Certifi cate.
To P te . Dewar on doffing th e Glengarry for the
pea ked cap of t he R.A .P.C.
Any offers fo r th e
sporran?
.T() S.S. M. Kne\'et t on resuming acquain ta nceship
\"'-Lth E xet er.
-.
To .Tinllll y Bly the. and 'Bill ' MOJ'Q'an ex- R .A P .C.
and Devo ns res])ectl\'ely, on t hei r decision to gi\'e
E::eter 'another chan ce' by h ~l p i~'o; R ecorr1 fl ov er t he
stile.
To C;o;:P?l'<1l R aleiQ'h on l'eali sin <z t,h a t " L a F emme
Trou vee IS bettel' t,han "C herche'l. la F emme " (not
the three-card t rick ).
Th e m ention of press u re of wo rl( is a WOi'll out
e ~ cu se for. la~k of news. so I will co ntent m yself
~V1th. m en.t1011In g that in li eu of arran gin g t he tnhles
HI tIers m th e present bu ildin ~s , huts a re bein cr
erected ~o accommodate t he extra clerks whi ch w~
are hopmg to get to h elp us a long. Of co urse. if
the ext~a clerk s do I~Ot materialise I a,m afraid t he
R.E. WIll have to dIg hol es for mo st of uS-O t' is
t.hat th e dut y of the A.R.P. ?
So until 11l~' next tale of woe is due, I will s ig n
, off,
BUKRA FER MISH MISH. :

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

FOOTSCRAY.
vVe are all ni cely settled down III our new offi ce
a t Footscray.
Plenty of , work and a regu~al' supply ,o f emerg~lIcles to pI'event us from becoming ,stale, but
w ltha: q~.l te .comfortable, and I think reasonably.
ha pp.y. 1h:-. kmdness of Kolster B rande~ (the neicrhbourlng 'WIreless Factory) in permit tin g the s~'1ff
of tillS Offi ce t o become a n "en blo c" member of
theIr Sports Club is very mu ch ap[!reciated and w e
I,?ok forward to a return of the good old days when'
we hope to be a ble to u se to the fu ll the many
advantage.s a nd a menities to be enj oy~d by such
membershIp.
.Th e Roya l . Artillery P ay Office has, in th e past ,.
been on e whIch most, members of t he Corps ha \-e
?eemed an xlOU S to aVOId but I should im agi ne that
111 the future , wh en bette r known, it will be a very
much de~ ll'e d posting.
Although the immediat'e
surroundmgs have been spoilt somewh at bv th e a ll
too comn:ol ~ type of. suburb a n buildings, . there are
some really lll ce hOllSlllg estates within t en minutes'
wa lk frol11 the Offi ce and, by the w ay, on e of the
?est sltua ted Seco nd ary Schoo.! s for boys in Keiu,
IS only a short wa lkin g di stan ce away. The s lu'~'ounclin g country is delightful , Ch isleh~l1l'st
(WIth ItS attractiv e common), H ayes ,
K eston Pon? s, ~ ro mley and 9rpin g t,on (to say
n otlung of Sld cuPI a re all wlt h1l1 easy reach even
by walkin g, .to those fo nd of such a iJas t.ime: Fo r
those who WIsh to go farther afield, there are Sevenoaks, Shoreh am, Ern sfo l'd , \iVrot,ha m and ma ny other
?l11 a ll towns a nd vdlages 0 f cO llsidern ble histori cal
llltere~t .and b ~a u t:v, as vet not much affected by the
enormItIes of Jury bllllclers. Those fond of t he roa d
~ ithe ~' as cyclists or moto ri st s, by comm encing a
Journey from h ere. can be on anv one of the thre~
arterial roads leadin g to a number of K enti sh coast
tOWI~ S in a few minutes, wit hout the necess ity of
pass ll1g t hrough any pa rt of London 01' its suburbs.
In fact , as compared with London, th ev wo~ld be
approximately thirteen miles on th e wilY to their
selected destin ation. To hik ers th e sllrroundincr
country lY u st be a paradise.
'
0
Those interested in visitin g old church es ma y
obt a in complete satisfaction , for th ere are manv
within a few miles from her e. To show what I'ea ll ~
nice homely souls used to worship ther ein , th ere i's
usually a 'pub' quite handy. to whi ch pres umab ly
they us ed to a di ollrn a ft e r serv ice , wit,hout fear of
the' one or shani e for the other.
Unfortun atelv.
n~ a ny of the 'pubs' have been spoilt by conversion
into mod ern roa d hou ses, ghastly barren places,
w here " 1in e Host" no lon ger ex ists and in w hi ch
ther~ is a co mplet e abse nce of fri endlin ess or good
serVIce.
I must !IOW get a round and see wh ether I ca n
gather a ny ports item '.
Hockey.-The end of the season find s Footscray
hoc kev team with a record, the reve rse to that of
the beginnin g of th e seaso n. Postin gs have seri ously detra cted from t h e team's playe rs, and it is
regrettable that a mongst re]Jlacem ents th er e ha\' e
been only two who m erited a pla ce in our very
weak ened team.
Our record , t h erefo re, shows mOI 'e of a eries of
defeats t han \'jctories . However. what we ha ve
Incked in fin esse \y e h;w e n' ade Ul; for in kee nn ess,

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

hour ' s batting, t.he result after 3~ hours' continuous

pl ay bein g a. victory for one side by t h e odd runa r ea lly enjoyable afternoon's practice.
Social.-Sillce the last issue of the Journal, a
number of the Civilian Staff have become Honorary
Members of the Club, and it is hoped this "G etting
together]' will develop the comradeship 'so essential
at ~hese times.
Unfortunately , in spite of the vastness of the office,
ther,e is no Mess or Club Room, but th e "West Bay"
has pro vided a spa,ce in which surplus energy m ay
be expended at Table T ennis and Darts.
The Members h ave taken Rart in Games Tournaments a t several local Clubs, and many thanks are
due to the Members of those Club s fOI: really grand
evenlllgs.
_
The " Verti cal Bar" game pl'oyid ed a great co mpetition, and needless to say the traditiong of the
Corps were fully ma intained.
Arran-gements have been made for a trip to the
Royal Tournament on 19th May, and a. sight of
'Real' soldiers, wi ll ho doubt inspire us to g rcat er
effort,s.
Arrivals,.-l\1aior.
Moore,
Captain
Clowes,
S.Q.M.S. ,V:a7H'ihtAn'< : Private Sanders, Private
L amb, GunlHli" Crin1 Sa:6. Tro.o per Rearn, Gunnel'
Mea l'S, Guard sm an Palm er. Gunner \;Villi ams, Private Godda rd , Guardsman Jollands, Pri vate Middlet on, Fusilier Starkey, Gunner vVise .
Departures.-S.S.M . ~T ort s, Privat e Edmonds,
Private Swindells , Corporal Pinder. Priva t e La.lly,
S.Q. M .S. Botfield , Major Ensoll Captain NOl't.on,
M. C., D. C. M .. , Lieut. Thompson. Th ey will all
be mi ssed p a l'ti cularl ~T t hose who. although such
a, short time at t he Station. have co ntributed so
much YOlllntary effort in the inter est. of the Offi ce,
and t he Staff.
Promotions.- Con gra t.u1ation s to the following
who have b een promoted to the Rank s shown .
Staff Sergeant-Major ViTol't s . Staff Se r ~e8 nt, Cn l'ver
and Staff Sergeant Sta ff , Corporal HuxforJ.
"Supplemen,t ary Notes " .-As m entioned in these
notes in the pre\'ious iss ue of t he " Jou rnn l" t.he
questio n of ad mission of Supplementary R eserv ists.
R . _ .P .C. to t h e RA,P, C. O.C.A , was on the A genda
fo " the Association ' s Annual General Mee t,in g.
Th nnk s largely to t h e wh ole h earted support of the
Sen ior Offi cers of t he Corps , t h e mo tion was cll l'l'ied
in favour of "admission " , It is und erst.ood t hat a
circular notifying Ii gibility and terms of admission
w ill shortly b e forward ed to each Supplem ent.ary
Reservist.
N eedless t o sav, so far as the Footscr ay D etach ment is co ncerned, tlle re ult is warmly welcomed.
In fact t hree of th e S.R (Messr s. Fi'sher, Cal'ew
and Gal'd in el'\ duly p aid t h eir first year' s ent rance
fee in the in terval between the meeting and the
Dinner and, t herefore . actuallv dined as Memb er s
of the O. C.A. Two others were also enrolled at the
same fU1~ct ion. Th ere mi ght have been more if I'd
found them.
Our next S.H. class will not be in b eing until two
days after the despat ch of these notes whi cll will ,
I hope, provide excuse for t he shortness hereof.
Howe,' er, w e hOR e to. see at that c1.ass man y of
OUt' most r ecently nttested members from Messrs.
E. W. Norris, H . R Hawkins, D . . Suga,r, J. E.
Piercy, J . W. Ch a dwick , J . E. Goddard, C, H .

.a nd it can be sin cerely said that we hav'e enjoyed

every match we have played. Especia lly did we
enjoy our two meetings wit!l Hounslow, a nd it was
,f itting that 011 points we should have been equal,
althou gh the latter can boast a better goal average.
H ere is to 'o ur next meetings in the coming se.:'1.son,
and a hope that we enjoy the game as we did this
year .
Football.-These few notes regardin g our acti yities in the Football World , will prob ably be of some
interest to members of t he office, both past and
present.
Of nine matches played during the past se,a son ,
five have Qeen won, one drawn , and three lost, and
the list below gives a more detailed statement of
our varying fortunes: v. 17th Fd. Regiment, RA.
Won 4-1.
v. RA.M. C.
...... '
Lost 7-8.
v, 45th Coy. RA.S. C.
Lost 3-11.
v. Klinger's Ath .
Won ~l.
y. Footscray O.B.
' iVon 7-5.
v. Harri son and Kemps
' iV'on 2--1.
v . Chatham
... Drawn 2--2.
v . Harrison and K emps
vVon ~l.
v Chatha,m
Lost 2-3.
Goals for, 33 ; Against, 33.
Now for a few words about our players..
In. Go-a!. L / Sgt,. W eatherall ha s always played
a fin e game, and despite one or two of the large
sco res again st. him, we doubt if there is a, b etter
m an , for thi s position, in the Corps.
Full Backs. Since th e depa,rture of CpI. Montgomery to \iVarley t hi s department has been our
weak spot, a nd despite vary in g efforts to str ength en
it we have not entirely succeeded, but. we still owe
thanks to L / Sgts . Hi ft ",nd P <Ll'kinson fo r givin g of
their best.
Half Backs. Th e half back lin e has usually been
composed of t he following, Gm. Sharpe, L / Sgt.
Beattie, a nd Mr. Hill s. and special mention mu st
be mad e of th e consistent.ly good perfo rm ances given
by L / Sgt. Beattie a nd Mr. Hills, The loss of Cp'I.
Lally (to Hounslow) was a hard blow to the team,
especially to the half back lin e.
Forwards.
Our fo rwards have gener ally been
ch osen from th e following players, Cpl. H artley .
L / Sgt. Chenery, Cpl. H aigh, P te . 'P ea ke, Mr. I-Ia yward , and Fus. Starkey. Normally they all pl ayed
well together, but, wit.h a little more team-work in stea d of individualism , better results migh t have
been achieved.
\ Ne hope, how ever, t hat n ex t season will remedy
thei?e faults, so till then we bow th e knee to Kin g
Willow,
Cricket.-It is too earl y in the season as yet, even
to forecast events in our Crick et \iVorld ,' bu t to
judge from the energy, and k eenn ess of our H onol'ary Secr etary . S,Q,.M.R. Ha skin s. our still to be
completed fi xture li st; our proximit.y to , and more
or less sol e use of a deli ghtful cricl{et ground. and
n ets, in a r ea,ll y rural atm osph er e; promi sin g talent
amongst the shoal of Probationers; a nd last, but not
least, the promise of a Corps cricketer in the person
of Cap.tain Clowes to lead us; this should be a
bumper season.
.
A practice match W<1S h eld on Mav 10th. for
'which ,'V e managed to turn out twenty-on e players,
eyeryone gettin g a minimum of a quarter of an

79

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

' Nilliams, J . Vol. Hartley, T. A. Reeves, R. T. Andrews, an d A. H. French to whom a hearty welcome
is extended on their joining the Corps.
Congratulations are extended to L / Sgts. D. W.
Ken, C. P .. Fox, ~. H. Sco ~t and R. .J. A. Wakefield on then' aflpomtments to. L / Sgt., and to L / Sgt.
and J'.ifrs. L. 'vV . Bollands on the arrival of "Wil liam Lawre;lce".
.
- 0 doubt a ll our Footscray S.R. will be pleased
to hear that " Sgt. Staff" has been "reversed".
Final
Note.-The
FDotscray
Det achmen~,
R.A .P.C. Supplementary Reservists ' Annual Dinner
has been provision ally arranged for Saturday, October nh, at t he Shakespeare Hotel , Woolwich. The
us ual reminders will be sent out in due course,
subj ect, etc., etc_, etc., etc.
"AGGY" .
HOUNSLOW.
The past quarter has been fraught with major
hap'penings and it is rather difficult to report these
happenings in their correct sequence, so I mllst
beg forgiveness if the cart tends to go b efore the
horse.
'With the advent of 'summer', hockey and bad,m inton kit ha s been stowed away and their places
taken by cricket bats, tennis rackets a nd waterwings.
A badminton match was played at Regent' s Park
Barracks aga in st th e London office which ended in
a well-earned victorv for Hounslow who were the
winners by seven matches to five. A suppel' of beer
and sausages half way thr-ough the even in g a cted
as a wonderful sti mulant. Thank you L ondon!
As SOOI1 as the weather Impro ves w e hope to meet
you at tennis.

S. &

CORPS

J OURNAL

To co nclude the badminton seaso n an An1erican.

knock-out tournament was held which this year ~
brought a record entry of ,f ifteen competitors all
anxious to de-throne the reigning champ.
The results were as follows: - ' Vinner: S / Sgt.
Murphy; Runner-up: Mr. A. S. H. Cook j Winniner
Lady : Miss. Pat Knight.
0
Runner-up and winning lady are to be wa rmly
co ngratulated on t heir success for both were introduced to the game only during the sea 'on just
finished.
The ga mes ,a ssocia!ted with s umn,er are now
looked forward to and a full programme lies a head.
The cricket secretary will be only too pleased to hear
from anyone who has a date begging or, if anyo ne
is anxiou s to ,;t,rrange a tenn is fixture, our tennis
secretary is waiting to hear fnom them. As regard s
the la tter game, four of our members have already
entered local competitions in the hope of ac hiev in g
g lory.
The Sergeants' Mess has gone from strength to
strength a nd rece ntly was the scene of yet a not her
'a 1. home ' , this time, to the warrant offi ce rs and
K.C.O's. from across th e Heath-the Government
Training Centre. In t his the mess proved victoriou s,
seeing off all and su ndry.
:iVIany moves are anticipat,ed in the ne.a r and not
far distant future. Some ten 01' so of our present
staff will b e leaving us for the quiet and seclusion
of Barnet when the accounts of the Govemment
Trainin g Centres are transferred to t hat office. Three
others are already lookin g forward to sojourns in
drier and warmer climes, amongst them being our
oldest inh abi~ant, S.Q.. M .S. Kemp ton.
They 've
tumbled to him at las t I G.W.H. will then be the
oldest inh abitant.

D. HOCKEY TEAM, HOUNSLOW.

So

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

Two worthies have left us sin.ce the' la st .'write-up '

in the pel'sons of L / Cpls. Steggles and. Bliss . ;hey
are now ill tha t beautIful part of Readlllg kno", n as
Caversham.
Corporals Pinder and Lally have
joined us from Footscray and Corpora l Murray from
Chathani. 'To them we extend the old welcome a nd
wis hes for a pleasant stay with us . .
.
To Corporals Laily , Wi(~n a nd. <? Ibbons we offer
OUl' congratulations on theIr att.a~l11ng ~hat rank:
The new office on t he Heat h IS rapIdly ~earln.g
completion and it is hoped to g ive more of tillS tOPIC
in the next issu e.
Cheerio!
G.W.H .
LONDON, COMMAND PAY OFFICE.
Arrivals.-We extend a hear ty welcome to Major
G. H. Ensoll , Captain F. G. Nortoll, l\~.l\1 .. D;.C .l\f. ,
Major 'N . Eadie (re-employed) a nd MaJor T. KlIlgan
(re-employed), S.Q.M.S. Coleman , Staff Seq~t. G.
H allett, ex E gypt (posted to Dover and Kensmgtoll
respectively, on Costing dutie~) and R.fm. G.
Richardson K .R.R.C., on probatlOn.
Departures.-The staff at " E aster n" wish good
lu ck to the followin g departures , Major S. F . Barra,tt. M.C. (to Winchester) , Captain J. H. CI?wes
(to 'F-ootscray), Capta in H . Gough (to R.eadlllg) ,
Captain C. J. Day (to Aldershot) , S.Q.M.S. W.
Mason (Costing, to Egypt), Col. N. Brown (to
Warley).
.
.
To S.Q.M.S. A. J. R.owley (dIscharged to P enslOll.
31st March . 1939), Staff-Segt. F. C. Astles (discha rged to Pension, 5th March , 1939) and Cpl. R.
L . Bal'1les to A.R., 24th May, 1939, we wish the
very best of luck.
Promotions.-O ur heartiest oongra tulations to
Lieut. C. V. E. R.ooker. M .M. who received hi s
Commission on 17th April, 1939, and to S.S.M. R
H. Morris, Staff-Sergts. L . A. Newson, Vl. Pea cock. F. Donovan. Sergt. N. H. Cuthb ert, Cpls. L.
H. Cross and S. N . Benest on their being elevat.ed
to those ran ks (bar pro-fits rose magnifi cently) .
To L / Sgt. \. M. lV!ackenzie, ~ho surpr ised us
all by t.ak ing unto hllll self a WIfe, we offer onr
cOl lgra tl11ations.
Sports.-Cricket.- ' i\Te h,'l,d the very g reat mi sfortune to lose Captain J. H . Clowes, ;}nd our loss
Unfortunately. to date, \ve
is Footscray 's gain.
have been llnable to get togethe r a full team. conseq u ently our first fixture had to b e cancell ed.
Ten.n.is.-"Rhine Army Cup " .-To date we have
three entries to whom we wish t he best of lu ck.
End ea \'ours fLr e bein g made to form a ten ni team
and it is hoped that we m ay be able to show our
for m at an eat'lv date.
Indoor SP(lrt~. -D a rts sti ll co ntinu e and :1 rra n ge
m ents are now in h;} nd to vis it the Ce ntrfl l London
Becl'uitinl< D epot, to show our skiU (if ~ !lY) at
Billiard s, Snooker and Darts (no t to r ecrmt ver:v
mu ch need ed staff for th e p;}y Office and / or Offi ces) .
PERTH.
Pre-amble.
Th e scrib e who polished off the"e
oAi ce notes in t he Autumn, 1938 iss ue of the J ournal.
ended w ith the pi ous hope tha t t hings wou ld be
better a nd t,here'd be more time for f uture efforts.
A las. he was sadl y off the mark , so mu ch so. that
no notes appeared from P erth in t he last 1S ue.
(Christma s Tnmber.)

P AY

CORPS

J OURNAL
--------------------

Howeve r, bere briefiy is what bapp'ened (a s far as

can be remembered-owing to the effects of the
festive season which is double-barrelled in t hese
parts) .
L We ha d a Xmas Party and Tea for the chi ldreIl
and adults, in York House, that scene of many
. a revel. This party wa s well attended and eyen
more well enjoyed.
2. We held a Whist Drive and Dance in York
House at the end of Janu ary, also well attended
and well enjoyed.
3. We had plellty of work. 'Nuff sa id.
' Ne only m enti on all this to prove t hat we were
as well looked after as .a ll the other offices at Xmas
time and also that our silence over the festive
peri~d was not entirely due to coma.
And so to more or less current topics.
The followina bits fl nd pieces are not guaranteed
to be in chrol~ologi ca l order, everything here still
being n~ ore or less topsv ~urvey, owing to frequent
movements of the pa\yns 111 the game.
Fellow centurions will know what I me~n. H oweye r, here goes:Arrivals and Departures.
We hav() to jointly
welcome an d congratulate Lients. Pott a nd .Mockler,
who have recentlv arrived here com plete With brand
new commissi o n s~ 'i\Te wish them all the best, both
ill t he station and the new sphere of .a ctivities. ' Ve
also extend similar greetings to S.S.M . Baker 011
h is arrival and Rromotion .
.
To Pte. Smith. Gordo n HIghland ers, and Sgn.
Kinder, R. Signals, g reeti ll gs, and keep yo ur eyes
down, lad s.
.
All this arr iving, of course, meant saylll g goodby e to S.S.1\1,. Keller to Leit h on com.mi ssion . Congratulations! Goodbye also t? MaJol' Fryer and
Pte. King. 'i\i e hope t hey enjoyed then' tlJll ~ u p
here and wish them the best in their new stat-IOIlS.
Pte. Kill g , of course. ha s been spending qui te a lot
of time in the fold , sin ce his posting (a) on accou n t
of the old, old, ~ tory and (b) on .acco un t of Scone
Thistle requirin g his se rvi ces as a goalk eeper , and
publicity agen t. \/Ve used to get a lot of reflected
erlorv from hi s undoub tedly erood performances betwe~1l the sticks. L eith staff ~ill by now be familial'
with " I I ['ou g ht it from Alder ~ hot " .
Edinburgh paper;:: , please copy.
Fu r t her congratulations are due to Pt es. Barford
a nd Bfltho Oil becom in g fully fl edged member>: of
the orps , a nd also t.o Fus. l\IcAulev . (R L F.) on
obtainin g his Specia l Cert: of Edl~ catlO n.
H e should be able to wnt e a decent letter to the
I-I.L.I. now.
Stop Press Congrats.-To S j Sgts. Ma.n der and
HlImphri es on their unexpected eleyatlOn.
W!e
lIuderstand DaYe Pountne ' and a host of others hay e
been simila rly smitten. Its a great life chaps .
One of OUI' up and comings ha s had themisfortune
t o be admit,ted to ho spital recent.ly, to Wlt , one Pt e.
Lander. \i\ e commi erat.e wit h him , but hope to
see him out :11ld about aga ill before velY 101l g.
(Som ebody h as t.o do th e H.L.I.) ._-\ s (at present)
he is a guardsman. we get a' lot of Innocent fUll ouL
of doing things by n~1I11bel's, ?llt we nnderst a nd h e
\\ill be sli ght,ly han ch ca pped 1I1 futtll'e: .
The aboye seems t.o cover a,1l our MIlItarv act,i\'i-

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

t ies (for publication, anyway). P erhaps the ' nol11-de-plume wIll con Jure up a few memories fl)r old
Perthites.
Sporting events up to date will be found in the
detailed Rifle Section _ IOtes, but certain fly members
of ~he Detachment are actually walking about with
then own darts , mark you, so it is possible that
somethmg m the line of dirty linen will be washed
in public in the next account from up h ere. Some
thing ,yould ha ve been in this time, but 'for B edford stumbling over the SRelling of Challenge.
Certain other stalwa,rts too hav e been seen
wandering round the North Inch ' lookin g for lost
golf balls, and eq uipped with bik es in order to
make a speedy getaway. vVe refer, of course, to
Henry Cotton Lane, Reginald Whitcomb Daly, and
.Jock McLean "Willi ams. Th e latter has not a bike
of his own, but occasionally rides pillion with one
-of the others.
Th e trooping list has mad e its a ppearance up
here as well, and we are to lose S.O.M.S. B utler,
Sgt. Daly and L j Sgt. Higson.
Sgt. Mander is
waiting". They a,re all bearing up well, except
perhaps Frank Butler who has since ' lost lJis nat.ural
-eating appliances and can't manage anything mor8
solid than Glencoe beer.
T.Ne are having the Offi ce Outing to \.b erdeen
next month , and we are all lookin g forw a rd to a
real fine "do". Onr tame reporter is to be on the
spot and wili have lots and lots to tell you next
tIme.
As we go to Press, we have to report that our
RP. , Lt;-Col. J . G. Anderson, ha s left us at short
n~tice for Hil.sea.
His genial personality will be
mIssed by all lt1 t he office. Our best wishes go with
him . 'llle are very pleased t o welcome back to
Perth as our new RP" Lt.-Col. F. T. Baines, and
trust t h at his t-our h ere will be a happy one.
"GLENCOE".
Small Bore Rifle Club. -Once more we are at the
close of another Shooting season a nd , strange as
It may seem, we are one of th.e strongest teams in
t he league, in fact, there are only two teams b elow
us in t he final league table.
The team has met with many reverses this season,
as several of our most interested members were sent
to the land of 'milk a nd hon ev'. l iVe ad mit the loss
of our 'Skipper' , L j SgL L. '.' Eruce, who was th e
'live wire' of the club.
The stalwarts, n amely S.Q.M.R. Alexander, S j Sgt.
Lane and Mr. Gussin did their utmost to reta in
's tat( s quo ' and their hopes sti ll live for the comin g
season.
The Probationers to this office were from Mounted
Units and at the mention of Small Bore Shooting
they imagin e son' e weird type of Sp'ort, although
Ptes. Batho and R adord pro ved a great help aftel'
their initiation to the 'new "'un'.
Thus afflicted, we welco~ed all the competition s
and mana,ged to 'pull off' several money prizes.
The sport of shooting IS reviving in the offce a nd
our civilian staff is waking up and turned out a
strong tea,m in the 'Inter Office Competition' , the
honours going to the Junior Military Team_
The Clnb welcomes Lieutenant and Miss Pott who
are both interested in shooting and trust that our
ranjre will not prove too much for them after the
<!omfortable range enjoyed by Aldershot.

PAY

CORPS

J OU RNAL
PRESTON.

_-\t t.he Bull and Royal Hotel, Pr.e ston, on the 25th

.~ebl'Ua.ry, 1939, the Staff and Departmental Social

~ lub held their Annual Dinner, 43 members attend-

mg. The evening was voted a great success by one

and all. . On behalf of the members present,. Mr.
John Staffonl smd Goodbye and Good Luck to our
drepar~ing Regiment:t.l p.aYmaster, Lt.-Colonel C . .T.
h ... HIll.
Replying to the toast L t .-Colonel Hill
said that he had thoroughly enjoyed his short stay
111 Preston and that he was sorry to leave.
He also
added t hat it was gratifyin g to fincl t hat wher~
he ha,d ca~l ed for that "Extra" effort, the Staff had
n.ot left 111111 wantll1g and therefore the happy positIOn of tile office was clue to the co-ordin ation of the
Officers and Sk'1.ff.. The even in g passed away in the
usual manner untIl 11.30 p.m. when " last ro und "
was called , and so endeth a Good Evening.
Th e entry of the month of March brought some
frowns a nd curses, when we found that we were
to be burd ened with 21 Territoria l Battalions. I
must not forget to mention, however, that these
accounts were t~le cause of L ance Sergeant Jeffrey,
Corporal Gll chnst, Corporal Mercer, Gunn er Grif~n, and Messrs. IiVheeler and Burgess leavin g the
Sunny South and who were earmark ed t,o assist us
with the additional work.
Since the above notes were jotted down our Regimental Paymaster has left us leaving Captain R ees
to rule the roost, pending the arrival of Lt. -Colonel
R IlIT. Hackett from the 'War Office,
Corporal (BING) Davies has left u s for a tour
of Egypt and i t is to be honed that he will enjoy
his sojourn th ere.
On May 4th a trip to Cbester was arranged, primanly to see t!le Races; and as luck happened the
weathel' was SUItable for the ?ccasion . . To . judge by
th e lon g faces on the followmg morl11ng one was
led to beli eve that eith er the beer was b~d or that
l}ockets were sadly depleted. Anyhow , the trip was
a success.
It may be interest.ing to memb ers of the C-orps to
know that ex-S.Q.M.S. Vl. Higginson ha s been empl.oyed .as a tempora.ry Clerk in the office, together
WIth 111n e others on the Record side,.
I s it true that a certain individual, familiar to
this office, donn ed Sam Bl'owne and Spurs and then
went, chasing after &n 'Eighteen Pounder ' to get the
Stork that had only left him a daughter wh en h e
wanted tw in. Co ngratulations, however, to Corporal and Mrs. J. Dunn on t he birth of a dau ghter,
Anne.
Our congratulations are to be extend ed to S.S.M.
T. Whelan who left ufoI' Ch atham and his Corn
mi ssion a nd to S.Q,.M.$. A. IlIT. L ee who arrived
from Chester to take over.
Also to S.Q.M.S.
vVri ght, R/ Sgt. Sowerby and S j Sgt. Hom er we ext end our h earty g reetings on attain ing respective
ranks.
i."flle welcome L j Bdrs. Cr:lwte and Metcalfe, and
Privates Donlan, Fox and John who h ave .i oined us
on probation ; we regret t,hat Pte. J acques could
not stay the pace and eventually returned to his
unit.
Sport in this office is at a low ebb; the football
season having passed , it is to be hoped that we
might arrange a cricket match or two with the
locals, but we had to decline the invitation to join

82 I

THE

ROYAL

ARMY PAY

t he Garrison League. Pa,y Office life is not what

:it used to be.
If these notes appear to be disjointed by a hamm erin g noise, don ' t be alarmed, it 's not I.R. _\.
tactics, only the aftermath from the stamping of
Allowance Order Books, A / 5 Series.
~L\CNOON SHAWISH.
READING.

Events hav e mov ed so q uickly sin ce we i lrst hacl

definite news of our depa,rtLU'e from Chatham th at it
is diffi cult to recall items of interest there. ,iVe
would met'ttion, ] ioweve l', the visit to Footscray by
t,he Football team with ~ upporte r s . We had an eujOyc'1 ble game, resulting in a dr<1w, and were afterwards afforded a conducted tour of the office by
S.RM. i[itcheJl er fot' which many thanks. W e d id
not then know of the extrem e divergen ce we were
to enco unter in our new office.
Whilst at Chatham our rifl e teams completed the
seaso n in a most satisfa cto ry manner, both teams
earning runner-up medals. Five of these medal s
have come to Reading and we should certa inly be
able to put one team into t he range next season if
we could obtain range accommodation. The Depot,
Royal Berkshire Regiment have offered assistance
in this matter and we hori e to ava il ourselves of their
hospitality. They are half an !tour's journey away
but I think we have suffi cient enthusiasm to put a
new name oh the league table.
Vve would draw a veil over our 'departure from
Chatham and over our alTival at Reading. INe
forsook our pens and b ecame general labourers but
order is now more or less restored.
I mentioned earlier on a compari son with the
Footscray office. Th ere they have on e floor level.
At Caversham we occupy a basement, ground floor,
first floor and ,a t,t ic. In all I understand there a re
66 stairs from top to bottom. The house is about
BO years old, being erected primarily as a private
mansion which has subsequently b een used as a
school. Unfortunately, t he grounds did not go with
t 11.e lease .and th~ cricket a nd other gear we brought
With li S IS not lIkely to be of much use to us yet.
Shortly after Oul' arrival a cordial invitation to
their mess was received from the B erkshire R egiment and we have already displayed to them a certain amount of skill at darts and particularlv at
euchre, a game well known to at least one of ll S.
Do not imagin e, however. that we have had mu ch
time for entelt.aining or being enterta.in ed.
A r egrettable part, of our move has been t.he
necessity for extended office hours.' I th ink t h at
perhaps it is the b est reason I can give for so little
detail of lOur n ew abode. It is to be hoped t.hat
later on we shall have the opportunity of ' appreciating the more pleasant surroundings into whi ch we
have undoubtedly moved.
Summ er leave has been mooted but one pessimist
voiced the general opinion when he was heard declaiming that Mr. Butlin would not entertain him
t.his year. In any case I think tha,t would apply
t.o most married personnel for removnl costs, high
rentals and cost of living h ave made a pret,tv hole
.
in budgets.
Single men incidenta,lly are on the lodging li st
and <lre generally well accommodated , th e Ca,versham
distri ct ca,tering extensiv ely for board-resid ence .
IlITe do not propos e to list, arrivals and departures,

CORPS

JOURNAL

but we .now muster 29 in number, this being almost

twice OLl\' accustomed strength . . I've were not affected by the recent promotiqn s but were very ' glad
to amend our conies of. the Sell iority roll.
There is lOne casualty to record, Staff -Sergeant
Roberts being admitted to hospital at Aldershot
and we ,a ll hope that Robbie will very soon be fit
again. He seems to be the on ly one .",-1th associat ions in the district and was a great source of
informat ia.n prior to our a rriv&.l.
I am tolel that refe ren ce to a rainfall map will
show medium to heavy shading around this area
and we hav e had ample confirmation IOf this fact
and even now rain falls to mal' what appeared to
be a pleasant Sunday morning. It therefore causes
me to da sh for shelter p;'ld enables me to write
finis to these notes .
L.W.C.
SALlS.BURY.

' Ne have had better news of om old friend Jimmy

IiVoodward sin ce our last notes were wr itten. He is
now a ble to get around t he town in a cha ir and we
hope that in futme notes we shall he able to report
his full return to health and strength.
Among recent arriv.n h at this station we have
Captain OliveI', S.S.M. ViTorts, Sergt. Caterham,
L j Sergt. Willis, S j Sergt. Gilb er t , L j Sergt. James
and CorpI. .Jones. Captain Thomas has now definitely settled with u s after a tour of duty at, Ex'et.er
' and we hope his influen ce will be reflected in the
r esults of our rifle matches next S2&Son.
S.S .M. F'n evett ha go ne to Exet,er where we
hop e h e will find life very congen ial.
What a lot of free beer we missed at the Corps
Dinner or did t he Officer i/ c R ecords consider the
pockets of those fortunates who blVe been promoted
sin ce the date of the big !ratherin !S. However. congratulat~ons are du e to S.S.M . IiVol'ts, Staff-Sergts.
Hoare, Harri s . Allan a.nd Taylor on ])I'omotion to
those ranks. to Corporal s JOIies and H emsto ck on
t h eir elevation and to alJ our DJ'oba,tion ers whlO now
hold their fii'st stripes in the Corps- unpaid at the
moment but which we hope are a fore cast of better
th in gs to come.
The office cri cket team has pl.aved one match to
elate-versus our old oppo nents at the Old Manorand. although we lost - ~/i{'h scores 135-101. the
match illustra ted thil t amon g our new arrivals we
have some very useful cri cketers. In view of t his
influx of falent. the secret&ry is now busy endeavouring to arrange more fixtures.
The Southern Command Headauartel" s football
team ended t he season with a ra,ther better record
than that for the previous year. Four members of
t he office staff played for the team . Our congratulations are exter.ded to L / Cpl. IlITamer who played
for the Salisbury COl'inthians t.e&m at t he end of
th e season and secured a very favour&ble comment
upon his displav in th e loc:li press. More sho uld
he heard of t.hi.s footballer in the future .
Q.lVI.S. Bond has h ad a spell of illness but we are
pl eased t.o report th a.t he will be back at duty in
a day or two.
Th e office outing t his yenr is t,o be a rounel -about
t.l'i 0 t.o South sea and we hope to meet our friends at
INi nchester and Hilsea en route.
vVe now have eleven ]Jrobat,ioners in t,his office.
Sin ce their names are unrecord ed in Corps hi story
<It this t.ime , we have not detailed them. but, to all

THE ROYAL - ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

we extend a h ea [' t~' welcome w1Ll the hope that the
lt ttle yellow book w ill inclu de th e Lr pa I'ticulaL's for
m any year s to co me.
SAn U:\ L
SALISBURY PLAIN.
\ \"hen on e r efl ects t hat each member of t he -taff
of th~ SalisbUl'y PlaiLl and Sout h Mid la nd Area
(Costmg) is \\ork ing, more 01' less, ill splend id iso lat:on and ; Wl th fe w except ions, each attac hed to a
d1fferent Corps or RegIm ent, th e chfficult y of a new
and m experlenced co rrespondent w ill be r ea lized .
I n these ce.l~tl'eS of. military activity t he wo nd ers
of the SClentlll C app ltcatlOll of mechan isation have
ceased to l::e a s urprise and the arl'angem ent s now
beln g m ade t.o 1'~ce L." e the militia appea r mOl P-o
arduou 3 than l11 terestlLlg . Nevertheless. t he rece nt
depar.t ure. of S.S.1\ 1. H azell to .Aldel'shot ' a fter a t en
years ' sOJOUl'll 11l t l:e vicin ity of Stoneh enge, wa s
~l surpl'1se from whlcl: tl: e loca l offi cial pop Ul ation
IS but slowly recoyerm g. The bes t wi shes of thp
A.rea a ccompany him to the neia-hboul'in a- Command.
a nd also L j Sg t. K incaid to W~o l wi ch. b
,
\7\lhil st we e.\ t,encl a wel com e to r ece nt arriY a 18 in
Captam R . \ N. S haw H a milt on from Sa lishHY. and
C?rpora ls HO l'to n and Gibso.n fro m Rea ding a nd
\7\llll chest er reS I~ ect i y ely, we mu st also record ou r
regret a t the tran sfer of Capt pill R . L. L. In gpen to
Portsmouth, after a s hort but bu sy period on the
Pl ain.
.
Staff Sergeants F el'gLlSO n and Brooks . on t heir
recent prom ot ion to D iyi sion II, celebrated t hese
outsta ndin g eye nt s in the time-honoured custom .
"A RDWICK " .
SHREWSBURY.
It is noted th a t now tbe bright er weath er is h ere .
our staff are a s happy as ca n h! expected und er th e
Circum stances of ove rtime, m o,-e of t he offi ce and
pros pects of thing ' to com e.
W e welcome L / Bd L' . l\IcGo\el'11 and G nr. Ca lder
on p roba tion a nd hope th a t their stav in S hre\\"s.
bury will be a happy one.
.
\ Ve. offer our hearty co ngrat ul ation s to St a ff Sel'gt.
C h e lhn ~sworth , a nd Cpls . P age a nd Kilb on their
J)r01l10tlOn s : t hese have 0 far proyed t o be d r\".
but no doubt tim e will produ ce th e cele bration ~n
t he usual way.
Through th e effort of our worthv t elllli " ~eCl'e.
t~ry . S.Q.M.S. Ca h ma n, a grass ~o urt h[1 s been
h Ired, where most evenings ar e to be found a crowd
of enthusI.a sts, but from our observer 011 the spot
we learn that t here IS much e, id ence of ann o dom ini.
avo irdupois and midd le-aged sp read amo ng;:t thos e
who used to plav a fa ir ga me. One m emb er in par.
t lcular .l10 W pra n c~s ~bout lik e n baby elephant.
ContHlulll g ou r ' \7\ e Kn ow" :
Th e offi cer who \\"ifihes his clog wonld keep h i ~ tail
up.
\ i\There R .A. P .C. Su pp lement an R e;;e] ,i ~ t;; nre
t r a in ed gratis (fo r th e beneJlt of t he Katio nal
E xchequ er ?).
Where the roof of th e offi ce i. SuppoL'te 1 bv T. A.
A.Fs . N.Z085 a nel 3086 and F ..A. claims . .
\7\Tho sta rted to copy hi" Offi ce I ns t ru cti ons into hi s
index .
\Vho fell fr olTl hi s bike in to a di t ch. Th e evid ence
. of th e other mel1l b e r~ of the part ~ clear hi m o f
s uspect ed o \e r-indu lgellce . tL f ~ \\-eL'e not OP PIl I

\Yho tbo ught the closing of th e pay li sts rneant it

. \\as Lime to go hom e.
\\ ho ~ave a n ulle~ n ec ted aq uat ic display, and was
IllS face r ed as well as his hai r.
WARLEY .
\Ye, at \;"\1arley, a r e ha\ ing OUI' S ~a ff Ta lly hard
worked by " In s" a nd " Outs " a nd since oli r last
effort for t h e J oUl'l1al K otes th e following cas ualties have occurred : ~
,
Arrivals.-Lt.-Co lonel C. J . K . Hill has joined us
fro m Preston to tc'1 ke ove r the very h eavy dut ies of
R egImen tal Pay maste r , C. D. & A.A ., a nd we extend
a heart.y welcome a nd wish him th e best o f lu ck
during his st av wit h us. Oth er a rri va ls a reS .Q.M.S. E. L Botfi eld from Footsc ray on 20th
F eh l'll ary, 1939. S .Q.M.S. J. K . C. Owen from G ibGuardsman J. P.
ra ltar, 27th February, 1939.
Lilley on probation from Coldst ream Guards. P te .
G . . --\. Hubbard from Ca nter bury, 11th April , 1939.
Prly a t es W. Mellillg a nd A. Tack from N. Staffs.
R eg imen t, G nrs. \7\'- Hi ckling and H. Kil'k \\"oo d
from 21 st Heavy Battery . R. A., Guardsman J . Bl'idgett fro m Gr enad ier Gua rd s . Gu ardsman J. L eonard.
from Irish G ua rds, G ill'. H. ' W hitmore, all on proba tiOIl , and Pte. A. G. Smyth fr om Footscr ay.
A
hea rt y welcome is extend ed to them all a nd we wish
th em tJ1e bes t of lu ck durin g th eir stay wit h us.
Th e probati.oner s cannot understand wh y -clerks ha ,e
to ,,ork in P ay Offices-bu t t hev are -learn in a- a nd
seem very keen to get things sorted out.
b
Departures.- Lt. -Colonel H. P. F ell nell has left us
fot' a tour in London. Having co me to \iVarlev to
open the C .~ . a nd A.. A . offi ce w ith the original staff
from \iVoolw lch, we a re Yery sorry to lose him an d
it was hoped th at a fter his very heavy tas k here he
would have a more restful time at his new st.ation
but from n ews scraps t hat have reac hed us we [ea;'
th_in gs a re not no w so 'cushy ' in London. Cpl. L.
\\ ere nd el left llS for Malta on 5th April a nd we heal'
he is ha ving a g ra nd tim e ou t th er e. Cpl. Maul e
depart ed for E gypt on 11t h Apri l. Pt e. J . R. r'd.
Gray to Ca nterbury on 11t h Apr il. Cpl. J . Dodd
t o Gibraltar on 22nd April. Pte. N . Smith return ed
t o his un it on 20th April and GIll'. W. Hetherington
ret urn ed to his unit on 27th April.
L.S. & G.C.- Co ng ra tula ti ons to Sgt. H. Ba J'n shnw
on being granted hi s Second 3d. n er diem for "Undetected Cri me" over n per iod of 13 vpa rs.
Up the Ladder.-C ong ratulat ions to L j Sgt. H . C.
\Vihon on hi appoi nt lre nt e n 1st \ p: i l. i\ ncl now
t here is a nastv smell of new Sta ff Se r geants about
th e office-Sgts. H. Barn s haw a nd P. J . Th ornt on
haying been ele,at ed to 2nd Div ision on 1st ~r ay .
\Ye ,yon d er if Ord a nce w ill be nhk t o n' eet the hea,y
d ema nd for Crow ns G. M . sma ll w hi ch rece nt Corps
Orders have th row n u[::o n th em.
News Flash.- R/ Rgt. .Jim Fole: ma naged-by
mE'[ln, nnkn own -I"o obla in lei1le fOt" e igh t whole
day~. S.Q .M.S. Paddv H o ra n h ,18 retu rn ed t o dut y
h01l1 H o ,) it'1 1 a nd th e r e~t seem
to h aye don e hi111
good.
.
Sp c rt . -\ iVe hay e a t In. t s uccee ded in for nl in g .a
Clnb at \ 7\Ta rl ey . bu t our a ct ivities fi re, so far , yery
rnllch curtailed. Bettertimesare hop ed for. T enni s ha
been pl:1vecl b:; . ome to find nn office reO l'e' en tat ive
fol' the Rhin : A.1' nn- Cup and on th e fo ll ow in g day

TH E ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JUURNAL

ther e was m uch g ro a nin g ca used by mu scle st iffll ess
am ong some of t he co mp etitors.
.
\7\ l e have, for some t Ime, bee n 100klLlg fo r warc[
to the cessation of overtim e a nd some eveLlln gs on
the Tenn is Court and in the country ,,a lks ar onn d
\iVarley, which (w e a r e to ld ) are ye ry cha rmin g and
enjoyable , but no w we ha 'e glven up all hop es a nd
ar e tryin g to content omselves with ' what 1S to be
must be '.
Mail B&.g .-A req uest Lo -[orw8rcl marri age ce l t i
fi cate for notation was n~ eL by tb e fo llow ing : "Sorry I ca nr!ot forw al'C1 t he req ui red m a rri age
certi'fi cate as my wife is a spinst er. "
To report t he sit li atioll of his family, the fo llo win g
was receive d:" My wife has left me of her ow n accord-Hop ing
t hI S meets with your kin d appro,al-Yo urs
Surely . "
_-\ requ est to forward life ce rtifi cate was met b;r
the fo llo wing:"NIy fa ilm e to forwa rd th e necessary form at the
proper time was, I regret to sa y, in some measure.
due tQ my own negli gen ce , though I claim extenuation in v iew of t he gr eat multiplication of
t as ks of th is kind whi ch a bureau cratIc soclety
imposes upon th e indi vidual-Yours fa,ithfully ."
Annual Dinner.- A hea rt y yote of thank s and
appreciation is exte nd ed to th e committ ee r es pon sible for th e genera,] orga ni zation , etc. of t he 11 t h
Ann ual Dinn er , which wa s well and tr uly en joyed
by all representatives from t his Detachment .
. Closin,g Note.- vVe conjure up in our drea ms
(when we ha,-e t ime to sleep) a vision of the " Days
t hat were" comi ng on ce again to vVarley and t hen
we a wa ke with a ierk for we ee from the daily
news papers t he l'emOten ef; .. of it all an d th a t po ssibly,
n ever in our ti me, will \Narley ever agaIn be r e garded as it " R est Camp " . Such is t h e lot of us
w ho ha ve deserved so well of fate, but it bein g om
lot, we will see it, t hrou gh.
T AK KY .
WARWICK.
Sports Club Supper.- On th e 24th Februa ry. th e
Sports Club Supper \Ias held at t he Crown H otel.
vVa rwi ck, at which t he at t enda nce was pract.ica lly
lOGo,{, of the sta ff. Th e ch ail' was t.aken by Ma ior
C. E. Elli ot-H ev wood who proposed t he toast " Th e
King" .
"-s Colonel V. N . .Johnson , D.S. O. wa s
shortly afterwards retirin g . ndv(1 ntage was ta ken of
th e occnsion t.o wish him f.ar ewell. His hea lth was
propo sed by th e R egim ental Paymaster a nd th e
wi shes of t h e staff coin cide w ith L t .- Col. Hu g il es'
words " \ Ne hope hi s life d urin g his r et irement \\ill
be cast in pleasan t places" .
In a hum orous speech, Captain R. D. Coate , who
orga nised t he s upp er. pro])o ed t he tonst " OUl'
G ues t,s" who in clud ed Offi cers a nd Oth er R a n k.
from t he Ro yal \ Nal'wickshi r e R egim ent,. Major P.
\ N. lVIorlev suitably replied.
A musical prog~'amm e wa- vive n. t.hose taking
part being S .Q.lVI.S. \Nhit e. Pte. D errick, Mr . Co urt ,
:M r. D ew hurst a nd Mr. \Na m er.
Inter-Office Bowls.- Two 111;] tc hes betwee n Rt.
J ohn 's House <'I nd A von House ha ve been helel ,
both res ult ing in Will S fol' St. Jo hn ' s, th e " H ome
tea m". At. t ht' seco nd Ml. H. H epburn , Superin tend ent Clerk , Reco rd~, ac t ed a: ho st to celebrat e
hi s up-gradi ng and an' ple ju sti ce was don e to the
r efr esh m ent s.

Congratulations . \Ye offer our co ngrat ulation s to

Lieu t . A. \N. D eaco n on be in g Qo sted to \7\-a n y icl(
a nd being promoted to that rank. Als.o t o S / Sgt.
::'doody on promotion , Cpl. Fenton on h iS marriage,
L j Sa-t. Gilbert on being pl aced on the Ma rried
E s taOb li s hn~ ent, Cpl. Derrick on promot ion , Pt es.
Lowe and Hll stw itt on transfer t o th e Corps a nd
om' seven probation ers on being ap poin ted L / Cpls.
Our best wish es are a lso extended to Ma jor P. C.
H a rding on his depart ure to civilian life.
R.A.P.C. Dinner. - Oul' contin gent enjoyed t he
R. A. P. C. din ner. although, I underst a nd, two melllber3 wan der ed a rou nd Thames House for so me ti me
befo re findin g th e Din ing H a ll.
MEREBBIC R.
WOKING.
_-"- re n't you people lu ck,\'- to get these no tes I
At th e mom ent we are busy prepa rin g to bury
t he poor Pu nched Ca rd System and , despit e an old
say in g to the eff ect that there is no love li ke th e
first love, our la t .l ove was I\'lp idly gainin g our fond
affection. lIiajor H . E. \iVan arrived in our midst
in time to ass ist in copin g ,\" it h this sli gh t addition
to our la,bolll's, and what he t hink s of t hi s sta ti onwell , we simply haye no t ba d the t ime to disco ver.
H e is not qu ite amo ng st.r<'l ngers and is warmly
welco med by a ll. Pri va t es P alliste r and Gree nfield
passed the "c lass III (b ) t est in F ebruary last a nd
r eceiye our co ngratulation s and wishes for gr eater
Sll ccess .
.\ t th e end of F ebmary the re a rriyed one ca lled
Se rgt. (Taffy) Pri ce . nncl fami ly, having elected to
ex clla nge t he slul11b ero us ail' of Egyp t for .the Pin escented ;Ii l.' of \ Yok ing. Most of us are still hoplL1g
t o find t.hese p ines. Sel'gt. Price ha s fou nd a ceL'h in a moun t. of solace. he having been promot ed
Staff-Sel'gea nt- possibly as compen sation for work !
H e rece ives our congra tulation s and welcome. Rlfl eIll:l ll Gri ce, K. R. R. C. was t ransferred to th e Cor ps
,,i t h effect from 5t h Septemb er. 19~8 and is also
to be cong rntu latecl . Somebodv must ha.\"e thou gh t
it wn s tin' e Sel'gt. P ott er ceased to be th e bu tt of
th ose m i3guid ecf gentrv who delight o n th e ~ t of
A pri l each yea l' to play p ranks and h1S m aliCIOusly
someth in g co nce l'11in g .A PI'U Fool: he wa s prom oted
jo Staff-Sergea nt on tha t date I Th er e are t\\o
fu r th er a dd it ions to our staff in PriY ates Speight
i'l ncl McJn tyr e, th e fir st-nam ed belong in g to Th e
Co r don Hi g hland ers b ut is r e:l ll y 11 York shire man
who adop ted Sco tland , \Ihi.le the las t-n a med I S a
pukk a Scot frae Glesca. W e welcome bot,h and
ex t en d OllI' very hes t wishes for a, successful prob a
ti ona ry pe riodand th e work th<'lt fol1 ows . Pl'i \"(lte
B in ns is to be cloub lv co n g rat L11 at ~ d fo r he ,,as
finallv tran sferred to the Co rps and. iust as a sideline. p assed a n exnminatio n for th e SI~ecia l Cel'tificn t.e of Edu cation! Th at la d wa nt s more. work I .
St eadv . he's got it. Th e work I mea n.
Staff-Sergeant P ott er is ext remel\' \~orl'i e d. H is
proh lem is-is m ere Section Leade r JUlllor ~o , or
senior to . a Secti on COlll ma nd er ? W ell , th mk It out,
chums a nd d rop me a post - '31'c1. YOLl see, his son,
Arthur . is no\\" a Sec tion CO I1 ~ lll a ncl e l'.
,
"GHILLIE " .
Add endum.-Ad hur me nti oned aboye is at th e
Duk e of York '" Ro.v;] l :'Iilit[1r~' Schoo l.

THE

ROVAL

ARMV

PAY

CORPS

THE

J OURNAL

ROYAL

ARMV PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL
.~

'flRE
OkOR6

'''''CASE Of
flA'f . t(l!p

'tIItt GOoooc:

A"'''~''f
F.9FcR.
'unI1C~

tN .T'P'lUGT

A~IL

.18
"

gro und , but we w ill have a mat ch, even if only

to make our new gear second -hand.
Arranaements are now w ell in hand for an offi ce
"Stag party " to ' Vilhitby by charabanc on Jun e
10th. Lunch a nd tea are to be served there. Pro viding the weather is suitable, a boat will be cha rtered a nd put to sea by memb ers who wi sh .to_ test
their skill at fishin g. To pass the t ime whil st
holdin g rod and line, other necessit ies will be emba rked with th e party, as feeding fish is a hungry
and thirsty business on a summer's day .
A warm welcome is ex tended to all newcomers to
the office, but while w ishing those who depart"All the best"-it is regretted they have to leave
a job of work behind.
.
Goodbye for the present, and happy holidays
"EBOR"
YORK, REGIMENTAL PAY OFFICE.
Arrivals.-Major E. D. Edinger from th e Command P ay Office, North ern Command, and we .extend
to him a cordial welcome and hope that Ins stay
with us will b e a happy one.
Staff Sergeant A. Tap~encl e n has joined us from
Egypt ; althou gh this stati,on is not a new one f~r
Tapp ., we ~wi sh 11 im the b est of lu ck and that hl s
tour in Old Yor};: will be a pleasant one.

c.;pls. G. F. Bu chan, \ N . "West, Ptes . Boyd and J.

C. Wilson a lso l'eport ed for dut y from \iVarley,
Chath am and Exeter r espectively and we ext end
to them a heartv welcom e to this station.
We welcome t'o th i stat ion t he follo"'in g proba t ioners: Gd sm. A. Ki chol soll, Gnr. F. D. Cheeth am ,
Bdsm. E. M. J ac ks-on, a nd Sig. W. H. Giles and
trust that they will SOO I1 oyerco me th e necessary
hurdles in P ay Offi ce Duties .
Pro-motion.-Out' co ng ratulation s are ext end ed t o
S.Q.M.S. G. C. Pl ed ge r a nd Staff Sergeant E. F .
Bown on t.heir promotion t o W'arrant Offi cer Class
II and Staff Sergeant respectively, also to Cpl. T.
R eed on his promotion to that r a nk.
Transfers.-\iVe congra t nla te Pte. R. J enki ns and
Bdsm. F. Pridnwre on their transfer to t he Corps
on 9th May , 1939 a ncl we shall be watching
their next step to fame.
Temporary Duty .--Sta ff Sergeant L. V. Andrew
ha.s b een on temporary du ty visitin g various Units
with a view to str aightening out several matters
and has returned with some satisfaction .
Sports Club.-A m eet,ing of t.he Sports Club will
shortly be held to discuss the various activities of the
club a nd to arrange th e <1nnual outing, but owing
to the in crease of work t his may ha ve to be h eld in
abeya nce for a t im e.

Stations Abroad

~Elli 193s.
v

PflFW. WIIAT A RFLlU! "

YORK, COMMAND PAY OFFICE.

a great pity tha t no reco rd wa s made of the nnmber

IOf fluk es t he bold S.Q.M.S. scored in hi~ efforts
when winn in g the trophy .
To wind up the evelling ' s enter t.c,inment, prizes
were presented, which included t he " Fluk e Cup ".
Thi s Cup is of wooden structure and ca n ced in
graceful lin es . The id ea of its compos ition did not
arise out of lack of fina nce or the mea n in stincts
or it s donor. On t h e other ha nd as its winner will
al ways be a "Payco ri an " and lOne who will no
doubt lack, or ha ve'lost, the art of spit a nd polish ,
a wooden trophy will be a boon, as one flICk of the
wrist w ilJ suffice to clea n and keep it in a present,a ble condition .
A word of co n g rat ulat~on must b e offered to Sgt.
Stewart on a very noble performan ce in a billiard
match against S.Q.M.S. Bl ack of Catterick , for the
fina~ of the No!:thern Co mmand ,a r ea of the Army
BIllIard ChampIOn shIps. S.Q.M.S. Black won, and
as no doubt r eported el sewhere, was beaten by a
very narrow margin in his first match at London.'
It is with regr ets that we ha ve to a nnounce
our relegation to the 2nd Division of the Rifle
League. With hopeful a nti cipation we look forward
to newcom ers, new r ifles and a new season , in which
to r ega in our IJo st position.

To talk shop ou tside office hours is, by an unwritten

law, not done. To put it in writing -would al 0 be
out of place, and apart from work, the activities
of the R.A.P. C., Northern Command have been
?omewhat restricted , a nd our notes, therefore, suffer
m consequence.
As the summer is very slow in a rri"ing (or rather
summE'r weath er) indoor sport s and pastimes a re
still the main interest .
Our Sergeants: a nnual billiard halldi cap too k pl ace
'o n the 4th AprIl. There was a maximum attenJance, and. to ~tart with all entrants were rega rded
as potentIal wmners of the yearl y peize.
To cut a long story short, the semi-finalist. were
S.Q.M.S. Wright (Hold er) v. S.S.M , Partridge and
Sgt. Stewart v. S/ S. Kershaw. After two very
k een games S.S.M. Partridge and Sgt. Stewart remaUled for the final. battle. Eo t h pl aye r show ed
SIgns of . early trammg (perhaps in. th eil' youth?)
~nd the game was well worth watchlll g :1 nd fitting
tor a final. Sgt. Stewa l't won after many galla nt
attempts by the runner-up to gain the 'lead a nd
k.eep It. It must be mentioned that S.S.M. Part ridge and Sgt. Stewart were responsible for a llott ing the handicaps! ! !
As a point of interest, a check was kept 'on the
number of ~~k es mad e by each player t hrough out
th e competl~lOn.
Th e highest record went to
S.Q.M.S. Wnght (ex -champ.) who has been hold er
'Of t he coveted trophy two successi \"C seasons. It is

Both Reg imental and Command Pay Offi ces in

York have combin ed to fi eld a cricket XI t his
season. On going to press, two matches have been
postponed owin g to weather and the state of the

86

CEYLON.
Crash ! Ban g I What a storm! Thund er like the
cr.ack of doom. Li ghtning that seemed to come
ind oors a nd sha ke hand s with you ere departing,
and J'a in that would have made Noah build another
ark, ha d he been alive. Thu s on Saturday morning
at approximately 5.30 a. m. , herald ed Lhe a.pproa.ch
of the South \Nest NIonsoons. Ladies clung to th eir
husbands, or n ext best thing, in terror ; they h ad
never loved them so much in their lives before, but
unfort unately t he feeling wore off as the storl11
abat.ed.
Fortunately the very heavy rains end ed the.
severe dr.ought the I sland has experinced during th e
pa st few months. Our reservoir at Labugama had
practically dried up and we were livin g IOn water
pumped from th e Kelani river and as the natives
use the river as t heir bathroom for th emselves,
elephants , bulls, etc. , one did not enjoy the cup of
tea so much as usuaL However, we can t,ake it
and, !ortunately, no one seemS the worse for the
experJence.
April and May are the hottest a nd stickiest months
IOf th e y ear in Colombo so those who were fortunate
enough to get their leave during this period migrated
to one of t he hill stations eit her N uwara Eliya (pronoun ced like the t roop-ship-Neura]ja ) or Diyatalawa , both somewhere in t h e region of 5,000 to
6,000 feet above sea level with an average temperature of 57-just lik e a glimpse of home and a ve ry
delightful change from Colombo.
"ViTesak"-T suppo se t hi s word conveys little or
no meaning to the ma jority of my readers, yet on
May 1st approxim ately one-third of the world' s
population celebrate on this day the birth , enli ghtenment and death of Buddha and as half the populati{)n
of Ceylon are Buddhists t,h e Island went gay on t his
day. Shops a nd banks were closed, people in their

t hou sa nds fl ocked into th e towns from the outlying

villages, very gaily at ti red in brig ht colours and
form ing a picture:5q ue scene_ R.efresb m ents were
supplied free to the visitors in temporarily erected
shelters . Huge decorative structures wer e erected
brilliantly li ghted by many coloured electric li ghts_
Lhe IJurport of whi ch is difficul t to define a nd I
suppose a re symboli cal to the initiated only. Gay
and colourful processions hearl ed bv tom-toms an d
pipes wended the ir way through th'e "tl'eets behincl
a memory that mu st always remain with t hose who
have seen .
Troopers come and t rooper:; go, alt.houCTh this
one seems as if it wi ll never end, each anoth~r milestone ()n th e journey pas8ed . Old .acq uaintances arp.
renewed and fresh face::; welcom ed and anyo ne fortunate enough to breal< their journey at ' Colombo
for a port beyond are always assured of a happy
interlude on this sunny I sland. I don't t hin k I am
infringing any state secr et if I t ake th is opport.unity
of extendin g our wi shes for a "bon voyage" to t be
two youngsters . who I expect by t hi s tim e ha ve
been warned to join us during the com in g troopin g
season , and to as:5ure them of a happy sojourn in
this deli ghtful station.
It is with r egret t,ha t, I have to co nclude these
notes on a more serious strain, but sin ce starting
to write t h ese notes our Command Paymast.er, Majol'
J. A . Bedford, has been a dmitted to t he Military
Hospital suffering. it, is thought, with kidney
trouble. The Medica l Offi cer apparently not sat,is
fied has had him t r ansferred to the General (civili.an )
H ospital for a n X-ray . the result of which is not yet
known.
I a m sure t hat Major Bedford ' s many
fri end s and a cqu a in!;an ces at home an d abroad win
join us in ,~-i s hin g him a speedy return to healt h
and dut:v.
JONO .

R O_Y.A L
_ __ _____TH,E
_ __

ARMY

PAY

CURPS

J UU RNAL

bed s a nd grass i' Ul'rounds ha ve beell artisticall y la id

out .
:\Iuch tho ugh t, t im e a nd money ha ye b eell spent
to make It a really m ce pl<lce a nd there is still a
lot to be done. A band of willing work ers tackled
t.he Job m anfully-their first job was t o reluctantly
l el ega~e, va nou s
pIctures,
ph otograph s
a nd
trophies to the lumb er rool1!-,lnd t hey have ea rned
t he. thank s and g r atitude of us all.
Sl11ce t he new M ess has been open ed it is S U I'prising !;'ow many married men have found it, necessa ry to go ba ck to the Office for a couple of hours,
dear" .
It, has not been possible to a rran ge a house warmmg for the whole of the garr ison-th ere mu st be
so m ewhere 1I1 t h e region of t hree hundred members
of sergea nts' messes in H eliopolis nowadays-bu t
we ll1 ten d to en t~rtall1 t hem all, on e mess at, a t im e.
star ted With t,he 1st Lig h t Ta nk Reg iment
from Helnueh-t he crank was t urn ed bv Ernest
t hat l1l gh t----and have since ha d an int er-~ffi ce bilh ard s .a nd snooker tournament, very fiercely contested and last. game a ll on the black as is usua l.
Also we haye staged a house wa rmin g for ourselves
a nd t he la dIes of t he detachmen t .
The s ingle members of th e Mess ,1re accomm odated
111 a VIlla near at ha nd and easy to find when t ime
IS ca lled, and fr om a ll accounts t hey are very comfortab le.
.
A no t her item of news, almost overlooked because
It. has ha ppened so oft.en, is .that the Regim ental Pay
Office ~as moved agall1, t hiS t im e to a vill a just off
t he ma m street of H eliopoli s and n ear to the R .M .V.
record sh op . It is quite a lofty buildin g and those
on the top floo~' have no t. t aken very kindly to the
?fficla l all' raId precaut IOn lI1strnction " Do not
Jump out of t he window-slide out carefully ".
Sport.-Desplte t he calls ,o f duty, five games of
cl'lcket h ave been played to date-on e won two
dra wn and t wo lost. Sergt. Briggs, playin g f~r t he
H ehoI?ohs Sportmg Club distingui sh ed him self by
knockll1g up 85 ~ot ou t (includin g six fours in one
over) .. Th 3 tenl1ls oourt s have been w ell patronised
a nd fl'lendly mat ches awl all Ameri ca n to urn il m ent
haye becn played. Special mention mu st be made
of th e Rr.a isewol'thy efforts of thre e of ou r detachmel;t in tl:e 1-\ rnw tenni s Champion shi ps of E qypt.
S / Sgts. q-ll es a nd Deeble reached the s(> m ifinn ls o f
the ha l1?l cap sin gles and S j Sgts. T asl< er a nd Giles
th e sell1l--fin als of t he h a ndicap doubles.
If we fo ll ow th e exampl e of t he ' Egyptia n 1\![ail'
anoth er Item comes un.del' the hea ding of sportMr~. GIle ' and Mrs. FlIln h ave prou dly presented
th eIr husbands with baby dau ghters.
.
Arrivals .-The follow in O' have been w elcomed
durin g th.e. qua rter:- S .Q.M.S. Mason. Sergts . McQu a de, Pll1k , Punter , vVilliams , B ewick a nd ' iVood
thorpe, a nd Cpls. Curri e, D avies and Maule from
l .K. L j Sgts. Bl a~k and ~arch from t heir holid ay
(temporary dllt,y) 111 Palestme, and Corpl. Bannister. first from U.K . a nd la. t er from Pal estin e.
Oepartures.-S.Q..M.S . Roberts , J. and S.Q,.M.S.
R ankin g, to pension. They are both big Effenclis
i'l E gypt now .
S / Sgt. L ew is to Moa scar , and 8 / SgL TTalJ ett.
TaJ)])end en , Hillin g and Morris an I Sergt. Hill to
U. K
,Q.M.8. R oberts , A .. 8.Q.M.8. Swnn n . S j Sgt.
B ?ckw ell and Sergt. Bl ackw ell ha ye been ordered

EGYPT.

Half-wa y thro u gh t he quarter a rouO'h draft of

our Office notes commell ced- " Th e g re~.t even t ill
our usua lly qUl et , l'eposeful( ?) lives has been th e
moye of the . Sergeant s' Mess fro m Ab bassia to
Rehopohs- " but sin ce t hen other stirrin O' thilJ O's
haye happen ed.
0
0
Egypt has been mad e a foul' years ' st.ation , and
~ lthough .a few hardened ca mpai gners g reeted t he
cha ~lge ~Ith dol eful sIg hs t he great m ajority of us
\\ ele very . thankful. Th e lure of the mysteriou s E ast
18 very m ce-If o ne discovers exact ly what it isb ut four years of it is qui.te lon g ell0ug h for most
people . Som e wag once ~a\d that t h e finest view of
Eg;ypt co uld be obtained from the stern of a troopE ~IP and many of t hose who are now due to 0'0 hom e
a tt er four years of emergencies, will agree ;ith him:
. Then, to cr?wn everything, t he n ews fl ash ed
'through that sixteen sergeants ill E gyp t ha d been
promoted to Staff sergeants hom the 1st May. The
lucky. SIx teen knew what to do-they ol'gaim;ed a
com? lI1 ed celebratIOn 111 th e Mess with all du e speed,
b u t It was rather emba rl'assll1g for t he officers and
"erg~a n t. m ajors.
At first each of t hem carried a
nomll1al roll of tl~e s.ixteen wherever t hey went, to
ensure that the dIgl1l ty of t he newly promoted was
not, outraged by add resslll g t l: em in th eir old r a nk ,
b u t I;OW t hey have, co mp romised by ca llin g everyone Sta ff sergea nt and ha ye ma d e verv few mistakes. Of course, there are a few ser;ean ts left
and .they seem to be agreed that th e~T are n o ~
defi mtely 111 t h e o ppressed class, bu t th er e would
a ppear to be no truth in the rumour that th ey are
applYll1g for protection.
To h ark back t.o t h e move of the Staff Sergea nt ssorry, t he ,Se_rgea nts' Mess. For t h e benefit of t hose
who have .been a nd gone, ,o thers who hope to come
here. or WIll come her e in any case, and also for our
Re~lmental P a y Offi ce staff-who a re still hopin g
aga m st. hope that some d ay t hey will dod ge th e
~~l~ of dut.y fo~ 10.ng en ough to pay the place a fl yin g
vI?It----a deSCriptIOn of our new hom e-from -h om e
~m~ht be wel come. Situated in Shal'i Mohamed Aly,
It IS. a bungalowtype Cream and white v illa in quite
spaclOU S ground s. There is a large verand a h at. t he
front ent~'ance and, in sid e, an entra n ce h all , a dininO'
room wh Ich is c~ n verted to a ladi es' lounge in t h~
evenmgs, a readlllg room. a room for m en onl y"ery handy to the. bar and complete with big round
table a nd poker dIce 1 ox-a billiard roon1. ki tchen.
a sm all room for t he 'Honorary Bo ab ' a nd of
course, a bar . . ~h e bar is simila r to every o't,her
bar . bu t t he bIlliard room is unique. Two room s
h~,d. to be converted to one to accommodate t h e
b llhard table and a pillar, to pl'ov id e addi tion al sunport l.lad to be erected . Players in t h e region of
t h e pIll ar u s~ a very short cue, or a fountain pen
or a few un.kmd words. Th ere a re occasi,o ns when a
door or a wll1dow must be open ed to allow a stroke to
be ta ken , but .despite. these little handicap. everyone
ap pears to enJo y t heir gam.es.
At J?reseut t here are no facilities for dancing bu1;
t h ere IS ample space for a n outdoor fl oo r to be laid
?own and it is probable t hat one ,,-ill be con stru cted
111 t h.e neal' fut.ul'e. The garden is .i deal fo r SLlmm er
eve llln gs :md ah ea dv umbrellas. tables and cha irs
h;tye been purchased a nd se t out. Th ere are plenty
of palms and other trees-e\' en one 01' two ora n O'e
trees t o deli gh t th e eye ;)f the kiddies- anrl fl ow~r_

"'e

88

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

to hold them sel ves in readin e. s to proceed t,o Bli gh ty

and by t,he t ime t hese not es appear t hey w ill prob
ably be wrestlin g with the acco nn t.s of 10,000 militiamen each .
GIBRALTAR.

General.-Our little fortr ess a nd garrison is \\' ell

to the fore these days , a nd is so \\'ell in t he public
eye t hat to record in these notes anythin g r elatin g
to our recent happenin gs would be rather in the
natu re of holdin g an inqu est. H owever, perhap s
our reader s in other Stations , at Home or Abroad,
may ca re to know t ha.t despite yariou s alarm s a nd
excursions we ar e still to be fopnd ca rrying -on Yery
m uch the same as usual.
Poss ibly t he same read ers may h<lve seen it m en
tioned in th e Da,ily Press that permanent bom bproof A.R.P. sh elter s ar e being provided here.
_'\.ct uall y the se are being drilled out of solid ro ck
(of which we haye quite a considerable quantity
here) : a nd so our day s ar e n ow being marked by a
con inn al succession of pneumati c-drill noises pun ct uated by series of explosion s fr om bl as ting op erat ions, cloud s ' of dust a nd occasi'O nal missiles in the
fo rm of chunk s of rock. To add to the din , the
Gunners are busy wit l] various shoots of A .A.,
li gh t, medium , heavy i'1l1d oth er stuff. But ,,-h y
worry even if a piece of rock weighin g 3 Ibs. com es
in to S.S.M. Pi all's q ua rl.C'r t hrou gh t he sk yli ght
wit.hout warning and unillvited .
personalia.-Throu gh variou s en tries in the
Gazette a nd in Corps Ord ers we've been k ept very
b usy of late amendin g t h c " Yellow P eril"; a nd
t hose of our number who ha\'e in t he past ma inta in ed char ts of "probab hs a nd possib les " 11a \,e
given th em. up as being quiU~ . beyond them. <lncl
are (h owever dimly) b eg innin~ to appreciate a few
of 1'.he problems t hat 'Record s' have to con te nd with.
Trul y t hese are mov in g tim es ; and we a. re yery
pleased to see the advan cement of man y old fri ends
in ma llY Stations: for ou r ~e]y es we record with
plea.sure t he following c<lsualti es, to wit.:Promotion to ' N.O. I ... of S.Q.M.S. Prowse, a nd
Promotion to Staff Ser gea nt . . . of Sergeants
H ornb y a nd B edford , and
Promotio n to SergeaHt ... of L j Sgt . Shields and,
may we add , we' ve celebrrlted th e sa me in th 2 usual
fitt in g m;umel'.
Our strength has been in crr.ased b y th e ani" nl
of COI.pl. Dodd s from " ' a rI ey, who cam e as a
Tesult of t he postin g of t,he 1st Bat talion Th e YVelsh
Guards t o t he Garri so n, and we wi sh him a hnpp u
tour.
I1'1ove3 a re oft co nt in gent up-on promotion .
Already we ha ve lea rn t that S .S.1\I1. Piall is to be
return ed t o U.K. in t h e fir t half of t.h e next trooping seaso n, and \ve are now wond erin g wh ether a
simi lar fate is in sto re for so me of t he seco nd dh'i
sion a nd, if so , who will b e the lu cky lads .
Sin ce our last, notes \\' ere pen ned, our t,empor <ll'Y
bachelors have all been :ioin ed by t h eir fam ili es , and
t j1 e latter a re now in th e pro cess of becom ing ncclim at ized . May they eachand all enjoy t.heir- stay
on t he Hock.
Sport.- Des pi te pressu re of work , et c .. we mallaged to run onr first T enni s "At Hom e" t hi s yea r
during Tv[ar ch. wh ich W:1 S enj oyed by all present.
Th e C<l lpe League whi ch i run durin g th e win ter

PAY

CORPS

J OU RNAL

. easo n wa won by the Ci\'i1i a,] Club . "A" Court

bein g r unner s- u p:' S.S.1I'1. Pl'ow se ' a nd S j Sgt,.
H orn by played 'for t he la tter during t he season .
Th e Sen ior L eag ue whi ch runs during t he summ er
has just commen ced. Thi s L eague consists of teams
of 4 ' ''. O' s. and Sergts. from eilch 'C ni t or Corps
011 the Rock.
e have entered a team t hat,
th l'ough ch a nges o[ Staff, is r at her weak er thalJ was
last year'f;, and so om' sco re t.o dat.e is rath er too
modest for publication .
Th e Comm and Payma,ster wo n the long dri v ing
compet,ition of the Gi braltar Golf Club wit h a nud ge
of 265 yards.
:Miss Pru e Bri ckman won the Carrara Cup f()l'
t he lad ies' flat r ace at the Gibralt ar Gymkhana on
her horse :\[arin o. Marino later WOI) a fi ve furlong
ra ce at a Medit erranean Hace Club Aeet.ing with
Alonzo up, payin g 20 to 1 on th e Tote.
RiHe Club .-The season in which the .22 League
fun ction s petered out more or less in conclusively
ow in g t o training , unit 1ll0\' es and other odds and
ends that tend to m ak e life merry: so we' ll d raw' a
discreet veil over our po.-;it ion on" the League 's roll.
Perhaps with ou r new blood , and a bit more practice
(shall we ever find t im e for it?) we 'll rise to a
higher pl a ne next year.
Social.-The demand upon a ccommodation consequent upon t he increased str ength of our Garrison
has given rise (0 a rumour that we might possibly
hav e to give up our Mess premise. Thank goodness
so fa l' it still remains a rumonr, and t hat we still
sur vive: but with the advent of summer we have
redu ced t he num ber of nights of openin g to some
t.wo or t h-ree . per week 'l.c.\prdiug to circum stances
-and "a Spade with a Di e."~ is still the most popula r
c:1 11 (alway s exceptill g, 0 1' course, that. made by t,he
first one out when h e tries t o attract t he aM,ention
of t he waiter or caterer) .

,,7

HONG KONG.
News of thi s pa r t of the emp ire h aye been 111lSSll1g
for two editioll s ow ing to th e d eparture of our brilliant journalist w ho , havin g deYeloped the final
stages of " T rooperit is", departed for hom e in J anuary last. " P ressu re of \yo rk " has l' een th e main
reason for lack of volunteer s to r epla ce him .
A few ch a nges, and som e un expected, have taken
place in our mid st. Om very popular _,\, C.P.-?vla jor
F. T. B ain es-was sudd enlv recall ed on promotion
t,o Lieut,.-Col. V.l e co ng rat'ulate and offer our condolence-t.h e lat t er will ua mor? appa r ent, when he
fi nd s him self wOl'kinll in P erth with t he present
be>yild ering ch <l nges t hru st upon him. \Ne dou?ly
cong ratul ate S .Q.:\I.S. Bl'adshaw-on hi s prolllotlO.n
to S.S.M. and being ordered hom e a yea r before hIS
t im e. U nfort. unatelv in :\Iarch it \\' ;s fo und necessary t.o invali d hOllle Sergeant ' Vatts. Now Sergeant Carter is also to be invalided a nd is expected
to leave earlv next month . \A7e extend sin cer e hopes
for t.h eir s pee d~T r ecQvel'vin t h e Un it,ed Kingdom .
A few week ago Colonel a nd :?IIr ' R.ogers ente rta in ed the D eta cl1ment and a wh ist dri\-e W "R h '3 ld ,
t h er eby ellabli!lg nIl famili es to become acq uainte:l.
parti c t~ l al'ly t,h e~ rec 211 t rlrrivals. P erh illJS th is .,,:ill
be uncl el'st.oocl beUer if it is explaHl ed t.hat. filmlll es
in Hon g Kon g a r e :3catter ed on. both isl<l nd ann
mainlan d anclmil es apa r t so that Il1 t.he normal way

89

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a family c.oul<;l . easily spend a tour without m eetin g

all other fam:hes of the same Detachment. A ve ry
pleasant evell lllg was enjoyed and Mrs. Rogers presented some excell ent prizes.

CORPS

JOURNAL

fillin g the ho le with sa nd . Th e r esult, a good t enniquoIt court where we ca n redu ce our waist lines at
le~ ? u re. On ly the tenacity of our Foreman (Sergt
WInch) , compl ~te with topi in the true local sty le'
and the short-sIghted ness of the contractor's men'
fr~m whom we "bol'l'owed" (,he sa nd , have mad~
tillS pOSSibl e. III fact we might call I't " Vi, I '
F 11 " E '
.
c.
' m C1S
k'o y .
vl.ybody has left a memonal of some
lI~d he re, gardens, plgeons, deplet.ed mess fu nd s.
an now a recreatIOn ground .
By the wav th~
pIgeon;; have left LlS. No m ore will-musical ""hirrh
of Wll1gs greet the ea rs; no longer will indi sc riminate b'Jmblllg of pay lIsts fo lios tak e pla,ce: never
aga ~n sha ll w e be disturb ed by the possibility of
ha\
t~l,elm served. up foy dillner-they'v e "bin
and gOI n '. Th e 111 a 111 tOplC of conversation these
warm days I S 'wh at' ll '. It is a comforting speech
~ltho.u gh not e~erybody in the Fort can pronounc~
It, plob.ably OWIng to long dls-use, a nd must surely
be the 1l1 troductory to. all ~he big pow-wows taking
place today.
The hi storical record s of the Fort
proves that it p.roduces a race of tough g uys, as
one of the entnes, which really should ' be commemOl:ated by a. stone tablet,i'eads, " To .beerlnC?,1llll1g draft p-l~s~res 2, Outgoing draft piastres
~47 . \iVhat a tral11lflg gro und. Speaking of trainmg: most of the detachment are practising Passive
Hall' Def~nce. So what? So what' ll vou have it
makes .hall' grow. But no joking, we a-re h av inO' a
good tlllle. All who h a ve been down h ere will testify
to that, and all who are coming down will know
?ooner or late r .. Vil hat stirring times we live in,
l11creased e~tablt shm ents contra'd by the doubling
of the. T~lTltonal Army and super contra'd by the
conscnptl-on. I envy the Corp at Home the 'thrill
they ~ot out of t h e news about the increases in the
estabh shmen t, but under no circum stances would I
volun teer to pay for the Aspros to clear the contras.
Sorry we h ave no sporting activ iti;es to talk
about , except. that Captain Haggard and Sergt.
Endacott contlllue to function in the Sma.ll D nits
Hockev T eam .. Oh! by the way, another surprise out
of t h e bag. thlS four years' station idea a nd in connection with same would somebody kindly intern
all the troopers due to leave Egypt next trooping
season, untll October'.
The Sudan disgorges its old soldi ers then. Well
as Gubbins says, "it don' arf make vel' fink'"
"
.
C heerio everybody, go,o d hunting.

Major Bates has co ntinued. to indulge in that popu'lar Vilest of Englalld sp-o rt of bowls. H e ca n be seen

111:,

partaking of. . a game at the D.S .R. C . with His

E xce;lenCJ SU' G. No:,thcote, Governor of Hong
Kon" . 1 he Area Tenllls league IS n ow in progress
and although our present team is not quite as strong
as last. year, ca used chiefly by the 10ss of the A. C . P ..
we still bope to retain the trophy although th~
Royal Engmeers have otner views. The troopship
" Du.n era" is expected on the 26th M ay and rumour
has. lt that others are expecte~ in Ju,tj and August,
~o .It, woul~ s.eem that Troopm g Tim e is all-time.
"e\'elal optImist,s who would normally leave abou t
N?vember or December next are confident that they
WIll leave 111 July and August. Some of us who
have ~ l~:mg tin:e to go, are brutally and Loudly
pesslmls~lc. V:sltors to t he Pay Office are surprised
~o see nfle, tnpod and targets in evidence but it
IS not part of the D efence Scheme or a War Scare
but merely the Detachment taking very seriou sl v
the ~n~ua I musketry course, du e to be fired in a fe;"
days tIme. Some of the younger. members, alth ough
enthUSIastiC tners, have expressed a very d ecided
preferen ce f,o r 9.2" guns.
E.B.S.

WE KNOW
(With apolo gies to Shrewsb ury) .

Vile know where a ll the flies 0'0

When the winter time is h ere, '"
VIl e know that all the t hin gs ca lled be t
Commence and end with beer
\ iV e know a lot of things in fa ct
But we're compell ed to murmur.
\iVe don~t know where that pJ::ice lS
Known as Burma and , or Burma.
Vile know that every J ekvll
Very close by has H yde,
We know most fruit abroad
I s very nice and red inside,
Vile know how many beans make five
But we're compelled to squirm a
Little at the fact that we don't know
'Vhere lies Burma and , or Burm a.

KHARTOUM.
Well, my f riends, time march es on. And a good
job , too I
In ~etween striking the days off the
calendars , COUlltlllg the trains that pass the Fort
and o~e's money-no adding machine needed fo;'
tha.t-It do~s pas.s reasonably well. We hav e had ;),
whIrl of gaiety Sll1ce the last "Notes" were sent in
just digging up the square-a well metalled one , and

90

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J OllRNAL

had a few changes h ere dLUing the last quart e r and

it would pl'obably be a::l well if I stopped rambling
and got a t nfle niOre chatty about the local lads.
Singapore has , amongst uther things, a harbolll' of
fa irish size a nd as you m ay ha ve also heard a Kaval
Base, wh ich sho uld immediately indicate to one of
the thinking type t he fact that t h ere is a certain
amount of liquicl in the vicinity, and ships (million s
of ' em, readers) put into the harbour sometim es
w ith a v iew to dropp ing off a spot of fre ight and
a n occasional pass en ger. Some few wee ks ago a
bea uti f ul whiLe steamer, tastef ully decora,t ed w ith a
broad blue band, designated b y th e lo wer substrata as "Trooper" , to wit the H.T. " Lancashire",
ca lled here a nd p laced w it h extreme care on the
q ua y -side lots of baggage a nd several members of
our Corps who a r e now Hut'chasin g cures for pri ckly
heat a nd all th e oth e r ailm ents mentioned in one
of t he other s ub-pa ra graphs a nd wond ering just
when a ll this ere work is goin g to give over. The
fortunat e few are: - Capta in Burne. Captain Bu ck ,
L j Sgt . .Johnston , CpI. Stack and CpI. Alexander,
and we assu re a ll those thev have left. behind that
Singapore is to their li kin g -or rath er will be wh en
the v\fork dies clown and t hey g et tim e to look
a ronnd . Furt her to t hi s w e all exte nd to t h em a
h earty welcome and w is h t h em three very pleasant
years in th is Colon y.
Amon gst the articles coming under t h e headin g
of frei ght landed from H.T. " Lan cashire" was a
vehicle strongly r esembling a cross b etween a
Count,v Class Crui ser an d a Puss 1\1oth and iny est.igabon' proved it t.o be t h e car belonging to Captain
Bm'ne which was mentioned in last qu a rter '
\i'iloking Notes . \i'iTe agree with t h e \i'iToking representa tiy e that it rea ll y i worth v of mention a nd if
loo ks are <1 nyt.h ing to go by it should produce at
least one hUlldred miles per hour in second. Captain
Burne ha s left his motor bike at home and we wish
to assure the \ i'i1oking offi ce t h at t h ere is no tr uth
in the rumour which circu lated to the effect that h e
was ,f ittin g a spare p<1il' of h and lebars to his car
so as t o keep in to nch with the motor cyclin g
world.
,
And \\'hil st, on the ubject of ca rs I might mention two of thc lea ders of our brighter social set.
"Duke" Fraser and "1\ [ik e" i\i(onks , who went for a
car rid e with a me mber of the Police Forc ~ and
ye ry nearly ca me to a sticky end. It appea rs that
the driver wis h ed to d emonstrate to his soldier
fr ien ds iu st what hi s ca r would do and as th e soeedometer . regis tered somewhere abou t the two hun dred mark a bend wh ich an unthinl;ing Slll'l-eV deparl,noen t placed ill t.h e road would per~i st. an~l t he
car turned over several times a nd fold ed up lik e a
closed com pany account. The occuqants -made a
for ced landin g on t,he g rass ve rge by \Y ll Y of th e
" Sun shin e Roof" and escaped without a scra t ch .
and we b eli e"e t hat M essr s. :Monks and Fraser are
now col];lbor:lt ing over th e cOIl1{:)os ition or a noyel
en tit.1 ed " .\ I'o und t h e \i'iTorld in Sev en Se cond ' ''.
\i'iihen t h e H.T. " Lan c;]s hire" ' ailea for England
after the u su<l l trip t.o HOll ,?: J( ong . t\\'o " erv popular J11.embe rs of the Detachm ent grace d h er decL in
Major lVrilling a nd St<lff Sel'g:ea-nt, Hewitt and we
wer e nll yerv sor ry [.0 see t h em go . The officers
and t heir famili es did their bes t to give Major
Milling a good send-off. whi ch cO ll sisted of a dinn el'

\lVe know t hat every egg ' s a Lird

If it's well and truly laid,
\"ie know it's gorgeous in Khartoulll
If you stay within the shade,
Vile know there' s stirring times to come
For personnel of t he Corps,
But we do not know wher'e lieth
Burm a and, and Burma 01' .
"EL TABIA " .
MALAYA .
It is with a s udeit of sorrow a nd extren; e r eg ret
r eaders of thi s, our n..A.P. C. Journai, t h at ] sit once
again (I've been doillg th i:; job off' and on for the
years) facing the k eyboard of "Typewriters Oli ver
One " trying to manufact ure brick.s wi t hout stl'nw,
deploring t h e amount of work we ba ve to do, s hould
do , don't want to do and actually do; borillg a long
sufferin g Ed ito r a ud Staff with t h e usual tirade
abo u t lack of ne ws a nd unh appy in the kllowleclge
t ha t I promised the aforesaid Editor some th ree
months ago that I wo uld try and curb my distorted
sense of humour and forward son' ethin g really meritOl'iolU; and sensib le for a change. However, as
halldin g t his job ove r i,-, ha rd e r, or rather takes
IJonger than making Staff Sergeants, perhap it would
be politic to cut out a ny furt her apolo gies and pruceed in our most serious vein.
You know , ta kin g everythin g into consideration
life in Singapore is not so mu ch different to that
in the "Old Country " 01' ind eed any oth er part be
cau se after a ll , whil st yOLl peoRle who are fortunat e
or unfortunate (it nU depends on your point of view)
to be station ed in England spe nd lots of t im e tryi ng
to cure cou g hs, colds, influ enza and allied ailm ents
common to a n inclement climate, w e spend a proportionate amount of our time fu ss in g over pri ckly
h eat, mosquito bites and D.T 's. , to sa.y nothing
about bours und er t he sh ower hop in g against hope
t h at a spot or two of co ld fluid will indu ce some of
the large r h eat bumps to di sappear temporarily.
Then, whil st lots of peo ple ill Europe get bit t en
by dogs, lots more in t hi colollv mak e inadv ert ent
c.ontact with s na k es , whi ch goes to proy e th at
trouLl es fo llow one wh e r ~ ver one goes, whi ch als)
brIn gs trouble and work into the sa me cateO'orv .
But no, after ca ref'ul 'o ll sidel'ation perha~)s 'T had
better to some extent ame nd that statem ent to t he
effect that things at Home a re not so different, a,
we kee l) 011 hea" in g about a th in g call ed CRlSIS
and hav e on occas ion e \'en seen the word in print
(so have the StatlOne ry Offi ce, judgin g by th e number of amendm ellt,s we get) a nd furt.h er to that we
h ave look ed t he word HI in a rep utabl e d ictionarv
whi ch state' that. "c ri i " indi cat'es the point wh e;1
an affaIr h a'3 a l'l'1\'ed at it s h eight , and m ust soon
1mdergo :l cha n ge for better 0 1' worse. All t his
just goes to prove t hat our JOL11'11alistic Johnnies
don' t sa ,\y t h e m ea nin g of the word b ecause J ask
you-has tbe re been a ny chang:e? J e xpect that,
some of you R.A.P .C. oersonnel in Blighty r ega rd
t ~'l e expans' on of the T erl'i tOl'ial Army , Co nscrilJ'
tlOn, \..R,.P. ;'Jnd th e fouucJing of tll ese new fangl ed
Corps as a chan ge, but aft.e r all "wha t's a spot of
work betw.E'en friends" a nd even in Singapo:re w e
h ave Volunt eer s. ;] ga rr ison tha t in cr eases b"
"heaps .and pouncls"-ancl overtime I
J
And talkin'g of Sill gat~o re l' m in ds m e (t,hat' s w hat
t h ese no tes are about-o r :l re they?) t liat we ha ve

91
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PAY

party at the Colonel 's residence .at Alexandra followed by a spot of dancing at R a ffles Hotel' and;
as the show at Raffles finished at midnight, whicJi
~~a s much t~o e~rly, . the party adjourned to the
Smgapore SWI!'n mmg. Club, and finally closed down at
a very ea~'ly hour. MaL~Ii~ling, however, appeared on
boar~ ship at the appoll1ted time, properly dressed
and m hl.s l'l~ht mind , which goes to prove .that
lus tour 111 Smgapore d id not do him any harm .
Staff Sergeant Hewitt known to the mess as" 'Wally'
also proved to us t.hat he ca n take it and made' a
perfectly so ber survey of Sin gapore Harbour as the
boat. left the q nay .side.
. Continuing Ollr " Travelta.Jk" section I must mentlOn the departure of our li ghtweight champion ,
Lance-Sergeant JIJ1111lle J ames, a nd that versa tile
~rt.ist , Sergeant BI'<Jadsmitb, who travelled home
111 luxury by the H . '1'. "Ettrick" and take with them
the good wishes of not only the detachment but the
entire Garl'is<?n Sergeants"lV~e~s: And now I might
as well m~ntlOn a spot of cIv IlIan travel, bringing
to the n,otlce of a,n m~d sundry the fact that :Major
Burgess s son paid hIS fat.her a flying visit from
En~land and, a.ft.er. putting in. a few weeks' sightseemg ll1 this VICllllty, made hiS way back to Aden
bJ' Sampan, foul me~ns to Port &'lid and finally
sailed from Port Said per s.s. "Strathaird" for
London N.W.I.

CORPS

J OURNAL

If Sergea ll t Bakers' sbort of uew s

H e is quite welcome this to use
'
And while it is not up to scrat, ~ h
It may help him in his next match
And save him from a fit of dumps '
'W hen taking P?se behind th e stumps,
He may not thmk that this is cricket
But knowin g me he'll try to stick it
And as I now could do' a doze
'
I'll bring this innings to a clo~e ,
I feel I m ust add one thing more .
Reg.ards to friends in Sin gapore. '
Some two years ag.o we received ;1 parcel of
A.F.A. 28's from the Army Forms Departm ent and
as we had forgotten just what, these forms are used
for dumped them away at the back of the sto re.
Sergeant "Jock" L awso n, how ever, must have spot
ted these as Mrs. Lawson presented him with a son
on the 26th March.
'\iVe congratula te "Jock" and Mrs. La II'son on this
increase in es~ablishlllent and wish to inform you all
th at the part.Jes concerned are fightinD' fit and " in
the pink" .
0
~nd now w.e arrive at the merry month of May
wlll ch has tIllS year proved to b e an exceedingly
merry one for some of our detachm ent.. Onlv this
mornin g the 'War Office notified us of the "erownin g" of fiv e Queen's in the SinD'apore Deta chm ent
which means that we congratul~te St:1ff Sergeants
Chapp~ll, Laws0!l, Johnson , '\iVilson and Humphreys
on theIr promotlOn to that exalted tank. This has
come as a very pleasant surprise to us all ~ nd we
feel that it. is just about time, . as we have seen the
memb ers of <other Corps beinD'
promoted at an amazO
i~g rate during the last two years a,nd were beginnmg to won~er just ~hen recognition was coming
our way and It really IS o'wr wa.y-or that's how this
detachm ent feels about it.
Finally. I have to report an in crease in t,he establi shn 1 ent of the Singapore Scottish caused by the
joining of Lan ceSergeant John son , Corporals 'S tack
and Alexand er from t h e United Kingdom and Ma ster
David Lawson in Singapore. All these members are
flourishing and hope to attend the next St. George's
Day Dinner in Singapore as guests of the Sasse nach's
because. ;1fter all, roast beef is much better th an
nothing at all.
Seven probationers have joined us here during the
last wp,ek ill1d all are devouring those regulations
you and I have amended so many t im es av idly. with
a view to passing into the Corps and using t,h e red
pencil in li eu of t h e trench mortar. The selected
seven are Gunners Curran. Millard and '\Vharton of
the Royal Artillery and Privates Herb ert. lVIann ion
John son and Owen of the Loyal R egiment. VIle
hope to see them .a ll fhin g Cmps Colours in due
course.
An exhausted . office representative now closes
down with a sigh of l'eli ef for another three months.
"DEBITS" .

S.Q.M.S. Tarrant, section lead er, motor cycling

enthus13st and speed kmg, proposes to leave us in
the near future to take up a post as expense store
a~collntant i~ Hong Kon~ and we all hope that he
~Ill . ~n~ ,the Job of .ch~cklI1g up on "sheets, married
"amlhes and electrIc lIght bulbs a little less ard uous
than his present one of wrestling with the London
System. Our Harold has both w.o rked and played
h~rd ~ere a.nd we feel that he has earned a good
bIllet IJ1 "Cn 7 vy Street" and hope he gets it.
._4no~h~r

on e of our Regimental Stahvarts-C;1pvVllliams-has "gone on tour" a nd , after eighteen

month s of l abol~r has deCIded to live a lazy life of
leave at Port Dlckson, some four hundred miles up
the coast from here for the next two weeks or so
and will no doubt come back to the office in due
course wit~ all his regulations amended Ull to da te
- we hope .
.

t.:'1.ID

A l et~er has just ~een received from "Clovelly",

Port DlCkson enclosll1g the following effort. VV c
feel that the sea air is doing the Captain good and
suspect that he may be seeking a trial with the
" Rhythm Boys" in the near future.
The shades of night were falling fast,
As throu.gh Port Dickson slowly passed,
A car wlth occul~ants like jelly,
Who kept on askmg for Clovelly.
A t last wh en all was dark as night,
The bungalow appeared in sight,
And were we glad I tell yon, Sir!
..\ not her mile we could not stir.

PALESTINE.

Once again the Quarter calls for act ion on my part

to let the rest of the Corps know what has been
happenin g with us in .J erus~d em. It. seems a long
time, a whole three months, in which to collect
some items of interest to pen, yet I'm afraid that

But flOW you kllow that all is well

Or else this tale J could not tell.
I make no claim to copyright .
And hop~ yot) wiJl not get a fright.

92

THE

R OYAL

ARMY PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL
---------:,.--

appears in print we hope that he will have succeeded with his Class li, and become a regular
member of the Corp's.
,\Ve extend a hearty welcome to our new arrivals,
Pte. A. Snowden, 2nd Bn. The"Black ,\iVatch, Sigm.
-J . Soady, R Signa ls, Pte J. Wj\son, 2nd Bn. The
Highland Light Infantry , and Dv-r. R F. White,
B.A.S.C. , who arrived on 1st, 3rd; .6th , and 8th
May, 1939, respectively, with a \Iievi to transferring
to the Corps. H ere's wishing t.hem all a pleasant
tour of duty an d succe3S. It appears that they will
have to reli eve Sgts. Pullin and A\'ery, and L j Sgts.
Johnstone and Scola, who are going home in the
nea r future.
.
Football.- We hav e now completed the fixture list,
fini shing next to the bottom (we should !Ja\'e been
one place higher, if the XI Hussars had not gone
away). Although not a brilliant performar:ce, we
had the satisfaction o()f beating the runners-up once.
The league was won by the 2'nd Bn. The Black vVatch,
who also won the Chancellor Cup Competition. Vi e
replayed " D" Company 2nd Bn. The Black Watch
in the Small Units Cup Competition but were beaten
1-0, although it is gratifying to see them in the
final of this com petition, the play-off taking place
on Saturday. 20th May, aga.inst the R.A.F.
Cricket.- Up to date we have played t.hree games,
the first against the Y.M.C.A. which we lo st by
102 runs. The Y.M C.A. scored 218 against our 116.
This, of course, bein g the first game found everyone
unprepared and out of practice. ViTe should , however , man age to find a \'ery good team, ha \'ing a
numb er of outstanding performers.
Our second game wa;; an inter-office match , the
Command versus Regimental. Regimental won by
10 1'1ll1S after a very keen game.

this period seems particularly devoid of new s. Ho wever, there are one or two items of note, so here
goes.
On 12th .A pril, 1939 we bade farewell to L j Sgts.
J. K. Black, J . T. Marsh and Cpl. F. C. Bannister,
who left us rather hurriedly after a very short
sojourn in Jerusalem. They returned to Egypt with
their respective units, 'who had been iu Palestine on
temporary duty. It was a matter of from one sit uation to another, however, the atmosphere to which
they went has fortunately not developed so badly as
was anticipated. Their short, sta,y in Palestine,
altho ugh restri cted to the precautionary measures
that we in Pa.lestine have to put up with , must ha\'e
some co nsolations, as L j Sgt. Black was desirous of
remainin g here. However, to all three, we wish the
best of luck and happy times with their " old
love".
L jSgt. J. Duckworth left us in the same fashion;
h e had practica.lly less than 24 hours in which to pa ck
up, say goodbye, etc. He returned to Malta after
temporary duty here, leavin g Haifa per H.T.
"Dunera" on 30th March, 1939. He seemed to be
in quite good spirits when he left, and we hope that
that will be the case in Malta.
lt was with no little regret that we bade farewell
to Sgt. J. Stevenson who embarked at H aifa per
H.T . " Dunel'a" on 22nd March, 1939, for posting to
London, en route to "Civvy Street" . ,\Ve were given
to understa.nd, however, tha,t the " Dunera" refused
to go any fmther than Malta, and turned back for
the Hoyal Irish Fusiliers, and Sgt. Duckworth. How
"Steve" got home is still in the dark to some of us,
but we sincerely hope that h e will secure the job
he went home for, and settle down contentedl y for
the rest of his days.
,\Ve must, alas"! change to a sadder tone in our
notes. Cpl. D. Graham has had t.he misfortune to
be ill for the past two months. He was admitted to
the Casualty Clearing Station, Jerusalem, on or
about midnight on 14th March, 1939, suffering from
appendicitis . He had his a ppendix removed, and
proceeded to the C.o nvalescent Depot, Nathanya, on
10th. April. His convalescence was short-hved, however, as he was alSain taken ill with . a Synovit.is
knee, a nd was admitted to the RA.F. General Hospital, Sarafand ou 21st April. He has now rejoined
the office for duty, but is still limping a little . . Vie
hope that he will be A.1 ;1D'ain before 10nO'.
L / Sgts. G. Jenkinson an"'d L. Bruce al': now both
the pr.oud fathers of daught.ers. Olive J enkinson
was born ,a.t Dl'omore, Co. Down. Northern Irela.nd
on 8th March, and J ean Mary Bruce was born at
Scampston, Yorkshire, on 27th. M arch. Vife ext.end
our heartiest congratulations to them, and although
t hey were not at home for the "blessed event", th ey
appe~r to be taking life more happily than they did
prevlOusly .
More "old " soldiers appear to be stick in g their
chests out, lately. Sgts. P . Lee, and R. F. Soper,
and L jSgt. F. A. J . Searle are now in receipt, of
LONG ~ER'i:ICE and G90D CONDUCT pay after
8 years servIce. To aVOId argument. and confusion
as to who is t h e old est soldier. Sgt. Lee attained it
on 2nd March, Sgt. Soper on 27th April and L j Sgt..
Searle on 28th April.
Probationer E. J . ,\Vare, 2nd Bn. The Queen ' s
Own Royal '\Vest Kent Regiment, passed his Cla s'
nIb Trade Test on 4th March , a nd by the time this

C.P. OFFICE.
L j Sgt. Scola, c. Lee, b. Bindley ... ........ .. .. ..
Sgt. Pullin, l.b .w. b. Bindley ...... ... ....... ........
S j Sgt. Chantler, b. Bindley ...........................
S j Sgt. Lillicrap, b. Bindley ..................... ......
Ca pt. Marden, Lb . w. b. Rousseau .. .. .... .... ......
S.S.M. Scott, b . 'Pocklington ...... ..................
S / Sgt. Burnett" b. Rousseau ........................
Lt.-Col. Williams, _ not out ... _..... ... ...............
Major Daish, b.. R,oussl;l.au . .. .. ..:..................... .. .
Sgt. Soper, not out .......................................
Extras ...... .... .... ..............................

9
15
0
0
31
7
18
16
0
14
5

Tot,al (for 8 wkts. dec.) ............... 115

L j Sgts. Cox and Searle did not bat,.
RP. OFFICE.
Major Etherin gtoll, c. Pullin , b. Scola ........... .
Sgt. L ee, hit wicket..................... .................
Cpl. Bush, c. Pullin, b. Scola .. ..... .......... ... ....
Capt. Dunnill b. Scola .. ....... ...... ..................
Mr. J()hns (A.A. Staff), b. ivlarden .... ...........
Mr. Pet.ers (A.A . St-aff) , c. Burnett, b. Lillicra,p
Pte. Soady, hit wicket. .. .................
S.Q.M.S. Boggis, not out. ............... ..... ........ ..
Sgt. Bindley ........ .. .. ................ .. .................
Sgt. Pocklington ..........................................
L j Sgt. Dawson, not out.... ... .. .. .. .... .. .......... ....
Extras .... .. .......... ... ............. ...... .... ...

7
24
25
0
13
5
3
26
5
1
0
17

Total (for 10 wkt.s.) ..... .. .............. 125

93

THE

ROYAL

ARMY . PAY

C p!. Roussea u d id n ot bat.

Th e third a nd m ost r ecent game was aga in st t he
2nd .Bn. The Black iNat ch, whi ch we lost afte r declarm g at 119 for 7. wickets (S/ Sgt. Chan t ler 43).
Th e . oppon ents passIn g our sco re wit h 4 w ickets,
t he uuun gs closing.
vVe have qu ite a number of fi xtures durin g t he
season, a nd a r e now loo king fo r ward to some en joyable games, tha t ,,,hen th e a rra ngemen ts a re made
\\. e ~ h an 't be both ered w it h th at small but ,er}:
slglllfica n t phrase " R,aill stopped play " .

CORPS

JOURNAL

is sa id to p~ n e t ra t e a lmost a nyt hing: umbre.llas are

used extensIvely a nd if br ought from H om e should
be of th e strongest ty pe.
.
F or t ho' e . who ar e fo nd of da ncin g a Dinner
J acket . SUlt IS necessary , but for many t he coat
a lld waIstcoat a re rat iter too much an d a- t hin whi te
lllle" sh ell jacket is s ub stit u ted .
S~ft s hil tS a re bettel' broug h t out fro m H ome and
as t ne La un dry cann ot la u nder collars as is usually
eX[Jected, It IS as well to have a s upply of new ones .
PY.l a mcLs s hould Iile of t h e thin vari ety.
. Ther e is a ~o lf Course (12 holes) ahou t six miles
frOl;l Tower ~111 at Luml ey Beach , a ph oto of whi ch
IS ~ Il ow n , whI ch IS an excell ent spot, and fro m t he
Clu b H ous::! one ca n bathe in a wond erful bav whose
sandy bfac h stretches for som e two a nc( a h a lf
~11II e~. Very good bathin g can be ha d here b ut it
IS not co ns lc.lered safe to venture ou t far on acco un t
of ~h~ ha rk s a nd other dan ge rous fi sh . Th e su bscnp t lons to t he Golf Club a r e 1 on en.try and
10/ -. per mo nt h for play m g m emb ers. F or nonplaym g mem bel'S t he subsc rip t ions a re half of t hose
The "Greens"
shown fo r t h e playin g m embers.
<' r e not of grass b ut of a ha rd baked cInv kind of
SOlI wit h a coat ill g of sand to keen t h e b-all dow n.
There a r e sel'e ['.<l l tenni s cour ts~ one at Towel'
!-lill. a nd at least six at t he Freet~w n Clu b . w hi ch
IS a lm ost opposite t he Governor's Residenc'e Fo r t
T horn tol1, a nd abo ut 4CO yards fro m th e Bal:racks .
A ll members of t. he Sergeants' Mess are member s
of the F reetown Club .
S ho)1l cl one lik e wicker-work , some ver v excellell t cha irs a nd sma.ll tables can be p urchased a
M a '.lelra fo t' 1'Ipn roxlm ately 4/ - each .
T hese of
cou rse, <lre not duty free b u t ar e us uall v let in' for
abo u t Bd. each :ts ch airs here are ve ry exnensive
.a nd not, of a ver y choice pattern, so on e fee ls quit e
satIsfi ed w!t h t heir purchase.
Th ere ar e two so-called H otels h ere b u t t hese a r e
very t hirdrate and are not patro ni sed mu ch b y t he
pe rso nn el of the Garriso n. Th e Clu bs, with -t heir
w hist clr'i ves. dances , etc., are t he attraction and
n'a n y eni oyable tim es are had.
'
IVe h a ve to repor t that the 'U nited Services
Free tow n. Footba lf Leag ue' has just come in to being
t h ro u gh t he effor ts of our very ener getic Lieu tena nt,
(L R E. i'd.) who is a lso our Spor t s Officer . H e
takes a great inte rest in all SIJ01' ts fo r th e Troops
a. nd has mod elled this Footba ll L ea gue on t he lin es
of t h p one in his H on'e Town (CUD -winners. 1939).
Ser gea nt Mo rTell has been r oneel in (m o r ~ 01' lessr atller m or e th a n le':;s ) and olavs left. back . Th ough
left-ba,ck, he i not behi nd as . so fa r . h p. has not
beell dropped f rom t he Ga rr iso n H f-!:ldqua l' ter s'
team . It is hoped t ha t h e will not be overcome b,v
t h e excitem ent of the mo m ent w hen nlavin g and
s uddenly, rememberin g hi s Dol' et :l nd B..ko.C'.
R ugby days , gather t he ba ]] to his a mDle bOS0111 <l nd
score a t ry : fo r no matter how ha r d h e 'houl d t r v .
a try i not co nside red cri cket in footb,d1. For
myse lf, I do nothin g mo re excili nq t lliln a few w:l lk s
on t he Beach a nd a rounel of 00lf 01' two. when
t hese two sports a re possible. but in sp ite of whi ch
I seem to have IJu t 011 m ore th <1 n 'l. st one in we iQ:h t
du r in g th e last- six mo nth s.
I am not certa in
whet h er it i t.h e walks . the golf. t he 11eat. or t h e
liq ui d refres hment w hi ch h as caused thi s-possiblv
it is t he good fee di ng .
T he d ay here com m ences at 6. ~ 0 a ./I'I . wh en eye t'V-

SHANGHAI.
S~lt;t,ati o n s ho m t he Sh angha i Seven t
iii1e have sent no news f r?l1I t his sta t,ion late ly
because t here has been 1l0thll1 g to record L iyin oas \\Oe do in an In tern ational Settlemen t ~e hold ~
fi nger on t he lip w hen a n in ciden t occurs. a nd hear
tl~e w hole affa ir reported, w it h Yariatio;ls on t he
cur. Those l'eaders who have served out h ere since
" T he Tro uble" know t hat the onl y possible ou ti n owould be a co untry wa lk. w it h. a- peg . fi xed fi rmly
t o t he nose, along t he bar bed wIre P erI mete r. T hu s
we play a li ttle Badm into n , T ennis a nd D a r ts as
part of th e A rea Details.
. iNe shou!d like to co ngr at ulate S.S oM. H oward on
IllS pr omotIOn and to wish M rs. H oward a nd hi mself
good .~lealt h a nd a. pleasan t to ur in H ong K ong.
H~ w ~ l l soon be scuhn g, a nd we sha ll be the S ha n 0-ha I SIX.
b
0

SIERRA LEONE.

Th e l ~st m a il from H ome br ough t us . a mongs t

ot her thm gs, a n ote from t he E ditors of t he J ou rna l
r em ind ing us t hat con trib u t ions for th e next issue
m ust be sen t in by t he 20t h May.
Well, t~ e.re seems to be qu ite a- lot we could say,
bu t t he VISIOn of a CoPY of Lhe Offi cial Sec rets Act
h.<1s defini tely pu t us off . Th e hest we ca n do t hi s
tlI?e, t her efore, will be to t ry and g ive som e info rmatlOn for t h e benefi t of t hose w ho eve ntually fin d
t hen' selves on t he list for this 'Garden of Ede n '
F irstly let me say th at &11 Darcels from H011l~
are held by th e Post Office on behalf of t he Customs,
and ther efor e, before one ca n coll ect a v isit to t he
P ost Office is neces al':v in ord er t h at'th e parcel may
be opened by t he addressee . an d t he value of t lw
contents . pl us postacre. be assessed for C usto ms
D uty. Thi s D utv is now assessed at 16 %, but does
not app l'( to parcel. or packageS a d d ressed to M ilitary U mts or Fo rmations as t h ese are admit t ed
free.
On a rrival it: t he Colony it is possibl e for th e
bagga'2;e of MI~lt a['y personn el to be taken th ro ug h
t he C u sto~))S :/vlt hout delay, an d , fu rt herm ore. w ithout exan' lI1 atIon 01' up hea va L
Th e rnost usef ul a rticles to b ri no- a re a good
supply of whi te shi rts . \', ir h bot h l ~n g ;)nd , hort
sleeves, one or two pa ir-' of good fJ::Jnriel trousers.
pl~nty of stock ings (n ot too t hick ) nnd seYe l'a l
pa il'S of .;ood sto u t shoes.
One t hi n snmmer shirt nlu s the us ual so ft coll ars
a nd t ies is en?ugh fo,' th e to ur. 1\ hat may be
brough t, b ut IS not wo rn vel'Y much . as durin g
the d ay a sun helmet is necessarv . Th e s ui t. will
be wor n only on s uch occasions as atte ndin o- Church
or v isit ing frie n ls on board shi n. Over~oats ar e
not n ecessary a nd can safelv be left behi nd . D ressing govI"I1S shou ld be of the beach Yarietv.
.A !'tr ong w:lter pl'oof is yp rv necessa ry as t he rai n

94

THE

R Oy A L

ARMV

PAY

one star ts with a r ush. Th e dress is usually shorts,

Khaki shirt , brow n shoes a ne! Kh aki stockings, ll Ot
fO l'gett111 g, of co urse, t he helmet whi ch m ust be
worn until 4 run. evel'Y day. Between Bane! 9
du t ies b reak o ff for breakfast , after which we go
back to wo rk u ntil 1 p.m . when, as the anno uncer
says, " \Ne now close dow n".
U nt il 4 p .m. t he d ress is as st.a ted above, after
which t ime fl all nel tro users and long sleeved white
shirts are wo rn , wi th , of course, Boots- Mosquito.
T his dress is permitted i 11 Barracks a nd fo r visi ti ng
t he Freetown C l~ b for billia r ds a nd other games.
All sh ops clo se 111 t he Town at 4 13.111 . b ut as t hey
are open from 6 a. l11 . the d.a v is quite lon o' eno uoh
fo r t hem.
<>
0
For t hose ,,h o z.;ke walki ng, t here ar e plen t y of
nice steep roug h hill s, but it is us ually too ,\"al'm
to do a nything at <1 11 strenu ous until after 4 p. J1).
As darkn ess falls between 6 an d 6.30 p.m. , the r e
is not m nch t ime left for those hardy adyenturers
to satiate t heir wand erlu st.
.
A.ll the clothin g, shoes, etc., mentioned a boye ar e
rather dear to buv here nnd what is availab le is of
a very inferior grade, hen ce t he necessity fo r br in gin g a good stock. '
Mails are few and very fa r b etween ; t he aver age
bein g t wo in an d two hom ewald s per mont h (that
is by sea) . T here is also an Air Mail whi ch wo uld
be a sou rce of deli g ht to th e celebrated H eath
R obinso n. Wh en , and if, both t he ' pl ane and th e
pilot ar e in workin g ord er (which to t hose mar ooned
here seems t o have mu ch in frequ en cy ) t he m a il
leaves here on Frid ay mornin g a nd is cal:ried by t h e
local 'plan e as far as B athurst in t he G<'l mbia . Th ence
it goes t o Europe by t,he regula r mail and arrives
in London via Stut t gart and B erlin.
It a rri ves
in London on th e Mond ay morning.
lVIail from
Home is pi ck ed u p at B ati1U rst hy th e lo cal 'pla ne
and .a rri ves h ere on Saturd avs , u sually at about
12.30 p. m. Thus, sh ould tli e ' Gods of t h e P ost
have favoured ,vou , it is p ossible to sit in
an easv ch air on t h e vera nd ah and read t.he home
news sent on t h e pr evious Tuesd ay . Such min or
setback s as t h e ' pla ne refusin g t o leave t.h e water
are now looked u'Pon as p art of t h e rou t in e. an d ar e
onlv greeted wit h t he old ad age " Roll on " t Th e
cost of t his ser vi ce is 1/ 4d . per half ounce fro m
Sierra L eon e , and 1;' per h alf ounce from tJl e
Uni ted Kin gdom . Vile kno w of lot.s of cases wh er e
stamps of 2 /6d ., 5/ -, 10 / - :tnd even more h ave been
a ffi xed t o brin g out letters which h ave no t affected
t he station and wh ich could h ave b een left fo r t,wo
or three sea m ail s.
v.,7e a,r e hopin .; to r eceive b y t he n ext sea m ail,
which is due on Mav 27th , som e informa tion r egarding t he in cr eased sta ff, which , we understand , is
shor tlv arriv in g. It is t hought that owin.; t.o th e
n ew conscrip tion bill we may not get wh at h as been
nro mised . No doub t t he staff in all o ffi ces will h ave
t.o be incr eased b v a subst<1ntial number. if t.h e
rum ours we h ear ai"e well found ed.
'
I t hink I have exh au sted my notes , .a nd my typist"
t his tim e. b ut should an yo ne co min ~ t.o thi s deli gh tful h ea lth r pSO l't r equire a,n y fur t h er inform a ti on I
will h e pleased t o furnish t he answers if th ey will
address t h eir qu eries t o m e at T owel' I-lW , and
not th e TOWN H ALL, as som e address us.
IiVell , her e is my bov wi t h a t onic w ater so,
.
A .R.D.
Ch eerio!

CO RPS

JOU RNAL
TIENTSIN.

Som e co nsider a bl e t im e has elaRsed sin ce notes

la t su bmitted from th is station, but outpou rIngs from an aJJ- ran k detac hment of seven (incl ud in g five matri moni ally afflicted aud thus du mb bv
hab it) gravitatin g ro und an area of some fouvr
square miles, must necessarily be limited.
INe hav e to reco rd the follow in o- recent chan o-es
of personn el in t h e detach ment: <>
0
~vere

D epar tures. -~h.ior C. J. H . T reglo\\ n, M .C., to

BO, P all Ma ll , S.W .I. ; S.S.M. H. Cook to Chat ham
(R .E.) ; S / Sgt. A. Stewart to Tidworth .

Arrivals.-M ajol' H. P. P ark from Footscray;

S.Q.M.S. E. C. Spar k from Ti dwo rth; S.Q.M .S. DE. Osborne from Exeter.
To both t hose who haye cl enal'tecl and arrived we
wish the best of success at t heir new stations.
Sport-Soccer.- Th e fact that t he Staff and Departmen ts Footba.ll teml1 has n ot-as has been its
won t fo r seyeraL s\!ason s past~ fini s h e d at t he h ead
of it.s divisiOJ} 61 tFie leagu e during the past season
in no way dimm ed t.he en t husiasm displayed at t he
annual dinner h eld at t he Masonic Hall , a nd t he
affair to t he end was spa rklin g if moi st,. v.,7e con gratul ate t h e H a.lia n Marin es on t h e du al championship of bot.h First and Seco nd di vision s of t h e local
league.
Cricket.-Games ar e of ? some wha t restl'icted
character here, hov,'ever , as t he Navy are not now
in fr equ ent visito rs, and a dd yariety t o th e tria ngul a r
tourn aments between t he Tien tsin Club , t he Staff
a nd D epa rt. men ts, and th e Infa ntry t.eams, some
in terestin g gam es are promised. Our Area P aymaste r , M;-)ior P a rk is more t ha n useful wit h h oth
b1'lt a nd ball , and we look fo rward t o seein g him
uphold t he Corp 's n ame durin g t he next few m on t hs.
Tenn,is.- Play is now in full swing; t he courts used
b y oth er rank per sonnel of th e Area were ready
on sch edul e and everything is proceeding as it
should . Th e Ser gean t.s of Dur ham Ligh t Infan t ry
were not , h owevel', so fo rt.un ate.
After h avin g
several courts laid t,hey fo und , a fter a w eek ';; play,
th e lo ca l British Municipa.l Couucil driv in g sta kes
in t h e centr e pl'epar at,ory t,o excava tin g a new sw.imming bath . Someon e h ad fa,il ed t.o v isuali se fu t ure
com mitment.s wh en leasin g t he land. Our D .L.!.
fri end s ar e, h oweve r , bein g offered t he courtes y of
temporary m embershi p of t h e St aff and Depart m en t s
T ennis Club .
General.-Fur coat s hay ing been ca mph ored a nd
folded away in t.in -lin ed t runk s, bathing costum es
a nd deck -cha ir styles (pa rt icularl y t he form er ) are
now in t h e public eye.
Sha nha ikuan Camp-our sole di ye rsion from t he
city concessions-will , we hope, Rro vide cool
breezes durin g July and Au gust, and t he q-reat. vVall
t.h er e, give ou r cam er a friend s (now bUSIly dISCUSsing phot o- elect,ri c at t achmen ts and wh at -not) a
chance to air th eir bellows, whil e san e memb er s of
t h e d etachment will be able t o con t inu e t.heir study
of fi gures by th e sea .

95

THE

R OYAL

ARMY

P AY

CORPS

JOURNAL

Corps News-Officers
From "The London Gazette"

Qegular Army Qeserve o,f Officers.

To be Maj(}r and Paymaster.
Major A. N . Tyte, from Gen , List Inf.
Res, of Off., 2I / 2/ 39 .
To be Captain and Paymaster.
G . A. Tholllpson (late Capt, T .A . Res,
of Off.) , 28/ 3/ 39 ,

~ '.

The .1939 Birthday Honours.

Order of the British Empire.
C.B.E. (Military Division).
Vidal, Colonel Francis Peter, O .B.E.,
retired pay, late Royal Army Pay
Corps, late Command Paymaster,
Southern Command .
O.B.' (Military Division) .
Loftl1s, Captain (Assistant Pay master) ,
William Edward Charles, Royal Army
Pay Corps.

BIJ~THS.

DRU DRURY.-On April 29th, I 939, at

the Alling ton
ursing H ome, Ipswich, to
Mollie (nee O rmsby-J ohnson), wife of
Squadron-Leader E. S. D. Drury , R.A.F.a son .
T UCKER,-On May 28th, I939, to Helen
(n ee Napier), and Charles Tucker, York
and Lancaster R egt.-a daughter.

To be Lt.=Cols. and Staff Paymrs. , 1st Class.

Major F. T. Baines, I 2/ 3/ 39 .
.
Major H . H. Morrell, 22 / 4/ 39 .
To be Majors and Staff Paymrs ., 2nd Class.
Capt. O. P. J. Rooney, I2 / 3/ 39.
J\1ajor C . G. Moore, 22 / 4 / 39.
To be Majors.
Ca pt. and Paymr. G. S. "Bates, I O/ 3/ 39 .
Capt. (Asst. Paymr.) H. C. L yons,
IO ! 3/ 39
To be Major and Paymaster.
Major J. B. Cooper, from G loster R.,
I5 / 5/ 39
To be Captains and Paymasters (on prob.) .
Capt. J. A. R. Groves-Raines, E. Yorks.
R .,7 / 12 / 38.
Capt. W. C . Mitohell , from H .P . List,
I / 4 / 39
To be Lieutenants (Asst. Paymrs.).
_ Staff Sg t . Major F. Pott, I7 / 4 / 39.
Staff Sgt. Major A. L. H. Wilson,
I7 / 4 / 39
Staff Sgt. Major J . Keller, I7 / 4 / 39.
Staff Sgt. Major C. V. E. Rooker, M.M .,
I7 / 4 / 39.
Staff Sgt. Major A. W. Deacon, I7 / 4 / 39.
Staff Sg t. Major R. W. H. Howard,
8/ 5/ 39
Staff Sgt. Major L. A. F . Mockler,
8/ 5/ 39
Staff Sg t. Major T. Whelan, 8 / 5/ 39 .

DEATH.
MAC FIE- on May 25th, I939 , at ' Reading , Colonel R. W . MacFie, R.A,P .C. (retired) , late 8th King 's Reg iment .
POSTINGS-OFFICERS.
Chief Paymasters.

Bilderbeck, Col. W. J H " O.B.E., Scottish Cmd. to

Southern Cmd " 22 / 2/ 39.
Staff Paymasters, 1st Class.

AnJerson , Lt.-Col. J G. , Perth to Hilsea, 15 / 5/ 39 .

Baines, Lt.-Col. F. T. , H ong Kong to Perth,
11 / 5/ 39.
Fennell, Lt. -Cc I. H. P. , Warley to London,
2:! / 4/ .'19.
Gresham, Lt.-Col. C. E., Barnet to Canterbury,
13/ 2/ 39.
Hack, Lt.-Col. \'</. S., Canterbury to Barnet,
16/ 2/ 39.
Hackett, Lt.-Col. R. W., War Office to Preston,
22 / 4 /.'> 9.
H ill, Lt.-Col. C. J K., Preston to Warley , 22 / 4/ 39.
M orre ll, Lt .-Col. H . H ., Western Cmd, te Leith,
1/4/ 39,
Woods, Lt.-Ce l. F. A ., Egypt to Exeter. 7/ 2/ 39,
Staff Paymasters, 2nd Class.

Bellman, Maj or J. F., M.C., Aldersh ot Cmd. to

Western Cmd., 27/ 3/ 39.
Cox, Major E. F., Eastern Cmd. to Western Cmd.,
1/ 2/ 39.
Ensoll , Maior H. G ., Footscray to Eastern Cmd.,
22 /4 / 39 .
Howard , Maj or K. N., Wes tern Cmd. to Eastern
Cmd ., 1/2 / 39.
Meek, M ajor T. A , M .C., Northern Cmd . to Hong
Kong, 22/4/3 9.
M oore, Maj or C. G ., Reading to Footscray,
22 / 4/ 39,
SaVers, Ma jor R. H ., M .C. , Southern Cmd. to Egypt,
13/ 2/ 39

Qetirements.
Lt.-Col. and Staff Paymr. ISt Class P. A.
Gedge, 12 / 3/ 39.
Major and Paymr. B. Sant . I4 / 4 / 39.
Lt.-Col. and Staff Paymr. ISt Class T.
Kelly, M.B .E., 22 / 4 / 39.
96

THE
paymasters.
Alien, Lieut.

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

J OURNAL

Thompson, Lieut.
Cmd" 1/ 5/ 39.
Whelan , Lieut.
8/ 5/ 39.
Williams, Ma jo r
27/ 2/ 39.
Wilson, Lieut. A.
17/ 4/ 39.

G ., Woking to Aldershot Cmd "

1/4/ 39.
Askin, Major R. C. deV., M.B.E., M.C., Gibraltar
to Footscray, 24/ 1/ 39 .
. I Barratt, Majer S. F., M.C., Eastern Cmd. to Win chester, 1/ 5/ 39.
Blackwell, Capt. C. c., Jamaica to H ounslow,
15/ 2/ 39.
Buck, Capt. R. D ., Portsmouth to Singapore,
15/ 2/ 39,
Burne, Capt. ]. R ., Woking to Singapcre, 15/ 2 /3 9 .
Clowes, Capt. ]. H., Eastern Cmd. to Footscray,
1/ 4/ 39.
Cottier, Capt. H. H ., Chatham R. Sigs. to Bermuda,
12/ 2/ 39.
.
D ay, Capt. C. ]., Eastern Cmd. to Aldershot Cmd.,
1/ 5/ 39.
Edinger, Major E. D ., Northern Cmd. to York,
1/ 5/3 9.
Gough , Capt. H. , Eastern Cmd . to Reading,
22 / 4/ 39 .
Groves-Raines, Capt. J A . R., Winchester to
Northern Cmd., 1/5/ 39.
Malpass, Capt. H. H. , Aldershot Cmd. to War
Office, 22 / 4/ 39,
Milling, M ajor H. G. B., Singapore to Shrewsbury,
2/ 5/ 39.

_
Mitchell, Capt. W . c., joined on probation
(N.I.D.), 1/ 4/ 39.
Moore, Maj or C. G., Bermuda to Chatham R. Sigs.,
16/ 2/ 39.
Noel C1arke, Capt. R, E., Footscray to Readi ng,
1/ 5/ 39.
Norton, Capt. F. G., M .C. , D.C.M" Footscray to
Eastern Cmd ., 1/ 4/3 9.
Oliver, Capt. L., Northern Ireland D istrict to
Southern Cmd ., 1/ 4/ 39.
Park, Maj or H . P., Footscray to Tientsin, 24/ 2/39.
T aylo r, Capt. H, C. H " D . of W, Regt., joined on
probation (Woking), 20 / 2/ 39.
Thompsen, Capt. R. c., Canterbury to Aldershot
Cmd., 22 / 4/ 39.
Treglown, Major C. ]. H. , M.C. , Tientsin to
Western Cmd ., 2/ 5/ 39.
W arr, Major H . E. , Western Cmd. to Woking,
1/ 5/ 39.
Whitty, Capt. ]. P. N ., Winchester to Eastern Cmd .,
1/ 5/ 39.

CORPS

p , G .,

T. ,

Fo o t~ray

to Western

c<.: mmissioned,

Chatham,

G . H. , Gibraltar to London,

1. H ., commissioned, London

PROMOTIONS AND
APPOINTMENTS
To be Warrant Officer
1413790 S .Q.M.S.
7733165 S.Q.M .S.
1414671 S.Q.M.S.
765 7588 S .Q .M.S .
7657485 S.Q .M.S.
7 6 573 2 5 S .Q .M.S .
77 33029 S .Q .M.S.

Class I and appointed S.S.M~

E . Mo rten, 3 / 1/ 39 .
E . B. Bradshaw, 9 / 4 / 39.
C . Cla rkson , 17 / 4 / 39.
W . T . Baker, 17 / 4 / 39 ,
H. E . Worts , 17 / 4 / 39.
R. H. Morris , 17 / 4 / 39.
F. Prowse, 17 / 4 / 39 .

To be Warrant Officer Class n and appointed

S.Q.M.S.
5609807 S / Sgt. G . C. Pledger , 14 / 3 / 39.
77 33661 S / Sgt . W , Rankin, 24 / 3 / 39.
4850213 S / Sgt. C. E. S pencer, 27 / 3 / 39.
1030270 S / Sgt. H. J. Wright, 6/4 / 39.
773343 8 S / Sgt. J . P. D a ly, 18 / 4 139 .
To be Staff Sergeant.
1018135 Sergt. C . F . Y. Wraight, 3 / 1/ 39 .
7734064 Sergt. C. S. Marshall, 20 / 2 / 39.
77 34 260 Sergt. P. J . Hill , 27/2 / 39.
773381 8 Sergt . F . H. Thomas, II / 3 / 39 .
2308163 Sergt . J. W, F ergusson, 14 / 3 / 39 .
7734107 Sergt. S. W. C. Sibley , 17 / 3 /39 .
6447II9 Sergt. R. Plowma n, 27 / 3 / 39.
7734085 Sergt . D . C , .T, Adams, 27 / 3 / 39 .
1665043 Sergt . W. A . Potter, 1/ 4 / 39 .
7734133 Sergt. H. E. Price, 9 / 4 / 39.
6993 Sergt . H . Jorda n , 11 / 4 / 39
2650621 Sergt . L. Cook, 17 / 4 / 39 .
7733 630 Sergt. J. C . Backwell , 17 / 4 / 39.
7734II9 Sergt. G . A. Ma rks, 17 / 4 / 39.
7734210 Sergt . C. D. W a tts , 17 / 4 / 39 .
773 4252 Sergt. W. F. Nice, 1/ 5 / 39 .
7734269 Sergt. W. A. Smith , 1/ 5 / 39 .
7734327 Sergt . E. T . T a ylor, 1/ 5 / 39 .
3382129 Sergt . P. L ydon , 1/5 / 39 .
4262764 Sergt. L. E . Young, 1/ 5 / 39.
4384235 Sergt. P. M. Miller, 1 / 5 / 39.
1060456 Sergt. A. E. Broadsmith , 1/ 5 / 39 .
4531046 Sergt . E. J . AlIan , 1 / 5 / 39
77340II Sergt. S . F. R yan , 1/ 5 / 39 .
2558572 Sergt . S. Freeman, 1/ 5 / 39 .
6780298 Sergt . D . J. Pountney, 1/ 5 / 39.
6456005 Sergt. C. Erlund, 1/ 5 / 39
6137527 Sergt. J . L. Hoare, 1/ 5/ 39
35 20820 Sergt. L. Cooper , 1/ 5 / 39 .
4385265 Sergt. R. A . Meadows , 1/ 5 / 39.
2212092 Sergt . F. W. Harris , 1/ 5 / 39.
52504 Sergt . A . F . J . Brooks, 1/ 5 / 39 .
10992 Sergt. C. Endacott, 1/ 5 / 39.
7734 172 Sergt . W , C . May, 1/5 / 39.
6974258 Sergt. A . Doherty , 1/5 / 39.
7875590 Sergt. P. J. Thornton , 1/ 5/ 39 .
1020779 Sergt. A. W. Bishop , 1/ 5 / 39 .
1862305 Sergt. A, R. Argent, 1/ 5 / 39.

Assistant Paymasters.
Cork, Ca pt. W. T. ,

Shrewsbury to Gibraltar,
12/ 1/ 39.
D eaco n, Lieut. A . W" commissioned, Warwick,
17/ 4/ 39.
Fryer, Major P. R., Perth to Canterbury, 13/ 2/ 39.
Goode, Lieut. C. W ., Footscray to London, 1/ 2/ 39.
Haddock, Lieut. CR., Warley to Canterbury,
1/ 5/ 39.
Holman, Capt. S., M.B,E " Barnet to Warley,
1/ 3/ 39.
Howard, Lieut. R. W, H ., commissioned, H ong
Kong 8/ 5/ 39.
Keller, Lieut. ]., commissioned, Leith, 17/4/ 39,
Mockler, Lieut. L. A. F., commissioned, Perth,
8/ 5/ 39.
Po tt, Lieut. F., commissio ned, Perth, 17/4/ 39.
Rooker, Lieut. C. V. E., M,M.. commissioned,
Eastern Cmd., 17/ 4/ 39.
Smith, Lieut. R, G " Chatham (RE) to Canterbury,
1/ 5/3 9.
Temple, Lieut. B. J. B., H ounslow to Barnet,
22 / 5/ 39.

97

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

J OURNAL
THE

2315757
2314851
5666652
13150
22 05 196
31390 2
269 1998
582344 3
7877984
141794 1
1056176
4263 955
75 83148
700938 1
231 7587
54 30733
106345 2
398782
543899
7877839
2317483
787 85 90
1037999
385026r
460903 4
7878034
'6911361
3381061
1425981
7009726
52508
7583086
1865416
1866439
546143
7583324
5722618
4742447
2691692
5879985
400608

Sergt.
Se rgt.
Sergt.
Sergt .
Ser gt.
Sergt .
Sergt.
Sergt.
Ser g t.
Sergt .
Sergt .
Sergt.
Sergt.
Sergt .
Sergt.
Se rg t .
Sergt.
Ser gt .
Sergt.
Sergt .
Sergt .
Sergt.
Ser gt .
Sergt .
Sergt.
Sergt .
Sergt.
Sergt.
Sergt.
Sergt .
Sergt .
Sergt .
Sergt.
Sergt.
Sergt .
Sergt.
Sergt .
Sergt .
Sergt.
Sergt.
Se rgt.

5549 8 9
4 1 9 2 344
8 I51 69
5 1821 54
60II07 6
55 6 9 2 7 8
68 455 21
5 18 1795
7.8860 13
594 88 9 8
7886088

E. A . King , 1/ 5 / 39
W . K. B u xton , 1 / 5 / 39.
W. G. Mood y, 1/ 5 / 39.
W. A. Ca rver , 1/ 5 / 39.
W. L ees , 1/ 5 / 39 .
B. J. Winch , 1 / 5 / 39
F. 'vVe bber , 1/ 5 / 39.
W. E. Staff , 1/ 5 / 39.
L. A . N ewso n , 1/ 5 / 39 .
R. Doggr ell , 1/ 5 / 39 .
A . L. Brown, 1/ 5 / 39 .
T. Sowerby, 1/ 5 / 39.
F. \ N . Grant , 1/ 5 / 39 .
A. H. O 'Co nnor, 1/ 5 / 39
B. H o m er , I / 5 / 39 .
L. C. H a ll e, 1/ 5 / 39
C. W . Mand er , 1/ 5 / 30 .
F. H. Alexa nder, 1 / 5 / 39
W . G . A. Giles, 1 / 5 / 39 .
W . Pink , I / 5 / 39.
W. P eacock , 1 / 5 / 39 .
D . H. Whitem a n , 1/ 5 / 39.
C . G . L ewis, 1/ 5 / 39
R. T <lsker, 1 / 5 / 39 .
J. N a sh, 1/ 5 / 39 .
R. H. Batema n , 1/ 5 / 39.
W. Humphries , 1/ 5 / 39
A. Broadbent , 1/ 5 / 39.
F. Donovan , 1 / 5 / 39.
R. J. Wood s , 1 / 5 / 39 .
A. T. Gear, 1/ 5 / 39
V. E. Finn , 1/ 5 / 39
F. R. Rudl and, 1/ 5 / 39 .
A. Deeb le , 1 / 5 / 39 .
H . Barnshaw, 1 / 5 / 39
E. F . Bown, I / 5 / 39.
H. W . R eynolds, 1/ 5 / 39.
T. E. L y th goe , 1 / 5 / 39.
D. Welch , 1 / 5 / 39
R. W. Mackreth, 1 / 5 / 39.
S. T. Chellin gsworth , 20 / 5 / 39.

2 69 5.'~ 2 0
40 72 49

7 88 535 6
49 1 44 2 4
83 1 549
33 854 61
593 2 546
4 0 9 000
49 74 8 79
295 135
461 32 7 2
726 33 4 8
7 26 3353
7 26 34 0 7
26 954 8 7
35 29 026
18 73 8 95
53 8 19 8 9
6399317
61 4 1892

L / Sgt.
L / Sgt.
L / Sgt .
L / Sgt.
L / Sgt.
L / Sgt.

E.
M.
H.
A.
H.
J.

33 8465 2

CpI.
CpI.
CpI.
CpI.
Cpl.
CpI.
CpI.
CpI.
CpI.
CpI.
CpI.
CpI.

L ewis , 14 / 2 / 39 .
H. Cuth bert , 17 / 3 / 39.
Bra8 ier , 24 / 3 / 39 .
S. Duncan , 28 / 3 / 39 .
Leader , 31 / 3 / 39.
Shields , 1/ 5 / 39 .

E. M. B ullo us , 1 / 4 / 39 .
E . L ewis , 1 / 4 / 39.
S. G. Chenery , 1 /4 / 39.
J. F. Pettie, 1 / 4 / 39.
H. C. W ilson, 1/ 4 / 39 .
A . King, 1/ 4 / 39.
J . Craig, 1/ 4 / 39
E. D eeley, 1 / 4/39.
S . H. Smith , 1/ 4 / 39.
W. J . Kincaid, 1/ 4/39.
J . V. Ackland, 1/ 4 / 39.
K. W. C . Hornsey, 1 / 4 / 39 .

Pte.
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte.

T.
J.
F.
A.
J.

8 1 54 01

68 4486 5
4 688 43 0
84 0 74 2
7262666

845 0 36
845 199
788 559 2
T / 841698
8478 w
844 2 75
40 7 6 57 8
2876683

3 19 108
5 100 1
5 250 595
18 72 93 0
64 58 943
5 6 1755 2
85 662 3
50 480 79
860 5 23
295173
390 9 13 2

753 6 360
\ 29 28 997
54 660

868 535
4 8 58298
18 7 0 9 2 -+
26 1539 2

To be Corporal.

4688384
6141404
4689399
4745944
408007

( 547 5 10

L / Sgt. R. Barnes , d eprived of his

appointment a nd reverted to s ub stantive rank of Corporal , 16 / 3 / 39

The underm entioned join ed on proba tion a t

offices and on dates stat ed : 2695539 Gdsm. A. Nicholson, S. Gds ., York
(R ). 17 / 2 / 39.
Gnr. B. E . Hudson, R .A., Ex eter ,
21 / 2 / 39
T / 64II4 Dvr. G. Smith , R. A.s.C. D eptford,
9/3/39 .
82 4 26 7 Pte . A. H . L ambert , Aldersh ot,
13/3/39.
697 8 3 0 4 Fus. D. P. Gallacher , R. 1. Fus.,
Aldershot, 13 / 3/39.
2657968 Gdsmn. J. P . Lilley, C .G., W a rley,
14/3/39.
Pte. W. A. Stephan , G .H., Win28 68
7 79
chester, 17 / 3 / 39.
14 26 77 1 Gnr. B. Brown, R .A., Hounslow ,
20 / 3 / 39
~ 261 496 4 Gdsmn. F Moreland , G.Gds., Winchester , 23/3 / 39.
7887801 Pte . G. Leman, R.T.C. , Hilsea,
27 / 3 / 39.
Pte . L. Hill, D. of V.,T . Regt., L eith,
27 / 3/39 .
S / 57 I 9 1 Pte. R. J ackson, R .A .S.C . , L o ndon,
3/4/39.
81 2060 Gnr. J. J . Sankey, R.A., Exeter,
4/4 / 39 .
Bdmn . E. T . F. Sm ith , D. of W.
R egt ., D eptford , II / 4 / 39.

M . Bates, 25 / 3 / 39.
Winn, 3 / 5 / 39.
Stapleford, 3 / 5 / 39.
V. Gibbons , 3 / 5 / 39.
H. Horton , 3 / 5 / 39 .

98

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

On 18/4/39.
8088 16 Gnr. F. D. Cheetham, R.H.A ., York

Probationer s .

To be Lance S ergeant.

5771830
819469
317185
5948252
45954
2754173
6457 62 4
7262048
7262232
7262536
6398259
7884750

W. R. Howell , 3 / 5 / 39 .
J. B. LaDy, 3 / 5 / 39.
S . R. 'vV. Harris, 3 / 5 / 39 .
A. A . Edmonds , 3 / 5 /39 .
V. G. F . Comfort , 3 / 5 / 39 .
R. J . A. Boy n e, 3 / 5 / 39"
L. H. Cross , 3 / 5 / 39 .
J . Thompson , 3 / 5 / 39 .
J. A . Morris , 3 / 5 / 39 .
M. R. C. Briggs, 3 / 5 / 39 .
D. W . Swind ells , 3 / 5 / 39 .
P. McCallum , 3 / 5 / 39 . _
T. R eed, 3 / 5 / 39 .
J. B. H em stock , 3 / 5 / 39.
C. W . P ear ce, 3 / 5 / 39 .
T. T . C. lVl assey , 4 / 5 / 39 .
R. G ra y, 3 / 5 / 39.
S . A . Russ, 3 / 5 / 39 .
L. A. P age , Il / 5 / 39.
C. B. Huxford , 12 / 5 / 39 .
W . A. Tupholm e, 12 / 5 / 39 .
J. C. Mitchell , 12 / 5 / 39 .
A . J. J on es, 12 / 5 / 39 .
H . F. E lli ott , 12 / 5 / 39 .
P. J . Ions , 12 / 5 / 39 .
S. Freega rd , 12 / 5 / 39 .
G . J . I\:ilb, 16 / 5 / 39
R. S. Derrick. 16 / 5 / 39 .
S. Gibson, 16 / 5 / 39.
G. W. Mitch ener , 16 / 5 / 39.
S. N . B enest , 16 / 5 / 39.

R eversion.

10 be S ergeant.
3851996
5105757
5380708
2693339
6284948
2320846

Pte .
Pte .
Pte.
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte.
Pte.
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte .
Pte.
Pte.
Pte .
Pte .

53 82 9 0 5
7 888 497

26 580 49

7 888 7 12
86 9 18 4
838066
18 74 8 76

CORPS
445 12 49

(R ).
Rfmn. E. G . Matthews, K.R .R .C.,
Vhnchest er.
GnT. H. E G . Cra usaz , R.A., Foots
Cra y .
Rfn. C. E. P eck , K.R.R. C. , War\vick.
Bdsm. S. E . Birkett, K.O.Y .L.I.,
L eith.
Gnr . P . McGovern, R .A., Shrewsbury.
Pte. J. H. Midd leton , R. A .M.C.,
F oots Cray .
Gnr . A. E .A. R eclman , R.A. , Barnet.
Pte. J. D on la n, Cheshire R egt . ,
Preston .
G nr. A . L . iVIea rs , R. A ., F oots Cra y .
Gnr. D . B . W ise, R .A. , Foots Cray .
Pte . L . L. E a st , R.T.C. , D eptford .
Dvr. L. J. Nanson , R.A.S.C. , W a r wick.
Gnr. J. L ea dbeat er , R.A ., D eptford.
Gnr. F . G . Bolt, R.A ., Hilsea.
Gm. A . D av ies , R.A ., H o un slow .
Pte . R. A . Smith , Gordon Hdrs .,
Perth .
Tpr. R . \ Veston , 12th R . L a ncers,
D eptford.
Gnr. H. F . Kirkwood, R.A., W a rley .
Fu s. T. D. Quinn, R.1. Fus., Hilsea .
Spr. J. L . Shine, R.E. , Chatham.
Fu s . A . Copley, R . F us ., H ounslow .
Gnr. G . H. Ca ld er , R.A ., Shrewsbury .
D v r. T. H . Fish er , R.A. , R eading.
Bdsm. S. M. Jackson , N. Staffs . R e:gt .,
York (R ).
Dvr. J. H. McLinden , R.A. , R eading.
Tpr. F . .T. H ea rn , Life Gds., Foots
Cray .
Pte . V . P . J o hn , S. \ Vales Bords . ,
Preston .
Pte. H. C. Godda rd , R.A.NI .C. , Foo ts
Cray .
Pte . W. B . Thom a s, A .D.C., D eptford .
Pte. C. D. J ensen, Ca m eron Hdrs .,
'vVinchest er .
Pte . F ., H. Ma idment , R.M.C., Ca nter _
bury .
G nr. W. L . Hiclding, R.A., \ Narley .
Spr. D. B . Vilillia ms , R.E ., Ch ath am .
Spr. R. L ewis, R .E. , Chatha m .
Gcl smn . J. S. Bridgett , G. Gds.,
\ Va rJ ev.
G nr. f\. . T. R. Lid ston e, R.A. , B a rnet .
Pte . H . E
Fleetwood , R.T .C. ,
R eading .
Pte . D. J. K il min st er , R. Scots,
Hounslow.
Gd sml1. D. S . P alm er , C. Guard s ,
Foots Cray .
Pte . E. R. Hulbert , R.T.C., Winchester.
Gnr. H . H. Willia m s , R.A. , Foots
Cray .
Gm. H. T. Champion , R .A. , Ex et er.
SPI". J. L. Edward s, R.E. , Ch a th a m.

7889068
390 9 2 5 0

6979335
18 754 80
5183218

3 202 68

7 88 9 272
20 4739 2
83 6 539
62 0 44 8 3
S / 57..f rr
8533 11

J OURNAL

Pte. J. J . G. Butler, Durham L.I.,

Chatham .
Gdsmn. W. J ollands , C. Guards, Foots
Cra y.
Pte. E. S . Stark, R.T.C ., Deptford.
Pte. G . Fox, . S. Wales, Bords.,
Preston.
Pte. J. Speight, Co rdon Hdrs.,
Woking.
Pte. A. J. T ack, N. Staffs, Regt .,
Warley .
Fus. A. E. Starkey, R.I. Fus., Foots
Cray .
Spr. R. N. B . Leach, R.E. , Chatham.
Pte. K. Sallows, Gloster R egt.,
Ex eter.
Pte. W. Melling, N. Staffs. R egt.,
Warley.
Pte. J . E. Teasdale, E . Yorks . R egt.,
Exet er.
Tpr. M. Ridley, loth R. Hussars,
Warwick.
Bdsmn. C. E. Clarke, R.I. Fus.,
Canterbu ry.
Pte. J . H. Leighton, R.T.C., R eading.
Tpr. S. Donovan, roth R. Hussars,
Canterbury .
Gnr. J. R yan , R. A ., Hilsea.
Pte. E. J . Taylor, Middlesex R egt.,
Hilsea.
Pte. H. E. Wagsta ff, R.A. S.C. , L eith,
19 / 4 / 39.
Gnr. E. L . Bailey, R.A ., Deptford,
21/ 4 / 39.
Gdsmn. J . L eonard , 1. Gu ards,
\Varley , 24 / 4 / 39.
Pte . F. G . Kelly, R.T.C . , Canterbury,
24 / 4 / 39

23 2 779 2
2928861
800023

Gnr . J. W. Peto, R. A., Canterbury,

24 / 4 / 39.
Gnr. D . P . Tibby, R. A., Canterbury,
25 / 4 / 39 .
P te. G. A. H. Saunders, Ox. and
Bucks . L.I. , Foats Cray, 25 / 4 / 39.
Sgm . W . H. Gillis, R. Signa ls, York
(R), 25 / 4 / 39.
Fus. G . M . Plowman, R. Fus.,
Hounslow , 25 / 4 / 39.
Spr. R. Lamb, R.E ., Foots Cray,
26 / 4 / 39
Sgm. C. Kinder , R. Signals, Perth,
26 / 4 / 39.
Pte. R . Maclnty re , Cameron Hdrs.,
Woking, 1/ 5 / 39.
Gnr . H. Whitmore, R. A., Warley,
5 / 5 / 39 .

275477 6
23 2 4 08 5

99

Pte. A . Snowden, Black Watch, J erusalem , 1/ 5 / 39 .

Sgm . J. Soa d y , R. Signals, J erusalem,
3 / 5 / 39.
Gnr. T. B a ker , R. A ., Hong-Kong,
3 / 5 / 39 .
Gm. C. P. H emm in g, R.A., H ongKong, 3 / 5 / 39 .
SpT. M. P end er gast , R.E., Hong- .
K ong , 3 / 5 / 39 .

. THE
7586366
3311600
8454II
853460
6341296
5619471
T / 66r87
14268.+2
845383
60II376
7262803
7263082
1873359
7888307
3771327
q845540

'856049
634340
863523
838148

ROYAL ARMY PAY

/ 57406

Gnr . H. G . Gran t, R.A. , Hong-Kong,

3 5 / 39
Pte . ]. \Yilson, H. L.I., J erusalem,
6/ 5 / 39 .
Gnr. H . E. MiJla rd, R.A., Sin gapore,
8 / 5 / 39
Gm. F. Wharton, R.A ., Singapore,
8 / 5 / 39 .
Pte. W . \ iVhitebrook, R.W. K ent
Regt., Malta, 8 / 5/39.
Pte. G. H. Sleeman, D evo n Regt.,
Malta, 8 / 5 / 39 .
Dvr. R. F. W hite , R.A.s.C., ] eru salem , 8 / 5 / 39.
G nr. D. ] . Cu rran , R.A., Si nga pore,
8 / 5 / 39
Gm. V. O'Leary, R. A., Egypt ,
9 / 5 / 39.
Pte. L. Turner-Howe, Essex R egt. ,
Egypt, 9 / 5 /39 .
Pte . R. ]. Bo'tto mley, R.A.]\I. C .,
Ma lta , 9 / 5 / 39.
Pte . ] . P a rnell , R. A.M.C., Egypt ,
9 / 5 / 39
Spr.]. Ste ll'art , R.E. , Egy pt, 9 / 5 / 39 .
Pte. W . Woods , R.T. C., Egypt ,
9 / 5 / 39
Pte . T.
l\Iorga n,
Ein g' s R egt. ,
G ibraltar , 9 / 5 / 39.
Rfn .
G.
R icha r Ison ,
KR.R. C. ,
E as tern Cmd. , Il / 5 / 39
Gnr. ] . l\Ietcal , R. A., Preston,
Il / 5 / 39.
Pte. H . Pitcher, R .W. Kent R egt .,
Malta , 12 / 5 / 39.
G m . C. Dixon, R.A. , Malta, 15 / 5 / 39.
Gnr. L. E . Fensham , R .A., Sa lisb ur y ,
17 / 5 / 39

Vol. V.

CORPS

JOURNAL

Pte. M. H . Cron in, R.A.s.C., L eith,

18 / 5 / 39

R e turned to Unit.

872484
6,201908
6202363
I

72420
7928 5'1

2 76658
853237
6459779
3909I32

Gm. r . S. Griffit h s, Hilsea, R.H. A.,

24 / 2 / 39 .
F lI s. B. With, R . F ll S., \Vinchester,
18 / 3/39.
Pte . G. F. H ewso n, Midd l ese~ R egt .,
D eptford, 20 / 3 / 39 .
Spr. T. ]. Cass idy, R.E ., York (C),
21 / 4 / 39.
.
Dmr. N. Smith, L eicest er R egt.,
W a rl ey, 25 / 4 / 39 .
Pte, A. Hay, Gordon H d rs. , L eith,
26 / 4 / 39
Gnr . Vi'. H et hering ton , R.A., Warley,
27 / 4 / 39.
F us . W. ] acq ues , R . FllS., Preston,
1/ 5 / 39
Pte. V. ] ohIl , 2n d S.W. Bords.,
Presto n , 19/5 / 39 .

Discharges.

7733428 Sergt. F. C. Astles, 5 / 3 / 39.

45061 L / Sgt. L. W . B eal, 10/3 / 39.
77332I5 S.Q .M.S. H . Da y, 10 / 3 / 39.
7657742 S.Q.NLS. W . Higginson , I3/3/39.
7733807 S / Sgt. W. S. Da rt, 16/ 3/39.
4737807 S .Q .iVI.S. ]. W. Lawrence, 26/3/39.
3759452 S / 'Sg t . E. Anderton, 26 / 3/39 .
7733407 S.Q.M.S. A. ] . R owley, 3 1/3 / 39.
5615050 Ser gt. ]. M. Dowling, 1/4/ 39.
7733303 S .S.M. V . H. R obi ns, 8 /4/ 3'iJ.
7733661 S.Q.M .S. \ f.,I . R a n kin , IO / 4 / 39.
7 6 57900 S.Q .M .S. ]. R oberts, 17 / 4 / 39.
7874 860 Sergt . ]. Stevenson, 30/4/39 .
70-1 0 5 20 S / Sgt. J. O'K ee ffe, 7 / 5 /39.

N o. 34.

Summer, 1939
CO NTENTS

Editorial Notes
Royal Army Pay Corps T erri to ri al Army
When on H c liday at the Seaside . ..
Corps Sports News ...
Royal Army Pay Corps Old Comrades Associat ion
"M achine M ade", by Sagittari LIS
The Start of a Side Sho~
Obituary
Our Chess Page
Cashi er's Office. D ublin , 1905, Ph otog raph
Th e Sto ry of a Refreshing Beverage-Tea
" Crisis", by Ful Sudani
Corps Nctes-H ome
- Abroad
Corps News-Officers
Promotions and Appoin tments
1 00

49
49
50
51
57
61
65
67
69
70

71
73

74
87

96
97