RAOC Gazette - page 21
Image details
| Corps | RAOC |
|---|---|
| Material type | Journals |
| Book page | |
| Chapter head | |
| Chapter key | |
| Chapter number | |
| Full title | RAOC Gazette |
| Page number | |
| Publication date | 1977 |
| Real page | |
| Colour | No |
| Grey | No |
| Early date | 1977 |
| Late date | 1977 |
| Transcription |
Macormick. Private H. Hatfield; seated: • npuiin A, W. Field. Colonel J. H, Stone, lieutenant H. R. Scott; front: Lance * 'orporals W. J. Glazier and D. C . Cheshire. What a very smart group they are too, THE SENIOR WARRANT OFFICER APPOINTMENT IN THE ARMY EVERY time I read in THE GAZETTE or elsewhere about WO! this or WOl that >f the RAOC, I cannot help but feel a •ense of loss. [ wonder if people, and particularly our younger soldiers, realise that there are four groups of Warrant Officer Class 1 appointments and that our Conductors head the lot. Except in certain conditions which do not bear going into here, they are the senior warrant officers in the British Army. Rightly or wrongly therefore (and regardless of the semantic niceties involved) I wish that people would refer to ours as Conductor in is or Staff Sergeant Major that. One cannot be appointed Conductor, let alone promoted Warrant Ollicer Class 1, without being rich in ability and experience. Historically, such individuals were the first Warrant Officer appoint- ments in the Army. They were back- bone of the Ordnance services and were required, as they still are, to undertake the responsibilities of junior executives or. in other words, of the subalterns we lacked. Even today, as a glance at the Army List will show, we have very few subalterns compared with rather more Captains and immeasurably more Majors, And so it is that Conductors have certain privileges which are enshrined in Queen's Regula- tions: sub-para 5.747 c states 'When on strength of a Unit of their Corps, Con- ductors RAOC are to be members of the sergeants' mess. If attached, or on the posted strength of formation or other Units, they may be invited to become honorary members of the mess'; sub- para 9,169 b states that 'A conductor or staff sergeant major in the RAOC is to act in the place of a subaltern officer when required. On all parades, he is to take post as an officer but is not to salute.' These privileges, particularly the one about honorary membership of the sergeants mess, arc sometimes lost on people in other regiments and corps, Occasionally they even give rise to bad feeling though at the heart of it is little more than ignorance. May I therefore encourage all ranks in the Corps to be aware of the high position and privileges of a Conductor. He. for his part, by his bearing and personality, as well as his seniority and professional competence, must see to it that no one doubts where he stands, or why, W H O A M I THOSE OFFICERS who attended his Study Period last year may have been interested to see the then DOS cast as The Checker. I doubt this was a surprise lo General Norman Speller but it was to me when I heard about it! The identity of The Checker has always been and remains a well kept secret but it is letting no cats out of the bag to assure you that 1 am not the DGOS (nor a member of his staff)! THE ARMY DEPARTMENT POLICE FORCE — STONECUTTERS ISLAND HONG KONG IN the centre of Hong Kong harbour is a small island, some one and a half miles long by a half mile wide, of which many readers will have heard. Stonecutters Island is the base, and only posting, for a unique unit of Army Department Police. This small force of thirty seven, consisting entirely of Sikhs, has had responsibility for the security of Stonecutters Island for the past twenty eight years. The Royal Navy, who were the first major occupants of he island, built a Transmitting Station and an Armaments Depot in the late 1920s and Coastal Artillery Batteries were established to cover the seaward approaches to Hong Kong harbour. When the Japanese attacked in 1941, the island was evacuated and for four years, the island was under their control. They used the Armaments Depot for their own am- munition storage, built a Geisha house which is still standing but derelict and operated a snake farm. With the eventual defeat of the Japanese and the return of British Forces to Hong Kong, Stonecutters Island reverted to the Royal Navy. Security of the Royal Naval Dockyards and Stonecutters Photo Public Relations Hong Kang Island during the period directly after the war, was provided by a Dockyard Police force with three sections, one for each of Colonel John Styles, DDOS Hong Kong, with five of the the two Naval Dockyards and one for Stonecutters Island. The members of the force who have completed 25 years service. Dockyard sections were composed of Europeans and Pakistanis and the Stonecutters section, of Europeans and Sikhs. It is Royal Naval Dockyards in Hong Kong were to close within said that the decision to employ Sikhs on Stonecutters was two years and that the Armaments Depot would be transferred to based on the fact that Sikhs, because of their religion, do not the Army. On hearing this, several of the Sikhs decided to leave smoke and are thus eminently suitable for employment in an the force and moved to other jobs. Thus by August 1959, on Armaments Depot! which date the RN Armaments Depot became the Army Am- The original force was formed in 1949; commanded by an munition Depot, operated by the Corps, the force was under- .^spector Stevens who had under his command seven Police strength with three Sub Inspectors, two of whom were European Officers and sixty seven Sikhs. At this stage, all the Police and thirty three Sikhs. Recruiting for the new Army Depart- Officers were European, The Sikhs who made up this force ment Police force was carried put locally to build up the force were recruited from the municipal police force and prison to its established strength. department of Shanghai in China, but one, Baghat Singh who In 1965, as the result of economic pressures to reduce was ex Indian Army Medical Corps, was recruited locally. expenditure in Hong Kong, a reduction was made in establish- After six months Makhan Singh was transfered from the Royal ment and two of the Sub Inspectors, Robert Elliot and Markham Naval Headquarters and he joined as the first Sikh Sub Inspector. Singh, were given early retirement. Sub Inspector Harry In the first two years, through retirements and transfers, Dempster was appointed in command, unhappily, he collapsed the force was reduced to forty seven and a recruiting drive was suddenly in March 1966 and died in BMH Hong Kong shortly started. Sub Inspector Makhan Singh was sent to India to afterwards. He was succeeded by Sub Inspector John Stevens •;-cruit Sikhs for the force and returned with fourteen. Of who stayed only for three months and when he resigned, E ; iese, six are still with the unit and recently completed twenty Bhagat Singh was selected for promotion to Sub Inspector and nve years service, took over the Sikh Police. Thus after seventeen years as a joint The period from 1952 to 1957 was relatively calm with no European /Sikh organisation it became an all Sikh force and major changes being made. It was then announced that the Bhagat Singh is still its proud leader. |
| Book number | R0246 |