RAOC Gazette - page 71
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 |
;-md. and wishes to become a member of the Corps Association. .Ve may appear to take a steady and rather lofty view of life ;om Horse Guards but we try to spread our effort over a ide area. We recruit actively. Why Mr Isaacs wrote to us itid our subsequent transactions with him, are full of interest. He is a member of the local branch of the Returned Service- man's League in Queensland and was having a hard time from ihe younger members because he couldn't show that he had served overseas. So he wrote to the RAOC Records Office at Woolwich—it was there in those days—and the postman had nowhere else to deliver the letter except the OSU. The OSU is not geared up for that kind of thing so they passed it to us. The Public Records Office and one or two other places did iheir stuff and bingo! relief was despatched. We now have an •pen bar chit at the RSL in Redcliffe if ever we should go that .vay. Many of you will be sorry to hear that Bill Roman, who took over the OSU at Woolwich on 1st January died a few weeks later. He was a man of many parts and everyone was upset to know that he had been a sick man for so long but had kept it to himself. He was a short time only in hospital before he died and the unexpectedness of the event shocked everyone, used as they were to his easy inperturbability and manner of * business as usual.' Our sympathy is extended to his widow and son in their bereavement. We won't bother you with details of our preparations for jubilee Year; but, as you can imagine, we have the odd thing 10 do. Hard news is hard to come by; visits to the Safari Club and the theatre don't take up too much time and there was a bit of a flap when CRAOC won the race to be the last Officer into Millbank and Major Matthews had to accompany the Major General on his mounted inspection of the King's Troop RHA in Hyde Park. It's not often, he said, that you get a chance to see a mounted battery charge past as it did at Waterloo. CRAOC is now firmly back in the saddle, you will be pleased •o hear, apparently none the worse for wear. It's nice to know .hat we have depth of performance. Two of our Warrant Officers have been commissioned: our last Chief Clerk is now Captain Hewlett at Stirling and Lieu- tenant Veal went off at the beginning of the year to Aldershot as the Display Ordnance Officer until August when he is posted to Donnington. We thought of opening a wing of the University of London OTC but eventually decided to keep our own system. The Tower of London is in different hands, of course—or, at least the Brass Mount is. Lieutenant Colonel Feather joined us vice Lieutenant Colonel Walker, who retired to broader and more prosperous horizons a couple of months ago. The new Ordnance Officer Her Majestys Tower, as he is known, has speedily got to grips with the biggest tourist trap this side of the Costa Brava and, as the Management Jargoneers say, is making a valid, meaningful contribution at this moment in time. Did you know that he was to be in by 2130 or else cross the moat and scale the ramparts on a rope-ladder let down by an accomplice? It's tough at the top of the Tower. Those of you who know Messrs Crawley, Niddrie and Gallagher (WOIs all), will recognise them as the stuff that backbones are made of. It it wasn't for them I couldn't bear '. Officers may play about at the perimeter—the skirts of ^remonial, shall we say—but it's your actual WOs who can count the buttons, read and write letters or tell when a brass case is empty. That reminds me: I must just rush off and see if he's got me that pair of George boots—where's my bowler? South West District J HEADQUARTERS fti / £ THE past few weeks has been marked by an ever ^n3t /gx increasing number of departures amongst m e v £ r vvfiCjT l° n £er serving civilian members of the ^ > l l 'tw>? branch. All this activity is a result of the £} £ V ^ / v \ pending move to Buiford. The military mem- bers o f t n e QstfjlMr — $p branch find it most difficult to *^vYJpi^SJ( understand why Buiford has, apparently, so J x P O T little attraction. It may be something to do Hf* with the weather on the Plain. In April CRAOC T Lieutenant Colonel R. M. Carruthers, and a team of three, went to the School of Ord- r ^ce to give the Formation Ordnance Officers Course their •n idiosyncrastic views of the problems, and pleasures, of serving on a District Ordnance Staff. Major P. R. M. Lawson, having failed to provoke his audience with some deliberately outrageous concepts, it was left to Lieutenant Colonel R. Purnell (Retd) to provide the main talking point of the presentation with his suggestion as to how to dispose of surplus MOD Furniture. Anyway, the Course said they enjoyed the presenta- tion and took it all in good heart considering that it was the last day of their course, Another aspect of the move has been the recent arrival of a number of Staff Clerks to help meet any shortfall in civilian staff. The Superintending Clerk reports: This Headquarters has recently shown a marked increase in clerical efficiency, but whether this is due to the recent arrival of five staff clerks, is a subject about which the Superintending Clerk, WOl W> Jay, is staying tight lipped. In March Private John Brown limped in from 20 Armoured Brigade claiming to be P7 after his unfortunate accident (he tried to kneedrop a moving Volkswagon). Private Ian Nelson (Scotty) arrived in April direct from training at the Depot telling us all of his NCO qualities. Private Luige Serbatoio arrived during the same month also from the Depot; he stayed long enough to learn how to operate an antiquated duplicator and leave his mark (inky hands!) on the WRAC company before being despatched to Buiford. Private Chris McLean arrived in May from the Apprentice College (and the ski slopes of Bavaria). He spends his leisure hours trying to convince any listener that West Ham are a Football team. Staff Sergeant Tony Goodchild has joined us from Headquarters SALPLAIN to work in G Mobilisation for a couple of years before retirement. WOl Bill Jay has arrived from the USA where he spent three and a half years at the Embassy in Washington. We will refrain from making the inevitable joke about the new Am- bassador. He has just taken over the duties of Superintending Clerk from Conductor Tom Burford who has joined the LSL Brigade as a recruiter in Wrexham. SUPPLY DEPOT BULFORD MAJOR KEITH GREEN retired recently, to devote even a greater percentage of his time underwater diving, to be replaced by Major Robin Johnson from Headquarters West Midland District. We wish Major Green every success and happiness in retirement and have always sympathised with him over the fact that Supply Depot Buiford is an unacceptable distance from the underwater paradise of the West Indies or Mediterranean. Sergeant J. R. McGrath retires to civil life shortly having taken redundancy; also leaving is W 2 L Tierney who is going to Cyprus to serve accompanied with the United Nations Force there. To replace W 2 Tierney we welcome W 2 E. Bettely and in place of Sergeant McGrath we should shortly have Sergeant J. Coulter. South East District ^g^i^^. jf^f\J%^k /jCfiJ^fijfiV Dear Captain Lawson,—Last month you accused me of going on leave to avoid writiD-S T H E GAZETTE notes. This was not an ^ ^ • V H M P K X S ° d , had I known, your comments l^rBHRJ^Pl would most likely have ruined my holiday. l-4^££2kXp« ^ s ** w a s * w a s s o u P s e t t n a t I nearly V ^ H B ^ S V 9 forgot to submit my 1771 afterwards, ^^9^^]^^ However, how can you explain your ^^^j^^^f reason for not writing these notes? To ^^^^^^ go to Northern Ireland for a couple of weeks was taking things a bit too far even if the choice was not yours but something to do with the Liverpool manager looking for strikers. In fact, whilst you were away W 2 Mac Frith went on post- ing to Antwerp and he was never even asked to write. So, not only did you not meet W 2 John Easton, the new ROWO, but you also missed meeting the old one before he left. Colonel Richard Cooke went to the Isle of Man but I'm sure he can't be accused of doing that to miss writing these notes. Nor, indeed, can Major Tom Paters on who has been busily involved in running the RAOC Rifle Meeting. He also won a place in the Headquarters South East District team, better known as the Galloping Majors* team that competed in SEDSAM. While Major Tom was basking on the rifle point, Captain Harry Buck was slaving away at twice Union rates in C Supplies branch. Major Derek Reynolds reports that nothing has happened in Accommodation Services Are Majors exempt from writing GAZETTE notes, I wonder? I have spoken to a barrack room lawyer who assures me that I am quite safe in writing this letter (he thinks 1). Just in case I will keep my uniform handy before I leave for Head- quarters RAOC 1 Division. Now that is a genuine excuse for next month! |
| Book number | R0246 |