RAOC Gazette - page 287
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 |
gazelle like antics whilst playing in goal for the Officers Mess in the Battalion's six-a-side competition which resulted in a collision, which resulted in a fractured leg, On the Badminton scene someone somewhere has posted most of our players to BAOR and stood-up others for the very near future. Nevertheless, we still have a few aces up our sleeve and despite going down five nil in our first District League Match to the ACC Depot and Training Centre, league winners 1975 to 1976 and 1976 to 1977, we have high hopes of a successful season. Corporal Armstrong and Private Wells have been selected for the Corps Team and are extremely well sup- ported by Lance Corporal Coleman, our AlFT, Corporal Harrington has recently returned to Bicester from Canterbury and was quickly voted in as a general factotum on our behalf— 1 or as he put it ' dogs-body. Private Mitchell of 4 B ' Company entered for the seven mile road race at RAF Benson and got down to a serious month's training before the event Although unplaced, he put in a very creditable performance finishing well up in a field of three hundred runners with a promise of better things to come. With one-third of the Battalion absent—on duty we hasten to add—at Penhale on Field and Adventure Training for two week periods and a good proportion of Regimental and Training Staff away for the whole six weeks of the annual camp, life in Bicester has been somewhat quiet of late. Reports from Pen- hale on the other hand indicate that all who travel that way enjoyed or are enjoying themselves immensely despite daily physical training to the sound of the early dawn chorus and the rigours of field training. No doubt our field correspondent will have ample to report on his return to the tranquillity of North Oxfordshire- Lieutenant Colonel Evans is taking over 1 Sub-Depot from Lieutenant Colonel Gooley, who is retiring on 1st December. We wish them both every success. Two long serving civilians retire: Mr N. Lukic after twenty seven years service and Mr R, W. Didcock after nearly eleven years service. Central Ordnance Depot Donnington THE final proceeds from the Garrison Commander's Sponsored Walk were even better than we had hoped. The splendid sura of £266.35 was raised towards the Garrison target for the Queen's Silver Jubilee Appeal Fund. Our thanks are due to all who supported the venture, but not least to Brigadier Mike Short. On a less happy and more personal note, we hope that, by the time these notes are published, our Commandant's wife is once more restored to full health and mobility. Our thoughts are very much with her at the time of writing, while she is in the Royal Air Force Hospital at Cosford. Readers of our notes over the past months may have be- come used to the frequent historical references in them. This month is no exception. A chance meeting in Scotland between a clerical assistant of the Depot on holiday and a retired army officer's housekeeper from Edinburgh, led to the reforging of links between a previous Commandant of Donnington and his command. Brigadier H. R. Primmer commanded Donning- ton from 1947 to 1950 and retired shortly afterwards. He is still very much alive in Edinburgh, and it was his house- keeper, on holiday in the Isle of Iona, who met Mrs Beryl Wallace, a clerical assistant from this Depot. They talked— and talked—and eventually discovered their mutual acquaint- ance. Mrs Wallace reported this on her return from holiday and as a result a set of photographs of the Depot, including the block in Parsons Barracks and the road in the soldiers quarters named after him, was sent to the Brigadier and a most delightful letter has been received in return. He says among other things " . . . . the most interesting photographs came as a complete surprise and I was thrilled to receive them. I am now living with my son-in-law who has retired from the Royal Scots and my daughter who was persuaded to join the WRAC by the officers of the company at Donnington at that time. She too greatly appreciates your kindness and admired, in particular, the photograph of the * girls on parade.'" We send our sincere best wishes to Brigadier Peter Primmer and hope that he will keep in contact with us in the future. We were visited on 21st October by the Quarter-Master- General, General Sir Patrick Howard-Dobson. Besides being briefed on Fair Value and the Depot in general, he showed an intense personal interest in all that he saw in Donnington. As Colonel Commandant of the Army Catering Corps he met the vast majority of the members of that Corps in the Garrison and took a particular interest in their work. Our contribution this month would be incomplete without a reference to the Donnington Garrison Amateur Dramatic and The Quarter-Master-General discusses lunch with Privates Chris Fyfe and Jimmy Cureton. Operatic Society (DGADOS). Your correspondent has squirmed for many years while he has been forced to attend the efforts of amateur theatrical companies. Only very rarely does this squirming stop when such a company performs in a way that overcomes the normal embarrassment. Such an exceptional occasion was the presentation of * The Sorcerer * during the week 3rd to 8th October. This probably least-known of the Gilbert and Sullivan Operettas was courageously performed by the Society for a full week and properly received excellent notices locally. Three individual performances stand out, those of Cyril Cox as John Wellington Wells, and of Jo McGeoch and Roy Griffiths as the young leads, but the whole performance from the musical director to the junior members of the chorus deserve our thanks and congratulations upon a splendid per- formance which brought home to audiences throughout the week that there are other Gilbert and Sullivan things than the standard Gondoliers, Mikado and Pirates. It is sad to think that it will be next October before the Society puts on a comparable musical, since the rest of the year is normally taken up with plays, pantomime and the like. It is to be hoped that the Society relents and puts on more than one musical a year in future. Central Ammunition Depot Kineton CAD KINETON continues to prove its versatility in the range of sporting and adventurous training activities tackled, from the dizzy heights of mountaineering to the more earthy sports of rugby and football. The tennis team finished the season with a fine flourish. After winning the quarter finals held at Aldershot against Catterick, our team then went on to the final against RAPC Worthy Down by beating Headquarters Northern Ireland in the semi final. Un- fortunately, our luck was out against Worthy Down and they beat us by six games to one. The team of Colonel Berresford, Lieutenant Colonel Hendy, Lieutenant Colonel Bhabutta, Major Bennett, Major Roach and Sergeant Smith played well all summer. We all look forward to next year when perhaps we will win the Army Cup! The Unit tennis competition also came to a grand finale. All keen tennis players competed against each other for the title of Kineton's No. 1 player. Lieutenant Colonel Bhabutta RADC, eventually won after many long and hard fought matches, Winter sports have got off to a good start, the hockey team have played four matches so far, and have won two, drawn one and lost one. Several players went to the Corps Trials, and Major Hourahane, WOl Murphy, Staff Sergeant Leadbeater, and Corporal Rosser have been selected to represent the Corps during the season. With so many good players in the team, we are sure that a rosy season lies ahead. At the beginning of October the Kineton football team played RAF Stafford in the West Midland District League. After a somewhat uncoordinated start the team were rapidly jolted into form by a goal from the Stafford team. Private Geordie Bannister equalised, but Stafford scored again to make us 2-1 down at the end of the first half. Early in the second — 218 — |
| Book number | R0246 |