1947 Autumn

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOUR NAL
The Editor will always be pleased to receive constructive criticism for the improvement of the
Journal, including suggestions of particular features
which could be included or omitted.
Subscribers are requested to notify at once any
change of address. The Editor cannot be responsible
for delivery of copies unless this is done.
All correspondence should be addressed to:
THE EDITOR,
THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURN AL
DISTRICT PAY OFFICE,
LADYSMITH BARRACKS,
ASHTO N -UNDER-LYN E , Lancs.
Tel.: Ashton 3051
EDITORIAL NOTES
EDITOR:
Lieut.-Colonel A . L. D UNNILL, O.B.E.
The Roy al Army Pay Corps Journal is published

quarterly, viz., Spring (in March), Summer (in
June), Autumn (in September), and Winter (in
December).
Local Representatives hav e been appointed in
each Pay Office, to whom all Corps News and Notes
should be sent for transmission to the Editor. Other
articles intendei for publication may be sent either
to the Local Representative or direct to the Editor.
All letters, articles, etc., should be clearly written
in ink or typed on one side of the paper only and
should be signed. If the signature is not intended for
publication, but as a guarantee of gool faith, a nom
dlt plume should be given.
..
..
..
The rates of subscription to The R.A.P.C . Journal

are as follo ws : For 12 Single
months Copies
Through Office Representative
4/1/If sent by post
5/1/3
Small advertisements in connection with articles
for sale, accommodation, etc., will be inserted at a
charge of 2d. per word.
For Scale of Charges for other advertisements
application should be made to the Editor.
Readers can materially assist us in our advertisement s. Remember to deal with firms who advertise
in thel Journal and always:mention the Journal in any
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Articles, photographs, etc., should be for warded

the Editor to ensure receipt by the 20th of
February, May, August or November, if intended
for publication in the issue of the following month.
to
All articles printed in this Journal are copyright,

and application for reproduction should be made to
t he Editor.
INDEX
Page
Editorial
472
Officers' Club N otes
473
Obituary
479
Old Comrades Association
480
Personalia
481
Corps N ews -
482
Officers
Open Air Banking
483
Financial Disarmament of the Japanese
488
M eerut to Singapore
493
Snake-Charmer in Piccadilly
494
Birth.s, M arriages and Deaths .
495
A Pay Office in Japan
497
The Sudan in 1940
499
N otes and N~ws from Offices
502
471
The Royal Army Pay Corps Journal

Vol. V.
No. 41
District Pay Office,

Ladysmith Barracks,
Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancs.
Sept., 1947.
The Ed,itqr's daily post-bag indicates that
more arid more officers and men who have been
released from the Corps rely upon the quarterly
appearance of the Journal for information in
regard to their comrades who may still be
serving, or who, like themselves have ceased to
serve.
'IV e appreciate the remarks these men have
to make and are glad to realise that the objects
of the Journal have been attained insofar as
these readers are concerned.
. It is, we feel, a pity that so many who leave

the Corps fail to continue th~ir interest in the
Journal, for it is after their release that its
contents can be of help in maintaining liaison
with their comrades.
We hope that any subscriber who comes in
contact with an ex-member of the Corps who
does not receive copies of the J ou rnal will
endeavour to induce him to become a regular
reader.
Officers' Dinne), Club

The first post-war Annual Dinner of 0 e
Officers' Dinner Club was held at the MayfaIr
Hotel, Berkeley Street, London, on Friday,
4 July.
Ninety Officers were present and the
Colonel Commandant presided.
'"
PHILATELY
The response from those interested in
connection with the formation of a Philatelic
Society has been most encouraging, and as a
result an Exchange Club has been started.
More members are, however, still required,
and it is hoped that those collectors who have
not yet communicated with the Editor will do
. so as early as possible.
At the end of this year Vo!, V will have been

completed and in our next issue we hope to
announce details for binding the volume.
If any reader requires copies of past issues
they can still be supplied on application to th~
Editor.
BOOK REVIEW
"In the Street of the Angel," by P. J.
Stead.
Published by Art and Educational
Publishers Ltd ., London. Price 8/6.
This book will be of interest to readers of
the Journal as the author served during the
late war in the Corps, first as an other rank in
the Command Pay Office, York, and later, on
being commissioned, in the Regimental Pay
Office, Preston. Subsequently he proceeded
with No. 2 c.P.O. to Algiers and it was while
there that the book was written.
. Pre-war Algiers is the setting for this
melodrama of espionage and counter espionage.
The hero, an Englishman soon finds himself
in trouble in his efforts to unravel the death~
of a diplomat and a sea captain. Assisted by a
resourceful valet he escapes from many difficult situations during the course of which he
comes into contact with many remarkable
and responsible persons.
The reader's interest is held to the end when
our hero, having fulfilled his Foreign Office
mission, is able to gaze upon the City of Algiers
from the deck of a homeward bou~d ship.
R.A.P.C. Officers' Club
Autumn, 1947
EDITOBIAI..J NOTES
THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL
O UR CO NTEMPORARIES
The Editor acknowledges with m an y thanks
receipt of the following Journals : The Covenanter.
The RA .O.C. Gazette.
The Manchester Regiment Gazette.
The Accountant:
The Certified Accountants' Journal.
The Wish Stream.
The Wasp.
A brief record of service of the officers who

have retired during the last few months will
appear in our next issue.
472
GOLF
The summer meeting was held in excellent weather at :~est Hill Golf Club .on 3rd and 4th
July. Thirty officers competed. The result of the competitIOns was as follms . Riley Cleek . .
Toller Cup
Captains' Prizes
Lt.-Col. R. C . Thompson
Major E . M. Jenkins
Major E . M. Jenkins
Major G . T. Walsh
Lt .-Col. R C. Thompson
Capt. T . B . Cockburn
The Club Foursomes
Two Corps Matches have also been played : Versus R.A.O.C. at Worplesdon on 4th June 1947
RA.O.C.
Lt. -Col. H. S . Mi ~ chell ..
Lt.-Col. S . E. M. Welch
Lt.-Col. B. B. Jackson
Maj . A. Worsfold
Capt. F . Bancroft
6. Lt.-Col. C. D. Canning
7. Brig. M. Lea-Cox ..
8. Lt .-Col. H . C . McVittie
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
RA.P.C.
Result
0 v.
1 v.
0 v.
0 v.
0 v.
0 v.
0 v.
1 v.
(2 & 1)
(9 & 8)
.. 2
Total
(2 & 1)
.. 1
(2
(5
(9
(4
(4
.. 0
.. 1
1
1
1
1
&
&
&
&
&
1)
4)
8)
3)
2)
Total
(::! & 1)
F O URSO MES
l 0 v. Capt. K. W . Chaundy
(7 & 5)
f
Lt.-Col. R Beauchamp
l
v. Brig. C. N . Bednall
f 1 Capt. R. N . Page .. . .
l 0 v. Maj.-Gen. R G. Stanham
f
Lt.-Col. J R Burne
(10 & 8) . .
l 0 v. Major Evers
f
Major Jenkins
(6 & 5)
1. Lt.-Col. Mitchell
Lt.-Col. Welch . .
2. Lt.-Col. Jackson
Major W orsfold
3. Capt. Bancroft
Lt.-Col. Canning
4. Brig. Lea-Cox ..
Lt.-Col. McVittie
Res ult
Capt. K. W . Chaundy
Lt.-Col. R Beauchamp
Capt. RN. Page
Maj.-Gen. R G. Stanham
Lt.-Col. J. R Burne
Brig. C . N . Bednall
Major A. N. Evers
Maj. E . M . Jenkins
1
O
1
1
1
Total
Total
. .. 3
Total
Total
Versus R.A.S.C. at W est Hill on 1st August, 1947

RA.S.C.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Major Ellis
Lt.-Col. Huxham
Lt.-Col. Burrell
Lt.-Col. Muriel
Capt. Angus
Maj .-Gen. Clover
Brig. Williams . .
Maj.-Gen. Collings
R .A.P.C.
(2 Up)
(6 & 4)
(1 Up)
(1 Up)
Total
Ellis & Huxham

Burrell & Muriel
Clover & Williams . .
Collings & Angus
Total
..
Result
1
0
0
1
1
0
0
.. 4
(2 Up)
(2 Up)
Result
v.
v.
v.
v.
v.
v.
v.
v.
Capt. Chaundy
Lt. - Col. Beauchamp
Capt. Page
Maj.-Gen. Stanham
Brig. Bednall
Lt.-Col. Burne
Major Evers
Capt. Robson
473
(5 & 4)
(8 & 7)
Total
1
1
o
o
1
1
.. 0
. 4
Total
F O URSO MES
o v . Chaundy & Beauchamp
o v. Stanham & Bednall
.. 1 v. Page and Robson
.. 1 v. Burne & Evers
.. 2
(2 Up)
(4 & 3)
(4 & 2)
(3 & 1)
1
1
o
o
..
')
~

SOCIAL FUNCTION
The Officers' Club Committee, in an ambitious mood, arranged a big reunion of past and
present Officers of the Corps at the Officers'
Club, Aldershot, for 10 July, the day fixed for
.the Corps Annual Tennis Tournament, and
also the second day of the cricket match versus
R.A.O.C.
Unfortunately, the day turned out to be illchosen, and the sporting events were completely " washed-out" by the weather.
The guests, however, turned up in good
numbers, and despite the weather, the Social
function, aided by the splendid attractions of
the Aldershot Officers' Club was very enjoyable.
The N.A.A.F.I. provided
an
excellent
tea in their tastefully decorated "show"
Marquee, whilst the RE.M.E. (Boys) Band
contributed to the success of the day. Well
over 100 guests including Sir Guy and Lady
Riley, Major-General Stanham, and many
serving and retired Officers and their wives
were present.
fixtures. This year, for the first time there

was a Corps fixture against RE.M.E.,' which
took place a few days before the Week itself
but too little was known about individuai
players and they, in their turn, had had too
little practice for the game to be a valuable
." dress rehearsal."
I t seems possible that we may not aet an
allotment of the Officers' Club ground next
year, as we understand that the Aldershot
?ervices fixture list is going to be considerably
mcreased and the Hampshire County Club
may be playing at Aldershot for a full week.
So far, at any rate, the Secretary of the Aldershot Services has not replied to the request for
a ground allotment as his dates are by no
means firm. Although this piece of information
may be received with some dismay, particularly
by those members of the Corps who have got
many recollections of pleasant days of cricket
at the Officers' Club, we must hasten to say
that there is a very attractive ground about
half-a-mile from the Training Centre, and
there is no reason why it sho'Jld not provide as
much entertainment, both to players and
spectators, as the Officers' Club Ground ever
did. It would not be too much to say that it is
as pleasant a . ground as any in Aldershot,
although its pitch is not as good as it can be
made .
CRICKET
N general, one cannot say that the Corps
Cricket Week was a great success. Chief! y
the weather is to blame, for the g~e
against the RA.E .C . was robbed of what
promised to be a very exciting finish by rain,
and only one of the four innings in the
RA.O.C. match was completed . The weather,
however, had nothing to do with the very
definite defeat we experienced at the hands of
the R.A .S.C. -The truth is that we were not
good enough. Admittedly; the RA.S.C. can
produce a very good side and may, possibly,
be the favourites in any future games. I t is,
however, a strong indication that we should
consider the future very carefully. This year
has certainly been most difficult. Units' have
moved to new places and a great variety of
handicaps have imposed themselves upon us,
but it would be the greatest pity to allow the
Cricket Week, which can now well be called
traditional, to deteriorate from the standards
of the past. The remedy would seem to be to
have " area" trials at the beginning of next
cricket season as well as the normal unit
fixture lists so that the names and perfonnance
of likely players for the Corps will have become
known in time for the best to play in the Cricket
Week. It is hoped also to get other Corps
This is primarily .an account of Corps

Cricket rather than one of the W'eek alone,
and so it is only right for the Secretary to start
by apologising for the letter that he wrote on
17 June. In return, he wants to thank those
who answered that letter and gave him additional names. In the end, 26 names were put
before the Selection Committee.
The game on 2 and 3 July against R.E.M.E.
gave an opportunity for those whose names had
been put up by their units, and who were
stationed sufficiently close to Aldershot to play
together before the Corps Week started .
Unhappily, it did not produce any unknown
star. R.E.M.E. brought a good side, captained
by Colonel Henchley, which had already had
several games. . Against go~d bowling the
Corps scored 88 in the first innings and 71 in
the second, Pte. Simmonds being th~ chief
scorer with 30 in the first innings. In reply
RE.M.E. made 202 before declaring for 8
wickets. Col. Malpass tried six bowlers the
most successful, . being himself and Capt.
Forster, each taking three wickets.
474

ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS
2nd Innings
1st Innings
b Henchley
11
Lt .-Col. Clowes , c and b Dickenson
b Needham . .
16
Major Taylor, b Needham
o b Henchley . .
Pte. Hart, c and b Dickenson
b Needham . .
1
Pte. Smith, c Booth, b Needham
b Henchley
8
Sgt. Glendenning, b Ogden
c Ogden, b J osephs
1
Capt. Forster, b Needham
b Needham ..
30
Pte. Simm ns, not out
11
run out
2jLt. Gwilt, c Booth, b Needham
o not out
Lt. Trevena, b Henchley . .
..
c Needham, b Ogden
1
Pte. Mercer, b Needham . ,
1
c Booth, b Josephs
Lt.-Col. Malpass , c Dickenson, b N eedham
Extras ..
8
Extras . .
5
4
4
8
13
13
15
6
o
3
71
88
Bowling:
Bowling:
Henchley, 1 for 31
Needham, 6 for 29
Dickenson, 2 for 12
Ogden, i for 8
Henchley, 3 for 9
Needham, 3 for 22
Dickenson , 0 for 18
Josephs, 2 for 11
Ogden, 1 for 9
ROYAL ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERS

1st Innings
2
L jCpl. Booth, c Gwilt, b Smith . .
29
Capt. Broadbent, c Mercer, b Simmons
Bowling: Mercer, 0 for 25
66
Lt. Ball, cHart, b Malpass
Smith, 1 for 31
25
Capt. Josephs, b Forster
Forster, 0 for 0
4
Cfn. Needham, lbw, b Forster
Simmons, 1 for 43
5
Major Coulthard, b Malpass
Travena, 0 for 13
7
Lt. Taggart, c Clowes, b Malpass
Malpass , 3 for 32
23
Lt.-Col. Henchley, c and b Forster
Forster, 3 for 45
23
Cfn. Hacker, not out
5
L jCpl. Ogden, not out
A.Q .M .S. Dickenson
13
Extras . .
20 2
other scorer of note was Colonel Hudson, who

batted with great vigour for his 64, and was
appropriately removed by Colonel Clowes who,
in his turn, had been bowled by Colonel
Hudson in his first innings.
Including himself, Colonel Malpass tried n.o
less than seven bowlers, but most of the bowling
was shared by Captain Forster and Pte.
Mercer. Sgt. Collier, bowling very slowly
indeed, took three wickets for 13 runs in five
overs, and was the one to get out Sgt. Birchall.
The fielding of the Corps side was, on the
whole, quite good, but particular mention must
be made of the wicket keeping of Major NoelClarke who, despite his protests about his age,
kept very well indeed, just as well (in the
writer's opinion, and recollection) as he did in
1939. Thereshou Id be no need to plan his
" benefit" for another ten years yet.
The RA.E.C. scored a 20-run lead in the
first innings, but the play had been fairly slow,
and there had been intervals when rain put a
temporary stop to the play. The position
The Corps batting first against the R.A.E.C. ,

Major
scored the respectable total of 208.
Noel-Clarke's 50 was a very good innings, and
the score had reached 105 when he got out, a
good total for any opening bat to see by the
time that he goes.
Pte. Simmonds (33),
L/Cp!. Blackwell (24), Capt. Forster (38), and
Sgt. Collier (23) all deserve mention although
it was most unfortunate that the last two should
have been run out when a bigger score looked
likely. In the second innings Capt. Forster's
59 was very attractive, being particularly distinguished by really first-class off-drives.
Major Noel-Clarke again did well in his
innings of 26, as did L/Cp!. Blackwell (32), and
Pte. Mercer (23).
The batting of the R.A.E.C . was somewhat
tantalising. During his innings of 61 Sgt.
Birchall put the ball into the air frequently,
but it just refused to go to hand. Without
being uncharitable about his efforts, one was
left with the strong feeling that he would be
unlikely to repeat the same performance. The
475

when they went in for the second time was that
they required 178 to win on a pitch which might
\:vell have turned against them, and with a
'reasonable time only in which to get the runs.
That is where we must leave that game for

with 32 runs for the loss of one wicket, rai~
stopped the match which had every promise of
providing a first-rate ending.

1st Innings
2nd Innings
Major Taylor, b Hudson. .
.
12
ct Wilkes, b Wright
Major Noel-Clarke, ct Watson, b Smith
50
b Wright
Lt.-Col. Clowes, b Hudson
4
b Venables . .
Pte. Simmonds, b Watson
33
lbw, b WiIkes
Sgt. Collier, r u n ou t
23
lbw, b Venables
Cap t. Forster, run out
38
st Bircumshaw, b Venables
L /Cpl. Blackwell, ct Peacock, b Watson
24
ct Bircumshaw, b Venables
Sgt. Glendenning, ct Co ulson, b Watson
6
c and b Venables ..
Pte. Mercer, ct Weight, b Venables
3
c and b Wright
Pte. Smith, b Venables
3
ct Watson, b Venables
Lt.-Col. lVlalpass, not out '
o not out
Extras . .
12
Extras ..
3
26
9
11
7
59
32
1
23
4
8
14
208
Bowling:
Hudson, 2 for 23
Venab les, 2 for 35
Watson, 3 for 38
Smith, 1 for 17
WiIkes, 0 for 27
Wright, 0 for 56
197
Bowling: Wright, 3 for 61
Wilkes, 1 for 7
Venables, 6 fJr 62
. Watson, 0 for 33
ROYAL ARMY SERVICE CORPS

Major Sadler, st Noel-Clarke, b Forster
Pte. Bateson, ct Taylor, b Forster
Pte. Ufton, ct Noel-Clarke, b Forster
O /cdt. Brown, lbw, b Simmonds
Capt. Gilmour, b Simmonds
..
Capt. Leclerq , lbw, b Simmonds
2/Lt. Dexter, ct Taylor, b Mercer
Capt. Stewart, run out
..
Col. Bavin, ct Taylor, b Forster
Major Marrison, ct Smith , b Forster
Capt. Hunter, not ou t
Extras . .
Bowling
Lt. Col. Malpass, 1 for 46

Capt. Forster, 3 for 77
Pte. Mercer, 1 for 42
L / Cpl. B1ackwell, 0 for 7
16
16
4
2
9
:2
6
11
Extras . .
279
Bowling:

Pte. Simmonds, 3 for 24
Sgt. Collier, 0 for 13
..
29
to this low total. Unfortunately, we were only

able to make 86 ip reply, a score which flatters
the side, as without some vigorous smiting by
Pte. Mercer and somewhat more orthodox
batting by Capt. Forster, the total would have
been very small. Credit must be given to
that grand pillar of so many R.A.S.C. sides,
Major Marrison, who has played for his Corps
for the last 35 years at least. He still bowls
his leg swingers with an occasional ball that

Pte. Simmonds, 0 for H
Lt.-Col. Malpass, 1 for 52
Pte. Smith, 0 for 26
Sgt. Collier, 0 for 31
1st Innings
Major Taylor , ct and b Sadler
Major Noel-Clarke, b Marnson
.
Pte. Simmonds, et Dexter, b Marnson . .
L j Cpl. B1ackwell, ct Bateson, b Marrison
L t.-Col. C lowes, run out . .
Capt. Forster, b Sadler ..
Sgt. Collier, lbw, b Marrison
Sgt. Glendenning, ct Dexter, b Sadler
Pte. Mercer, ct Dexter, b Sadler . .
Pte. Smith, ct Brown, b Marrison
L t.-Col. Malpass, not out
Extras ..
"21'ld Innings
b Sadler
b Marrison
et Ste",iart, b Brown
ct and b Sad ler
ct Sadler, b Marrison
b Sadler
st Ufton, b Bateson
ct Marrison, b Bateson
b Bateson ..
not out
ct Ufton, b Stevvart
Extras
10
4
I
I
1
24
3
32
6
o
4
1
4
..
8
8
0
3
0
0
0
2
0
1
27
86
Bowling:
476
3
138
123
4
not out
b Forster
ct B1ackwell , b M alpass
b Forster
Pte. Smith, 0 for 18

Sgt. Co ll ier, 3 for 13
Lt.-Col. C lowes , 1 for 19
In the game against the R.A.S.C. the wicket

was definitely affected by all the rain of the two
previous days, being lifeless before lunch, and
then becoming difficult afterwards.
The
R.A.S.C. won the toss and elected to bat.
Thanks to some good bowiing by Capt.
Forster, who took five wickets for 44 runs,
and by Pte. Simmonds, who took three wickets
for 24, the R.A.S.C. only made 13l. The fielding of the Corps side was good and contributed
19
41
9
19
3
131
ROYAL ARMY EDUCATIONAL CORPS

1st Innings
2nd Innings
Major Watson, lbw, b Forster
7
not out
Sgt. Bircumsh~w, run out
o
Sgt. Birchall, ct Noel- Clarke, b Collier ..
61
not out
Sgt. WiIkes, st Noel-Clarke, b Collier
34
Major \Vright, b Malpass ..
4
Sgt. Peacock, ct Clowes, b Forster
28
Major Moore-Coulson, lbw, b Collier
17
ct Forster, b lVIercer
Col. Ronald, b Forster
o
Col. Hudson, st Noel-Clarke, b Clowes ..
64
Capt. Smith, b Mercer
7
Sgt. Venables , not out
o
Extras ..
6
For 1 wicket
"2l1d Innings
1st Innings
Bowling
228
Yorkshire second eleven, and the latter for

Kent second eleven. Certainly the batting of
both was really good both in attack and d~fenc~ .
Great credit must go to Capt. Forster m thIS
innings, who bowled 28. o."ers and took t~o
wickets for 87 runs. Requmng 324 runs to wm,
the Corps side only managed to collect 27.
does not swing, but comes back sharply from

the off instead. To assist him he had Majo r
Sadler, who is almost as well known.
The R.A.S.C. second innings was declared
closed at 279 for three, Pte. Bateson making
138 and Pte. Ufton 123. It is very likely that
more will be heard of both these p layers in
fi.rst-class cricket for the former plays for the
Bowling:
Major Sadler, 4 for 43

Major Marrison, 5 for 39
Major lVIarrison, 2 for 12

Major Sadler, 3 for 5
O /Cdt Brown, 1 for 8
Pte. Bateson , 3 for 0
Capt. Stewart, 1 for 1
to dispose of the Corps side for 92. Before

rain finally stopped play the R.A.O.C. had lost
their first two batsmen for 11 runs and the
eight overs bowled showed that anything might
have happened.
. By winning the toss against the R.A;.O.C.,

L ieut.-Col. Malpass gave the Corps SIde all
the advantage that he could from a pitch which
would probably do very peculiar things. It was
still damp from the previous day and was
sufficiently difficult for the R.A. 0. C. bowlers
4:77

Major Noel-Clarke, ct Coates, b Halton
Capt. Forster, b Halton ..
..
..
Major Taylor, ct and b Halton
..
Pte. Simmonds, ct Parnaby, b Speight . .
L /Cpl. Blackwell, ct Parnaby, b Speight
Lt.-Col. Clowes, lbw, b Halton
Sgt. Collier, b Halton
..
Pte. Mercer, lbw, b Speight
S /Sgt. Stuart, run out
..
Lt. Macey, b Bruhl .
..
Lt.-Col. Malpass, not out. .
Extras . .
10
41
12
15
o
6
1
1
o
2
ROYAL ARMY ORDNANCE CORPS

Col. Parnaby, ct Noel-Clarke b Forster
Pte. Speight, ct Noel-Clarke ,' b Mercer
S.Q.M.S. Halton, not out
Capt. Coleman, not out
Gen. Palmer
Col. Mitchell
RAI N STOPPED PLAY
Col. }obson-Scott
Capt. Bruhl
L /Cpl. Morley
Col. C;oates
Cpl. Nicholls
Extras . .
92
Bowling:
For 2 Wickets
Cpl. Nicholls , 0 for 14

S.Q.M.S. Halton , 5 for 40
Pte. Speight, 3 for 20
Capt. Bruhl, 1 for 16
Bowling:
At the time of writing these notes, there is one

more fixture-the game against the Cross
Arrows. With ' the possible exception of one
pl~yer, no ~ew talent has come to light, and so
It IS only faIr to end these notes by making the
strongest possible plea for active interest in
Corps cricket in. the 1948 season. There must
be young men who are keen, and who have
ability if they can be found and encouraged.
6
3
3
13

Sir Guy and Lady Riley, General StanhaIn

(also a competitor), Brigadier, Mrs ., and Miss
Ormsby-J ohnson were amongst 'those present.
Lady Riley, who continues to take a keen
interest in all Corps activities, handed the
trophies to the winner and runner-up of the
Singles Championship.
Cadet A . Murray and S.Q.M.S. T . H .
Steg.gles, from the R.A.P.C . Training Centre,
offiCIated as Umpires, almost without a break
throughout a long day, whilst Major Mallock,
Capt. Bown, and Lieut. Boanas also assisted
in that capacity.
LAWN TENNIS
The Corps Tennis ' Day, postponed from 10
July, was rearranged, and took place at the
Officers' Club, Aldershot, on 8 August. All
the original competitors were fortunately able
to make the journey for the second time.
Although the arrangements were necessarily
on a modest scale, we were gratified to welcome
about 60 guests to watch the play and partake
of tea.
. It was pleasant to see Lieut.-Colonel Milling

such good form. He and his partner, Capt.
Bown, won all their matches in convincing
style, to make Regimental Pay Office, Shrewsbury, the R.A.P.C . Doubles Champions fo r
1947 .
In
ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS OFFICERS ' TENNIS SINGLES CHAMPION SHIP
FOR THE MUSSON CHALLENGE CUP
(Holder: CAPTAI N S. E. DYER)
1st Round
Semi-Finals
Final
Lieut. M. Burrough
"')
v.
Major Mallock
'>Major A. R. de H. Mallock
j
(6-2, 6-1)
Lieutenant Davies
>
Lieut. H. E. Boanas
v.
Lieutenant Davies
Lieut. W. V. Davies
(6-4, 6-3)
J
(6-3,6-4)
LOST TO :
Major F. T. B. Stephens
'I
(6-3,6-3)
Major Stephens
~
v.
Major-Gen. R. G. Stanham J
1Lieut.-Colonel Beauchamp
1
Lt.-Col. H. R . Beauchamp
Lt.-Col. Beauchamp
(6-3 , 6-4)
1
(Bye)
(6-2, 6-1 ) j
478
DOUBLES CHAMPIONSHIP
(Holders : REGIMENTAL PAY OFFICE, R.A.S.C.)
Semi-Finals
1st Rou.nd
(Regional Basis)
Regimental Pay Office,
Shrewsbury,
beat
Regimental Pay Office
Kidderminster (home)
1
1

Shrewsbury
(Lt.-Col. H. G . B. Milling and
Capt. Bown , 6-2, 6-0)
'I
I.

Reading,
beat
R.A.P.C. Training Centre,
. Aldershot (home)
"')
District and Regimental Pay

Office, Salisbury Plain,
beat
District Pay Office, Aldershot
and Hants (hon:e)
Warley,
.
beat
W ar Office (F.9) (home)
>

Reading.
(Major Mallock & Major
Plunkett)
I(

Shrewsbury.
(6-2,6-4)
J
~
1
Final
BEAT :
District and Regimental Pay
Office, Salisbury Plain.
(Lt.-Col. H. R. Beauchamp &
Pte. May, 6-4, 0-6, 9-7)
"')
1
-~

Warley.
(Lt. W. V . Davies & Capt.
Woods)
District & Regimental Pay Office,

Salisbury Plain
19bttuatp
" Jock" was posted to the Army Pay Office,
Manchester, in June, 1940, and practically
the whole of his service in the R.A.P.C . was
spent in Group 6 of that office.
A well-known and very capable footballer,
he acted as Battalion Football Officer up to
the time of his death.
He leaves a widow and three children.
The death of Charles Edgar Gresham took

place at his home, Heathermount, St. Leonards,
Ringwood, Hants, very suddenly on Sunday,
13th July, 1947, at the age of 58.
A Chartered Accountant, he saw active
service during the 1914-18 war with the
Honourable Artillery Company, and Royal
Artillery . At the close of that war he transferred to the Corps of Military Accountants,
and on the amalgatnation becatne a Paymaster,
Royal Army Pay Corps.
He was promoted Staff Paymaster in 1942,
and attained the rank of Colonel during the
1939-45 war, in which he served in ,Canterbury,
Manchester (R.P.O.), York, Leicester, London
District, and the Middle East (Egypt and
Malta).
He retired in 1945, and from that time until
his sudden decease, had spent a very happy
time in his home and garden .
He was an expert horticulturalist-a hobb y
to which he was devoted.
The death ofWilfred Jatnes Boiston Temple,

late S/Sgt. took place in New Norfolk, Tasmania, on 24th May, 1947, in tragic circumstances.
His body was found on the side of the railway
line beneath a precipice known as Pulpit Rock
about a mile from New Norfolk .
It appears that the deceased was exploring
the ledges on the rock when he overbalanced
and crashed to his death, 100 feet below .
Temple, who served in the corps during the
first world war was appointed Council Clerk
of New Norfolk, in 1937. He was also Coroner
for the district and took a prominent part in
local affairs .
He leaves a widow and one daughter who
reside in Hobart, Tasmania.
Lieut . W. (Jock) Goodwin, R.A.:p.C., died

at Connaught Military Hospital, Hindhead,
Surrey, on 4th August, 1947. Lieut. Goodwin
enlisted in the Catneronians and was transferr<:!d to the R.A.P.C. in 1939 and joined for
duty at the Command Pay Office,Western
Command, Chester.
We regret to record the death, in a bathing

accident in Lagos, West Africa, of Lieut.
A. J . H. Walls, stationed in the District Pay
Office, Lagos.
479
B.A.P.C. Old
Comrades~
ROLL OF HONOUR
I t is with regret that we have to record the
passing of the following Old Comrades since
-the publication of the list in the Spring, 1947,
issue of this J ourna!.
Memb. No . .17693 Pte. A Martin.
Died,
1-3-47.
25280 Pte. F. A. Wiggett. Died,
"
10~3-47 .
Died,
5835 Capt. W. Steele.
"
25-5-47.
13807 Lieut. F. G . AlIen. Died,
"
4-6-47.
14 Colonel C. E. Gresham.
"
Died, 13~7 -4 7.
AREA BRANCHES
Since the publication of addresses of Branch
Secretaries in the Spring issue of the J purnal,
and the amendments published in the Summer
issue, the following additional change has taken
place : NORTH WALES AND Mr. K. D. Goodhew,
WEST MIDLANDS
AREA:
Wolverley Camp.
Wolverley, Worcs.
BRANCH FUNCTIONS AND ACTIVITiES
1.- Home Counties Area
A " Branch Gathering" has been arranged
to take place on Friday, 26 September, 1947,
at 8 p.m., in the Assembly Rooms of the Royal
Empire Society, Northumberland Avenue,
Charing Cross, London, W.C.2.
A further " Gathering" has been arranged
for Friday, 28 November, 1947, at the same
.
address.
Members who are desirous of attending, and
who haven't yet been notified personally, should
apply for tickets, price 5s. 6d. (which includes
a Buffet-Supper), to the Branch Hon. Social
Secretary, Mr. J. Miller, 29 Salisbury Mansions, St. Ann's Road, London, N.15 .
Many members have made requests to be
put in touch with past friends. The Branch is
now able to render this service, and your Area
Secretary will be pleased to receive your
requests.
Many thanks for your response to the
Branch Circular.
2.- East Midlands Area
An Area Committee Meeting is being held in
the early part of September, and it is hoped to
arrange some form of social reunion for late
480
Association
1947 or early- 1948.

Will all members in the Area with any
suggestions to make regarding same, please
contact Area Secretary, Pte. G. R. Smith,
R.A.P.C ., Army Pay Office, RA/AA, No. 2
Block, T.O.B., Chalfont Drive, Western
Boulevard, Nottingham.
GENERAL
It is again emphasised that if ex-serving
members would be good enough to contact
their particular Branch Secretary, it may be
possible to arrange further functions. They
should quote their home address and membership number in all correspondence.
R.A.P.C., O.C.A., Lapel Badges
There has been such a demand for these
lately that the present stock has been exhausted and, in response to a request from one
of the Branches, the manufacturers have been
asked to supply a smaller badge. This, they
have agreed to do but, unfortunately, owing to
shortage of ,material and labour, it will be some
four to six months before they are available.
The price will be in the region of Is. 9d. each,
so would intending purchasers please wait for
an announcement in this Journal or from their
B ranch Secretary?
R.A.P.C., O.C.A., Corps Diaries
Messrs. Gale and Polden, of Wellington
Works, Aldershot, Hants, are again undertaking the supply of these Diaries for 1948.
Unfortunately, owing to further increases in
cost of labour and materials, the price has, of
necessity, had to be correspondingly increased
and they will be : Leather
6s. 9d.
Rexine
5s.
Refills
2s.
The new Diary will contain the names and
addresses of all Branch Secretaries.
Please place your orders with your Branch
Secretaries, to whom remittance, plus postage
of 3d., should be forwarded.
R.A.P .C. Christmas Cards
A reservation has been made for the supply
of Corps Christmas Cards, and specimens are
being forwarded to each Branch Secretary and
Office Representative .
There will be two kinds, costing 4s. and 6s.
a dozen (including envelopes), and you are
advised to place your orders as early as possible
to your Branch Secretary. Remittance, including postage should be forwar:ded with order.
O.C.A. Civilian Appointments Bureau

Will any ex-serving member who has the
opportunity of offering employment to an ~x
serving member, or could put any ex-serving
member in touch with a prospective employer,
please contact his Branch Secretary, or
S.S .M. H . Leader, R.A.P.C., The War Office,
(F9), Hotel Victoria, Northumberland Avenue,
London, W .C.2, in the case of Home Counties
Area only?
/
Freddie Gore would like his old friends to

know that he has left the Corps, and is now a
Civil Servant in Inland Revenue (Guildford
1st Tax District). Private address: 5 Orchard
Road, Onslow Village, Guildford, Surrey.
1947-1948 Subscriptions
Will any member who has not yet paid his
1947-1948 subscription, due on 1 April, please
remit same to his Branch Secretary, or to the
General Secretary, Capt. H. Hoptrough"
R.A.P.C. Training Centre, Marlborough Lines,
Aldershot, Hants? Membership Cards should
accompany remittances. If any member wishes
to become a Life Member he still has the
opportunity of doing so by paying the difference between the amount of subscriptions paid
since, and including, 1939, provided he submits
his receipted annual membership card . to
support payments of such annual subscriptions.
Life Membership Cards are issued by the
General Secretary only.
H. N. Hodgson (late 38th Battalion, R.A.O.C.

Leeds), would like to hear from any of his
comrades at "Snarlands," Whiteclosegate,
Carlisle, or c/o. No. 5 Beaconsfield Terrace,
Alnwick, Northumberland, where he is employed on the sales staff of Messrs. Hardy
Bros. Ltd., the famous Fishing Tackle Manufacturers.
P. F. Holland, having sold the White Cross

Hotel, Eel Pie Island, Twickenham, is now
the licensee of the Royal Saracen's Head Hotel,
Beaconsfield, Bucks, and wou ld be pleased to
welcome ex-Radcliffe friends at all times.
Mr. R. B. Stewart, "Woodlands," St.

James's Square, Boscombe, has closed his
children's nursery, and is now taking in paying
guests instead.
Objects of the Association

One of the main objects of the Association
is: "For the benefit of past and serving
members of the Royal Army Pay Corps who
are deserving and 1'n needy circumstances.~'
As a matter of general interest it may be as
well to point out that between 1 April and 31
July this year, 14 applications for assistance
were received and considered by the Committees of this Association, and grants totalling
nearly 81 were made in Q.ine cases.
In two
other cases it was asc ertained that the applicant
was not a member of the Association, and the
cases were passed to the R.A.P.C. Benevolent
Fund for their consideration. In four of the
cases in which grants were made the R.A.P.C.
Benevolent Fund made additional grants.
.~
Ex-Capt. "Bill" Thaxton, 6 Wardrobe

Place, London, E.C.4.
(Telephone: City
6086) would like to hear from all his friends of
the old Maritime Royal Artillery Wing, Leicester, with their views on a possible reunion
gathering.
His many friends at Foots Cray and Meerut

where he took an .active part in sporting
activities, will regret to hear of the death of
Jack Watson, which occurred on 15th June.
(O. C.A . Notes continued from prev ious column)
Captains F. G. Partridge and E. W. Lewis,
Directors of South Midland Secretarial Services Ltd. ,
23 Russell Street, Reading, and late of the Reading
Pav Office, wish it to be known that they are in a
po;ition to accept registrations for employment in
the South Midlands from ex-R.A.P.c. (including
A.T.S .) personnel.
As Business Consultants and Office Organisers,
they are able to place suitably qualified persons in
advantageous posts, either on their own staff or with
local firms. The emphasis at present is on applicants
qualifie:l in shorthand, book-keeping, costing and
allied subjects.
They also undertake to train applicants for such
positions at specially reduced rates for Old Comrades.
Applicants may register for employm ~nt without
:my obligation or cost.
The British Legion, Met'ropolitan Area, is

now situated at Haig House, 26 Eccleston
Square, London, S.W.l, and the Area
Accountant, Captain J. C~ G. Howes (late
40 and 51 Battln., R.A.P.C.) will be pleased to
advise any ex-Corps member on ex-service
matters by 'phone (Victoria 7661-6), or by
letter. An employment office is open daily to
deal with personal applicants.
(Continued at foot of next column)
481
~orps News
EXTRACTS FROM "THE LONDON
GAZETTE"
T~e KING h~s . been pleased to grant unrestnc~ed permls~lOn for the wearing of the
followmg decoratlOn which has been conferred
on t~e .und~r-mentioned person in recognition
of dlstmgulshed service in the cause of the
Allies : DECORATION CONFERRED BY HER MAJESTY THE
QUEEN OF THE NETHERLANDS
Knight Commander of the Order of the
Orange Nassau with Swords.
Brigadier (Temp.) L. J. Lightfoot, C.B.E.
. The KING has been graciously pleased to
gIve orders for the following appointment to
the Most Excellent Order of the British
Empire, in recognition Qf gallant and distinguished service in the Netherlands East
Indies, prior to 30th November, 1946 : To be Officer (Mil. Div.).
Lieui:.-Col. (Temporary) T. H. Sweeny.
PROMOTIONS
To be Major.
Capt. and Payr. N. Caterham-5thfuly,1947.
To be Captain.
Lieut. and Paymaster
R. J. W . Lace-23rd June, 1947.
R. J. Doodson-28th June, 1947.
I. A. Hay-10th July, 1947.
H. R. Giltrap-18th July, 1947.
To be Major (Asst. Paymaster) ..
Capt. (Asst. Paymaster).
T . Blackett-13th June, 1947.
. G. J. Forsyth-15th June, 1947.
A. E. Chenery-15th June, 1947.
G. W. Mitchener-21st June, 1947.
H. V. Scott-3rd July, 1947.
C. H. Bailey-29th July, 1947.
A. D. D' Allenger-12th August, 1947.
Retirements.
Major and S.P.2 A. N. Evers, having
attained the age for retirement, is placed on
retired pay, 14th June, 1947, and is granted the
hon. rank of Lieut.-Colonel.
Lieut.-Col. and S .P.1 E. F . Cox, having
attained the age for retirement, is placed on
retired pay, 1st July, 1947, and is granted
the hon. rank of Colonel.
482
OPEN-AIR BANKING
Offieers
Lie.ut.-Col. ~nd S.P.1 F. T. Baines, O.B.E.,

to retIre on retIred pay, 23rd July, 1947, and is
granted the hon. rank of Brigadier.
Lieut.-Col. and S.P.1 W. D. N. Robotham
having exceeded the age for retirement i~
placed on retired pay, 25th July, 1947, and is
granted the hon. rank of Colonel.
Major and Paym. (W.S., S.P.2) J. S. Eynon
M.C:, retires on retired pay 27th July, 1947:
and IS granted the hon. rank of Lieut.-Colonel.
Major (Asst. Pymr.) W. F. Oram, M .B.E.,
retir.es on retired pay, 1st August, 1947.
LIeut.-Col. and .S.P.1 F. Spilsbury, is placed
on the half-pay Itst on account of disability,
2nd August, 1947, and is granted hon. rank of
Colonel.
Major ~nd Paymaster (W.S., S.P.2) J . B.
Cooper, IS placed on the half-pay list on
account of disability, 3rd August, 1947, and is
granted the hon. rank of Lieut.-Colonel.
Short Service Commissions.

.T~e undermentioned from Emergency CommIsslOns to be Paymaster with rank of Lieut.1st May, 1947.
With precedence
next below : *J. Maxwell, M.C.
C. L. H. Young
*R. D . Ogilvie
J. D. D . Forrest
iF. M . Laws, M.B.E. F. E. Matthews
*R. Dove
T. Hilling
J. F . Brown
G. J. G. Cave
C. E. Jones
T. H. Pearce
F. J. Lowery
A. E. Whitley
G. J. Terry
W. D. Stark
F. Fitton
G. F. Vaal
E. G . Dowty
H. J. R. Whittle
N . MacColl
D. W. Fox
E. A. Newbury
N. MacColl
L. D. Davis
G. H . Russell
P . G. Snow
R . T. Weston
iL. M . Piall
F. V. Mundy, M.B.E.
The undermentioned from Emergency Commissions to be Paymasters with rank of Lieut.1st July, 1947 :--'
With precedence
next below :tH. W. Reynolds
R. W. Mackreth
*J. C. Furmedge
C. E. Jones
*W. Lees
~ . Burbridge
F . G. Fry
E. G . Dowty
J. Blundell
W . T. Greenway
* With rank of Captain.
:C With rank of Captain relinquishing appointment of Asst. Paymaster.
A short account of the difficulties encountered in supplying the Army with Cash
during the North-West Europe Campaign.
By F. M. WIGHTMAN
desired, but for the first two weeks business
s everyone knows, a Field Cash Office is a
was a mere trickle; no one wanted any
portable Bank attached to a Division or
money, as there was nowhere to spend it. This
Corps headquarters. The normal duty of
was fortunate, as we spent our time hopping
a F.C.O. is to supply all the units and the in. from field to field as the Headquarters moveddividual officers with such cash as they may
an almost daily occurrence, though at that time
require, to exchange the currency of one
moves were rarely more than a mile or two
country into that of another as the Division
owing to the congested state of the bridgehead.
progresses from one place to the next, and to
I t was most annoying to have spent hou rs
receive money from Army Post Offices, Officers'
digging a perfectly beautiful hole, only to be
Shops, N .A.A. F ~ I., etc. Needless to say, taking
told an hour after its completion that the H.Q.
IN cash is a much lengthier business than
would move again in two hours' time. The
giving it OUT, and is, consequently, very
worst of it was that one can't just pack up a
unpopular with Cashiers!
hole and take it to the next 10catioR to be laid
The tot~l staff allotted to deal with this
down like a sheet of linoleum; I think the
vast and flourishing business is one officer and
Engineers should really concentrate on inventone Sergeant. There is also a driver to pilot
the car, bu.t he can be elimin.ated from the
ing a portable trench just like they have
technical side of things, his time being fully
portable bridges ~ However, we kept moving,
and our biceps grew larger daily. The tent,
occupied with driving, putting up tents,
with its dug-out basement and sign outside,
digging holes, and generally making himself
useful by chasing clients who have departed
" WIGHTMAN'S BANK," became quite a landwith too little money or, as is more usual, too
mark . This sign, which always called forth
much.
great amusement-it was surmounted by the
My particular trio found themselves in
pawnbroker's three balls-had been presented
Normandy in June, 1944, complete with full
to us by the L.A.A. Regiment, who had
Boy Scout equipment and a few million French
thought of it themselves in England as a
francs; we had been with our Division in
security measure when I paid my weekly visit
England for some six months prior to this,
to their Headquarters, and it travelled all the
and consequently, were well acquainted with
way with us.
our clientele. I was curious to see just how
Soon business started to brisken, and a
different the job wou ld be, and how the
steady daily flow of customers began to arrive.
various instructions I had compiled before
As business increased, so did out trouQles, the
setting out would fit into the circumstances
worst problem being still the constant moves
which, up to this time, had been purely
from place to place, because at this time I had
theoretical.
only one vehicle, and it took at least an hourOur first home was a large hole in the ground,
and-a-half to get this packed before a move,
which we had excavated ourselves; it was a
as each item of equipment had to be in its own
curious fact that wherever we were, the area
particular place, or there would be something
allotted to my Cash Office was invariably
left over at the end . It reminded me of the
situated on ground which consisted of two
times when as a boy, I would take a watch to
inches of soil and underneath solid rock . We
pieces, to find on re assembly that there were
should have been equipped with pneumatic
several superfluous parts for which there was
drills, not 5pades! However, it was remarkable
no room . So it will be seen that when an hour
how much progress could be made, even in
or so before a move there was a lat:ge queue
solid granite, when a few odd shells or bombs
waiting to draw cash, it was a matter of extreme
and things started to drop around ; our digging
ingenuity and tact to start packing up without
team went down just like a lift! It was cusbeing lynched. However, we always managed
tomary to erect our tent above our burrow, so
to satisfy everyone's demands before departing
that in the mornings I could reappear on the
for pastures new, though this usually involved
surface to deal out cash to any callers who so
spending the last hour dishing out cash in the
4:83

open. 'On such occasions a strong wind invariably sprang up the moment the tent was
struck, and irate officers pursuing 100 franc
notes across the adjoining fields were a common
sight. It was nothing unusual for two or three
officers to arrive just as the convoy moved off,
and as often as not they would tail on and
follow us through to our new destination. It
was most annoying to be greeted by this
nucl<:us of ~ queue the moment one stopped,
but It had Its advantages. For instance one
good idea was, to. say, "Fearfully sorry, old
-boy, but I can t gIve you any cash until we've
dug a nice new trench . . ." at which the
prospective clients would either strip off their
coats and give a useful hand or melt away
quietly to return another day.
In those early days it was fatefully easy to
take a wron~ turning and land dangerously
near enemy hnes, and many hair-raising tales
were told of fellows who had wandered into
German outposts, though usuaYy, according to
th: storyteller, they got safely back again after
mIraculous escapes. As my office was visited
by all the Divisional Units, it was a centre for
gossiJ;> of this kind, and on . one particular
occasion, I thought we were going to have a
true " wrong turning" story all to ourselves,
for on returning from a visit to the Base Pay
Office we took a wrong turning somewhere in
trying
to find a short cut-a fatal error , as we
.
afterward.s found out, "short cuts ~ ' on any
b~t offiCIal Army routes being apt to have
dIsastrous results. The first intimation that
all was not well was the sudden entire absence
of troops or Army signs. I grew rapidly more
uneasy, as the fields and buildings looked eerie
and deserted, except for the .o dd dead body or
two. A few" Who amps " 100 yards on the
l<:ft decided it; this was definitely not the
rIght road, and as the car hastily drew up, a
couple of soldiers materialised out of a hedge
and roared " Whwew the H-- d'yoll think
you're going?" According to them, it was
most advisable that we beat a hasty retreat, as
not only were the Bosche some unknown (but
short) distance straight on, but the road on
which ~e were travelling was under enemy
observatIOn.
I sweated profusely, until at
last we reached civilisation again.
At last things started to move, and after the
stench of Falaise, the Division gathered
momentum every day. This new phase of
movement was one of pleasant excitement after
the dull little two-kilometre moves of Normandy. VVe formed a habit of moving on our
484
own with the Postal Unit, and the run through

the North of France and the Pas de Calais was
one I shall alwa~s remember, for the villages
were bedecke? WIth flags and bunting, flowers
were thrown. Into the vehicles as they rumbled
thr?~gh, fruIt was eagerly handed to grinning
reCIpIents as they leaned out of lorries . and
trucks. Everyone was happy in the first flush
of victory, for in this orchard country the hand
of war had not been ' felt as in the devastated
fields of Normandy.
The onward rush halted abruptly at Antwerp,
where people celebrated, drank, and danced as
the shells fell from the still contested harbour
are~; Antwerp's worst ordeal, the barrage of
FlYIng Bombs was yet 10 come, though no one
~new i~ then, and no one cared . As for me, my
Immedlat~ . concern was to obtain Belgian
francs, mIllIons of 'em. I had been trying now.
for some days but somehow, there was an
elusive quality about those first supplies of
Belgian money. I chased it here, I chased it
there, but always just missed it in some
mysterious way. At last I caught up with
supplies at Brussels, and returned triumphant
-to find waiting for me a larger queue than I
had ever seen before. It was four o'clock in the
afternoon, hut we got cracking with a will, for
the troops were anxious to change their French
francs into Belgian so that they could' make the
most of their first chance to make Whoopee .
At 10 p.m. the doors were closed-not a single
franc left! In six short hours five million
francs had gone, all that I had been able to
procure. So next morning I arrived at Brussels
again and requested ten million, .and after a
great deal of consultation, this was fixed up,
though it took until the afternoon; the
trou ble was that the demand for cash had been
far, far greater than had ever been anticipated.
When I arrived back the Headquarters had
disappeared! All that remained was my tent,
surrounded by a large gathering of offit::ers
enjoying an alfresco lunch on the grass outside
-waiting for me, or rather, some cash. Needless to say, the waiting assembly knew where
the new location of H.Q. was, and they gave us.
a hand with the dismantling of the tent, thereafter trailing us to our new lair. By this time
the crowd had swollen, so I gave up all thought
of the sustenance for which my stomach craved,.
and didn't even wait for the tent to be erected ,.
but got busy straight away in a small watchman's hut which was conveniently situated
nearby. This time it was midnight before the
last client departed ; in fact, many had already
note, say, for example, a five-franc note, can

have as many as five different prints! To
illustrate this further, I made a note at one
period of my overseas career of the number of
different notes with which we were dealing, and
this amounted to no less than 127 !
Really wintry weather now began to set in,
bringing with it the problem of keeping one's
hands reasonably warm. It can be imagined
how difficult it is to work accurately with cash
in a flapping tent, exposed to the biting winds
which sweep across the flatness of Holland,
and soon it became obvious that some means of
heating or similar alternative must be found.
In less than a couple of days a perfectly marvellous paraffin oil stove was unearthed in a
little Dutch shop. It was marked" Made in
Austria," and looked like a pair of Primus
stoves, but instead of being pressure fed, the
heaters had circular wicks and a most ingenious type of perforated funnel vaporizer.
This acquisition was worth its weight in gold,
and was the envy of all beholders. But greater
good fortune was to come. One pouring wet
day, when the tent was a veritable island in the
w i~d-swept plain, the Divisional" AjQ " himself paid a visit ; after one look at the sodden
piles of francs and guilders strewn around the
tent, he remarked that it was impossible for us
to work under such conditions-would a threeton truck be any use for conversion to a
caravan-office? I could hardly believe m y
ears, but it was true, and a week later the threetanner arrived, so I dashed straight off to my
R.1\.S.C. friends from whom I had extracted
a promise to fix it up for me. Two desks were
fitted, the end of the truck boarded up and a
door made; the tail-board, when lowered,
served as a platform where officers could sit
and draw cash through an aperture with a
sliding window which resembled nothing more
than a theatre box office. Later, the Engineers
asked if they could improve on the design for
me, and further additions and amendments
were made . The entire inside was lined with
ply-wood, a two-tier bunk installed, new and
bigger windows were TItted, the tailboard
permanently "platform-ised," and the roof
extended to provide shelter for the" clients."
Electric lighting was installed by my R.E .M.E.
friends , both 12-volt and fittings for llO or 220
volts; the latter could then be plugged in
wherever a mains supply was available. Life,
which hitherto had been exceedingly uncomfortable, now became almost a joy. It was
incredible what a difference the new caravan-
gone, seeing there was no hope of accomplishing anything that day. It was 4-30 a.m. before
the cash was sorted out and balanced, and we
fell into bed to sleep like the dead-only to
be wakened at seven by the queue starting to
form up again. This sort of thing went on for
days (or sh(~)Uld I spell it daze ?); indeed~ it
continued, though on a gradually lessemng
scale, until the Division left Anhverp and passed
on, heading for the desolate wastes of southern
Holland. This time I was prepared, and crossed
the Dutch border laden with guilders, bound
for a lone rendezvous gi ven me by Headquarters. The reason for this lone effort was
that the locations of the Divisional Units were
not known owing to the rapidity and fluidity
of our advance, but so long as they knew where
I was, they could ferret me out and exchange
their currency with the minimum of delay.
The tent had been nicely erected at our new
spot, the cash all put in order, and all preparations made for the usual invasion when the
Provost Marshal (whom I knew well) drove up
and asked what I was doing there. I told him
we were going to start exchanging currency,
to which he replied that- we'd better be ready
to exchange it into German marks if we stayed
long . . . it seemed that a large pocket of
German troops was in the immediate vicinity,
and that it would be much healthier to try
. somewhere else. This we lost no time in doing.
The exchange into Dutch currency went
much better than the pre vious one, chiefly
because I had learned my lesson, and this time
.specified particular days for the various units
to visit the office. Consequently, the queues
were much smaller and the whole affair under
much better control. One curious feature was
that we were never su.pplied with samples of
the currencies in which we were to deal,
making things rather difficult if one had never
previously seen them, as in the present case,
for I had never seen a Guilder in my life until
I opened the box containing them. Allied
Military issues of each currency had been
printed to overcome the initial diffit::ulty of
su.pply, and in all cases, it was entirely different
from the normal currency of the country concerned. It was, therefore, a matter of using
one's own judgment when dealing with nonmilitary notes to decide whether or not they
were genuine. It must be remembered that
Continental currencies deal to a far greater
extent in paper money than we do here in
Britain before this point can be properly
appreciated , and any one denomination of
485
THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JO U RNAL

office made to our existence after months of
tent life . As it was essential for two people to
be with the cash, Sgt. Iddon and I shared the
accommodation, and while there was not much
room, it was amazing how comfortable our
" home" became. The cash boxes and the
steel trunk, containing all our "trousseau,"
fitted nicely under the bottom bed, carpets
(of a kind!) were found for the floor, the
paraffin heater stood nicely on the wheel box,
and. there was a place for the tiny Phillips'
radIO on the cupboard beside the beds. The
most important factor was the ease with which
the cash could now be handled with a capacious
desk in which to keep it tidy, and I estimated
that the new quarters took at least an hour off
our working day; not only so, but the place
could be packed up ready for a move in fifteen
minutes or less .
.
Another welcome feature of the mobile offi(;e
was the addition of a cocktail cupboard, the
contents of which would have turned a toper
green with envy. Gin, whisky, liqueur brandy,
wines, and the odd bottle of champagne were
always in stock, and the kindness of many
satisfied customers was often responsible for
its replenishment. I remember on one occasion
(which is typical of many) an officer arrived late
at night, tired and frozen after a Jeep breakdown; he was revived with alcoholic sustenance from our cellar, and finished off with a
cup of Nescafe laced with brandy before he
departed with his cash and a nice warm feeling
in his innards. A few days later he reappeared
with a parcel and said: "This is so that you
can do for someone else what you did for
me "-the parcel contained, if I remember
. rightly, two bottles of whisky and one of gin .
But in those days the Army was a hospitable
place . Everyone helped everyone else ; any
Army unit would welcome a lost traveller and
feed and sleep him-yes, and help him on his
way if his transport was" kaput." I had never
before realised the kindness which could b e
shown by men amongst men, and I shall never
forget it.
The caravan moved on. 21 Army Group
took a special delight in shifting the Division
from Holland to Belgium with great celerity,
necessitating frequent mass exchanges to the
different currencies each time . The climax
came when half the Division was in Holland and
the other half in Belgium. Life was a nightmare,
and then the bogey of Co in raised its ugly head.
I t will be appreciated that paper money is easy
to handle, it can be made up into standard and

compact bundles with ease, but coin! In one
day alone it was nothing to collect a hundredweight of the filthy stuff. It nearly drove us
crazy. 'W here were we to put it? How were
we to get rid of it? There was so much that it
overflowed everywhere, and the sight of an
officer approaching t~e office with a bag of coin
was enough to make us foam at the mouth .
Eventually, by having some hints and tips
published in Divisional Orders, the flow was
cut down to manageable proportions and
premature madness of the Field Cashier and
his staff was averted .
Christmas came, and with it, a mysterious
move back to Antwerp . This was most unwelcome, as Christmas on the move was not a
prospect calculated to arouse enthusiasm in
anyone's heart, and to spend it wandering
through showers of VI's and V2's did not add
to the anticipation. But suddenly the unknown
destination "" as altered, and ofl' we went to the
Ardennes to join the Americans in pushing out
Runstedt's armoured thrust.
It was like
entering the Arctic regions, for the place was
deep in snow and ice when we arrived; it
was still there when we departed after the job
was done. .Cold? I'll say it was cold. The
first morning on rising my boots were frozen
to the floor where I had left them overnight,
and our water supply in jerricans was solid.
The back platform was a death-trap, and I
went head first into three feet of snow before
having it sanded to prevent my clients from
meeting a similar fate. The few customers who
ventured out to patronise my establishment
arrived looking like Shackleton's expedition,
and tea was kept permanently laid on to thaw
them out for their return journey. What it
must have been like for the forward troops I
literally shuddered to think. Our three weeks
there were spent in eternal conflict with icicles
and snowdrifts, so it was with a sigh of relief
that we eventually set off for a rest period in
Holland near Eindhoven- the first time I can
remember the Division being out of the line.
Time passed pleasantly enough u.ntil the
next move approached . This was a very hushhush one, and the Division moved off at dead
of night after three weeks of peace and rest ;
all Divisional signs and other means of identi-'
fication were painted out- even cap badges
and shoulder flashes were removed -in order
that enemy agents would be unaware of how
many formations were to be in the next blow.

I did not move by night, for I had to wait until
the following day, as my driver was on leave,
and no substitute was available until then. On
the fate of it, there was nothing difficult about
following the Division up-I had done it often
before-but this time Fate decided otherwise.
First, my new driver disappeared, complete
with my truck and its contents of fifty thousand
pounds' worth of currency, by the simple
method of just dashing off without waiting for
instructions. There was only one thing to do,
and that was to send out search parties; I did,
and in half-an-hour a team of Despatch Riders
found the valuable wanderer and brought him
back. The next difficulty was encountered after
reaching Nijmegen, when I endeavoured to
find Divisional Headquarters. There were no
Divisional signs of any kind to be seen, everything was painted out, and the whole place
was alive with strange units of all kinds, from
tanksandflamethrowers to colossal field guns and
other similar toys. To ask anyone was to invite
immediate suspicion, and after being regarded
with open hostility on a couple of fruitless
inquiries, I was ready to tear my hair with
rage. Admittedly I had a map reference, but
to find a spot in the centre of a town is entirely
different from pinpointing a spot in open
country. Fortunately for the few remaining
hairs I possess, I spotted a Jeep driven by a
Signals' officer from Divisional H.Q ., and my
worries were over.
That night there was a terrific party in the
Mess, as the N.A.A.F.I. supplies had just come
in, but at 5 a.m., 1,000 guns sited all around,
made it impossible for-those with" hang-overs"
to indulge any longer in the luxury of sleep.
Forty-eight hours later we were in Germany .
for the first time, sitting outside the sodden
Reichswald. The problems of the exchange to
German marks now loomed ahead, but as I was
going on leave, it seemed that the whole
unpleasant business would be over before I
returned .
Alas, it was not so. On my return I was to
be sadly disappointed. The Division had by
this time moved on to the Goch-Kevalaer
area, and such was the congestion that the only
transport I could find from the Leave Camp
could only dump me at Main Division, whereas
I wanted to get to Rear Division. No one was
quite certain where this august body was to be
found., as it was believed to be on the move.
It was. But, unfortunately, it was in the centre
of the biggest traffic jam in history. Eminent
politicians (one with a large cigar!) and toprank Army officers dashed into ~his jam with
great nonchalance, and colossal gu~s ~ere
ceremoniously fired across the Rhme mto
Germany by the former, watched enthusiastically by the latter. My caravan-o~ce was
stranded in the middle of this fantastlc traffic
jam, and it was two days before I .was finally
reunited. During these two days, I hved on the
hospitality of any Army unit wh~ch was ~andy,
and actually did very well, besldes havmg 48
hours " extension" of my leave !
Soon things were back to normal, and the
Division moved steadily into the heart of
Germany ; we crossed the Rhine and swept on
towards Bremen. The roads were frightful,
and grew steadily worse, but fortunately, the
demand for cash diminished for the time being,
and I thought that at last my work would
decline into a single-currency business with
German marks only. Had I consulted my
Ball, Crystal, Field Cashiers for the use of,
Mark IV, I would have seen that I was labouring under a misapprehension; however, for
the moment I was in blissful ignorance. Our
worst worry was the increasing activity of
enemy aircraft ; these pests developed a nasty
habit of appearing at first light, and every
morning turned the Headquarters into a company of scantily clad gentlemen dashing for
shelter, clothed only in-to use vulgar parlance
-their" shift." They did shift, too!
By-passing Bremen, we approached Hamburg, and it became increasingly obvious that
the war, in our theatre at least, was rapidly
drawing to a close, and on 5 May, 1945, all
resistance ceased ; we entered Hamburg as the
controlling troops of that city.
I t was an
experience that I sb-all not -readily forget .
Many times you must have heard the smooth
phrase: "There wasn't a house left standing.
. . ." which in ninety-nine cases out of a
hundred is utter nonsense and gross exaggeration. While this was not the hundredth case,
it was very near to it, for in the first three miles
of the subu.rbs there literally was NOT a
house standing as far as the eye could see on
either side of the road. It was only round the
Aalster Lakes that civilisation began to appear,
and we established our Headquarters in the
little-damaged Atlantic Hotel, Hamburg's best,
and faIhous peace-time rendezvous.
We had scarcely been there two days when
the fun started again. Now that hostilities were
over, troops began to pour in from all quarters
(Continued on page 492)
186
487

Financial Disarmament of the

dapanese in French Indo-China
By LIEUTENANT-COLONEL T. H. SWEENY, O.B.E., R.A.P.C.
HEN British troops first flew in to.

Saigo.n they found the Japanese Yokohama Specie Bank still open under
J ap.anese management and Japanese guards,
whIlst the French Banque de l'Indo Chine and
the Treasury were still in Annamite hands
though the French quickly got co.ntrol o.f
these. The day after arrival we borrowed a
platoon of Ghurkas, entered the Yokohama
Specie Bank at 11.00 hours, and had every
o.ccupant outside on the pavement under escort
in two minutes. The keys were taken over from
the Manager and Cashiers, and the Bank placed
under a 20 Div. guard.
This Bank was the main link between Tokio
and the financing of Japanese troops and
civilians in F.I.C., and the suddenness of our
action prevented any organised destruction of
files or re~o:ds, s.o at one blow we got a grip on
Japanese FmancIal records and on a quantity
of correspondence with Tokio that was never
intended for British eyes.
At the time we had no special instructio.ns
about enemy property, and the French could
not set up the necessary organisation to deal
with it for months, so Lieut.-Co.l. T. H.
Sweeny, R.A.P.C., kept the keys of the Yoko'hama Specie Bank, and he and his staff of three
R.A.P. C. spent a profitable four months
digging o.ut vital information in it. ' The three
magnificent vaults of this Bank also solved the
problem that arose later of how to. keep all our
booty in safe custody, once we got their doors
open!
There was a spot of trouble about one of
these Strong Rooms into which the Bank's
current cash had been moved before we arrived,
as the Japs must have been expecting us to
take some such action and had jammed the
double-combination locks of the eight-inch
thick steel door. All efforts by the Japanese
Manager and Cashiers to get it open failed at
first, but Col. Sweeny gave the Manager
twenty-four hours to succeed or the alternative
of being" handed over to the Military Provost
Corps until you reach a more amenable frame
of mind." He came back in a few hours with a

four-foo~ high <;hinaman who got the locks
to work m ten mmutes, and quite shattered Our
belief in the impregnability of a Chubb's
strong room door to keep out anything! Some
seventeen million piastres were found inside
so. it was as well that we did not have to use ou;
dynamite.
This move of ours pro.ved mo.st" fortunate
when, some two. or three weeks later we
received orders from the Supreme Allied
Commander that we were to remove all
spending power from the Japs, whether Military or Civilian, and that the R.A.P.C. were to
act as custodians o.f all military currency'
bullio.n, and valuables that we could lay hand~
on. In theory the French were to do. the same
for civil property, but in practice, they could
no.t find the staff to do so until December and
we al~o had to take custody of-and segr~gate
from military boo.ty-all money, etc., taken
o.ver fro.m the vario.us Japanese firms being
closed down by our Intelligence Service on
account of their subversive activities . Our
investigations ill the Yo.kohama Specie Bank
soon put them on the track o.f other firms, and
we also discovered the account and pass-book
o.f the Indian National Army (I.N.A.) in F.I.C.
With assistance from these Major-General
Chatterji, the Commander of the whole
I.N .A., was traced and arrested near Hanoi.
The first step to. take in order to break the
Japanese financial grip was obviously to discover how much currency was in circulation,
and ho.w much of it was in Japanese hands,
The currency still used was the same old prewar piastre, issued by le Banque de 1'1 ndo
Chine, and the o.nly thing wrong with it was
that the amount in circulation had increased
ten-fold, and so was forcing prices up and
enriching a roaring Black Market. The no.tes
were numbered, and we were able to find that
the amounts in issue had increased progressively from one hundred and eighty-six
millions in September, 1939, to three hundred
and thirty-eight millions by the opening of the
488

what money they had in their pockets and their
Treasure chests, and not to spend more than
was absolutely necessary without our consent.
The amount they eventually declared was 77
millions, and they asked authority to spend 76
millions of it by Christmas. The Colonel made
some caustic comments on this which modified
their ideas, and they spent 30 millions on
themselves during October and November.
Eventually, we got a real grip on them, taught
them to keep their accounts more" R.A.P.C."
fashion, and they cost nine millions over the
period Decemb~r to February (i.e., three
months), and this sum included their Navy as
well, and about two millions spent on helping us
to get food into Saigon, over 200 miles of water
from Phnom Penh! This 77 millions seemed
pretty small out of the 901 millions, and
strengthened our resolve to analyse their
accounts properly and to find o.ut what had
happened to the rest of it. It turned out really
to have been 104 and not 77 millions.
The final results showed that they had
helped themselves to six months' pay o.n the
date of surrender; had spent 52 millions on
fortifications, 41 millions on aerodromes, and
105 millions o.n supplies, all of which were
intended to. provide for a "last ditch" stand
in F.I.C. of the Southern Armies ; had sent
295 millions to Hanoi to stir up trouble there;
had paid 238 millions to Japanese firms and
had another 145 millions somewhere in South
F .I.C., which we could not find. We did,
however, find most of 'the people who thought
they were going to use it, and got sixty-four of
them put" behind the bars" to contemplate
The amounts which the Japanese
life.
originally claimed to have spent on fortifications, aerodromes and supplies Were far too
large and hid very considerable sums which
had been" put to ground."
The 238 millions paid to Japanese firms
inc:uded 104 millions after the surrender, and
it was decided to discover whether it all covered
services rendered in the past, which didn't
matter, or how much of it was for services to
be received in the future, which mattered a lot.
We had no desire to see !'he Japanese win
the Peace, after losing the war, so we then
tackled auditing the accounts of the fifteen
biggest firms concerned, and got the French
to shut down all their branches which we could
reach. This drew the sting out of their tail,
but had to be done gradually, as these firms
had a stranglehold on the distributing and
Japanese War, then to 1,550 millions by March,

1945, and had spurted to 2,350 millions by
14 August, 1945, the date of the Japanese
surrender.
This last sudden jump at once aro.used our
suspicions as to. what made it necessary, and
it did not take long to find out that the Japanese
Army had drawn about 600 millions more than
was reasonable in the three months before the
surrender, and that 256 millions of this plus
all previous Bank Balances, were withdrawn,
on Field-Marshal Terauchi's o.rders, actually
o.n 14 August.
All this seemed a little fishy and we decided
to analyse all military expenditure and see
what could be fo.und.
The Colonel o.rdered the Head of the Intendence Branch to appear befo.re him and
then said: Up to yesterday yo.u were the
D.P.I.C. of the Japanese Southern Armies.
From today on, I am; and you take all
orders from me. I must have all Japanese
military accounts delivered here this week ."
So about a ton o.f acco.unts arrived, we got
hold of a Japanese interpreter (whenever o.ne
was available), and set about them. Some real
work ensued, o.vertime meant no.thing, and the
Colonel himself never stopped before midnight-Sundays included-and two mo.nths
later the accounts for the past four years were
available with all expenditure neatly tabulated
month by month under main headings.
They sho.wed 57 millio.ns had been spent in
1941, 85 millions in 1942, 117 millions in
1943, and 360 millions in 1944, but there was
nothing startling until March, 1945, and the
monthly expenditure merely rose in accordance
with the inflationary trend until it averaged 30
million piastres for the eight months ending
February, 1945. In March, however, the Japs
must have realised the War was lost, for they
drew a lurr.p sum of 133 millions, and by July
29th, had drawn 453 millions. On 30 July,
112 millions were drawn, on 14 August,
another 256 millions and, in additio.n all bank
balances (amounting to 80 millions) were also
drawn that day. This meant 901 millions in
six months, o.f which 348 millions were in the
last fortnight .
The Japanese Tro.ops were spread out over
an area 600 miles by 400 miles of Annamiteinfested country, but were still armed, and we
could not get at the bulk of them or bring
them in under their own steam for some time
yet, so we ordered them in October, to declare
489

retail trade of FJ.C. and the whole country
would have had its trade frozen, and might
have starved, if we had left a sudden void by
closing them all at once without making
arrangements for others to carry on with their
business.
The audit of these firms meant more wrestling with Japanese figures, but it helped us to
find the 64 people mentioned above, and also
brought to light certain Chinamen who were
holding sums of one million piastres upwards
" on behalf of the Japanese Army." It also
showed that Japanese firms got 238 millions
from military funds out of their total turnover
- of 298 millions in 1945, and that the Army put
in money whenever the civil firm had a debit
balance. The finns had no more right to be
called " Civil Firms" than W oolwich Arsenal
has ; they came in just before, with, or just
after, the Army, and were really R.A.S .C. and
R.A.O.C. disguised as civilians. This suited
the Japanese book better than putting them
into uniform.
At the same time as all this was going on,
the operations carried out by 20 Div., and by
French troops, who were now arriving in large
numbers, had given the Annamites such nasty
knocks that it became possible to withdraw the
Japanese gradually from areas which the French
could take over, and it at last became possible
to disann the Japanese Army and Navy, both
physically and financially.
.
By this time the Japanese had had over 500
casualties whilst fighting with us, and our own
fellows, who had looked upon them as equivalent to vermin in Burma, were now almost
comrades-in-arms, and were a bit reluctant
at first to help us skin them financi~lly, though
they saw the point of getting the weapons and,
later on, they caught the spirit of the chase.
General Gracey, however, issued finn orders
that it was to be done, and the Colonel worked
out a " drill" for getting and accounting for
the money, and went on tour round our Brigades
" putting it over," and telling Infantry Officers
how to collect the stuff and what to do with it.
No instructions had then reached F.I.C. as to
the ultimate disposal of this booty, or as to the
degree of control necessary; but, fortunately,
the " drill" had covered the possible necessity
of knowing exactly "what had been taken
from whom," since orders to this effect were
sent us after the whole job was finished.
The only R.A.P.C. C~shier we could spare
to help in actually getting the monies and
valuables was Captain Cairns of 125 Field Cash

Offi~e, and he was sent with Sgt. Mitchener to
organise the " skinning" of the Japanese at
Phnom Penh, where he spent a most profitable
fortnight, and was so enthusiastic that he not
only dealt with 11,000 Jap troops, but also
added in the Japanese civilians (though not
ordered to) as good measure !
Apart from this, and the Colonel's lectures
and written instructions, 20 Div. did the whole
job themselves and accounted for 60,000 Japs
in a fortnight. The remainder were dealt with
later as, and when, they reached the areas we
controlled.
Meantime, all the money, gold, diamonds,
watches, silver cigarette cases, cameras, binoculars, etc., together with the vouchers saying
who had owned them, poured in daily on to our
devoted little staff in the Yokohama Specie
Bank, and they were soon completely submerged by piles of treasure that turned the
Bank into an El Dorado.
The Colonel ordered the former J ~panese
Cashiers of the Bank to help and an Indian
sentry with fixed bayonet and loaded rifle
stood behind each Jap to see fair play. Every
consignment was counted separately and kept
separate and, as each was completed, we gave
" all clear" certificates to the Infantry Officers
who had collected it, after the Colonel had
authorised various adjustments to be made that
were necessary owing to the Japanese habit of
looking upon every type of currency as piaftres t
Each Saturday we sent in to the D.P.I.C .
A.L.F.S.E.A. a memorandum account of all
valuables, and of currencies no longer having
value, counted during the week. Our" Booty
Imprest Account" was rendered to him, and
C.C.H., Meerut, showing the increase of
those currencies having a world value, and the
amount when converted to piastres. Great
praise is due to Captain M. Davies, R.A.P.C.,
and later, when he was posted to Hong Kong
in the middle, to Lieutenant Davey, of 44
Area Cash Office who, together with Sgt.
Grimsley, were responsible for the checking of
the treasure and the compilation of these
weekly returns. After organising the staff work
required by all this, the Colonel was far too
busy on the "Hunt for the Hidden Millions,"
and on carrying out his duties as Finance
Adviser to S.A.C.S.E.A. <;ommission to do
more than drop into the Bank occasionally,
and to keep an eye on the results obtained
weekly. For three months he was the only
490

R.A.P.C. officer available for the" Hunt," but
in January, Capt. (now Major) Furmedge,
arrived with 44 A.C .O., and gave most able
assistance during the closing stages of the
search.
The final results from dealing faithfully with
the Japanese armed Forces were that we got
hold of nearly 80 million piastres and many
other currencies which brought the total to
over 100 millions, nearly half-a-ton of gold
bars some diamonds, silver bullion, and 170
crat~s of coin-not to mention over 7,000
watches and hundreds of cameras, binoculars,
cigarette cases, etc. etc. In addition, we took
in about 35 millions of money from Japanese
Civil Firms which we later passed over to the
French Custodian of enemy property.
One of the many humorous incidents during
the disarming of the J aps was when the Colonel
discovered that 46,000piastres and 37,000
Burma rupees had ,been taken off a J ap Private,
and at once said: "Take his trousers down
until you find how he got it." A grinning
messenger returned with the reply that" he"
had turned out to be a " Comfort Girl."
The Japs took the philosophical view th.at, if
we didn't skin them the French or Amencans
would, and they gave no trouble ove.r the
affair. Having pared them to the bone, It was
still necessary for them to eat and to carr~ out
various jobs for us which involved expendIture
by them. The local inhabitants .would sell
nothing to the French and very lIttle. to us,
we were living on rations brought m, no
contractors who would take on the job of
feeding the Japanese scattered ov~r wide. areas
were available, so there was nothmg for It but
to give them the money necessary for food and
work. The Japanese H.Q. was ordered to
nominate six Imprest Holders, one from each
area who were to be the only J aps able to draw
funds from us, and who were to render their
accounts monthly to us for audit. They could
pass on some of the money to sub-ac.countan~s
if they liked, but were held responSIble for It
all and were to be the last Japanese to leave
Fic. Each Imprest holder or sub-accountant
was given a pass signed. by the Colonel,
authorising him to spend pIastres and orders
were given that, after 1 January, ~ 94 6 , every
Jap found in possession of money WIthout such
a pass was to be arrested at once.
Imprest holders were only given enough
money at a time to last a fortnig~t, .and ~hey

accounted for it to our complete satIsfactlOn.
On one occasion, Intelligence passed the news
to us at 08-30 hours that a Japanese barge had
just been sunk by the Annamites, and the
crew, though rescued by another boat, had lost
the 2,000 piastres given them for December
food and , were much worried as to whether
they would be left to starve. The Colonel
discovered that they would reach harbour at
ll-OO hours, and arranged for an Intendence
Officer to meet them at the wharf with another
2000 and a deputation of high Japanese
Oftic~rs waited on him next day to express
their admiration for the kindness and efficiency
of our Pay Services in producing the money
even before Japanese .H.Q . had heard of }he
incident t
At first the Japanese requests for money
were absurdly high, so the Colonel s'e nt for
their senior Intendence Officers and told
them: "I don't blame you for asking for too
much every time, indeed, I would do the same
myself, and I am quite prepa:ed to find out how much is really necessary ill the areas we
control , and to cut it down accordingly.
, There
h
are a lot of Japanese whom we can t reac ,
however and I must rely on their word for
what is ~ssential. If these requests are certified
by you as necessary 'On the honour of the
Japanese Army,' I will nO.t query" them, but
will give you the money m full.
Henceforward, every request with this certificate on
it was for very reasonable amounts, ~d our .
experience was that, once the J ap realIsed he
was going to get a square deal,. he co~ld ~e
trusted . . The discipline of theIr armIes SIX
months aft~r they surrendered proved what
good soldiering material they were, and they
bore their defeat and much reduced standard
of living with real dignity.
.
. By mid-February all booty had been collected ,
the Japanese had been concentra~ed ~n ~he
Cap. St. J acques Peninsula to awaIt shIppmg
for Japan, and the French money t~en ha,d
been handed over to the French agamst theIr
receipt. Many millions of the worthless currency
taken were burnt, and the Colonel sailed for
Singapore with ninety-six crates of curren~y,
gold, and valuables guarded by twenty ~achille
O'unners beforegoing on to N.E.I. to do the
~ame ag~in." And so ended the " H~nt for the
Hidden Millions" in F.I.C., but It led to a
much bigger one in Java and Sumatra.
/.
/.
49 1
Jottings . .from Westminster

In a recent debate in the House of Commons
Mr. Mitchison asked the Secretary of State fo;
War what are the duties of the Officer i/c.
Central Moribund Accounts.
Mr. Bellenger: "The Central Moribund
Account~ ~ffice has been set up to maintain
and admInIster the accounts of all non-effective
soldiers, that is soldiers released from the
Service, discharged unfit, or who have died."
Mr. Mitchis~n: "How does the Right Hon.
Gentleman decIde when an account is dead? "
Mr. Bellenger: "When it is extinguished. "
Mr. J. Langford-Holt: "Will the Right
Hon. Gentleman tell the House how many
persons are employed under the Officer-inCharge of this Department? "
Mr. Bellenger: "I could not do that
without notice, but it is not a large number."
Mr. Boyd-Carpenter: " Can the Right Ron.
Gentleman assure the House that the title of
this appointment is not the new title of the
Chancellor of the Exchequer?"
Mr. Bellenger: "If Hon. Members will
look at this matter in a serious way, they will
u~derstand that t~e whole purpose of creating
thIS Department IS to relieve the Pay Office of
a lot of matter which will disappear in a short
space. ~f time. w.e do not wan~ to clutter up
the hVIng files WIth what we consider to be
dead or nearly dead matter."
, ;TAE.
'"
\HIS:{
..
.;
';
lO TAt. STARS \947)

'.-
"
.....
Meerut to Singapore
to ~epair the docks and perform the countless

dutIes that could now be accomplished. The
~avy, the .Army, and the Air Force left their
hide-outs m France, Belgium and Holland
a!ld swarmed into my first" permanent" offic~
Slllce the campaign began, bringing with them
sacks-yes, sacks I-of currencies to be exchanged. Once again we were knee deep in '
notes of all descriptions, and it was not until
an Area Cash Office arrived with the Lines of
Communication wallahs that comparative peace
descended again.
After a. month of "luxury," the Division
moved to Its allotted area in the Ruhr, with the
Headquarters (and m.e) at Hilden, near Dusseldorf. The tide of victory washed all sorts of
peculiar people into the " Bank." UNRRA (of
every natio.nality under the sun), Polish,
French, Itahan, Dutch, Belgian, Czech Liaison
o!ficers, Boy Scouts' Societies, Friends' MisSIOns, ~e? Cross, Mi.nistry of Supply, Control
C~mmlssIOn, and MInistry of Labour experts
-In fact, everyone but our wives and families
appeared to be visiting Germany, and the
masses of documentation required to pay all
these gentry nearly sent Sgt. Iddon and I mad.
However, it was so much easier working in a
proper office with a real safe and" all Mod.
cons.,~' that we really enjoyed the ever. changIng parade of curiosities, and gradually
we became expert at dealing with all 57
varieties. To cope with our much eniarged
area, we "opened" sub-offices at Munchen
Gladbach and Mulheim, which we visited once
every week. The Division had now swollen
to nearly four times its previous size, and we
had a turnover of nearly 400,000 marks
(100,000). The biggest problem at first l was
the supply of cash, and for some weeks I had
to fly by Auster to Rheine until a cash centre
was opened w:thin easier reach.
On looking back, I cannot but be amazed to
think how faultlessly the whole system worked,
and how few snags really arose. It speaks
volumes not only for the organisation of the
theoretical side of the affair and accounting
system, but for the way in which the " customers " co-operated, that no sh'ortages of more
than a few shillings or "rubber" cheques
came our way, for during the two years that I
was the Division's Cashier, more than
4,500,000 worth of currency passed over our
counter.
492
(" Open Air Banking"-continued from page 487)
By S.S.M. W. HUMPHRIES
covered" by Lieut.-Col. Shaw-Hamilton. The
N looking back through the postmen were comfortably settled in_ an office
war copies of the Journal, I find that
building converted into barracks, the Sgts. in
the Singapore Office has not had its fair
an old Bank (Taiwan) and the office on the
share of representation, for various reasons
ground floor of the huge Meyer Chambers
which I will not repeat! Let us rather look
block in Raffles Place. The officers had a nice
back to a day in July or August, 1945, when
little bungalow for a mess, where, on good
the personnel of the then C.C.H. were sweatauthority and on a diet of mud and frogs, etc.,
ing in sultry Meerut. Lists of personnel began
they also kept a Malayan Crocodile. (Does
to gather in the office of the O. i/c., and
any reader know where it is now?) In these
eventually, it got out that 150-odd stalwarts
places we worked and played, and dispatched
were going forward to man the Command Pay
envoys to all points East-Bangkok, Saigon,
Office in Singapore. While they were being
N.E.I., Celebes, Hong Kong, Japan and Burma.
sifted, kjtted, fitted, drilled, ' and generally
In fact, postings became so numerous, and we
messed around, Lieut.-Col. R. W. Shawwere so good at it, that the Detachment also
Hamilton and others quietly moved off ahead
incorporated the Depot R.A.P.C. for the Far
to act as the advance party. At last, on 15
East. In May, 1946, our first real blow fell.
November, 1945, " The" draft for Singapore
The office had to expand, and the troops had
\ marched out to the Cantonment Station, to the
to evacuate their office-barrack building, by
strains of the pipes and drums of the Punjab
now complete with a lift and attendant. SoRegt., The spectacle this provided for the
Tyersall Camp, five miles away, was occupied.
troops left behind was of a first-class military
Accommodation, six men to a tent, hurricane
nature, and there were no tears in the eyes of
lamps for lighting, bad roads, and all the "
the troops leaving! They were volunteers to a
attendant discomforts of a tented camp. The
man! Next stop, Calcutta. I'll skip the details
weather broke as we moved in, and washed out
of the train journey. A great many members of
tents were the order of the day. Every tent
the Corps have had to suffer in those terrible
without fail leaked through the roof in addition
Indian troop trains, on those seemingly interto the walls, the bull-frogs bellowed all night,
minable journeys and they will still feel the
and the mosquitoes came out and made
pang. At Calcutta, a day or two in a transit
merry! Owing to the extreme scarcity of food
camp, and then aboard the "Ekma," and
in Malaya, failure of rice crops, etc., the
hurrah! for the ocean wave. En route, a
standard of the Army ration was cut and cut,
port of call was Chittagong, where the R.A.P.C.
won so many campatgn medals! It should be
but on the whole, and . despite outbreaks of
weird skin diseases, life was good in TyersaU.
mentioned that six sergeants were left behind
at Calcutta to help quell the riots which are a
The officers were ' less fortunate in Ulu
feature of that city. They (the Sergeants, not
Pandan Camp, their new home, but how much ,
the riots) caught us up about a fortnight later.
I cannot say. . The move to Tyersall Camp
The journey took just over a week, and was
brought about the Admin . Officer's greatest
generally enjoyable. Many of those in the
headache, transport. It is impossible to condraft will still remember with a smile, the
dense the 101 snags which arose, breakdowns,
stentorian "Let go three shackles, aft, Mister
thefts, sabotage, etc., but looking back, life
McIntyre," and the fearful din which followed.
was certainly well spiced with a variety of
At last, Singapore, the city of the Lion. It has
"disasters." Our only human casualty was a
an impressive skyline on first sight, something
Malay clerk who fell off a truck when the hand
like a miniature New York, minus the Statue of
rail " 'came away in me 'and, Sir." Then,
Liberty, and it is approached through a maze
the Powers said: "Ah, let's move the Comof small islands, each with sandy beaches and
mand Paymaster's chaps around again," and
crowns of coconut palms. Our march from ' the
on a day of torrential rain, we occupied our
docks to Raffles Place 'excited nobody but ourlittle bit of the notorious Ayer Rajah Camp .
selves-the locals were used to the tramp of
This camp was the subject of rude words in
martial men by now, and so we settled down
the House of Commons, and although we 111
quietly in the new quarters and office " dis(Continued on p,1ge 495)
-1 93
THE SNAKE CHARMER IN PICCADILLY

By A. W. DEWDNEY, Jr.
HE c?ld air hit my face and I paused to

regam my composure. It had been a
very enjoyable evening and I'm sure
that when this re-union had been planned two
years before in Meerut, not one of us really
thought that we should all meet again. It's
funny to note how people change when they
don a civvy suit; rank is completely forgotten.
Even the Colonel's reserve vanished in the
convivial atmosphere of our stag, party, as he
gave an impersonation of a bow-legged " char
w.all~h . " But then, in India, apart from a slight
dlsclphne necessary to maintain law and order,
we had always worked together as a team. It
wasn't surprising, therefore, that the evening
had been such an overwhelming success.
I began walking towards Piccadilly Circus:
I reached the Circus and had the shock of my
life. There, outside the Corner House, squatted
a snake charmer! I looked again and, as I
watched, he commenced playing on a flute. Out
of the depths of his basket came the head of a
snake. A cobra. Almost in a trance I walked
towards the cha rmer.
" Buckshees, sahib."
It-it couldn't be, and yet again I heard him
chant:
Buckshees, sahib."
A crowd began to gather.
The mystic
stopped playing and the snake recoiled into the
basket. I took half-a-crown from my pocket
and threw it to the" wallah."
If I was surprised, the crowd abou't me must
have been even more so. It was as if a page of
the" Arabian Nights" had miraculously come
to life. The Indian played again. Up came the
snake. Then it happened; the snake glided out
of its basket, on to the pavement, and disappeared.
" Look out," I cried, and rushed after the
snake. The crowd separated, I darted through,
and nearly collided with a policeman.
" 'AUo, 'allo, now what's all this' ere? "
Breathless, I explained that a cobra had
escaped and was somewhere in the vicinity.
"Oh," he retorted,. "and whose is the
cobra ? Yours, no doubt."
No, no," I exclaimed impatiently, "it's
his." And pointed in the direction of the
charmer. He was gone. The crowd grew
larger.
" Now. look here, young man, I haven't got

all my tIme to waste on you; where's this
snake and (he laughed at this point) the bloke
that owns him ? "
.
. I .looked" around the crowd and timidly
lllqUlred :
Has anybody seen a snake? "
" No chum," shouted a voice; " but I saw a
nice bit of stuff walking around here with
curves. A real charmer she was too ! "
More laughs and I felt extremely foolish. I
tried again: "Look constable, there was a
snake charmer here a few minutes agQ, and his
snake did escape. I don't suppose it's harmful
as their fangs are usually removed, but it would
give somebody a nasty shock to wake up and
find it in bed with them! "
I was getting desperate : "Somebody else
must have seen it . . . ." I paused, as the
policeman walked across to a crowd of sailors.
" Any of you chaps seen a snake around?
"Cripes," said one, "'as he lost his old
woman? "
But nobody else appeared to have seen either
the Indian or his snake.
" Constable, for the last time-there was an
Indian here, and what's more I distinctly heard
him playing a flute."
" And the," interjected the policeman, " the
snake got away? "
Exactly," I said triumphantly.
" So it is eh ?-well you can tell that to the
judge! "
I told it to the judge.

" Your honour, on the night of the 11 th September, I was walking towards Piccadilly ~ircus
Station, when I saw a snake charmer squatting
on the edge of the pavement .... "
I related the whole story: " Yes, your
honour, I had been to a re-union."
" Of course I had had a few drinks."
That reply seemed to eclipse the entire
proceedings.
One eye-witness stated that I was acting in a
peculiar manner-while another distinctly saw
me throw a half crown piece at a taxi !
The constable told how he had noticed a
crowd gathering and was amazed when he was
charged by a young man . " Yes, your honour,
obviously drunk."
494
You will have guessed that I was found

guilty. Guilty of causing a disturbance to the
peace, while under the influence of drink! ~
duly paid a fine of 2.
But I'm still puzzled. True the judge may

have been right, and I may have been drunk.
But nobody will ever be able to explain away
.the cobra I found in my coat pocket, . when I
arrived home .
Birth s, M arriages and Deaths

BIRTHS
BULL.- On the 21st June, 1947 , at 1 airobi,

to Margaret, wife of S.S.M., A. A. Bull,
R.A.P.C. , a daughter (Sandra).
HARPHAM.-On 23rd May, 1947, at Shipstonon Stour, Warwickshire, to Irene Gertrude
(nee Hall), wife of Sgt.-Major Monty
Harpham, R.A.P.C., a daughter (Denise Irene).
HUNT.-On 29th June, at the Waverley
Nursing Home, Bradford, to Ursula M . Hunt,
M.B., C.L.B. (nee Kirk), wife ofA. W.
Maurice Hunt, 2 Shadwell Walk, Moortown,
Leeds, a son.
JONEs.-To Muriel, wife of Lieut. E. H. H .
Jones, R.A.P.C. (R.P. Shrewsbury), at Knaresborough, Yorks ., on 22nd July, 1947, a
daughter, Kathryn Dorothy.
LILLEY.-On 4th June, 1947, at Louise
Margaret Hospital, Aldershot, to Winifred
Mary (nee Payne), wife of S.S.M. J. P . Lilley,
R.A.P.C., Training Centre, a daughter, Vivien
Catherine.
MAxWELL.-On the 10th June, 1947 at
Nairobi, to Nan, wife of Capt. G. Maxwell,
R.A.P.C., a daughter (Elizabeth Sheena).
PARK.-On 6th August, 1947, at Accra,
Gold Coast, to Eve, wife of Colonel H. P.
Park, R.A.P.C., a daughter (Susan Margaret).
WHJTE.-On the 3rd July, 1947, at Nairobi,
to Vera, wife of S/Sgt. D. White, ' R.A.P.C. , a
son, Melvyn Douglas.
(" NI eerut to S ingapore" continued from paf!e 493)
the Detachment were interested, it was a

detached sort of interest. In addition to its
being an extra two miles from the office, it
could only be reached over the most atrocious
roads. We moved in before the camp was
completed, amenities did not exist and it was
less than a month to Christmas. Yet, full
marks to all the troops, little or no grumblings
were heard . Meanwhile, the Bank of Taiwan
had already been occupied as an office, and
practically collapsed on us every time a shower
blew up. The unfortunates of the Regimental
. Group thus often arrived wet and muddy from
a wet and muddy camp to a wet and sticky
office, often in time to salvage a stray Imprest
A/c. or acquittance roll literally floating downstairs.
In less than six months, however,
Admin . struck again, and the Detachmentsingle members thereof- are now comfortably
quartered in Gillman Barraoks, still some miles
from the office. But what a change! Modern
barrack blocks, running water, showers and
real lavatories for the first time! A grand
swimming pool five minutes from the nearest
charpoy, a N.A.A.F.I. canteen, and a permanent Camp Cinema. In addition, the 1st Bn.
Seaforth Highlanders give us all the news of
the military day on pipes and bugles. Taiwan
Bank has been de-requisitioned and that part
of the office accommodated in another building
in Raffles Place. After occupation, we had to
give up a part of it, which meant more squeezing. And so for the present, we stay. There is
another general move in the offing, but more
of that later, when we've had a breather. It
will be readily seen from the foregoing that on
the Administrative side, the Detachment has
had a real hectic time since its arrival in this
green and beautiful island, and we all fervently
hope that our stay in these, our present quarters,
will be prolonged as much as possible.
MARRIAGES
On 5th June, at St. Mary's Church, Nortonon-Tees, Mr. A. Mould (ex-R.A.P.C.)(formerly
at Stockport Road, and Meerut) to Miss N . M .
Masterman (ex-A.T.S.) (formerly at Stockport
Road).
On 30th August, at St. Stephen'sParish
Church , Edinburgh, Capt. James Wight
Rutherford , W .S., son of Mr. and Mrs. W.
Carter Rutherford , of 30 Dublin Street,
Edinburgh, to Doris Shirt, daughter of Mr.
and Mrs. Alfred Shirt, of 51 Neal Avenu e,
Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancs.
DEATH
INIFF.-On 4th August, 1947, at the Leicester
City General Hospital, the wife of Capt. W.
Iniff, of 7 St. Peter's Road , Leicester, after a
long and painful illness.
195
THE ROYAL .ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL
Ten Minutes in the Life of a

Chief Clerk (Tech.)
HE 'phone rings yet again. Wearily, I

stretch out my arm and remove the
receiver from its resting-place.
At once my ears are assailed by a raucous
feminine gabble of which I am unable to
understand a single word. I do eventually
gather that the lady wishes to speak to a certain
gentleman, but, after fruitless attempts to
persuade her to speak more quietly and slowly,
I sigh resignedly and say, " Spell it."
This she proceeds to do with considerable
gusto, as follows, "V for Victory, E for
Edward, I for-I for-I for-oh, yes, I for
Ink. (Triumphant pause.) N for nuts. (Here,
I think of a smashing crack, but let it
slide.) E for-E for-E for Edward again,
R for Robert, H for-now let me see, H forah, I know, H for Holly, U for Oven." (Here
I break in hastily.)
" Did you say U for Oven? "
" Yes, that's right."
" But, surely, you mean
for oven? "
" No, no-U for oven."
" But, Madam, there is no U in oven.~'
Here, I regret to state, I am afraid that my
voice was inclined to be a trifle raised.
However, for some reason known only to
496
herself, she found cause for amusement in the

fact that there is no U in oven, and it was Some
moments before her laughter could be reduced
to a gigg'iing apology. "I'm so sorry, I mean
U for Uncle."
"Ve carry on with our spelling exercise, and
I finally extract from her that she wishes to
speak to a Mr. Veinerhunt.
I do not recall anyone of that name in the
Office, but as we have recently been joined by
several civilians from other offices, he may be
one of these. So:" And where does he work, Nladam ? "
" There."
" What do you mean-there ? "
" With you."
" Yes, Madam, but in which Wing? "
Here a horrible thought comes into m y mind
- I add hastily : " By the way, Madam, you do know where
you are ringing ? "
" Why, yes, of course, my husband's firm,
Brown and Veinethunt of Camberwell Green."
""VeIl, l\1adam," I say, as I "gently"
replace the receiver, " this is not Camberwell
Green, it is the Army Pay Office, Knightsbridge! "
.
All in the day's work, I suppose, just another
case.
RONALD
TEAL.
PAY
OFFI~E
IN
JAPAN
By Lieut.-Colonel F. W. C. THOMAS
s soon as it was decided that British and
the other shoulder. H.Q. ,>,'ore the Union Jack

on both shoulders.
As the Division collected, the area became
covered by tentage until for miles around
nothing could be seen but tents with acres of
motor transport in process of being painted and
fitted for voyage to Japan.
Furniture, stocks of drinks and other necessities were obtained by messes. Arrangements
had to be made for future supplies since, from
information then received, there was nothing in
Japan and that each component would have to
arrange for its own supplies of food, drink,
petrol, clothing, amenities, etc.
The amount of "crating" required was
immense and at the end of three months when
this had been completed it seemed impossible
that all could be transported to Japan, however
many ships were used.
Here several changes in Staff took place
owing to the date of certain Release groups
being too near the time of expected arrival in
Japan. The delay in leaving India caused
successive Release Groups to become ineligible
to go to Japan.
The Pay Staff lost one Officer, a Staff Sergeant and two N.C.O.s, whilst the Indian
Cashiers clerk supplied had to be returned as
being too old and unsuitable.
The Staff received in their place were entirely
suitable and the work of preparation was not
. held up at all .
It was arranged that there would be an Air
Advance Party proceeding from Bombay, a
Sea Advance Party sailing on H.T. Cheshire
thre~ weeks later, whilst the main body were
to follow in two portions, each of three troopships. The two portions of main body sailed
at four week's interval.
Needless to say, there were ill addition,
innumerable ships containing stores and supplies. The disembarkation and unloading of
ships on arrival in Japan had to be carried out
at top speed owing to acute congestion since the
Australians were arriving at the same time and
also because of the lack of available wharfage.
In January, the Chief Paymaster SEACINDIA came to yisit the office andvvished
them good luck.
Lt.-Col. Thomas left India in February with
Indian troops should take part in the

occupation of Japan , the need for Pay
staff immediately arose. Lt.-Col. F. W. C.
Thomas was instruct~d to proceed to N asik
where the Force was assembling. He found
there Major J. A. A. Smith and his staff of
S.P. 27. Lt.-Col. Thomas was then known
as Force Paymaster 125.
Contrary to the impression given at Meerut
that departure was imminent, it was found
that a great deal had still to be arranged and
that even the agreement of some of our Allies
to our Force proceeding to Japan was still
awaited.
During the next four months, all possible
steps were taken tq prepare for what we knew
would be required of us in Japan.
The Pay Office" premises" at Nasik consisted of three marquees, one for Force Paymaster and second-in-charge, whilst the others
were used by Cashier and R.A.P.C. staff.
Steps were taken immediately to establish
the traditional close liaison of R.A.P.C. with
those in their pay charge and it was not long
before we were being fully employed in all kinds
of pay work in addition to the work of cash
supply. We seemed to be achieving this work
with some satisfaction to all concerned. The
officers were divided among H.Q. MessesLt.-Col. Thomas going to "A" Mess with
G.O.C. and heads of branches and services,
whilst the others were allotted to other Messes
according to rank. The R.A.P.C . Sgts. were
accommodated in H.Q. Sgts. Mess and seemed
to settle down quickly.
.
I t was necessary to think ahead and arrange
for the time when we should be in Japan.
After some weeks, all necessary printing was
effected, forms were amended and printed in
good supply, typewriters were obtained, new
clothing fitted and other necessary extra
equipment issued. The prevailing colour of
the Division-by now named BRINDIVwas olive green and both hot and cold weather
The Force
uniforms had to be obtained.
badge was the Union Jack worn on one
shoulder. The famous 2 Division sign for
personnel of 5 Bde. and the Star of India were
worn in the case of personnel of 268 Bde. on
497
the Air Advance Party whilst the Div. Cashierthe Indian Army Officer-sailed with the Sea
Advance Party. Major Smith, Capt. Halliday
and Lt. now Capt. Barnicoat with one or more
R.A.P. C. clerks each to assist them, were distributed among the troopships of first portion
main body so that they could give effect to any
pay instruction's signalled from Japan by
Lt.-Col. Thomas and also assist in the exchange
of currency by units on arrival. '
Currency control and restrictions had been
published while the Force was still in India
and these were republished at intervals after
arrival. In addition, all exchanges were carried
out on board ship so that there would be no
opportunity of currency being taken into
Japan.
Lt.-Col. Thomas acted as Gashier to the Air
Advance Party until the arrival of Capt.
Brazendale. He, in fact, carried out what is
believed to be the first exchange of currency
ever to be carried out whilst in the air. This
took place between Hong Kong and Japan at
lO,OOO feet.
The Air party had a very interesting, if
uncomfortable, journey. They were conveyed
in a Dakota from Bombay to Hong Kong via
Calcutta, Rangoon and Saigon. From Hong
Kong to Japan they used a stripped Sunderland.
They stayed in Hong Kong (and tasted all
its delights) for eight days which were considered by them to be one of the most enjoyable
times they had had for sometime. Just before
leaving Japan, Force Paymaster 152 had been
re-named " Staff Paymaster- Japan" to avoid
confusion with British Commonwealth Occupation Force of which Brindiv was only a part.
The integration of a Force such as the
B.C.O.F. was not as easy as one would imagine.
The Staff Officers at H.Q., B.C.O.F. were of
different components and with, differing experience, service and customs. All got on well
on the whole but at times, each Staff Officer
was inclined to be conservative and parochial
in his attitude to things and there was an
inclination to "jib" when a new instruction
was issued which appeared to differ from
established custom or procedure as known by
him. The pooling of transport and stores too
caused some difficulty. This was inevitable
and it says a great deal for the whole assembly
and its desire to achieve integration that complete harmony was attained so soon as was
the case.
Since everything was procured from the
Japanese authorities or supplied from outside
Japan, there were no local bills to be dealt \\ith

by the Pay Office.
A complicating factor was the great distances
between H.Q. Brindiv, Brigades and Units~a
dispersion which rendered the addition of two
Field Cash Offices to the Staff PaymasterJapan's Office most vitally necessary.
Train travel was slow-at least three times
as long being needed for journeys as compared
with similar journeys in U.K. When cash was
required units had, at first, to send in to H.Q.
for it. These journeys necessitated cash escorts
and also the expenditure of an average of four
day~ in time-a thing which in these days of
officer shortage could not be allowed to
continue.
Two Field Cash Offices were applied for
and obtained (commanded by Capts. Hayes
and Barnicoat). These Field Cash Offices were
stationed at H.Q. Bde. on the Island of Shikoku
and at H.Q. 268 (Indian) Inf. Bde. at Matsue
on the north coast of Honshu .
Owing to the distance of Kure from Okayama
(over 100 miles) and the stationing of some
British and Indian Units under orders of H.Q.
B.C.O.F. ' and H.Q. Commonwealth 'Base, it
was necessary for Capt. Halliday to be appointed Embarkation Paymaster-British and
Indian Division (or BRIND IV as it is termed).
He had to carry out all paymaster's duties at
embarkations, disembarkations, emplanings and
disemplanings as well as to render pay
advice arid assistance to the Units in his area.
He also acted as Pay liaison officer between the
Australian Chief Paymaster at H.Q., B.C.O,F.
and the Staff Paymaster-Japan.
The Staff Paymaster's Office was situated in
bank premises, first in Hiro whilst H.Q. Brindiv
were there and later (in July) at the Yasadu
Bank premises at Okayama. It was concerning
the procuration of these bank premises that
some opposition from the Japanese bank
officials was experienced.
,
I t was claimed that the taking over of bank
buildings was likely to interfere with Japan's
domestic and business organisation.
The reply to this was to the effect., " Who
won this War- Japan? "
The premises were obtained "vith all the
advantage of rooms for safe custody of cash,
telephones, etc.
At the Okayama premises it was possible to
establish the whole of the Pay Staff under one
roof and thus avoid the previous handicap of
having to work in two buildings, one mile
apart, as at Hiro.
498
THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JO U RNAL

Seven months after the arrival of the Air
Advance Party the Pay Office was fully established on lines similar to a Command Pay
Office elsewhere.
There \;\rere two main sections, Imprest and
Booking, and three outlying Cash Offices
including the Emb~rkation Paymaster.
Owing to the wide area to be covered,
Lt.-Col. Thomas and Major Call ins (who
arrived in July, 1946, to take the place of
Major Smith) had to tour Kure, Shikoku
Island, and Matsue on routine duties and
checks each month whilst the fourth visit was a
" pay liaison" one to Tokyo and Kyoto where
certain parts of the Brindiv were stationed.
Much time was taken to carry out these
duties, but it was unavoidable if pay liaison
and control had to be maintained.
The foregoing must not convey the idea that
work is such that frequent relaxation is possible.
Local leave though, is fairly regular, and with
the easing of the initial pressure of work,
members of the Staff have been able to stay
for a few days each at one or other of the very
comfortable leave camps now being established.
Up to this time the Pay Staff had suffered a

continual wave of ill-health. Capt. Halliday
was sick for some time with ear trouble, Sgt.
Dow with a rheumatic trouble which lead to his
invaliding, whilst S/Sgt. MacKillop was
operated on for appendicitis.
Work was
gravely hampered during this period by lack
of fit staff. The National Savings sales organisation began to function in August.
With the move to Okayama, things became
more settled and work progressed with increasing smoothness.
Unfortunately, the
relief for Sgt. Dow, when he did arrive left
, again after a few days on compassionate leave
and on his way to U .K . lost his life in an air
crash at Hong Kong.
Bank accounts were opened for all Cashiers
(the U.S . authorities having given permission)
and this made the transfer of funds easier.
Private banle accounts could not and still cannot ,be opened. All was on a' cash basis.
The inadequacy in numbers of R.A.P.C.
Staff rendered it necessary to procure Japanese
clerical assistance and some of these became
very useful partly owing to their having been
born in America.
THE SUDAN
IN
194 0
By S.Q.M.S. A. DEEBLE
HE war really began in far-away Sudan

on 10 June, 1940, when Italy decided to
range her forces alongside those of
Germany.
Sleepy Khartoum, and its large .neighbour,
Oindurman, . became suddenly alert, and even
more so were Port Sudan and many smaller
towns on the borders of Eritrea and Abyssinia .
On the very day that the news came through,
the R.A.F. made a daring and unexpected raid
on Addis , Ababa, the Ethiopian capital and
headquarters of the Italian occupation force .
While this long-distance feat was acclaimed as
a warning to Italy of things to come, there was
an unpatriotic feeling that if the R.A.F. had
remained quiet about the whole thing, so
would the Italians in that part of the world.
However, the first" reprisal" in the Khartoum
area did not occur until 23 August.
The R.A.F. station was just on the outskirts
of Khartoum, and the famous fort, built after
Kitchener had avenged the death of Gordon,
overlooked the airfield .
A three-engined bomber swooped down at

2-30 in the morning, dropped eight H.E.
bombs, and scattered a trail of incendiaries
over the fort and the aircraft hangars . That
pilot certainly knew the lay-out! He dropped
his bombs near our biggest ammunition dump,
while in the fort, where R.A.O C. and R.A.P.C.
personnel weroe quartered, were a few million
rounds of small arms ammunition, among
other items.
Luckily, the thick concrete roof easily withstood these incendiary bombs, which were
nothing like the dangerous types evolved later
in the war. Furthermore, the Iow swoop of
the raider actually spoiled his success, because
the incendiaries were' set off by a small propeller which unscrewed on the way down, and
many of them reached the ground before ' the
unscrewing was complete. Three unfortunate
sergeants who had chosen that night to sleep,
on the roof, for the sake of some cool fresh air
received some minor burns, but otherwise no
damage was done .
499

Then Italian forces crossed the border and
occupied two towns, Kassala and Gallabat
withoJlt much trouble. This was rather dis~
concerting, as one of these towns was on the
main railway system, which runs in a circle
round a 250 mile plain, branching off at
various points to important towns such as
Port Sudan, Wadi-Halfa, arid Kosti. Why the
I talians, who built up a strong force on the
border, did not attempt that 250 mile dash to
Khartoum or Atbara, was as much of a
mystery as why the Germans did not cross the
Channel. Only two thousand' British troops
barred the way to nearly a quarter of a million
of the enemy, but by daring raids into enemy
territory, skilful bluffing, marching and counter
marching, they succeeded in creating the
. definite impression upon ' the Italian General
Staff that a much larger force confronted
Captured documents subsequently
them.
showed that the Italians estimated our strength
at ,15,000. Much of the credit for this deception
goes to the" Fuzzy-Wuzzy " border tribesmen,
who were quickly organised to intercept any
enemy agents, who found it very difficult to
cross into the Sudan.
The three British regiments in the Sudan at
the time were the 2nd Bn., The West Yorkshire
Regt., the 1st Bn., The Worcestershire Regt.,
and the 1st Bn., The Essex Regt.
Sudan was not left in this plight for long.
Convoys of Indian troops were soon on their
way from Bombay, and it was then that
Headquarters, 21st Infantry Brigade, at Port
Sudan, felt the need for a Field Cashier, and
made hurried application for one to the Area
Paymaster, Khartoum. The Area Paymaster,
Major R. S. Ellicott was, however, the only
R.A.P.C officer in the Sudan at the time, so
to meet the emergency, a staff-sergeant was
loaded up with as many army forms as it was
thought a field cashier might use, and sent off
on the 500-mile rail journey to Port Sudan, on
4 Sept., 1940.
.
The train was held up for twelve hours in
the desert because .the track was "washed
away," this being a common occurrence during
the mid-summer rainy season. Large gangs of
natives were employed building up the sand
under the track. Often the journey took three
or four days, but this time it was only thirty-six
hours. The solitary R.A.P.C. representative
received a brief welcome at the station from the
Brigade Major, and was then driven in the
darkness to a camp which accommodated part
of the 1st Bn., The Worcestershire Regt. A
g?od meal was provided and a bunk put at his

disposal, a bed being exceedingly welcome
after the fatiguing journey.
Awakened next morning by the brilliance of
the rising sun, it was a pleasurable shock to
discover that only fifty yards of sand (and a
barb-wire fence) separated my front door from
the open sea, which is quite noiseless hereabouts because of a long, continuous reef some
distance out.
'
I had to report to Brigade Headquarters as
soon as possible. Incidentally, I had brought
with me a cheque for 2,000, to start off a
banking account with Barclay's Bank. Mter I
had been interviewed by the Staff Captain
(Captain Waite) and Brigadier Marriott, the
cheque was presented to 2fLt. R. L. Dray, of
the Worcesters, who had been summoned to
H.Q., and who was then and there given the
title of Embarkation Paymaster. 2fLt. Dray
was a very youthful, bright, and courteous
officer, who did not for a long time give up the
hope of receiving additional pay for this
unusual occupation.
Having been allotted a Morris 15-cwt. truck,
part-time, the next step was to find an office
in the docks. There were a few odd sheds and
huts from which Italian firms had been
ejected, and we chose a hut with two rooms,
in a convenient situation between the dock
gates and the quayside. It was completely
bare of furniture, which was gradually remedied
by daily scrounging expeditions, helped by
Doyle, 2fLt. Dray's batman and the driver.
Two chairs were borrowed from the local
cinema, but the origin of some of the additions
was a mystery to us all. A heavy steel safe was
a difficult encumbrance, because it could not
be left in the building overnight, but had to be
loaded on to the truck and deposited in the
Worcester's guard-room.
On the first occasion when this was being
done, there was an air raid, and the safe was
left standing outside the guard-room until it
was over. The sirens in the town and on all
the boats in the harbour usually created an
infernal din which vied with the explosions of
the bombs-that was all the warning possible,
as the planes came in from the sea. The docks,
and our office, were on a narrow neck of land
between the harbour and the sea, making an
easy target from above, and the native dock
workers used to keep on imagining new raids
long after the planes had departed. If ever a
man was seen running, it was the signal for
everyone else to stop work, and rush for the
500
THE ' ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

trenches; while the hoot of a ship had 'the same
effect.
On the ISunday following my arrival, the
first batch of eight ships entered the harbour,
three of them being troopships. Most of the
troop-carrying ships bore unfamiliar names,
such as Erinpura, Karagola, Varsova, Amra,
Varela, Bankura, Rohna, and Akbar, but the
British troopships Devonshire, Lancashire, and
Nevasa were also used at different times. Only
eight vessels could be dealt with in the docks,
and a convoy of forty-odd would be anchored
in a bay farther up the Red Sea, coming in
eight at a time, every five days.
Besides making cash payments to officers,
and to imprest holders, there was the big
matter of exchanging all the troops' Indian
money into Egyptian. This was a job which
Mr. Hill, the manager of Barclay's Bank,
undertook to do, and his chief cashier was
with us on that Sunday morning deftly counting rupees, annas, and pies in coins of many
different metals, shapes, and values, besides
thousands of the new one-rupee notes. We
congratulated ourselves that our hurried preparations were working smoothly, but, too
soon, for an air raid at 11-20 a.m., followed by
a false alarm shortly afterwards, decided the
chief cashier to refuse to work there any
longer. Mr. Hill personally ran the exchange
in the afternoon, but thereafter Sgt. Bostock,
of the Worcesters, was sent to assist us, and we
all took a hand at this, the most arduous of
our jobs.
At this time it was not, strange to say,
considered an R.A.P.C . responsibility to exchange individual's cash, and we were in this
respect only working on behalf of Barclay's
Bank! The manager fixed the rate of exchange
at seven piastres to a rupee, as a convenient
though not very profitable figure, and this
resulted in a loss to the Indians of threefarthings on every rupee, but we only heard of
two complaints.
A signal was sent out to the ships, as the line
of eight came over the sky-line, always just
before dawn, for a representative from each
platoon or section to collect all the cash for
exchange, so that we had only a comparatively
small number to deal with. They would crowd
into our office, each carrying a large handkerchief filled with coins and notes, and while one
was being attended to, the next would start
arranging his cash in piles on the floor or
table . Small Egyptian currency was not very
plentiful, and when the Egyptian notes , and
silver (including English florins and shillings,
which also were in general use ' in the Sudan)

had been given in exchange, it must have
taken some of the units weeks to sort out how
much to give back to each individual, and to
get the right change to do so.
The defences of Port Sudan consisted of a
battery of eight light A.A. guns, augmented
by any Naval vessels that might be in port, a
few Lewis guns mounted in threes on tripods,
and a squadron of Gladiators, which, unfortunately, were not fast enough to catch the
Italian bombers, unless right up above them.
However, it was reported that some were
intercepted and brought down by a squadron
based farther south. Later, Blenheim fighterbombers made their appearance, which gave
the residents a greater feeling of security .
Office hours were, perforce, until 10-30 p .m.,
when the boats were in, but in between it was
possible to take life fairly easily, enjoy a long
swim every day in the baths at the Seamen's
Institute, and visit the cafes and cinema at
night. At the cinema, breaks in the film were
very frequent, and sometimes took up to an
hour-and-a-half to be repaired.
The days
were intensely hot, and the atmosphere humid.
Some of the Indian troops remained in Port
Sudan, and one of their lorries was allotted to
us ; ' it is rather a strain on the nerves riding
with an Indian driver. On 1 October, 2fLt.
Dray went on a course to Cairo, and ,2 fLt.
Kerans took his place, but he, after a fortnight"
was appointed Liaison Officer at Brigade
H.Q., and an offir:er of the R.I.A.S.C. , Capt.
A. E. Davies, became Embarkation Paymaster. Capt. Davies had served in the R.A.P.C.
at the end of the last war. Being an M.T.
officer, he had his own Chevrolet Light Van,
which I was able to use by myself when
required. Another officer of the same unit
replaced Capt. Davies after only three days,
Capt. I. D. E. Cearns.
On 23 October, the worst air raid occurred,
two bombs falling within thirty feet of (')ur
office, covering everything with sand , and
cutting pieces out of the woodwork. 'Ve were
safe in a nearby trench. The Nevasa was in
at the time, and also a beautiful motor vessel,
the Felix Roussel, which was carrying New
Zealand troops to Egypt. Although bombs fell
all around them, they were not hit, but about
thirty natives were killed by a direct hit on a cafe.
Two days later, I closed down my books,
and with a feeling of relief, handed over to
Lieut. Malone, R.A.P .C., who was a real
Field Cashier. I departed for Khartoum the
same day.
501
THE RO'vAL
ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL
~
.. ,
NoTe I
War Office Establishments
WAR OFFICE (F. 9)
In the last q.uarter ~he branch has bid good-bye to
several old fnends , mcluding Major R S. Davy
~.B.E..' to whom we wish the very best of luck
his retIrement ~ Major G. J. Forsyth, M.B~E., to
Ceylon, Captam Speed, who has gone to discover
ho~ P.A.Y.E. works 'in civilian life, S.S.M. H.
W~lght to Hong Kong, Cpl. F. P. Campbell to
Ml.ddle East, and S /Sgt. G. W. Johnson (exLeicester), Sgts. F. Johnson, R Chipchase, F. C.
Hogg, and R Austin , Cpl. P . J. B. Clark, and Cpl.
!. M . .B!~mner (A.T.S.), who have taken the plunge
mto cIvilian life.
~t the same time we have been pleased to welcome
Major E. J. Burnet. (from Middle East), Captain
L. D. Lee (from Kingston), Lieut. D . H. Evans
(from the Training Centre ex-Reading and Whitchurch), S.S.M. A. G. Ward (from London District)
S /Sgt. C . V. ~arris (from Malta, ex-Manchester):
S /Sgt. A.. G. Llttlewood (from Leeds) , and Privates
P. J. Tiller (from Warley) and R O . L. Burton
(from Preston).
Congratulations to Majors H . R Giltrap and
D. E .. Grant, on promotion to that rank, and to
Captam E. G. Dowty, who has also decreased his
war excess.
Tennis.-Ca ptain D. W. Moore and Cpl. D. R
Jenkins were chosen to represent F.9. in a doubles
match ag~nst No. 36 Company at Warley on 26th
June, their opponents were Lieuts. Davies and
E,:ans, the finalists in last year's Corps ChampionShiPS, who won in two sets (6-2, 6-2) after a
:fierce battle fought in particularly hot weather.
Cricket.-The branch's first match of the season
was played at Raynes Park in late June, when a team
captained by Cpl. L . C. Widocks, met the War Office
Eleven, who quickly proved their superiority, and
after knocking a considerable number of runs in
spite of our bowlers' efforts, refused to allow our
batsmen to share in the evening's hard hitting.
On Monday, 11th August, a challenge match
between F.9 Officers and Other Ranks was fought,
and proved to be a victory for the umpires, Capt .
H. W. Gurm a~d S.S.M. W . T . C. Coles, M.B.E. ,
who got both teams out before the beer was served.
The officers started well, thanks to a gallant opening stand by Lieut.-Colonel R D. Buck and Major
F. E. Matthews, but Sgt. H . D. Burton dealt them
many bitter blo,\~s , including a hat trick, and a
catch from a shot that never left the daisies so at
51 the innings closed.
'
. The officers? on taking the field, found ' great

difficulty ill d~slodging S.S.M . W. A . Jones and
S(Sgt. A. G. LIttlewood. They pressed on, however,
WIth Capt. D. W. Moore's doughty speed bowling
and a "bowled off waistcoat," which was granted by
the Umpire like a shot, but the Other Ranks' score
was 62 before the Umpires earned their aperitif.
or:
R.A.P.C. TRAINING CENTRE

The whole of the accommodation in Connaught
Hutments and in Tournai Barracks has now been
taken over, and we. a!~ able ~o use sufficient space
for our many actiVities. SInce the last article,
Courses for Officers of other arms have been started
together with a Costing Course and Junior N.C.O.'s
Cou!ses and our Recruit Courses have been extended
to eight weeks .
During the Corps Cricket Week we had the
ple~su~e of entertaining personnel from various
UOltS m the Corps and from the RA.O.C. and on
10th July a. dinner party was held in the Officers'
Mess at which we were privileged to have Sir Eric
B. B. Speed, K.C.B ., K.B.E ., M.C., the Colonel
Commandant, the Paymaster-in-Chief, and the
Deputy-Paymaster-in-Chief.
Sports.~The athletes got down to serious training
rather late m the year, and now, at the tail end of the
season, they are finding their form. Despite the
late s~art, a t~am has been sent to practically every
athletiC meetmg in the district and the last three
efforts hav~ secured us two first places, a second,
and two thirds. Two of our recruits, Ptes. Scott and
Harper, g~ined places in the District walking team
a~d ~vere In the Southern Command Championship
wmnmg team.
. Comp~tition in the District is very keen, our chief
rivals beIng the BaSIC O.C.T.U. and the Airborne
Establishments.
Our first Annual Sports Meeting has been fixed
for Wednesday, 3rd September, and it is hoped to
report success of this venture in the next issue.
In the past few months we have reintroduced
Basket Ball as a Unit Sport and some keen games
have been played between Companies and Messes.
Six. teams are participating in our first . fixture,
whIch IS a Unit League, and to date the Sgts. and
Officers' Messes are running neck and neck for
first place. We shaH shortly be selecting a Unit
Team, and are looking forward to some really keen
contests with neighbouring units.
.
It is proposed to form teams in both football and
hoc~ey, and it appears that we have some good
502
music room, a fully-equipped photographic section,

woodwork and handicraft workroom and librarv and
information rooms. All are well stocked, furri'ished
for comfort and are proving a draw to personnel who
hunger for knowledge on m atters other than those
relating to "Pay " -outside hours of dutv. Camera
e.n thusiasts . ~e velop to their hearts ' conte~t, enlarge,
tmt and cntlclse each other's efforts nightl\'. They
have, in fact, even rambled together. On 29th J uJ y
a picnic tea was taken along the banks of a neighbouring canal and a pleasant evening followed in the
course of which many photographs were taken and
angles and shadows studied. The Part' finished
up in the Y.M.C.A. slaking their thirsts i~ excellent
tea, and so to bed.
Rifle Club.-A Rifle Club (303) has now been
formed in the Unit and is running very successfully.
We should very much like to have 303 fixtures with
other R.A.P.C. units and perhaps units who are
interested would be good enough to contact the
Officer i/c Rifle Club.
Sergeants' Mess.-The newly organised Mess
has now been going strong for three months, and
apart from the many impromptu parties arranged
more or less for or by personnel arriving at the
depot from or for overseas , a number of functions
have also taken place. A very successful dance was
held in June which was attended by the Commandant, the Second-in-Command, the Regimental
Paymaster, and Officers of the Centre. Sergeant
Jock Turner led the Mess Band to whom we are all
indebted for their untiring efforts.
A number of Mess members have now beer.
fortunate in obtaining married quarters in the
station, and in order to give the wives an opportunity
of meeting one another a cocktail party was arranged
during July. The party was very well attended,
R.S.M. and Mrs. LiIley having the privilege of
greeting Lieut.-Colonel and Mrs. Blackwell, Lieut.Colonel and Mrs. Ml!-Ipass, Major and Mrs.
Tay lo~ , and Major and Mrs. Potter, whom they in
turn illtroduced to the members' wives.
The
evening developed into an exceptionally pleasant
party and the committee considered themselves well
repaid for their efforts by the obvious way in ,,,hich
the company enjoyed themselves.
.
The Mess cricket team has vet to be defeated
having beaten the Officers by st.'{ wickets and th~
Junior N.C.O.s by seven runs .
In the Unit Basket Ball League we now head the
table, the Officers having an equal number of points
but an inferior goal average.
'
W ~ were unfortunate in losing the services of 'our
very popular Mess Caterer, Sergeant Harry Tinsdale,
but feel sure that the many friends be made amongst
personnel of the Corps now overseas, etc., will be
pleased to know that we expect him back with us as a
civilian by the time these notes are published.
The M~ss has had the pleasure of congratulating
R.S.M. LIlley and S.S .M. Bamfortl1 on the birth of a
daughter and son respectively, also S.Q.M.S.
Lam?den and Sergeant Jock Turner on their recent
m arnages.
talent in these sports. The hockey fixtures for the

forthcoming season are fairly full up and we are also
entering .for the Army Knock-out Competition.
There will be a District League for football, and we
hope to maintain a favourable position during the
season.
The early part of the cricket season was taken up
with an inter-company and mess league, and we did
not start inter-unit matches until late in June. To
date, all our matches, except one against 45 Bn.
R.A.P.C., which was drawn, have been won and we
have reached the semi-finals in both the District
League and the Southern Command RA.P.C.
Knock-out Competitions. Amongst the teams who
visited us were 44, 45, and 33 Bn. R :A.P .C.
We had a very exciting game against the Basic
O.C.T.U. in the second round of the District
Competition when, with two wickets to fall , our
opponents required only seven runs to win. The
last two wickets, however, fell without any further
score and we were through to the third round.
The Unit was represented in the Corps team by
Lieut.-Colonel H . H. Malpass, O.B.E. , Major H.C.H .
Taylor, O .B.E., Capt. E. B. Forster, Lieut. P. Macev
S /Sgt. K. Stuart, and Pte. F. Smith.
'
-'
We have not yet done any competitive swimming,
but we were fortunate to have Officer Cadet McCabe,
who participated in a number of individual events,
and obtained placings as follows ;Par-a. Troop Regt. Gala; 1st 100 yards free
style Open.
R.A.M.C. Gala ; 1st 100 yards free style Open.
District Championships; 1st 220 yards free
style open; 2nd 440 yards free style open;
3rd Plunging.
In the 220 yards free style in the Championships
Cadet McCabe got 1st place in the excellent time of
:2 minutes, 59 seconds. The previous Command
Championship time was 3 minutes, 54 seconds.
Enterta inments.-The last few months have
been mainly directed towards forming the foundation
of entert~inment, education and study in our Unit,
and conSiderable progress has been made . A Music
Recital Room, comfortably furnished, has been a
going concern since its opening on June 19th, when
a gramophone recital" Round the World in Music"
was given by Pte. Day, who showed himself to be ~n
able and interesting compere to the programme.
Recitals ar~ given regUlarly on Tuesdays, and the
present senes of "Proms." are being relayed and
well recel ' ed by an attentive audience.
We now have a Unit Dance Band, which is small,
but makes up for its size in noise and, let me hasten
to add, qualIty . They have performed at Sgts. and
Cpls. dances to great advantage.
The first All
Ran~s ' Dance was held on 25th July, and was,
de~~lte the heat, well attended. Up to the time of
wntmg, we do not possess a hall of sufficient size,
but we were able to rely upon our A.C .C. friends
for a place large enough to acconunodate the numbers
attending.
As th~ outdoor sporting season was in full swing
by the tune we had formed our various committees
no competitions for Darts, Table Tennis or Whis~
Drives were organised, but the enthusiasts for these
g~mes are getting in some private practice for the
wmter months. We are ' well supplied with equipment so rival Detachments-beware!
The Study Centre houses , in addition to the
MANCHESTER (15 BATTALIO N)

The unprecedented fine weather has enabled the
~porting :md social side of the office tv indulge in
outdoor activities on a hitherto unknown sCllle.
Featuring high amongst which is a new depar.ure .
503

"The Group Outing." Pioneered bv an old
stalwart of the Corps, Major HilIing, .Group ] 0
started the ball rolling with a day trip to Blackpool.
Following this lead further trips to Blackpool,
North Wales and Staffordshire were arranged and
it is to be hoped that these "get togethers" will
remain an important feature of the office. Evening
trips are likely to prove equally as popular. Outings
are being organised to visit local beauty spots.
It is understood that premises have been obtained .
near the office for a Regimental Club and Institute.
By the end of October, the library, games room,
quiet rooms and darts rooms should be in full
swing, and a high attendance is anticipated.
Swimming.-This has proved to be a popular
evening pastime throughout the summer and provided we can obtain the use of a suitable bath, it is
probable that we c;hall continue throughout the
winter season.
Athletics.-The Batta):on Sports were held on
the Manchester Athletic Club Ground at Fallowfield.
Brilliant sunshine shone throughout the
afternoon and nearly 1,000 c;pectators enjoyed a
thrilling and well contested meeting.
Group 1 won the Inter-Group Cup, L.-Cpl.
Hassett materially helping toward~ their victory by
winning the 220 yds.; being placed second in the
lOOyds. and 440 yds ., and crossing the lin e first to
win ~he 440 yds. relay after a grand display ot team
runnmg.
At tht' last minute Administration g::lined second
placc by pulling Group 12 in the last event of the
afternoon, the Tug-of-War. Group 10, two points
behind, were third.
Besides the fine show put up by L.-Cpl. Hassett,
two other performances were worthy of recognition.
Sec. Lieut. Bartlett of R.W., although badly
straining his ankle in the High Jump, in which he
was second, succeeded- in winning the Long Jump ,
obtaining second and third place in the 220 and ] 00
yds . respectively.
Miss D. Wyatt, the winner of the Ladies' High
Jump, was second in the Ladies' 220 yds. and
secured such a good lead in the 4- X 110 Medley Relay

that it emu red victory for Group 10 in this event.
The presehtation of the prizes by Mrs. Cock burn
rounded off a thoroughly enjoyable afternoon.
The complete success of the meeting was due
largely to ~apt. Roberts, our Sports Officer, and to
Capt. Berr-mo, the Clerk of the Course, and his band
of willing helpers.
Dramatics.-The Drama Society has commeonced
preparation for the winter and a small band of
enthusiastic members in which the A.T.S. are wt'il
represented, hope to have their first production
ready by late October.
A.T.S.-The high standing of " C " Company was
upheld this summer by W.O.II Thursfield (who we
are very sorry to lose to Leeds), when she was
selected to represent N.W. District in the Tennis
Tournaments.
Netball still goes strong, the A.T.S. holding their
own against many of the male teams who pitted
their strength against them.
1\1any requests have been received for the publication of a list of Pre-War R.A.P.C. Members of
the Battalion. Up to date, this has not been possible
owing to the large numbers involved. Now, however, we give the following list : Brigadier A. A. Cock burn ; Lt.-Col. C. J. Day ;
Majors H. Cook, .A. R. D. D 'AlIenger and T.
Hilling; Captains G. L. Impens, J. K. C. Owens ,
A. Roberts, R. F. Soper and F. R. J . Webber:
Lieuts. N. Mercer, K. T. Pinder and P. Ratchford ;
W.O.I W. K. Buxton, W. A. Evans, E. J. Monks ,
L. A. Morrell, W. Peacock, J. W . Peto and E. A.
Wright, and Mr. J . Pearce.
We much regret to have to record the death of
Lieut. W. Goodwin which took place on 4th August
and tender our sincere sympathy to his widow in
her loss.
It was with regret that we bid fareweoll to Lt.-Col.
A. Wood, who left us on release in July ,after many
years of zealous duty on behalf of OFFPAY. The
award of the M.B.E. just before his departure was
a fitting climax to his seven years of unremitting
effori.
Command Headquarters
NORTHERN COMMAND
On the 27th June we said farewell , but we hope
not good-bye, to a very well-known member of the
Corps, Captain E. Shaw, who, after much deliberation and careful thought, had decided to forego the
clasp to his Long Service and Good Conduct Medal
and go out into the cold, cold world to try his luck
in civilian life.
.
Captain .Ernie Sha~ h~dto his cre~it soz:ne 31
years contmuous serVIce m the Army, mcludmg 30
years in the Corps, a~d to mark the passing of. so
well known a personahty from the fold, the occasIOn
of his "retirement" was honoured by a gathering
of some of his friends including our Command
Paymaster, Brigadier N. Forde, who thanked
Captain Shaw for all his good work, and drew attention to the manner in which he was ever willing and,
indeed, anxious to help all those with whom he was
associated. Captain Shaw responded as was appropriate and told us all how sorry he was to leave us to
continue the struggle.
We feel sure that those
members of the Corps who have served with "Ernie"
in stations almost too numerous to mention, includ-
504
ing Woolwich, Aldershot, London (Finsbury Circus),

York, Constantinop:e, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan,
Eritrea and Cyprus (we don't pretend to have
mentioned them all), will join with us in wishing him
" Bon Voyage," and all the very best of luck in the
fl!lture.
Captain Shaw spent the last two years of his
service in this office, and was well known by the staff
of Headquarters, Northern Command (who were
aware that he could always be relied upon to deal
with a tricky point) and by many other Arm y and
civilian people living in and around York.
Captain P. W. Cammidge has returned to us in an
" indoor" capacity to take up where Captain Shaw
left off, having been previously attached to this office
while carrying out the du~ies of Visiting Paymaster.
Our usual hearty welcome is extended to Sgt.
Towning and Cpl. Brake on joining the Costing
Section from the Costing School.
The best of
luck to Cpl. Finch, who has decided to take a
chance on civil life after completing his first term
of colour service.

SCOTTISH COMMAND
Once again we have to record further releases in
the persons of Corporal J. S. <;::ree and Sgt. N. R.
Brown, to whom we wish all success. Both these
gentlemen may have happy memories of their last
night in harness which was rather moist," to say
the least.
We have received a temporary addition to the staff '
in the name of Cpl. J. S. Moss (ex-R.P., Edinburgh),
who is such a racing expert as to regard the Release
Regulations as an official Tattersall's publication.
Since his arrival, the staff almost "whinny" just
before any big race, but we are pleased to say he is
now settling down in the .straight.
We offer our congratulations to Capt. T. A: Alderson, on his recent marriage, and also to Pte. J. C.
Gwilliam on his appointment to Lance-Corporal.
All present and ex-members of this office will be
glad to know that the redoubtable Mr. Inkster has
recovered from his long illness and is now back at
duty.
There is no other social news to report except to
mention that one junior member who haS recently
acquired a motor cycle is wondering if driving
efficiency will be regarded as a three star qualification-that is-when he gets the " L " off.
WESTERN COMMAND
The Corps have been well represented in the
sporting and social activities of these Headquarters.
In the annual sports held in August, S jSgt.
Noble (Costing) put up a very good show, and was
second in the half-mile walk and third in the Hjgh
Jump. Pte. Laverty and Miss Curtis won the threelegged race. The Group t"..lg-of-war team were,
unfortunately, beaten in the first round, but were
consoled by the Lct that their victors eventually
won the competition. Brigadier Brickman was
unplaced in the Veterans' Race.
Lieut-Colonel Howell, who is a keen rowing
enthusiast, took an active part in the organisation of
the Chester Regatta.
We have three cricketers turning out regularly
for the Group, and one of these, Pte. Cart, has
achieved the distinction of playing for the Headquarters team.
The R.A.P.C. Costing Other Ranks, quartered in
Chester Castle, deserve every cangratulatioI1 for
winning the Camp Commandant's Clock for the
best-kept barrack room.
Although the cycling companions of former days
at Chester are spread over the globe, they may be
pleased to know that Capt. H. A. Fox sri!] makes
usc of his "iron hor!'; c."
At the Cheshire County Agricultural Show, held
at Chester, Brigadier I. P. Brickman's corgi dog,
Brown Knowl \Vinston, won second prize.
District Pay Offices

LONDON DISTRICT (8 DETACHMENT)
We regret we missed the last issue-strangely
enough, it wasn't due to a move. We are still where
we were.
Since our last notes we have had the inevitable
goings and comings. We have said farewell to
Lieut-:Colonel H. W. Taylor, O.B.E., our District
Paymaster, who takes with him our best wishes on
his retirement. In his place we welcome LieutColonel J. H. Clowes.
Civilian life has claimed Capt. Job , Lieuts.
Blasdale-Holmes, Orchardson, l\1.C ., Croker, Vickers,
M.C., S jSgts. Ernie ~right and Worthington
Sgts. Teague, Campbell, Barrand, and Bennett,
Cpl. Gaddarn, L jCpls. Pells and Hubble ; may their
bowler hats be comfortable.
Lieut. Macey has gone to -Aldershot, and S.S.M.
Ward to F.9. S jSgts. Gibbons and Newbold have
gone to Witley. With S /Sgt. Gibbons posted and
Sgt. Mitchener away on Detachment, the long and
earnest conversations in Urdu, which we used to
hear so often at tea-time, have finished and no longer
need we worry about what they are saying about us.
One or two of us are ex-India jSEAC, but our Urdu
is no higher than "Char-wallah" and "Jaldi. "
Lieut. Leslie and S jSgt. Gunnell , and the whole
staff of the Branch Pay Office (Leave), have joined
us recently-we welcome them.
Extraneous activities are few. We have a flourishing tennis club, and our talent scouts inform us
that there is some good form and much enthusiasm
shown on the weekly club-night.
The Sports and Social Club Committee organised
the annual outing, which again was a howling success
(the howling came from one of the coaches on the
way home-the occupants say they were singing).
A convoy of five coaches left here early one Friday

morning under grey skies, but it cleared nicely and
we reached Hastings in good time and sunshine.
We split up, and all day odd parties could be seen
spending their hard-earned cash on the various
amusements in the town. The usual stop was
made on the way home and the usual liquid refreshment consumed to round off the day. Our thanks
are due to the Committee for all the work they put
in to make the day such a success.
We, of London District, send best wishes to all
our old friends.
PIERRE COCHON.
NORTH MIDLAND DISTRICT (62 DET.)
Life is becoming more and -m ore complicated by
the large number of departures, and the very few
arrivals of staff. However, in spite of the increasing
work load, \ve have somehow contrived to find time
for sporting activities.
Getting a cricket team
together is something of an achievement, and Mr.
Herring is to be congratulated on his efforts in this
direction. Our victories include wins against our
contemporaries in the A.T.S. and A.A. Pay Offices.
Numerous Table Tennis matches have been
arranged, and past successes augur well for the
future.
Congratulations to Cpl. Goldberg on
reaching the final round of the North Midland
District Tennis Championships. He was indiscreet
enough to beat the G.O.C. in the semi-final round
after a hard struggle, but there have been no repercussions as yet.
A Staff outing to the Test Match took place when
the South Mricans visited Trent Bridge. All the
England side were out by lunch time, and we certainly had the P.R.I.'s money's worth.
505

Arrivals and Departures.-The following have
joined the Office recently, and we wish them an
enjoyable stay in Nottingham. Capt. G. O. Savage
from A.T.S. Pay Office, S /Sgt. Pracey from overseas, L /Cpl. Wilkinson from A .A. Pay Office.
Captain L. Halle, Lieut. Millen, Lieut. CambornePainter, Sgt. Hall, Sgt. Roberts, Sgt. Turner, Sgt.
Lechmere, Pte. Peers, and Pte. Perry (A.T.S.) are
recent departures, and we wish them all the very
best on their return to civilian life, or in their . new
stations.
Marriages.-Congratulations to
Mrs. Baker
(better known as Pte. Perry (A.T.S.) ), on her recent
marriage.
Also to Sgt. Lechmere, recently discharged, and Corporal Wood (A.T.S.), who are to be
married on 1 September, 1947.
May all their
troubles be little ones!
Births.-Congratulations to S.S.M. and Mrs.
J. L. J ames on the arrival of J ane on 2 June.
Promotions.-Sgt. Wright, Sgt. Holmes, Corporal
Goldperg, Cpl. Braithwaite (A.T.S.), and L/Cpl.
Dexter (A.T.S.) have been promoted to the ranks
stated, and we offer them our best wishes.
" JIM-JAM."
NORTH-WEST DISTRICT (25 DET.)
We have at last got settled in our new home in
Ladysmith Barracks, Ashton-lmder-Lyne, and on
first impressions it looks as though it will be a happy
one. Of course, the weather ' has been very good
since we arrived here, but the winter might give us a
different view.
Looking through the office windows here, we can
see only the Barrack Square, and dismal as it sounds,
it is a great improvement on our last accommodation,
where if we could find a clean window to look
through we saw only factories.
Since our last notes, Captain Ascott has joined
from Manchester, and we have 'lost Captain E. R
Adams to release, Private Boxall to Gibraltar, and
Lance-Corporal"Griffiths demobbed. Of our A. T ,S.,
we have only" two remaining-Private O'Connor
and Private Baker.
Lieut. E. G. Shearer joined us from Glasgow on
22 July, but he was only here for a fortnight before
being posted overseas.
Congratulations go to Corporal Ades and LanceCorporal Kirby, on their promotions.
Our other activities are linked up with those of the
Regimental Pay Office and quite a few Cricket
matches have been arranged.
These have been
mainly inter-office affairs, but great enthusiasm has
been shown.
The Sergeants' Mess, which has now managed to
get itself solvent and shipshape, has had a Social
Evening to which Officers and Corporals were
invited. This was a great success, and , we are
looking forward to mo~e of the same. ,
SALISBURY PLAIN DISTRICT (22 DET.)
At the time of writing, and in common with all
stations at home, we in Salisbury are experiencing a
delightful spell of real summer sunshine, and the
surrounding countryside certainly has its attractions
at this time of the year.
Wiltshire is noted for its agricultural element,
and one is struck with the huge expanse of fields ,
etc. Harvesting is rapidly proceeding, and given a
reasonable chance, it looks as if we are going to get
" bumper crops."
506
As we have requested the Editor (and probably

incur.re~ his wra~h !) to include a staff photograph
11l thIS Issue, I WIll attempt to pursue brevity in OUr
usual report, thereby leaving a little space for the
photograph. (We hope !)
Departures and Arrivals.-Since our last report
the following personnel have left us for "Civvy
Street" (and other things !) ; Major Moran, O.B.E.
M.C. , Capt. Masefield and Lieut. Booth.
Sgt.
Leegood (discharged), Pt.s. Rhodes and Baker,
Ptes. Hook and Kains, A.T.S.
Capt. Scott has" taken up residence," at R.E.M.E".,
Devizes. The City of Salisbury, therefore, has lost
one of its" war-time institutions."
Lieut. Thomas has also gone to Aldershot, and will
no doubt find bags of scope for his energy and
initiative.
.
L /Cpl. Newson, Ptes. Cuffley and Senn to Taunton, Pte. Barreau to Aldershot, and Pte. Prestidge,
who was transferred to RE.M.E., Otley.
Arrivals.-Major Drummond has now joined us,
and we say he has "returned home." Many of us
remember him from the old Morrison Hidl and
Co-operative Hall days .
Lieut. Pearce has also joined us from Singapore,
and is taking a keen interest in all things, including
sport and entertainments.
We welcome both of these officers, and trust their
stay with us will be enjoyable and prolonged.
Tennis.-In the finals of RA.P.C. Inter-Office
tennis tournaments, played at Aldershot recently,
the singles championship was won by our C.O. ,
Lieut.-Colonel ' Beauchamp, who defeated Lieut.
Davies (R.P. , Warley), 6-3, 6-4.
Lieut.-Colonel Beauchamp and Pte. May were
also finalists in the men's doubles, but, unfortunately,
were beaten by Colonel Milling and Capt. Bowen
(RP. ,Bhrewsbury), 6-2, 6-4.
We offer our sincere congratulations to Colonel
Beauchamp and Pte. May.
Cricket.-In the Inter-Command Knock-out
Cup Competition, organised by the .Command
Paymaster, we visited Aldershot and played off one
round with the District Pay Office, Aldershot and
Hants. District. We are proud (and relieved) to
record a win for No. 22 Detachment by two runs!
The tension was very strong in the last few
minutes, as our last two men were batting and we
needed two runs to win. Cpl. Cazaly (who had put
up a marvellous bowling record of 7 for 21) took a
swipe at the ball and we got three runs. Davies was
then clean bowled, and we got away with a' very
close win. We wish to record our appreciation of
the marvellous reception provided by Aldershot, and
of the excellent tea provided" in the shade of the old
(apple) tree."
This match resulted in our team being drawn
against RP., RE.M.E., in the next round, which
we played at Devizes on 20th August. Sad to relate
RE.M.E. were far too good for us, and after a very
enjoyable game, we retired gracefully with the
score as follows ; No. 51 Battalion
181 runs.
No. 22 Detachment
80 runs.
We congratulate RE.M.E. on their win, and wish
to record our deep appreciation of all the excellent
arrangements made for us. "Thank you, RE.M.E.
-let's hope we meet you again-perhaps at soccerand reverse the situation! "
Combined Staff of Central Clearing House, Distri~t and Regimental Pay Offices,
Barnards Cross, Sahsbury.
,
patrick to C.M.F., Freddy Stephenson to B.A.O.R.,
Cpl. Paddy Moran to Bulford, and Cpl. Frank
Goodridge to the Depot. Then come the names of
tv",o more fortunate people-Harry Jackson and
S.Q.M.S. Bill Scott, to demob. To recompense us
for these losses we have welcomed L /Cpls. Clark,
Clarke, and Mahrer, L /Cpl. Newman and Pte. Senn
into our fold.
Sport.-The untiring efforts of Lieut. Phillips
throughout the cricket season have ensured that we
never went short of a game. The majority of them
have been evening matches played agamst local
firms and clubs. By far the most important of these
matches was the first round of the Southern Command Cup, in which we wer~ ?rawn against Devizes.
The Devizes cricket team vlslted Taunton, but the
match could not be played because of rain.
.
The next week our team were persuaded. WIth
little difficulty, to undertake the 63 mile tnp to
Devizes to defend the . honour of the Detachm~nt.
This they did by gaining 42 run~ all out, and allowmg
Devizes t6 score 67 for five WIckets. Although all
hopes of the cup were shattered, a thoroughly enjoyable time was had by all.
.
So far this season we have played 13 games, of
which seven were won and si;\( lost. This d<?e~ .not
include a match played between office~s and <:IvIhans
on one side, and O.R.s on the other Side which was
won by the latter.
We also played a match with R.T.O. , Salisbury,

recently, resulting in a win for us by 26 runs.
Scores were; 22 Detachment, R.A.P.C. - 90
for 9 wickets (declared).
RT.O. - 64.
Badminton.-We have recently acquired . Badminton gear, and we have marked out a pitch m our
own grounds at Barnards Cross.
,
Staff Outing.-Arrangements are now completed
whereby a large number of our staff and their ~ests
will journey to Sandbanks and Bournemouth m the
near future. Tea has been arranged at Bournemouth-no mean accomplishment fo~ a large
number these days-and all other thm&s .bemg
favourable, seats will be booked for those ".'I~hmg to
attend a show at the Bournemouth PavIlIOn and
Boscombe Hippodrome.
Final Note.-To the Editor and his Staff, and
all our colleagues at home and abroad, we express
our best wishes, and trust the good old " Journal"
will go on from strength to strength.
" SAHIB"
SOUTH-WEST DISTRICT (23 DETACHMENT)

As usual, a number of changes have recently
taken place in the staff. After a sudde~ spate of
postings and releases, we are now settlmg 'down
again with our new colleagues.
On the debit side of our staff ledger are shown .t he
nam es of Louis Douard to 18 C.P.O. , Terry FItz-
Regimental Pay Offices

ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE (43 COMPANY)
In my previous notes I mentioned that there was
a possibility that the Office would move fr?m
Preston. Well, as you can see by the headmg
above, the Regimental Pay Office , Preston, IS a
thing of the past. The . change. oyer was effecte.d
on 7th July, 1947 , with many mlsglvmgs. There IS
no doubt that to many of us Preston was as good a
site for a Pay Office as any in England , ?ur homes
were centred therein , and it was a blessmg to the
single men to be on the L.odging List and be on top

of a main line railway statIOn.
. .
As we have been in Ashton only a few wee~s It .IS
too early to form any opinion as to whether It WIll
prove a better station than Preston. Fr.om the sports
si de of life things have bucked up ~Ith the sports
field being handy. Many games of CrIcket have .been
played. As we share the sports ground wltl: a
neighbouring RA. umt, they have naturally supplIed I
some opposition, needless to say, the R.A.P.C. have
507

given a good account of themselves. S.S.M. Knight,
Sgt. Flynn, Sgt. Bond, and Pte. Ball have supplied
a good background upon which to build a unit team.
Table Tennis under S /Sgt. Mdlwraith and
Football under L :eut. Beaver, have also made
progress, and teams have been entered in local
leagues.
Since arriving here the W.O.'s and Sgts. have
formed their own Mess, and members of other Sgts.
Messes are welcome to sample our "Ind Coopes"
whenever they are in this area.
. The Officers' Mess has not yet opened but I am
mformed i~ ~~ll be fu~ctioning very sho;tly.
To the CIvIlIan staff m Preston it was a blow when
eventually the , movement orders were published
but t~anks. t<? the great efforts of Mr. Suggate and
Captam Pllkmgton, plus the co-operation of Mr.
Stafford in Records, a large number of our employees
were found employment at Tulketh Hall. A small
number are still with us, and we recruited quite a
few clerks ex-Officers' Accounts and RP. Radcliffe.
As Main Issue is upon us their assistance was
doubly welcome.
.Major Hall has left us for Devizes, Major Grigg to
Klddermmster, and Captain McNaughton to Aldershot and Hants. District Office for duty at R.M .A .,
Sandhurst. ~ieut. Wilson joined us on 12th August,
but left agam on the 19th. Captain Midgley has
taken his release.
In replacement we welc~med
Lieuts. Braine, Tresman and Linter.
Amongst the other ranks the call of release has
taken S.S.M. Rudland, Sgts. Flynn Burgess Burns
Wignal, L /Sgts. Daly and Spencer: Cpl. Cr;nk and
m~ny others.
SJSgt. Hill, Cpl. Cheetham, Cpl.
Wllson, ~pl. Robms?~ have left us on posting to
other uruts. In addItIOn, we have said good-bye to
~.Q.M.S. Jones and S /Sgt. Suppree who have been
1ssl!ed with . t~opical kit. S.S.M. Knight and Cpl.
Gnnt have Jomed us, and to each and all we wish
luck in their new station.
The release of N.C.O.s has caused a few vacancies
in the establishment and I therefore, wish to
record congratulations to Sgts. Billington, Fairclough, Bolton, Harrison, Ambler, Shenton Murrav
and Lance-Corporals Jones, Cowan and M~Ardle . . '
Of our A.T.S. personnel we have said good-bye
to Subalterns Pollard and Thomas, who took their
release in June, and to Sgts. Bucklee and Kemp,
and Cpl. Woods, who remained in Preston on the
change-over. RS.M. Preston (A.T.S.) has joined
us to take care of administrative duties in' connection
with the A.T.S . platoon.
As the summer quarter draws to a close I have no
further news, but I hope to be able to expand in my
next notes.
BELFAST (3 DETACHMENT)
. The t~e has arrived once more to record for your
mformatlOn, pleasure or anything else, what has and
may happen to this small band of " RA.PCATS " in
this "little isle across the Irish Sea" of which the
IQcals never tire of singing. Since my last report
appeared in the Summer Ec!itioll of our indispensahle
Jour~a.l, the weathe~ here has been simply glorious
and It IS hard to realIse that this is really the U.K. in
which we are stationed. It really make's a difference
to present-day office life when one can get out of
Barracks on a fine evening, or a week-end, and travel
\ down to Bangor or some other handy spot, to enjoy
a swim or just laze around to your heart's content.

All the cares, trials and tribulations (if you had any)
e day seem to fade away and tomorrow-well
It s Just an<:~~her day. However,.I don't suppose this
hot spell W 1 . ] last much longer, and then winter will
be upon u~c o~c~ ~?re ~ith its cold water, no coal
and ot~er ~n\'lal det~Ils to keep us content during
our dally tOll; but, frIends, the summer this vear
sure' was welcome while it lasted , and Bermuda
etc., ' holds no greater attraction other than ration~
and Income Tax!
?! 0
. Person~e1..-Quite a few changes have taken place

sIJ1ce publIcatIOn of my last notes in the summer issue
o. the Journal, details of which are as follows :_
Pro1l1.otions.-In adc!ition to the promotion of
our Reg.mental Payo:aster (Major Neal) to Lt.-Col.,
we offer congratulatIOns to the fo!lowing on their
well-earned promotion:
Capt. Clark to Major. Sgts. Carroll and Keene to
CpIS. Edwards and Moore and L.-Cpl.
Bolton to Sgts. L.-Cpl. Glen to Cpl. and quite a
few" lance-jacks." In the A.T.S. co~tingent, Pte.
Walker has been promoted to Cpl. and Pte .
Woodward to L.~CpJ.
S / Sgt~.
Arrivals.-Capt. Bowen has arrived from Wolverley, Lieut. Bewick from Whitchurch and Lieut.
Davidson from Gla~gow, but the latter did not stay
with us long as can be seen from the next paragraph .
S.S.M. Bartlett has arrived from Malt?. and taken
over from S.S.M. Warwick on his departure for
other climes. Sgt. Sinnott ex-Singapore haf' also
been posted to this unit.
'
ReJeases.-Sgt. cc Bob" Hindmarch and Lieut.
Davidson have left for Civvv Street.
Good luck
to them. Sgt. Toothill has at hst heen released from
Hospital and has also left to sample York's delightful
Demob. machinery.
Departures.-In the last issue it wa!> reported
that Sgt. (now S /Sgt.) Ke{'ne was on embarkation
leave, but that has been cancelled and the football
team still has its captain. S/Sgt. MacGregor has
been placed ~n the "waiting lift" for overseas and
may leave us shortly but cc confirmation is still
Finally, our old friend S.S.M. "Joe "
awaitc.d."
WarWIck has proceeded for another overseas tour
this time to M.E.L.F., and our be!>t wishes go out t~
him in his new station.
FootbalL-Our participation in two summer
competitions proved unsuccessful as we were
knol';ked out in both competition" b v the RA.F.
Aldergrove XI> in the first round of one Cup and in
the semi-final of another. However, we can put it
down to experience, and this season we have entered
a team in the Beifast Minor League. Our first game
resulted in a victory over a country team by :3 goals
to 2 awa y from home, so we have at least made a
good start.
Other Sports, Social Club.-Apart from some
cricket practice matches , no activity has taken place
III any 'other sport, but it is hoped that the wint~r
months may see the Soci al Committee ge t mto their
str,i de with some really good entertainments.
Well, I thinl, that ,is all for thi,., issue, so' cheerio
, and all the best to our ffiends in the Corps. past and
present, wherever they may be , from all the members
of the Northern Treland Pay Office.
cc
508
H t\GGIS.'
CANTERBURY (29 COMPANY)

29 Coy. moved to Canterbury in - - - , but
years have rolled on since that happened, and time
soothed the widow's pain. All ra.nks are now quite
settled, and despite the extra work load, appear to
be having a pretty good time in this Garden of
England.
As we go to Press, we are attempting to arrange
some entertainment with the Officers, P.O.s, and
ratings of our war-time adoption H.M.S. Bicester,
which has arrived off Folkestone.
Two verv successful dances have been held since
our last nO"tes, but the vveather has been so good
lately that the regular series have been discontinued
until things cool down a little.
Cricket.-Fair weather has permitted the fulfilment of most of our fixtures. We have had many
ve ry enjoyable games, although two only have
resuIted in a win for the Company. Our highest
scorer to date is Pri vate Webb, who made 71 not out
versus Old Centralians, London.
The Posting Group challenged the rest of the
office. A rubber was played resulting in two wins
for the Posting Group and one for the Rest. The
games were very popular, . drawing fairly large
numbers of supporters.
Tennis.-A hard court has been !tired each
Thursday evening since the beginning of the season,
but the enthusiasm of our players has recently
abated somewhat, probably due to the distance
from barracks (about two miles).
We are still
waiting for the court in Barracks promised by the
RE.s. It is at last beginning to look like a court,
arid we hope to take it over shortly.
Boxing.-The Hastings Police invited L /C.
Simmons to take part in a Charity Boxing Tournament arranged by them. He proved to be too good
for his opponent, anel we hope he continues this
promising start.
In our notes of the Summer issue, we erroneously
omitted the name of Pte. Noble who defeated his
opponent of the 3.P.T.C.
Miniature Rifle Club.-The Club continues to
go ahead in spite of a continuous battle against grass
and weeds which seem to spring up overnight ,a nd
render the targets invisible from the firing point.
Our first match with the 7th Bn. Kent Home
Guard O.C.A. resulted in a win for us by 133 points,
with some very good individual scores. cc Refreshments" were served in the Corporals' Club, and
some good work was put in on the dart board.
U nfortunately, our visitors were obliged to leave
early to catch a bus.
The return match was held on the Home Guard
Range at Barham on 3rd June, and we were blessed
with very fine weather. Again our team triumphed.
After the match, the " local" was taken over, lock,
stock and cc barrels," by both teams and their
supporters ; the throng having to overflow into the
l'ilain Street. O ur hosts gave us a very good reception.
A team of A.T.S. members lost b y a narrow margin
to the local G.T.C. in June.
Now that the Club has become affiliated to the
S. M.R.C., we hope to widen our field of activities
in the near future. vVe should still be glad to hear
from any other Pay Office willing to compete with
us in a Postal shoot.
Officers' Mess.-In common with other Messes ,
we have lost several membels during the past
quarter. An opportunity was taken in June at the

weekly Mess Night to bid farewell to two exceptionally cc old soldi,e rs" whose combined service
totalled over 100 years, of which nearly all had been
given to the Corps. They were Major C. J. Stait
and Capt. G. A. Bird, both of whom will be well
remembered by many. The Commanding Officer
spoke of their long and loyal service and a toast
was drunk to their future happiness. Both Major
Stait and Capt. Bird responded in a vein which
showed the spirit that had carried them along in the
past, and which disclosed that Army comradeship
is a real entity.
The tennis court outside the Mess has proved
very popular during a really good summer, whilst
indoors , the billjards table has disclosed many
examples of what must have 'm eant application in
other years.
Outing.-We received an invitation from R.P.O. ,
Warley, to visit them on July 19th with a cricket and
tennis team and many dancers. An early start was
necessary, and at 8 a.m. three fully-laden charabancs
left to cross the Thames at Blackwall. Unfortunately,
the man-in-charge of the Sun took a half-day off
and left no one to carry on and by 2 p.m., we were
disconsolately ,gazing at a soaked wicket and
tennis court. This necessitated hurried improvisation on the part of our hosts to keep us smiling until
we sat down to a tea of pre-war quality and quantity
with the thought of a dance just round the corner.
For this function the weather could not dishearten
u~, and it proved to be the high-spot it was meant
to be. Floor, band, partners, refreshments, and
hosts were completely non-austerity, and the
journey home was put off and off until the limit of
endurance on the part of the drivers was reached.
Canterbury was found to be still there well after
2 a.m.
Sergeants' Mess.-Our Mess continues to
thrive under the able man'a gement of the inimitable
Edna (Sergt. Clayton, A.T.S., our Mess Caterer).
We have had two very popular race meetings in the
Mess , both well attended by members and visitors.
A cricket match between the Officers and Sergeants resulted in a win for the Officers;, sizing up
the bar takings in the Sergeants' Mess next day,
some doubt now exists as to which side really did
WIn.
l\1 ention must be made of our enthusiastic members who are assisting in the Country's 'agricultural
.effort during the evenings. Some unkindly folk say
that they are robbing Dalton to pay Strachey.
29 Club.-On the 14/ 15th June a reunion of past
and present members of 29 Coy. RA.P.C., Sergeants' Mess, took place. Thirty old members
were acconllnodated in barracks for the week-end ,
and a very enjoyable time was had by all.
An excellent dinner was provided in the Mess on
Saturday evening, presided over by our Commanding
Officer, Lieut.-Colonel L. E. James , M.C. , this was
followed by a race meeting and social evening. A
cricket match was arranged for the Sunday, but the
weather being against us , the match had to be
cancelled, anyway, a very happy day 'was spent in
the Mess bv all members.
It is now proposed to hold a further 29 Club do ,
in London, during the late autunm , probably a show
and supper afterwards.
~Till any old members of 29 Coy. Sergeants' . iess,
509
who are not already on our books, please let our

Secretary, Mr. Bart~ett, Old Infantry Barracks,
Ca~terbury, have their address, when they will be
adVised of future occasions ?
Unfortunately, S /.Sgt. ~oyston is due for demob.

shortly, but there IS obvlOusly plenty of available
talent for future shows.
Great credit is due to the workers behind the
scenes. The staging, lighting, and dressing of a show
m a gaunt gymnasium ' is a difficult job. It was
excellently done.
Cornings ~d Goings.-Empty Saddles in the
Old Corral nught ",-ell be the current theme song.
The completlOn of two years from V(E) Day saw a
great Jr.flux of officers and other ranks. Among the
form~r were Paddy Kearns, Jock Walker, Storev,
Coggms , Rogers, Coleman, McCullough, and many
others.
Re~irements, to?, meant good-bye to such grand
old timers as Major A. N. Evers, Major J. Eynon,
M.C., and the doyen of them all, Captain C. A .
Ht: ath . Our Second in Command, Lieut.-Colonel
Ohver, was posted to Edinburgh, and Lieut.-Colonel
A. G. Burdett came from Foots Cray in his stead.
Heavy demands have been made on our officers
for overseas service, and amongst those we have
lost or a.re losing, are Capt. E. A. B. Jones, who has
been With us continuously since 1939. Capt. G.
Aldersly, Capt. A. Al~ander, and Lieut. R. Brown,
M.C.
From Egypt comes the news that an old
friend in Ernie Morton has attained his majority.
We are happy to have with us Capts. A. J. Dohertv
ru:t d G. H. Mills of Foots Cray, and a number of one'plppers from O.C.T.U.
Arrivals from overseas
include LieLits. Forrest and E. S. J, Smith. A verv
old [riend in Capt. Bill Colbourne, is in hospital
makmg a good recovery from a recent operation.
Congratulations Corner.-To Lieut.-Colonel
Burdett on the birth of a son, Peter Edmund, on
May 22. To Lieut. W. Richardson on the arrival of
Michael Paul, on 19 May; and to Lieut. E. S. J.
Smith whose daughter, Diana Floris, was born on
27 April.
Cricket.-Two big handicaps faced us this yearthe lack of a grolllld of our own, and no set fixture
list. Th~nks to ti:le R.A.M.C., we were able to get a
lot of CrIcket on their ground, and all through the
summer there was scarcely an evening without an
inter-wing game or a Battalion match.
Our first team more than held its own. We lost
three matches only, and in two of these the full team
was not available. This excuse did not hold when
_we met the strong Training Battalion team in the
first round of the knock-out competition. With a
score of only 75 to beat in thirty overs it looked
easy,. but everything went wrong that possibl y
could.
Our meeting with the Reading Pay Office- provided an enjoyable afternoon match. Time robbed
us of a comfortable win when the last Reading pair
refused to be separated.
Lieut.-Colonel Burdett made several welcom e
appearances in the side. We found two good
bowlers in Smith and Hawes, the latter also batted
well throughout. Armitage gave some delightful
displays of big hitting. Curson always batted in
classic style.
Football.-We have entered teams in both divisions of the civilian Aldershot and District League
and Cup. Also in the corresponding military
competitions which are played in mid-week. Th e
teams are hoping for a successful season. Naturally,
the advent of the Scots who were in the Edinburgh
CROOKHAM (33 BATTALION)
:After t~ree ,months in Haig Lines, Crookham,

thiS battalion IS something very different from its
Lond<?n and Edinburgh components. The amalgamatIOn has been made without bloodshed, the
Sc~ts no longer tell Us they didn't 90 it that way in
Edmburgh and Celt and Sassenach have buried all
their hatchets. Even the local inhabitants are finding
us human after all.
. The troops now realise the dust encrusted major
IS the field officer of the week, and the subaltern
who appears to be advertising "OXO" is in fact
the Orderly Officer.
They have had their first
Battali~n parade and are all ready for the annual
mspectlOn due shortly.
. The fine weather and open-air life has put ideas
!nto the heads of a lot of elderly gentlemen. Whereas
111 London they \vould have been snoozing away in
a suburban garden deck chair or hammock thev have
been hitting cricket balls about and going fo; long
walk~. The mosquitoes have taken full advantage
of thiS. The Crookham variety is a virulent type.
Thrown on our own resources as we are for
amusement, outside office hours, there has been an
enormous amount of activity in all directions. Major
Flear's motto is "Never a dull moment."
His
efforts will bear much fruit when the nights gro~
longer.
Despite the heat, dancing has been one of the
most popular recreations. Already" B" Company
has had a very successful "do" which taxed the
floor space severely. The threatened shortage of
ladies was happiJy averted by the attendance of a
crowd of charm.ing girls from the R.S.D.
The
autumn programme calls for a fortnightly Battalion
dance.
Another popular dancing feature has been the
Sunday tea dance to gramophone records.
. Best !1ews of all .for the dancers is that a profesSIOnal mstructor III ballroom dancing has been
engaged, ~nd will take up his duties shortly.
There IS plenty of variety t~lent in the Battalion
as "vas evidenced in the first show. A further sho\~
is booked for September, and we hope to give more
news of the artistes in the next issue.
The Dramatic Society, under the charge of Lieut.
S. Barraclough, has already had a success in its first
venture, the Terence Rattigan con'ledy "While the
Sun Shines." Two performances were given at the
second of which Colonel and Mrs. Rooney and a
large party of their friends enjoyed themselves as
much as did the rest of the audience.
Brian Royston, as the Duke-cum-Army General,
gave a brilliant performance. Not all his genius
was confined to the show itself.
Kay Berger played the Mabel Crum role of a bit
of fluff to perfection, while Nina Marchant, as the
soulful Lady Elizabeth, was equally convincing.
Kenneth Miles, Neil Kitchingman, and John
Rimble all got right inside their parts, and made
distinct personalitie~ of the characters they portrayed.
Gordon Bryan, as ~he manservant, was ppsitively
over-powermg despite the lack of length in his
trousers.
510
THE ROYAL ARMY PAY 'CORPS JOURNAL

office will provide plenty of good players. Who
overlooked entering for the F.A. Cup?
Every sport is being catered for, even to weight
lifting. Active committees are functioning for
hockey, boxing, rugger, etc.
The officers have already been challenged by the
Training Centre to a Heptathlon which embraces all
the known games ever played. This should be
good fun.
Pete's Patter.
My motto used to be Action Same Day, now it's
Someday. .
,
The Strength Return is now known as the Weakness
Report.
A straight line is the shortest distance between two
points. Any other line is the distance between
two markers.
Our Camp Barber is a bit of a wa1. Says he always
works at cut prices.
Sergeants' Mess.-Having settled down to our
country life at Crookham, the Sergeants' Mess
decided that it was about time that their first function
on the lines of other successful London "do's"
should be held as soon as possible. Consequently,
on Monday, 28 July, the opening celebration of the
mess was held at which the Commanding Officer,
Colonel O. P. J. Rooney, O.B.E., and Mrs. Rooney
were present together with Major Flear, our P.R.I.,
and Captain N. F. Lee, the Adjutant.
On this occasion we entertained the RA.P.C.
Sergeants' Messes in the Aldershot Area, consisting
of visitors from the Training Centre, RA.P.C.
Records, and the District Pay Office. The entertainment took the form of a smoking concert at which
various members of the Unit endeavoured to amuse
the party.
Major Flear's stories reminded the
audience of the days gone by and, no doubt, reminded
some of the old peace time Sergeants' Mess functions.
Various junior members of the Battalion
entertained, and their talents earned the respect of
the Mess and were greatly appreciated.
Although we are in the new camp on Army rations,
Sgt. Tillotson, who is still our Mess Caterer, managed to put on a highly successful buffet during the
evening, and the guests, not satisfied at walking
round and helping themselves decided to find seats
and" sit down and make a meal of it."
Many of our guests mentioned how pleased they
were to see that despite many difficulties, the Mess
was gradually being furnished like a comfortable
home, and there is no doubt that as time goes by,
various other amenities will be had to make our lives
in this country village a little more pleasant and
amiable.
A large number of promotions has recently been
made, including a number of old-time sergeants who
have made the grade to Staff Sergeant. Deserving of
mention are" Paddy" Carroll, Jobnny Butler, Reg.
Arnold , "Smudger" Smith, and others.
At this stage we place on record our congratulations to W.O.I. Kennedy, who has successfully
passed a W.O.S.B., and will eventually land at the
Training Centre as a cadet. We have'lost recently
on demob., W.O.I. Osborne, and very recentlv have
gained _W.O.I. Bell from overseas.
A.T.S. Notes.-It was with _m,my regrets and
mingled fears and hopes of what we might find that
we kft London and drifted down to Crookhan1.
The advance guard had enjoyed themselves to a
certain extent after realising that conditions could
not be altered much for some time and, therefore ,

must be endured with humour and patience.
Miss Mackowie had to leave us when we knew
that the messing in camp was to be done by A.C.C,
cooks, and with her went all the cooks who had looked
after us so well in London and most of their assistant
orderlies. The mixed messing in an enormous cookhouse was very different from the small diningrooms at Hill Street.
When everybody was finally settled in, the real
war was started on the quarters. Gradually, floor&
lost the accumulated dirt of the last couple of years ,
curtains appeared at the windows, they were necessary as well as decorative. Paint was dished out and
chairs and lockers were given a coat. The finished
results were effective if a trifle dazzling in some cases ,
and it will be many months before the cleaning rooms
lose their harlequin coats.
The first really big batcp of releases will have
gone by the end of August, although there has been
a fairly steady trickle for the last few weeks. Yet
they are very few compared with the numbers who
went out about this time last year.
Soon the summer will be over and as autumn,
which will be very lovely down here when the frost
has made the bracken look as if it was on fire, has
given way to winter the test of those who are still in
the camp will begin. We, who have been released,
will be suffering in much the same way, but without
the same spirit of companionship and unity to carry
us through. When we next meet in the street, train,
cinema, or wherever it may be, there will always be
much to discuss and recall of the first few montl1s
in this camp.
DEVIZES (R.E.M.E.) (51 BATTALION)

Since our last notes we have had a long welcome
span of real summer weather, and every opportunity has been taken, both in sport and entertainments, to make the most of King Sol. There is no
doubt. that the County of \iViltshire must be one of
the most beautiful in England. Many of us have
been fortunate enough to get about and enjoy
the countryside which has been at its best.
We have again had considerable changes in personnel and quite a large number have left us for
Release, postings overseas, and to other stations at
home. The most notable departures are Majors
Stanford and El .m, Captain Clapp, and Lieuts.
Nappy and Scott. S jSgts. Swinton (to Release),
Littlewood (to War Office), Winscott and Mason
overseas.
Arrivals during the past three months include
Major T. Hall, Second-Lieut. Walsh, S jSgt. Flook ,
and many others.
To those who have left us we wish the best of
luck wherever they may be, and to those who have
joined us we hope that their stay in Devizes will be a
pleasant one.
There have been a considerable nllll1ber of promotions among which are Captains L. S. Bruce and
D. W. Fox, and S jSgts. MacLean and Tyzack.
Sports.-There has been much activity in sports,
particularly in cricket, athletics and summer hockey.
The cricket season has been most successful, 20
games having b een played resulting in 14 being won
and six lost. The Battalion XI reached the final of
their Area for the Salisbury Plain District Knockout Competition, but were beaten by S.T.C. RE.s
from Warminster.
511

The Battalion, however, have reached the Final
of the RA.P.C. Southern Command Knock-out
Competition, having beaten D.P.O., South-Western
District, and D.P.O., Salisbury Plain District.
The leading lights have been Sgt. Bailey, Ptl:.
~ercer, Pte. Betteridge and Cpl. Stephenson.
Lieut. Barton has done an excellent job of work in
arranging the very attractive fixture list and making
all arrangements so essential behind the scenes.
Pte. Mercer was selected to play for the RA.P.C.
during Corps Cricket Week.
Major Grant, after umpiring for most of the
season, has at last withdrawn from retirement to play.
Thanks are due to Mrs. Grant, who has done so
much in providing the teas for the home matches.
Athletics.-Teams have been entered in local
Sports Meetings, and one or two members have
been outstanding, particularly Cpl. Shenton and
CI?I. . S~art, who were selected to represent the
Dlstnct m the Southern Command Championships,
and Cpl. Shenton has been chosen, in turn, for the
Southern Command, Army and Combined Services.
On 30 July he represented the Army in the InterServices Athletics, gaining first place in his heat in
the 4 X 220 yards Relay Race; he was chosen to
represent the Combined Services versus the British
A.A.A. Board on 16 Aug., and competed against
athletes who had gained international honours,
where he took 5th place. He has, however, been
chosen to compete in next year's 200 metres race.
He was .also selected to represent Yorkshire in this
year's . Inter-County Championships. Congratulations, Cpl. Shenton, on your very fine performances,
and good luck in your future events.
Hockey.-The conversion of one of the Camp
Squares to a hard Hockey Pitch has been amply
justified and there has been considerable keenness
and enthusiasm. In our first showing in the Salisbury
Plain District League Competition we reached
second place.
Other Sports.-Two of the four tennis courts
that were planned have now been completed', and
are in constant use, the other two will be ready in
the near future when we hope to take part in local
competition. Badminton has proved very popular,
and the Courts are in great demand. Preparations
for soccer and Rugby are now well under way.
Many members of the Unit have joined Devizes
Swimming Club and considerable us.e has been
made of the Open Air Pool in Devizes.
Entertainments.-The Other Ranks' dances are
still being held weekly, and are proving to be a very
popular form of entertainment, as many as 200
attending at each dance. The Unit Dance Orchestra
under the direction of Lieut. Doling, is an undoubted
success and a great attraction, their services have
been in keen demand, especially at the informal
Wing Parties, which are now being held quite
regularly.
A very successful social evening was held on the
occasion of the Derby Sweepstake Draw, which
took place on 4 June. Thanks are extended to Mrs.
F. W. Grant and Major C. T. Brend, who officiated.
A most enjoyable evening concluded with dancing
until midnight.
Advantage has been taken of the fine weather,
and there have been coach trips to Bournemouth,
Weymouth, Cheddar, and Weston-super-Mare.
Three coaches were required for the Posting Group
. THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL
Outing on 20 July, to Cheddar Gorge, where a stop

was made to visit the Caves and then on to Westonsuper-Mare, where the rest of a very pleasant day
was spent.
Officers' Mess.-The Officers' Mess continues
to. fiouris?, afold the Snooker Ha!ldicap . was won by
LIeut. Gtlchnst, after some very mteresting games.
The 8 June was the first Ladies' day in the mess
when the Officers' wives who are at the station wer;
entertained to tea.
We have lost a few members during the past three
months to Release and Overseas, but the few who
have arrived from other stations are extended a
hearty welcome.
We have been visited by our new Command
Paymaster, Brigadier R W. Hackett, Lieut.-Colonels
Barr!ltt ar:~ Beaucha.mp and other officers. A
fieetmg VISit was paid by our former Commanding
Officer, Brigadier B. L. Burgess, on 18 August, but
we hope to see more of him on his next visit in the
not too distant future. Captain J. C. G. Howes also
paid us a surprise but welcome visit recently, and
he hopes to visit us again.
W.O.s' and Sergeants' Mess.-The past few
months have seen the departure of many old friends.
To the perils of " Civvy Street" have gone SjSgts.
Swinton and Tyzack, Sergeants Gallirher, Cooper,
N. A. Jones, Tyler, Day, Allred and "Taffy"
Hughes, the two latter being Meerutonians. Calls
for overseas stations have taken S jSgts. Bert Mason
and Basil Winscott to Colombo and M.E.L.F.
respectively, Sergeants Gale and Jones have also
gone to M.E.L.F., whilst Sergeant Wood has gone
to West Africa. S jSgt. Littlewood has left us for
F.9 (B). Our best wishes go with them all.
Recent arrivals include S.Q.M.S. W. Tucknett,
from 44 Btn. Whitchurch, and SjSgts. Hobbs and
Flook, the latter from Netherlands East Indies.
A coach trip to Bournemouth on 29 June was
enjoyed by all who went. The high spot of the trip
was an amusing incident at Poole, where S.S.M.
Dickinson and Mr. Binge went for a sail and finished
up by capsizing the boat, and they both had to swim
for it.
Another notable event was a cricket match played
at Waller Barracks on 17 July, when a combined
Officers' and Sergeants' Eleven played a combined
eleven of 96 (M) H.A.A. Regiment RA. There were
two hours of very lively cricket, which resulted in a
win for us by six wickets, thanks. largely to splendid
knocks by Major Grant and Lieut. Woods.
On 6 August we were pleased to entertain the
War Office Inspection Team in the Mess, and an
excellent night was enjoyed by all.
A.T.S.-S jSgt. Thomson, Sgt. Scott, Cpl f.
Edwards, Evans, and Ptes. S. Jackson, E. Smith (a
few of the many) are amongst the releases, and we
wish them a prosperous return to civilian life.
We have recently said good-bye, with regret, to
Junior Commander Hurburgh, on her posting to
Winchester, and extend our congratulations to her
on h er promotion to Senior Commander.
Sub.
Duncan has also left us, having been posted to
Aldershot ;1 v Junior Commander. We wish them
every succes~ in their new appointments. We have
al so said good-bye to C.S.M. Ough, on her posting
to Charlbury, and hope she will be happy with her
new Company. Sgt. H. Cross has gone to PreO.C.T.V., and we ""ish her eve r y success.
very
512
posting, Sgt. Rawley overseas and L jSgt. Lakey to

Shrewsbury.
"A" Company, A.T.S.-Our congratulations to
Junior Commander S.M. Pereira and Sub. M.
Simpson, who have managed to put up with us for
longer than any of their predecessors. But now
they, too, are going, and we welcome Junior Commander K. W. Samuels as a successor.
Sports.-This quarter has seen the departure of
Lieut. L. W. Hall, our Sports Officer, who will be
sadly missed by the cricket and soccer teams.
The transfer of the accounts of the S.W.B. and
Welch Regt. to Shrewsbury cost us five members of
the cricket team, the places of some were taken by
personnel from Edinburgh and the team has had an
enjoyable if not too successful season.
Rumours of moves prevent us making any plans
for the forthcoming soccer season, but by the time
these notes appear in print the future of the office,
and its football team may be settled.
Apart from cricket there have been no organised
games, but full advantage has been taken of the
weather by swimming, boating and tennis enthusiasts, who are enjoying Devon at its truly glorious
best.
Entertainments.-Since our last notes we have
been entertained by a Dramatic Society from a
nearby Naval Establishment, who gave an excellent
performance of the farce "Madame Louise." We
have also received a visit from a Stars in Khaki
Concert Party, who put over a very lively show
" Appointment with Cheer."
A mobile kinema unit calls at the camp once
weekly. All our efforts to put on either a play or a
variety show of our own have been frustrated by the
move bogey.
A number of enthusiasts with the aid of kit drawn
from the Command Welfare have made an excellent
job of adding to the lighting effects on the stage in
the theatre.
Dances are now a weekly feature in the camp,
and have proved very popular-up to now we have
had an outside band, now, however, the boys have
plucked up sufficient courage to form a band
amongst themselves, styled rather impressively
" The Modernairs."
Having said enough about the posting:>; we now

extend a hearty welcome to our new Commanding
Officer, Junior Commander MacPherson, together
with Sub. Hudson and SjSgt. Bain, and hope they
don't find " J " Company too trying.
A Company Dance was held on 31 July, which
was thoroughly enjoyed by all who attended, so
much so that another one is being held on 29 August.
General.-The Unit Agricultural Scheme is now
well underway, and there is some reward for the
time and energy that has been spent on the plots.
The cabbages, beans, Brussels, etc., have developed,
and are now firmly established. Gardening is now
definitely one of the spare-time accomplishments of
many members of the Battalion.
During Devizes Hospital Week, held early in
July, Lieut.-Colonel and Mrs. H. O. Browning,
Major and Mrs. F. W. Grant, and Miss D. Grant
accepted the call of the Mayor of Devizes to assist
in the judging of the decorated vehicles and costumes.
This Hospital Week was a very popular event, and
many will regret its passing with the Nationalisation
of Hospitals.
.
To all ex-members of 51st Battalion, RA.P.C.,
wherever you may be, we send hearty greetings from
Devizes.
EXETER (32 COMPANY)
By-Pass Camp a1most looked its old self with the
arrival of the A.A.C. from Edinburgh, and all huts
were again filled. Now we have lost our Welch and
South Wal.es Borderers accounts to Shrewsbury,
and releases take their steady toll and we are back
again to a small body-surprisingly enough, still in
Exeter, in spite of the number of times we have
nearly left. In fact, now that we hear that we shall
definitely be gone by next month, none quite believe
it, although, if it is so, we must thank the powers
that be for their most excellent planning, which has
allowed us to spend a really glorious summer in
Devon, and is now planning to move us to save the
rigours of a snow-bound pay office again this winter.
Officers' Mess.-Organised activities have been
very small, owing to the uncertainty of the duration
of our stay. However, a good many informal and
impromptu parties have been arranged.
A large number of changes have taken place.
We have welcomed Major A. W. L. Shepherd,
Capts. J. GemmeIl, and H. K. Craxton, and Lieuts.
R. W. Baker, A. H. L. Thomson, and P. J. Tooley,
from Edinburgh, and Capt. C. E. Goddard from
Whitchurch. Even larger is our list of departures.
Our best wishes go with Major C. B. Ferguson,
posted to Canterbury, Capt. A. T. Knevett to Depot,
Lieut. A. H. Matthews to Devizes, Lieuts. E. H. H.
.JQnes and D. M. Munro to Shrewsbury .. and Lieuts.
J. c. BackweIl, M.B.E., C. C. Beazley, L. Hall, and
D. C. L. R Todd, now released.
We offer our congratulations to Lieut. R W.
Baker on the occasion of hi s marriage.
Sergeants' Mess.-Owing to threat of early dispersal, only one function has been held-a small
" stag party," when the officers visited us, for darts
' and snooker. Our changes have been many-S.S.M.
WetheraIl, S jSgts. Wookey, Manson, and Eccles,
and Sgts. Scott, Morr'ison, and Rowley have joined
us from Edinburgh. We have lost S.S.M. Kirke
(Chester), S.Q.M.S. Kenny to the coal mines,
S jSgts. Harris, Wright and Eccles released, S jSgt.
Lucking on embarkation leave, prior to overseas
D. H. S .
FOOTS CRAY (34 COMPANY)
With the majority of the office now situated in the
Main Building, ex-members will notice how the
staff has shrunk compared with even one year ago ,
but as is no doubt evident elsewhere, the work has
not shrunk in the . same proportion.
Some more of the older hands have been posted
during the past quarter, amongst them Captain
Kidman, who left b y 'plane in Ju'ly for the warmer
surroundings of Lagos. VIe trust that by now he
has settled in, and is thoroughly enjoying the night
life of the West Coast, .especially at the Apapa ,
Ebut Metta and Ikoyi Clubs. S jSgt. Hart has left
on demob. and is now dealing with the intricacies of
points, etc. , in his own shop. S jSgt. Harris, who we
congratulate on his recent marriage with L jCpI.
Graves, A.T.S. , of this Office, should by now be
speaking excellent Polish, having been posted to
Witley.
Amongst the arrivals mention must be made of
L ieut. Ulph, Lieut. Beatty from Middle East, and
Sgt. Murrell just arrived on compassionate posting
from West Africa .
513

The cricket team has been doing quite well, and
on meeting our neighbours-Kolster-Brandesproved that white flannels are not necessarv to
obtain runs and wickets. Final scores were: Company 107-Kolster-Brandes 51.
.
An Office outing to Brighton took place on 12th
July, when about 200 of the staff and 150 of their
husbands, wives, and children journeyed by Special
Train from London Bridge, arriving at Brighton at
11 o'clock. Attractions proved well up to expectations and amongst the special features attended by
members of the party was a County Cricket Match
and a Brass Band Contest. In the afternoon a large
number took advantage of a two-hour ~ea trip ,
arriving back at Brighton in time for high tea in the
Aquarium Ball Room. The party left Brighton at
7 p.m., arriving at London Bridge at 8 p.m. The
organisers must be complimented on their excellent
work which was borne out by the fact that a considerable number of requests have been received
for a repeat.
Sergeants' Mess.-\Ve are pleased to report
that S.S.M. Bernard Lavender is back at work,
having fully recovered from his operation.
We
have to remark that whatever the doctors removed as'
unvyanted they left .that tendency for wise cracks
which seem to flow in a continuous stream once
, Bernard" starts talking.
On Sunday, 10th August, a very successful outing
was arranged to Whipsnade Zoo for members, their
wives, and children. Transport was provided by
the L.P .T.B. , and 34 people were duly deposited .at
Whipsnade, and what is more amazing 34 people
arrived home in the evening. Our Special Correspondent would like to know why S.Q.M.S. Charlie
Breen started using hair tonic a few days before the
outing.
Congratulations to S.S.M. Jim Warner on his
recent marriage to L /Cpl. Robson, A.T.S.
Before we close, I must report that Wally Carne,
weUknown for his exhibitions of Hyp :.otism, recently
won a talent competition at the Corona Cinema,
Swanley. We are reliably informed that there is no
truth in the rumour that Wally hypnotised the
judges.
GLASGOW (35 COMPANY)
Since the last notes were published, Lieut.-Colonel
W. D . N. Robotham has retired after 33 vears'
service. Except for a short spell in the Bournemouth
Office he had been R.P. of this office from September,
1940, (at Perth) until his retirement here a few weeks
ago. In his honour, the Office Staff gave a Dinner
and Dance in the cc Georgic " at which Mrs.
Robotham was presented with a silver tea service.
In addition, the officers also held a farewell dinner
at the cc Grosvenor."
In Colonel Robotham's place we have Lieut.Colonel R. C. de V. Askin, M.B.E., M.C., and it is
hoped his stay in ScotlaT\d will be a pleasant one.
Coinciding with Col. Askin's arrival is the finest
summer Scotland has had for many years. This
augurs well for his sojourn in stern and wild Caledonia.
Visit to H.M.S. "Bicester."-An official visit
was paid to H.M.S . cc Bicester," cc our" ship on
27th July, by the R.P. (Lieut.-Colonel R. C. de V.
Askin, M.B.E., M.C.), the A.R.P. (Major C. L. H .
Young), and Welfare Officer (Lieut. J . Lindsay).
The ship was lying off Dunoon (CC doon the watter ")
during the recent visit of the F leet to the Clyde.
The party was entertained on board by Commander

Foreman, R.N., and ships' officers.
An unofficial visit had been , paid the previous
evening by the A.R.P. and Welfare Officer who had
set off at mid-day and finall y arrived on board at
9- 20 p.m. Commander Foreman and Ship's Officers
did the honours.
One remarkable highlight of the
evening was the win at " Lie" Poker by the A.R.P.,
whose stories will, in consequence, be taken in future
with more than a grain of salt.
A memento of the official vis:t in the form of a
painting of Loch Lomondside has been purchased
by the Company and forwarded to the ship.
It is suggested that gifts of books might be sent
to the Ship, c/o M.F.O., Sheerness, by other Pay
Offices, whose members can be assured of a ready
welcome should they be lucky enough to hav e the
ship in their vicinity.
,
Lieut. Mudie, Ptes. Moffat and Grant have taken
unto themselves wives recently. All good 'wishes
go to them for the future .
S.Q.M.S. Donlan is now one of the "lucky "
ones, having been allotted a quarter in Hamilton
Barracks. He is also a proud father again-in his
new quarter.
There has been a spate of departures and arrivals
since the last notes, but space forbids particular
mentions . To all who have left us for Release,
Overseas, etc., good luck wherever you are, and to
the new arrivals may your tour of duty here be all
you could possibly wish it.
Still that mysterious word "Hamilton" floats
around, but the Office stays in the same old place,
anq there now seems no prospect of any immediate
move.
There is little to report in the sporting world. A
games day was held in Edinburgh against the Edinburgh Office at which honours fell about even. It is
hoped to have a return tournament here next month .
With the main issue, breaking down to Units and
Coys., etc., etc., there has been little spare time
recently for anyone, but once the present stress has
eased, efforts are being made to get really cracking
again. Is anybody interested in a postal shoot ?
KINGSTON-ON-THAMES (40 BN.)

Since the publication of the summer number 'we
at Richmond have lost our Magazine Representative
-Lieut. D. E. Atkins.
He has gone back to our old station at Whitchurch ,
where we hope he is settling in, and that he occasionally misses us as we certainly miss him.
Arrivals and Departures.-Captain A. W. Marriott has joined us from North Africa. We give him
a h earty welcome, and know he will be happy here as
he can live at home with his family after many moons
abroad.
Captain L. D. Lee has left us to join the brains of
the Corps at War Office, whi le Subaltern Dykes,
A.T.S., has gone to Reading.
We wish them all well in their new stations, and
express our regret at parting with them.
Many of our rank and file have also left us for
Crookham, Knightsbridge, and, of course, the usual
To all we say thanks for a good job
trickle abroad.
done, and best of luck !
War Office Inspection Team have paid us a VISlt
recently, now we have got over our move from
Whitchurch. They did not bounce us up and down
too much, but the Officers of the 40th Bn. invited
514

Our best wishes go out to all those who have
departed for" Civvy Street," and a hearty welcome
is extended to S.S.M. " Jack" Woan on his posting
to the "A.A." Office.
them to their Mess one evening and completely

defeated them at the usual classical indoor games,
including Euchre, at which our Major C. G. Walker
is invincible.
Richmond is a pleasant spot, but being so near
town combined with the fact that the number of
mi\it~ry personnel is fast diminishing, it has been
impossible to get any Battal50n team~ to compete at
cricket. We have our enjoyable httle games on
Richmond Park in the evenings which are thoroughly
enjoyed by all, despite the , fact that the patch . is
really impossible and constitutes a danger to hfe
and limb.
Future Events.-By the time the Christmas Notes
are prepared we fully expect to be onc~ more on t~e
move. This time to Kenry House, Richmond Hill,
Kingston, where we have to start all over agaiI?-' aI?-d
run our own show. More about our new locatIOn m
our next.
NOTTINGHAM-(A.T.S.) (42 COMPANY)

We are still in occupation of the excellent Temporary Office Buildings, and ~ope that we may l.>e
allowed to remain for some tune. Rumour has It,
however, that we shall have to move eventually to
permanent accommodation elsewhere.
Arrivals.-We extend a hearty welcome to the
following who have joined us during the past three
months, and hope that their stay in Nottingham will
be an enjoyable one : Major F . M. Laws , M.B.E. (ex-R.P.O. Guards)
as 2nd-in-Command. Lieuts. H. B. Allison (ex
India) , and J. W. Gee (ex-R.P.O. A,A,). Subs.
Morriss and Groves (ex-R.P.O., Leeds), Cpl. G. H.
Harwood (ex-West Africa).
Departures.-Majors G . E. Pears on, to Singapore, G. A. Waltuck, to Wolverley, and F. G. Holt,
Released. Captains L. Tripp, to M .E.L.F., G. O.
Savage, to D.P., North Midland District, K.,J. VI
Davis and T. F. Monks to R.P.O. (A,A,). Captam
F. H. Burns, Lieuts. A. T. de Covedy and H . R.
Holme, Released . Lieuts. F. W. Gould and J. A. A.
Terry to No. 2 C.M.D. and D.U ., York. S /Sgts.
T. C. Husler and F. Woolley, Sgts. G. A. Mitchell
and R. V. Walker, Released. Sgt. L. Riley to B.A.S.
(P.R.C.), York.
To the above, and to all who have left us, we wish
the very best of luck.
,
Major Pearson has been ,a popular aI?-d energetic
second-in-command, and hlS cheery smIle and unfailing readiness to help will be sorely m,issed. He
carries with him to Singapore the best WIshes of all
who knew him.
Captain Tripp, who is now on his way.East, was
the oldest officer inhabitant of the Office (m serVice,
if not in years), but in spite of this he has retained a
very youthful outlook, and his keen sense of hUI?our
has helped him, and those who have been assoclated
with him, through some " tricky" periods.
,
" Faj" Hoggett's pipe has also departed and IS
probably competing merrily wit~ Vesuvius.' while
it is probable that the man behmd the pIpe has
introduced several strange new words mto the
I talian language.
"
. .
Captain G. O. Savage has been appomted VIsltmg
Paymaster, and appears to be enjoying his nomadic
existence. We hope he knows all the answers!
Office Outing.-An office outing was arranged
to take place on 27th June, to Belle Vue, Manchester, and a party of approximately two hundred
left the office by coach at 1 p.m. in the best of spmts.
A halt was made at the George Hotel, Taddington,
in Derbyshire for light refreshmen~s , both solid, and
liquid-the latter maybe not provmg ex.actly hght.
By this time rain had begun ~o, fall, and It ~ppeared
that Manchester intended hvmg up to ItS wellknown reputation. This setback, however , did not
affect the light-heartedness of the party, and on
arrival at Belle Vue just before 5 p.m., in somewhat
dismal conditions, we were welcomed by the strains
of the Royal Army Pay Corps Regimental March,
"Primrose and Blue," played over the Belle Vue
Recording System. This surprise welcome had
O. M.
NOTTINGHAM (A.A.) (39 DETACHMENT)
The last issue of the Journal recorded the translation of Lieut.-Colonel R. S. Ellicott to the Reading
Office.
fncidentally, a most excellent and popular
dictionary alternatively defines "translate" as " to
transfer; to remove to heaven." Now we know
why the Colonel was in such haste to g~ places.
The name of his successor as Regimental Paymaster, R .A. (A.A.) and O.C., will be of considerable
interest to all who have served in the A.A. Office,
especially those who shared its fortunes, in the early
days of the War, at Warley aI?-d Leicester. Congratulations will go out to Lieut.-Colonel F. V.
Mundy, M .B.E. , upon his appoint.ment a~ head of
the establishment. Not only IS thiS appomtment a
tribute to the officer concerned but, at the same
time, is a compliment to the Office Lieut.-Colonel
Mundy has risen to command.
Events have been few during the last two or thr~e
months. By wav of an experiment, an Office SOCIal
was held on 31st May, and despite the fact that 0:rer
half the Office Staff reside in Leicester, 25 rrules
away the function turned out to be a great success,
thanks to the fine planning of Lieut. DU~T and
S.Q.M.S. Davies. The night trip b ack to Leicester
was indeed a part of the show.
UI?-f<?rtunately,
Lieut. Duffy, a stalwart veteran alwaJ:s wIlhng to do a
little more than his share of everythmg, has gone to
the Taunton Office, on exchange with Lieut. H . J.
Denham.
,
Staff-Sgt. Major Be? JV!.orley has sall~d for
Bermuda, a station which, Judgmg by Ben s fanmail, is Utopia to all S .S.M.s of the C?rps. ,
Besides Lieut. Denham, new arrIvals mclude
Capt. K . J. W. Davis and Capt. T. F . Monks, both
from the A.T.S. Office.
L 'eut. J. W. Gee (L.A.A.)
has stepped across the road to more or less even up
the balance of power.
,
Cricket became a great feature of the UllIt recreational activities during the summer, and to Pte.
Shorter and his team must go a wO.rd of p.raIse ~or
their fine spirit of endeavour. J n splte of difficulties
and disadvantages, they played well and secured a
good following. They even faced up to hardened
Test players-for how, long need n.ot be recorded.
Pleasant as the summer at Nottmgham has been,
the winter is not too far away, and perhaps then there
will bt! more opportunity for events of the gettogether type,
515

been secretly arranged by an ex-officer of this Company-Lieuf. Frank Bestwick~who is now on the
staff at Belle Vue.
Almost immediately on arrival an excellent" High
Tea" was enjoyed by all in the "Pagoda Cafe, where
the Management had kindly erected our own private
bar. After the meal the party broke up to take
advantage of the available entertainments at Belle
Vue. Owing to the inclement weather these had
been somewhat reduced, but before' long the sun
broke through and to some extent made amends for
its previous lack of co-operation.
Later in the evening the ballroom, with its excel lent and very well stocked bar, was a favourite
rendezvous . Departure on the return journey had
been arranged for 10-30 p.m.
Cricket.-While it has been found impossible ,
owing to the small number of military personnel now
. in the Unit, to arrange regular matches, the Company
Cricket Section have participated in several evening
games with some measure of success. The run-getting efforts of Pte. R King and A. Alexander have
been very consistent, although it is observed that in
the last couple of games they have been joined ' by
two Posting Wing Officers (no names at this stageconfirmation that both have been invited to toUl'
the West Indies with the M.C.C. is still awaited).
The matches with our neighbour, 39 Battalion,
R.A.P.C., have always been keenly contested and
played in a most sporting way.
Our record to date shows: Played 7, winning 4,
and losing 3.
Football.-Football seems to have suffered most
as a result of " Release," and this will be the first
season that the Company have not been represented
in the local league since 1940.
READING (45 BATTALION)
Reluctantly on this glorious summer , evening, we
turn from the enjoyment of a well-earned post-Main
Issue rest to seat ourselves before the typewriter
and painfully hammer out with one finger these
Notes, which we have suddenly realised have to be
posted by tomorrow-or else !
During a summer of unprecedented weather, the
highlight of the season has undoubtedly been the
cricket match, Officers versus Sergeants, which took
place on 30th July. A hard-fought game, with no
quarter given or taken, was won by the Sergeants by
one wicket after the Officers had put ' up a useful
total of 93 runs. The match was one of many " incidents," but the most noteworthy appears to be
that in which the Officers' wicket-keeper, in replacing
the bails, and finding himself hampered in doing so
by his gloves, called upon the umpire (a member of
the Sergeants' Mess) to perform this duty, and was
told: "You knocked them off, so you can put them
back!" (or words to that effect). The match was
followed by a games evening at the Officers' Mess,
at which the Officers got their own back at darts and
snooker, though as the evening progressed, no one
minded very much ,who won.
Too late for inclusion in the summer issue was the
news that S.Q.M.S. MacMillan, despite an excellent
score of 74-two under par-failed to beat his first
opponent, a Walker Cup Final Trial player, in the
British Amateur Golf Championship at Carnoustie,
Scotland. It is understood, however, that far from
being disheartened he is putting in considerable
practice to b~ rea~y for the big event next year at

Deal. We WIsh huT). the best of luck. It is believed
that this is the first time the Corps has been represented in Championship Golf.
The Battalion Footlights Club has now been
formed, and started its career in May with a very
succes~rul locall~-produced revue e~titled " Spring
Fever.
Last mmute rehearsals are now in progress
" for a presentation of "The Magistrate," by Sir
Arthur Pinero, and it is hoped to follow this up with
a performance of " Rope," in September.
This year saw t~e reintroduction of Gardeningthat dehghtful pastllle for the long summer evenings.
No one minded this very much so long as there were
German P.O.W.s available for the job, but suddenly
these were wafted away and we found ourselves with
several acre~ of soil to till, hoe and weed (especially
weed I). ThIS has been made the subject of a cartoon
by " Youngie," which we hope the Editor will find
room to include.
SA . RAN1KI-\f:T C.AMP
. ]
OANOfllON
Arrivals and Departures.-As usual, there have

been considerably more of the latter than the former .
We lost our C.O., and 2 i/c. within a few weeks of
one another, Lieut.-Colonel W. Vero proceeding to
Nairobi, and Major J. Howard to Witley. In their
places we welcome Lieut.-Colonel R S. Ellicott
and Major R E. Noel-Clarke from Nottingham -and
M.E.F. regpectively. Many old stalwarts have left
us on release, among them Captains Paul, Alien,
Lewis, Glover, Parker, Scott, Partridge, Lieuts.
Meaney, Giles, and Speller, S /Sgt. RusseIl, Sgts.
Powell (Sandy), Clifford and Weldon. Major
C. W. Goode, Lieuts. Beck, Mayhew, and Weaire,
have arrived, and we wish them a pleasant sojourn
in Reading.
Obituary.-It is with deep regret that we record
the death on the 9th August, 1947, following a
traffic accident, of Lance-Corporal D. C. Winch.
His loss will be felt by his many friends in the
Battalion, and we extend our deepest sympathy to
his parents in their tragic bereavement.
SHREWSBURY (46 COY.)
We open up our profit and loss account with a
welcome to the Exeter Contingent under Lieuts.
D. M. Munro and E. H. H. Jones, who have joined
us on the recent transfer of the Welch and S.W.B.
binders from R.P. , Exeter. Also on the credit side
516

evening was concluded with a v isit to the Hippodrome, where Norman Evans' Company provided
real good entertainment.
Arrivals and Departures.-Sgt. Lakey has joined
us from Exeter, while S.S.M. Briggs and S /Sgt.
Hills have departed for overseas stations.
is Lieut. H. Smyth, from P.O.S.B. On the other

side of the account we have lost ' heavily in the
departures of Major W. W. Scott to R.P., Droitwich, and Lieut. G. Piller to B.A.O.R We extend a
hearty welcome to our new arrivals, whilst bidding
cheerio and good luck to our departures.
Congratulations are extended to Sgt. Toole on his
elevation to the Sergeants' Mess, and L/Cpl.
Skeplorn on rising to married bliss. We wish them
"happy days" in their new spheres!
.
As we go to Press the extreme heat is making even
the contemplation of our recent sporting activities
most exhausting. However, we are easily roused to
blow a fanfare of contratulation to our C.O., Lieut.Col. H. G . B. Milling, O.B.E., and his partner, Capt.
W. Bown, on their triumph in carrying off the
doubles at the Corps Tennis Tournament at Aldershot. Once again "Floreat Salopia." During the
light evenings we have succeeded in building up a
very useful soccer side, and at last can record a
victory over our friends and rivals the District Pay
Office. It is hoped to enter the side for the local
Thursday League, and we look forward to a successful
season. The cricket team, under the able Captaincy
of Lieut. S. A. Marshall, has had a very pleasant and
successful summer's sport. Lieut. A. E. Newbury
and Pte. V. Abel have been the most consistent
scorers, being considerably reinforced later on by
the stylist Pte. Beckett, a notable acquisition to our
willow wafters from Exeter. With the ball the most
success has been achieved by the very effective spin
bowling of the skipper, Lieut. Marshall, and the
pace bowling of Pte. Abel, whilst the terrorist
activities of Lieut. Newbury have also produced
many wickets.
The triumph of S.Q.M.S. Page on the bowling
green must not be allowed to pass unnoticed. We
offer him our sincere congratulations upon his
success in the Shropshire Merit Competition, the
Shropshire Handicap and the Fulwood Cup (Home
Green Championship). We are assured by Lieut.
W. Herbert, the latest convert to this ancient faith,
that this noble sport is not all beer and skittles, but
requires prodig:ous effort of brawn and brain.
Musical Appreciation Society.-The last of
our first winter sessions was brought to a successful
close on 30 May, when Lieut. W. Stark presented a
recorded recital of music by Tschaikowski. The
staff and friends were honoured by the presence o'
Major-General C. G. Woolner, the Area Commander, and Mrs. WooIner. Lieut. Stark's verbal
assistance in appreciating the music, given between
the hearing of the selected items, was of great value,
.especially to the new recruits of Ox:pheus. In his
closing remarks, Lieut. Stark promised to present a
complete recording of " La Boheme" at an early
.date. This performance will be an open air show
to be held in the Rose Garden in the office grounds
,at Whitehall.
Sergeants' Mess.-Social activities in the Mess
have included a home and away contest with the
officers at the usual games of snooker, darts and
bridge, with results slightly in favour of the Mess
members.
A successful outing to Wolverhampton ea.r1y in
June was blessed with good weather and some were
able to see the important League Football MatchWolves versus Liverpool. A very good dinner was
provided at the Star and Garter Hotel, and the
W. R. S. C.
WARLEY (36 COMPANY and 13 DETACHMENT)

Apologies to our regular readers (or reader as the
case may be) for missing the last issue, but this was
due to a misunderstanding following the amalgamation of 36 Coy. (late RP., Ilfracombe) and 13 Det.
(D.P. Warley) and your faithful scribe promises to
" obviate this error in future."
Arrivals.-We are pleased to welcome Lieut.Colonel G. B. A. Brayden as our new RP., S /Sgts.
C. H. K. Giles and T. Bryen, Sgts. H. Weaver,
H. Wade and A. Rae amongst others. It should be
noted that Sgts. Wade and Rae have now moved on
to other offices, much to our regret.
Departures.-We were sorry to bid farewell to
Lieut-.Colonel H. P. Lambert (now overseas) ,
Major H. E. Brown, Lieuts. W. G. Mayhew,
H. A. F. Richardson, L. A. Thurgood and W. G.
Bowen, S /Sgts. A. N. (Chalky) White, and Brian
Flavell, Sgts. Pat Duffy, George Watling, and Les
Marchinski, Mr. Salisbury (H.C.O.), Sgt. Margery
Webb, Cpl. Mary Hodge, and L /Cpl. Brian Harris,
all posted elsewhere. Amongst those who decided
to amble down" Civvy Street" were Capt. S. G.
Stacey, Lieut. J. A. Beavon, Sgts. Charley Richards,
D. K. Farrow, F. J. Bristow and A. West. Some of
the ladies who no longer grace the office for this
reason are Sgt. Gladys Clark (noyv settling down to
wedded bliss), Cpls. Jean Walker, Hilda Hubbard,
Audrey Davis, and F. Jackson, L /Cpls. Lucy Berry,
Jean Anderson, and May Mason. Only lack of
space prevents us mentioning many of the other old
familiar faces. However, we send our very best wishes to all who have left us and sincerely hope that
they have settled down in their new sphereswhatever that may be.
Sergeants' Mess.-Like most other units, our
membership has become more than somewhat
depleted. To make matters worse, the current
attitude of a goodly proportion of members appears
to be-" here today and gone tomorrow."
Consequently, entertainments have been most difficult
to organise. However, we have been "at home"
to our near neighbours, the Sergeants' Mess of the
Depot, Essex Regiment, and to various local organisations, including the Brentwood Labour Club and
the staff of the Brentwood Mental Hospital-this
latter a subtle touch as, who knows how many
harassed 'Ving and Section Leaders in these days
of staff shortage and otller irritations would yet be
glad of influence in the right quarter. 'When
conditions improve we hope to extend invitations to
other Pay Offices in the London Area.
Old timers in the Corps will be interested to know
that Mr. H. F. Everett was seen in the lVIess on two
or three occasions recently. A little bird has
uttered the proverbial whisper, that at long last, he
has gone and done it by blithely casting awav the
joys of batchelordom. We wish the newly-"'weds
lasting happiness and are looking forward to the
occasion when we may repeat this wish in person to
the happy couple.
517

Cricket.-W e have almost concluded a very
successful cricket season, during which we have
won 11 of the 16 first eleven matches played. Four
games were lost and the remainiflg fixture was
drawn.
Matches' against F.9 and RP. Canterbury, were
among the few games rained off. The latter was
most aggravating for, after their long journey from
Canterbury, our visitors were obliged to seek
shelter all afternoon from the season's heaviest
downpour, which commenced just as we were about
to give battle. However, we hope to have succeeded
in making amends for the churlishness of the
weather by the concluding dance, which seems to
have been voted an unqualified success by everyone.
Despite apprehensions early in the season, we
managed to raise a very useful side of youngsters
who proved too good for the locals and only suffered
one real thrashing-that being at the hands of the
powerful Hutton C.C. With a little more experience and some <:oaching from the right quarter they
should develop mto more than useful cricketers.
Badminton.-Started off with a swing, but, with
~he advent of the long summer evenings, faded out
m favour of other forms of less strenuous exercise.
One match was played-against the local P. T. staff
resulting in a 3-1 win for them.
'
Golf.-Capt. Ogilvie and Capt. Cockburn took
par~ in the summer meeting of the Corps Golfing
SocIety.
The -latter p;irtnered by Lieut.-Colonel
Thompson, won the bogey foursomes in the score
of 2 up.
Other Notes.-The Corps will be sorry to hear
of. the serious illness of an old friend of manyLIeut. H. E. Evans, who was recently admitted to
hospital suffering from tuberculosis .
function each week. We are also fortunate in having

space available for a cinema and have a film show
once a week. Preparations are also in hand for the
formation of a Dramatic Society. Two trips have
been held so far, one to Ludlow, and the other to the
Stratford Memorial Theatre to attend a performance
of "Twelfth Night."
Sp : rt has been rather difficult up to the present,
but a few games have been played, and we hope to
arrange more when we have settled down. We
played a football match against a team from Kidderminster, who it is regretted proved tO J strong for us.
.Sergeants' Mess.-The Sgts. Mess has joined
wIth the R.A.S.C. who share the camp with us, and
the opening of the combined mess was celebrated
with a social evening, at which we were pleased to
welcome as our guest Lieut-Colonel Taylor.
A number of our members have been very hospitably received by the Sgts. Mess at Kidderminster
Office, and we wish all our friends there a good time
when they move to their new quarters.
We were sorry to lose S.S.M. Woan, owing to illhealth, and hope he will soon be fit again. In his
place we have welcomed S.S.M. Long who, strange to
say, previously relieved S.S.M. Woan at Singapore.
There have been a number of changes due to
Release, and to our departed friends we give our
best wishes on their return to " Civvy Street." Our
congratulations go to our new members on their
recent promotion.
YORK (47 COMPANY)

Personal.-After several false alarms, our R.P .,
Lieut.-Colonel G. B. A. Brayden, left us in May
for a spell in Warley. He was relieved by Lieut.Colonel A. E. Barlow, who was no stranger to York ,
as he only moved from Command to the Regimental
Office.
As is common with all offices, we have suffered
rather heavily from releases, amongst them being
Capt. E. B. Spiers, S jSgt. Minks (now -a civilian
clerk in the office), S /Sgt. "J ohnny" . Warren, and
L /Cpl. " George " Jamieson.
Losses on postings include Major Thursby, Capt.
W. R Gill, M.B.E., and Capt. "Jim" Riley to
Whitchurch, Lieut. Butterfield to D.P.O., Northumbrian District, (for promotion), Lieut. Gyton to
Leeds, Lieut. Mabon to C.M.D. and D.U. , York ,
and S/Sgt. Lambert to B.A.O.R. (we think). Latest
news is that Capt. Cuthbert proceeds on a costing
course at the end of August. He may return, but
we don't know.
As against our losses, we welcome Captains Close
and Doonan, Lieuts. Mash, Jenkinson and Ebner,
Sgt. Hutchinson, and a large draft of lads from
Manchester, plus ten from the Training Centre.
They will at least tide us over the next few weeks,
if not more.
Pre-war "regulars" now serving in York are
Lieut.-Colonel A. E. Barlow, Major C . Pearce,
Major R G. Turrant, Capt. J. H. Close, Capt.
M. H. Cuthbert, M .B.E., Lieut. G. Jenkinson,
Lieut. D. Welch , Lieut. D . A. White, S.S.M. J. F.
Reed, S.S.M. T. W. M. Wykes, S.Q.M.S. L. E.
Ribton, S.Q.M.S. H. Rigby, S/Sgt. W. C. T.
Fraser, S /Sgt. D. G. Graham, S /Sgt. H .. Pearson,
and S /Sgt. M. Pendergast. In addition, for the
information of old Yorkites, the following pre-war
civilians are still with us-Messrs. Bradley, Lukins
C. F. B.
WOLVERLEY (28 COMPANY)
Having said good-bye to all our many friends at
Bournemouth, we are now in the process of settling
down to c.amp life, and although many have felt the
change from "civvy" billets, all have done their
best towards getting our new home in order.
The actual move was accomplished according to
schedule, and we were "open for business" very
shortly after the arrival of the main -party on 29th
May. Much credit is due to our advance party, le d
by Capt. Kingston and S jSgt. Herriot, for the hard
and excellent work they put in to get the camp
ready.
It was with regret that we said good-bye to LieutColonel Bates, who, unfortunately, was suddenly
taken ill, and we wish him a speedy recovery. Major
Taylor ably took over the reins during the difficult
period immediately after the move until the arrival
of our new R.P., Lieut-Colonel Edinger, to whom
we extend -a hearty welcome and hope that his stay
with us will be a happy one. We have also welcomed
amongst us Majors Meaden and Waltuck, Capt.
Thomas, and Lieuts. McDonald, Rose, Young, Haywood, Gregory and Harris, also many civilians who
have come to us from our neighbours at Kidderminster.
Departures have been frequent due to
Release and other causes , and we give our best
wishes to those who have returned to "Civvy
Street."
Sport and Entertainment.-The A.T.S. gave
us a very enjoyable opening dance shortly after our
arrival , and we have been able to arrange a similar
518

Hall, Minks, Drummond and Dwyer, Miss Dowdell,
Mr~. Chiven; nee Kerr, and Miss Seacroft.
We have had a visit recently from Mr. Rigby,
father of S.Q.M.S. Rigby, who l::ears out the song
about old soldiers.
Vve offer our congratulations to Lieut. -Welch,
,,-hose wife has recently presented him with a
daughter.
Cricket.-The unit cricket team has had quite
an active season of evening cricket, playing as
many as three or four matches some weeks.
Some Garrison matches have been played, but
the m ajority of games have been against local teams.
Unfortunately, the unit has seldom been able to
field its strongest team owing to leave, piquet duties
or sickness, and many matches have been lost: but
in spite of this, the team has played some very good
games and many close finishes have ensued.
For
instance, the team lost to Acaster Malbis C.C. by
only one run. In this 20 overs match, the unit
batted first, scoring 60 runs for six wickets, and
with only three overs left in their innings. Acaster
were 58 runs for nine wickets, but a bye and a lucky
" snick" for two gave them a very narrow victory
before the whole side were out for 61 runs . Another
close finish added excitement to the game against
Bootham Park Mental Hospital, who won by seven
runs. The team's best performance of the season
was against Command Supply Depot, RA.S.C. ,
who were defeated by 80 runs. The most important
item in cricket, the weather, has not been unduly
harsh this season, and the team' have had only two
matches spoilt by rain.
Vtl e congratulate Pte. Brinsdon, A.T.S., on her
selection for the A.T.S . team in the Inter-Services
Cricket Match.
Outings.-As old Y orkites and others who know
Yorkshire will appreciate, the country lends itself
admirably to summer outings and as far as is possible

within the limits of time, transport and finance, full
advantage is taken of the beauty of the Ridings .
So far, two v_e ry successful trips have been arranged.
The first was organised by Release Wing (I don't
know why they are always first in the field, but they
are) on 22nd June, over a route, Thirsk, the Moors,
Redcar, the coast road to Bridlington, stopping at
Saltburn, Whitby and Filey, and thence back to
York. The Organiser (Major Aldis) had obtained
permits from his friend " Billy" Butlin to go over
the Camp at Filey. The trip included a sail round
Flamborough Head, which helped considerably in
restoring an even balance between refreshments andcoach- rides. The second trip was organised by Mr.
" Johnny. " Warren to Bridlington.
Again the
refreshment situation was good, and everybody
appeared to have spent a very enjoyable day which
included an inspection tour Of the minesweeper
H .M.S . "Wave." Several other trips are in the
offing, and more will be heard of these anon.
Racing.-York is a very u~eful racing centre,
and during the summer months it is possible to
attend a meeting about every Saturday. One member of our staff assures us that he makes a profit
(ta:" free) from his racing. He still carries on so he
may (we only say may) be telling the truth. Be that
as it may, if any member of the Corps feels the call
of the turf, let him come to York.
Old Comrades' Association.-The following
non-serving members are resident in the York
Area :-Lieut.-Colonel Macnamara, Major \V. Goldthorpe, ex-S.S.M. Shonfield, ex-S.Q.M.S. G. J.
Dowdell, ex-S.Q.M.S. W. T. Moorse, ex-S/Sot.
Bill Drummond. (Enlisted 1914, and serving as'" a
civ-ilian clerk in RP. Office, York.)
" CYCLOPS."
Miscellaneous Offices
CENTRAL CLEARING HOUSE
At the time of writing C.C.H. is still functioning
at Barnards Cross, but with a much depleted staff.
By the time these notes appear in print, it is quite
probable our C.O. , Major K. 1. Morgan, O.B.E. ,
will have returned to civilian life, having served in
the ~learing House for the greater part of his Army
serVIce.
Capt. A. H. Barnard is also due for release on 1st
September, and he, too, has served in the Clearing
House since November, 1943.
Thus, the last of the old gang will have said" fare" -ell " to good old C.C.H., but memories will linger
on stimulated by our C.RO., C.C.H.S. activities.
Departures and Arrivals.-Since our last report
the following have been released: Cpl. Don Date,
Pte. Brown, Pte. White, and Pte. Wilkins. "Good
luck to you all ! "
S.S .M. Lewis has also left us to take up duties at
H.Q. (Pay Services), Southern Command. S.S.M.
Spark has now joined us from Australia consequent
upon the closing down of the Imperial Army Paymaster's office at Melbourne. Capt. Chamberlain
(LA.P.) came to us in March to take charge of
Australia Pay Records, and left us for "Civvy
S treet " in June.
Ptes. Everett, Longley and Woolls have also left
us for service overseas, and rumour has it that they

have already had" far more sand mixed up in th :;r
food " than vitamins.
Ships- A /Cs section have now moved to District
Paymaster, Aldershot, so we ha ve said farewell to
. S /Sgt. Brown, L /Cpl. DimelO\v and Pte. Wilkins
(both released recently), Pte. Ward, and our only
two A.T.S., L /Cpl. Hurry and Pte. Baker.
S ~ Sgt. East is now on embarkation leave, prior to
serVIce overseas.
Cpl. Cherry hopes to be rel ~ased on 27th September, and Pte. Wale was recently posted to M.D.V.,
Aldershot.
Entertainments and Sport.-As stated in the
previous issue of the' Journal, our activities are
closely linked to the Regimental and District office
staff, being situated in the same building, and, as
usual, I am reporting on both subjects under No. 22
Detachment notes.
C.R.O.C.C.H.S.-Members should have now received News-Letter No. 4, which was of excellent
material, and again I feel I am expressing ' all
"Crocchs." feelings when I say we are more than
fortunate in having "Hi Warren" as our Hon.
Secr~tar~ (Local, _Acting, and Unpaid, but lacking
nothmg m enthus13sm, ability and initiative).
Don't-. forget to notify the Secretary of any perm-
519
THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOU~NAL

anent change of address. The successful functioning
of our card index of names and addresses depend
upon it!
}\ny items of interest, etc. , for. insertion in NewsLetter No. 5 will be greatly appreciated by Hon. Sec.
And so we say " Hail and farewell" to all our
colleagues at home and abroad, and for m y part, this
is " really farewell," this being the last report I shall
write for the Journal.
To the Editor and his Staff we offer our congratulations on the Summer issue, and trust this one wiIl
be no less interesting and enjoyable to all.
,
10th July, under the able guidance of Lieut. Vickers

and S /Sgt. J. Taylor, embodying dancing and
variety turns.
Cpl. W. H. Tyler produced the
variety entertainment which was very much enjoyed
by all, and the unit dance band of 51 Bn. produced
the rhythm. It was interesting to note that the
Civilian' Staff added its quota to the evening,
especially Mrs . Dalby, whose vocal efforts were
much appreciated. The evening was voted a success
with the result that a second evening was held on
Unfortunately, Cpl. Tyler has now
29th July.
returned to civil life, and his efforts on the entertainment side will be sadly missed.
Arrivals and Departures.-Although we can
now consider ourselves fairly static from a Staff
point of view, the numbers of personnel joining and
leaving us are still all too many to report in fuIl , and
only a few of the better known members can be
included in these notes.
We extend a hearty welcome to Lieut. Matthews,
ex-R.P.; Exeter, who has already proved an asset to
the hockey team , Lieuts. Wiles, Young and Vickers,
ex-RP.s, Leeds, Foots Cray, and Canterbury
respectively, and also to S.Q.M.S. W. Tucknott
from RP. Whitchurch. S /Sgt. R. Hobbs has joined
us on posting from disembarkation leave ex-No . 4
C.P.O., Egypt, and Cpl. S. Waterman has rejoined
from the" Y " List after a long spell in hospital.
Quite a crowd of lucky people have left us on
proceeding on release, including Capt. J. W. Grant,
S /Sgt. (Archie) Lock, Sgts. G. Allen, and T. F . J.
Johnson, and ,Cpls. D . W. Seviour and W. H.
Tyler. We wish them all the yery best of luck in
their new spheres of life. We h ave also lost Lieuts,
Donner and A. D. Lindsay, D .C.M., on posting to
C.D.U. Aldersr.ot, and R.P. Leeds respectively, and
L /Cpl. Dunne, A.T.S., on promotion to corporal
and posting to London as a P .T. Instructor to the
R.A.
Prornotions.-With so many peoplc proceeding
on release, there has been ample scope for promotion,
and congratulations are due to Lieut. F. C. Barcham
on his promotion to Captain, Sgt. J. (Badge) T aylor
on his promotion to Staff Sergeant, Cpl. R W.
Simson, Cpl. A. Johnson, and L /Cpl. A. Cole, on
their promotion to Sergeant, L jCpl. F. Howe on
promotion to Corporal, and Ptes. McCready. J .
Clarke, W. Cudd, F. W. Mills, and R J. Holmes on
their appointment to Lance-Corporal.
To bring this quarter's notes to a close, we ext.end
our hearty congratulations to Pte . R A. Hemmmgs
on his recent marriage, and wish him all the very
best of luck for the future.
" SAHIB."
CENTRAL MORIBUND ACCOUNTS OFFICE

(107 DETACHMENT)
Whatever the unkind thoughts which were so
forcibly expressed during the cold and dreary
months of last winter, when the majority of us were
experiencing the conditions of life in barracks in the
heart of the country for the first time, apart, perhaps,
from the hardened few ,.",ho had a little spell to their
credit duri~g primary training, there's no denying
t he many assets of such a life when sum:Ler comes,
and as far as conditions have permitted we h ave
certainly taken full advantage of all the country has
to offer.
Naturally, our biggest venture has been in the
realm of sport, and despite the drawbacks of suitable
grounds and the shortage of gear generally, we can
safely say that so far we have made excellent progress.
Hockey.-As reported in the last issue, a hockey
pitch had been established on the drill square, and
to date this has been our only available ground.
Experienced players were hard to find at first, and
we had to be content with joining in with 51 Bn.
to form one team from the two units for representative outside fixtures. During this preliminary period
we suffered our first defeat of 6-1, at the hands of
the R.A.P.C. Training Centre, Aldershot, but
managed to recover our pride by beati~ng the local
Mental Hospital staff by 2-1. By this time, more
people were becoming interested in the game, and
we were at last able to field a team of our own, and
so far in two very keen matches against the might of
51 Bn., we lost one game 2-0, and drew the second
I-I. We are, as a unit, definitely becoming hockey
minded, and are looking forward to entering a team
in one of the local competitions, and in the mean- '
while, we are giving our support to 5 1 Bn. in their
fixtures in the Salisbury Plain District Summer
League.
.
Cross Country Running.-We now have a crossc cuntry team in training under the tuition of Sgt.
R W. Simson, who is attempting to produce.a breed
of supermen to whom a ten mile ramble is just
chicken feed.
Already two outstanding speed
merchants have emerged in the shapes of Ptes.
L. G. Doe , and C. Burton, both of whom show
considerabl .! promise. We shall be having an
opportunity shortly to t ry the team out in the
inter-company competition at present l::eing organised by 51 Bn. , and if aU goes well, we shall be in a
position to put a strong team into the field in, the
open District competition due to be held sometime
in October.
Great interest is being shown in other branches
of sport, but to date there is little to report.
Entertainrnent.-To add a little spice to the
social si de of life, a unit evening was arranged on
No. 2 C.M.D. AND D.V., YORK

This will be the first contribution from this
detachment, so may I say "hello" and send greetings
to all ?
Here we are in the West Yorkshire Regiment
Barracks, Fulford, York, and most of us enjoy the
barrack life. Owing to the long hours we work h~re
the discipline is not too strict, and the general feelm g
is one of a happy family. When we receive our b~d
lamps (?) this unit wiLl be almost a heaven to wor~ tn.
The heading stands for No . 2 Combtned Mlhtary
Disembarkation and Dispersal Unit, which mean s
we work in a Demobilisation Centre for all Clas ~
"A" releases. Our duties consist mainly of paying
out leave advances of pay, civilian clothing allo\\'-
520

ances, and travelling allowances to Officers, A.T.S.,
,
and Other Ranks .
There are only sixteen other ranks of thIS deteachment, and we . are in a barrack room of o~r own
which is centrally heated. We have done gre~t work
in the garden surrounding o,ur room, ~a:ryrn.g off
first prize in the Unit gardemng competltlOn.
Education facilities are very good, ~orthern
Command Library being almost opposIte the
barrack gates.
, ,
There is plenty of competItIOn for sp~rts of all
kinds and considering the smallness of thIS detachment'we do very well. Football is very popular, and
we held our own against the C.M.D. and D.V . teams
last season.
Here are some of the particulars of the personnel
who make up this small detachment of six O.fficers
and sixteen other ranks :-Capt. S. Josephs IS our
O.C., and Dispersal Paymaster, who came here from
RP. Exeter and M.D.V. Guildford. 44 Battn. sent
us Lieut. F. S. Lindsay and Cpl. Jim Bentley, and
RP. Shrewsbury 'sent us Lieut. J . A. H. Terry.
Nottingham (A.T.S.) dispatched Lieut. F. G. W.
Gould and L jCpl. Gerry Arthur. From York we
were sent Lieut. H. E. Boanas, Ptes. Alf. Howell ,
Harry Brown , and Tom Hargre ~ ves.
Leeds
(R,A.O.C.) Office sent us Lieut. J. T. Croome,
L /Cpl. John Lee, Ptes . R C. " Johnny" Johnson
and Norman Hornby.
Bradford gave us S /Sgt.
Freddie Kemp as a Supervisory N.C.O., and L /Cpl.
" Geordie " Leake. From Leeds (R.E.M.E.) came
five other ranks in the persons of Cpls. "Spud "
Murphy and Stan Acey, L /Cpl. "Taffy" Jenkins ,
and Ptes. Ian Beaton and Jim Williams. Cpl. Ray
Curwen is the only representative from R.P.
Leicester. Sgt." Timber" Woods, after being retransferred ' from D .P .O . Leeds, proceeded on
SEWLROM, and was th'en sent to Palestine for
another tour of duty. \Ve wish him all the very best
of luck.
'
Owing to releases we shall lose Cpls. Jim Bentley
and Stan Acey before these notes are printed.
Group 59 ",ill see the departure of L /Cpl. " Geordie"
Leake and "Johnny" Johnson, Group 60 takes

two more "bods " in Cpls. Ray Curwen and" Spud"
Murphy.
.
One of our losses to R.P. York was Lieut. P.
Mash (ex-Meerut), who told us many stories of
Indian life and snakes! Vle lost a very popular
Officer in Lieut. S. Davey, who gained admittance
to a Teachers' College. S /Sgt. Kemp will be terrninating his Army career on September 1st, and proceeding to London University. "CongratulatIOns, .
.
.
Staff, on gaining the award! "
Duty permitting, the Dispersal Paymaster likes as
many of us to go on Educatio.n~1 visits. Rowntree's
Chocolate Factory has been VISIted by ne~rly e~ery
one, and all who go reany enjoy the educatIOn gamed.
I am sorry to say that nearby Tadcaster b~ew~ry
could not permit a visit, maybe they were thinkmg
of free samples!
" ARGus."
HQ. BAS/PRC/E.C
.
Since our last notes appeared both Major H
Finlayson and Capt. Leppard have departe~ on
release (18th June) , carrying With, them good WIShes
from many friends they made m the B..A.S. and
Polish Pay S.rvices to say nothing of a few lastminute "memories."
Major H . E. Brown has joine~ us fr?m Warley
and Capt. Humphries from Klllghtsbrtdge office.
Sgt. Finlayson has taken the plunge and should be
with us until General Demob. Sgt. Prout seems
destined to revert to Civvy Street w.e. f. August.
" Leafy Bucks" extended a favou,r able welcome
to our new arrivals, but some heavy ram ha~ subdued
optimism, and given a foretaste of what lif~ can be
like " in the forest" when Mother ature IS not so
kindly disposed.
,., ,
' . .
The P .R .C. is very actIve 111 strtvmg to achieve ItS
object and finance con!inues to bristle, w!~h many
difficulties to say nothtng of "translatmg to and
from Polish.
.
Incidentally, a hundred and one ~ther fi?ance
. questions have to be delved in~o here m re~atlOn to
practically every Pohsh questIOn, so our mterests
are by no means confined to the P.R.C. " POLSKI. "
Overseas Offices
October when it will have to extend its arms still
further to embrace the accounts of B.O.Rs.
It is a long time since anyone of us dared to apply
for local leave, however the office closed for !our days
over Easter and a party of us went forty mlies up to
the Bush bringing back some illuminating photos
of native life.
, .
Sport.-Sport is restricted to g.ame~ reqUlrJ?g
few players and tennis, golf and sWlmmmg prov~de
exercise and enjoyment every afternoon. .The hIgh
light of our sports appeared w~en Major Cook,
having entered with other less gifted members of
the Officers' Mess for the monthly Snooker CO!'llpetition at the European Club, brushed all opposltl(~n
aside and sailed to the finals where" by error . m
casting which was not picked up untIl he had madvertently missed the black, he lost b,y one.
To all our friends, departed and aWaited, w~ offer
our best wishes, and to the latter may we add m the
local lingo, " Bra ha ntem-ntem " - " Come onewe are waiting."
ACCRA, GOLD COAST

Greetings to all Pay Corps Wa!lahs from C:P.O.,
G.C.D., W.A ., and in particular to Capt. G.Kirkup,
Lieuts. T. Roberts, and C. Phillips, S.Q.M.S. Young,
S jSgts. Alien, Lochore and Cox, Sgts. Bayes, Angus ,
Whitebread , Carpenter, Radford, and Wooi who
have recently left us for U.K.
,
Since we last contacted the outSide world through
the pages of our Journal, we have welcomed Capt.
Le Vey (Free town) and C:;apt. Grant (Lagos), Lieut.
De Martyn (R.P., Devlzes), S.S.M. Humphreys
(D.P., Glasgow), S /Sgts. Barre and Jones (RP.,
Warley), and S /Sgt. Gray (RP. , Whitchurch),
Sgts. Heatley (A.P.O., Manchester), and Dodsworth
(D.P. Leeds) , and we w is~ them all the best for theIr
tour, making at the same tlI?e , a. mental note that we
will be home before their fIrst SIX months are up.
A study of A.C.I.s and W.O. letters ,will indicate
what we are doing here. Our small staff IS now han~
ling the accounts of Officers in the Command, and IS
looking forward with apprehension to the day in
521

H.Q., WEST AFRICA COMMAND
The summer is still at its height and the leisure

hours of many are ~pent at the NAAFI Lido on the
Worhter'lee, the lovely lake which attracted visitor '
from all ~ver the world in pre-war days. We ar:
now runmng our own Sunday recreational trips to
nearhy beauty spots and places of interest. Th,s
means a full day out, ~pent in picnic fashion, usuall v
~t a place where on~ can be ab~olutely lazy or indul);!~
m strenuo,:,s ex<:rclse accordmg to the mood and
forget pay m all Its aspects for a while.
. One of the many fine days recently ler..t colour to a
par~de by members of this office when they mounted
thrlr first guard on the Garrison H.Q. It was an
excellent turn-out j their smartness and arms drill
called !orth praise from many responsible quarters.
The high standard shown was summed up in the
~ords of our Commancling Officer when he :;aid :
It must be rare that the R .A.P.C. is called upon
to .mount ~uard over other than its own barracks and
thiS occasIOn was a fitting demonstration of how the
Corps rises to any demand."
Contrary to our expectation, we have not found it
possible to field a complete tram for either football
or cricket but a number of the staff have earned placrs
In the teams of H.Q., B.T.A. S15t. Bates ot 14 Field
Cash office represented B.T.A. against C .M .F. in
the swimming championship held at Udine, Ital y,
on 16th August.
It is regretted that we were too late to go into print

in the last is.s ue of .the Jo~rnal , ~)Ut we have now got
a .m~ch revIsed AIr Mall Service which brings us
wlthm about 25 hours .of U.K., and we shall, therefore, be able to submit our quarterly contributions
regularly and in good time, in fact, if only the fares
could be reduced to meet our pockets we could
occasionally manage a week-end or even arrange
soccer or other games with units at home.
. ~he Command Pay Office, Gold Coast, kindly
m.v lted some of our staff to accompany them on
trip up country. We went in an open three-ton
lorry for about 50 miles, and stopped for refreshments, etc., at Senchi Ferry on the Volta Riverone of the ~ate~ays to French Togoland. Apart
~rom t~e blistering heat the trip itself was very
mt~r~stmg and ga,:e us a good insight into the ways
of hvmg of the African Bushman. (When it comes to
money they are not so "Bush.") After refreshments
we hired native boats and paddled up and down the
river exploring numerous creeks-ostensibly looking
for crocodiles which we hoped we wouldn't meet.
We understood there were a lot of " crocs." to be
found there and took some rifles hoping we might
~et a shot at them. We didn't see any, but had quite
good sport shooting monkeys. Whether any were
hit I can't say, but the noise scared them.
Two-thirds of our small B.O.R staff are eagerly
awaiting the arrival of the boat for home and sunshine as we are at present enjoying the "rainy"
season , and there is no pleasure in it at all.
BERMUDA
There is nothing of note happening here at the
moment. The sticky heat isn't conducive to an
active life and, consequently, there isn't much to
report.
In the field of sport, Captain J . Murrell has distinguished himself with the squash racquet and has
played in the Garrison Officers' Mess team in its
two matches against Officers of the Royal Navy.
S .S.M. Robinson and Sergeant Boden have turned
out in every match for the Garrison W.O.'s. and
Sergeants' Tennis Club, and have done their hest
to become grease spots in the afternoon and early
evening heat. Apart from these activities, everyone
spends as much time as they can in the sea. The
water is. certainly deligh~fully warm and though not
as bracmg as a cold diP, one can spen.d a whole
afternoon in the sea nowadays without becoming
uncomfortable.
Congratulations to S.S.M. J. Robinson and
Sergeant C. A. Vincent on their promotion to these
ran.ks. "They also serve who only stand and wait. "
Our" Tame Musician," Sergeant Norman Boden,
is in the throes of trying to organise a Command
Dance Band, but is having a little difficultv .in
obtaining instruments.
The present three-piece
outfit, with Sgt. Boden on alto-sax and clarinet,
has performed at several small Unit functions
with some success. The drum set used on these
occasions was improvised by the aid of a military
side drum loaned b y kind permission of the ' Infantry
Unit here.
"PAYWAC. "
23 (AUSTRIAN) COMMAND PAY OFFICE,

B.T.A.
T~e summer issue of the Journal saw the productIOn of our first notes as a new office. Since then
we have settled in t and become well-established in
the theatre.
Many changes have occurred in the past three
months, chiefly among the officers. We were sorry
to say goodbye to Capt . .T. Putt, who depa:-ted on
release and Lieut. E. W . .Day who returned to the
U.K. on Python. accompanied by his family. As
Field Cashier in Klagenfurt, Capt. Putt was a wellknown and popular figure among hi" clients: Lieut.
Day, previously with 8 Base .Command Pay Office,
C .M.F., was among the first officers to open our
pre~ ent office.
In their place we welcomed Lieut.
H . M. Sinclair, former!y of RP. D'roitwlch, and
Sec. Lieut. D . T. Cwil,.. Unfortunate lv, Sec. Lieut.
Gwilt was with us for only a few days and then
repatriated to' the U.K on medical grounds. \Ve
hope that his return to , for him, a more amenahle
clime, has alleviated his trouble. A recent arrivalposted to H.Q. 2nd Echelon, B.T.A. and a fre<luent
visitor to this office-is S /Sgt. R W. Lambert, late
of the York RP. office, whose representative for this
Journal he was until he left England.
We were pleased to welcome the family of S .S.M.
Woodthorpe , our chief clerk , who recently joined
him from the U.K. They are now happily esconced
in a quarter and as an experiencecl " campaigning"
famil y, it did not take them long to settle in. Another
family note concerns S /Sgt. Lambert. We congratulate him and his wife ~n the birth of a daughter
on 16th July. Mrs. Lambert (ne" Nora Powell) was
well-known to many in the York office during her
service there in the A.T.S. from H)43 until recentl y .
.HEADQUARTERS, B.A.D.R.
I have been reminded that so far no mention has
been made of the fact that our location is Bad
Oeynhausen, a small town in the Westphalian plain
west of Osnabruck , and east of Hanover. It is a
very pleasant place to be in if you have time on your
hands and ailments or infirmities to overcome. W e
have neither, and so perhaps may be forgiven if we
do not appreciate to the full the benefit of being
522

stationed in a town which before the war was valued
as a Spa resort.
'
With the exception of the married personnel,
other ranks now live above the office and report
themselves as being fairly comfortable, a condition
they hope to maintain during the winter if our central
heating system, which failed the whole of last winter,
can be made to work. We hope shortly to hoist the
Corps flag outside the office, although at the moment
there is some difficulty in getting the flag pole
repainted for at present it bears the markings ' of the
German Reich.
L jCpl. Letch, who formerly served at the Release
organisation at Tournai and Fischbeck, recently left
on release himself; and so did Sgt. Archer who,
unfortn:;ately, spent his last few weeks in hospital.
We were glad to see him fit again before he departed.
S jSgt. Daft undertook an additional six months'
service beyond his due date, but is now at the
College of the Rhine Ai-my limbering up for civilian
life. Sgts. Gibson and Chesterton have since
joined us, together with Ptes. Wood and Martin.
Congratulations to Cpl. K. S. A. M. Brown and
L jCpl. Barnsley on their promotion and appointment
respectively. Neither must we forget to congratulate
ourselves on our A.T.S . staff, consisting of Ptes.
B. M. Stanley (ex-Leicester-Heavies), D. U.
Green (now also at College of the Rhine Army) , J. C.
Miller and H. Prescott, who formerly served at the
F oots Cray office. They are devotees of the swimming
pool and Pte. (Brenda) Stanley has even been known
to enter the pool.
Congratulations to S.S.M. and Mrs. Brooks ~m the
birth of a daugher, Barbara. We lire glad to be able
to say that all are doing well.
Sgt. Pickup is busily preparing his quarter against
the arrival of his family. Their arrival really will
complete the roll of those families eligible to come
out.
Pte. Martin, formerly of the Canterbury Office,
has been achieving considerable repute as a swimmer.
He gained three" firsts" in the Divisional Championships, held by 7th Armoured Division, and was a
member ' of the H.Q. , B.A.O.R, water polo team
which won the B.A.O.R championship in Hamburg
recently, and which will now compete in Berfin for
the inter-Services championship. We are still adding
to our laurels at Tug-of-War, and fielded five mem. bers of the team of eight which won the event at the
recent Headquarters championship. Those members
were: Major Frisby, S .S.M. Brooks, Sgt. Pickup,
Cpl. Brown, and Pte. Martin, and all received an
award for their efforts from the M.G.A., MajorGeneral E. M. Bastyan. In addition, C " Coy., to
which the Branch belongs, ran out winners at the
same meeting. Altogether our sporting record ' is
good, whilst in the non-competitive sphere we have
keen participants in tennis, shooting, and flyfishing.
Capt. H . W . Reynolds has been in the news
recently, having acquired a Volkswaggon and a
short service commission in that order. He has also
been acting Treasurer of the British Services Tattoo,
already held at Dortmund, but has now handed that
responsibility back to Major Frisby, recently returned off leave from Norderney, who will now
handle the Berlin Tattoo. Incidentally, Miss Edna
Reynolds is fast becoming a star performer with the
Rhine Army Theatre Club.
.
Lieut.-Col. J. C. L. Thomas has at last gone on

leave. His previous leave was taken in March,
1946, and if only for that alone we feel he has well- .
earned this one. The Colonel has gone to the U.K.,
but there are some very good leave centres in the
zone, the principal summer ones being at Norderney
in the Frisian Isles and Scharbeutz on the Baltic
Coast.
We were very glad to see the Paymaster-in-Chief
on a visit to us at the end of Jul y, when he was
accompanied by Major Giltrap. General Stanham
was able also to visit our District Pay Offices at
Detmold and Hamburg, who were equally plt:.ased
to welcome him.
Late News.-Congratulations to Major C.
Endacott and Capt. E. N. Pinkham on reaching the
final of the Inter-Regimental Doubles in the B.A.O.R
Tennis Championships. They were finall y beaten
by the Devon Regiment.
No . 18 DISTRICT PAY OFFICE, B.A.D.R.

The summer months in Detmold have so far
been mainly warm and sunny, and 18 District Pay
Office has taken full advantage of the sustained fine
spells to participate in the popular seasonable
activities.
The life of the married families has been enlivened by a few trips and picnics organised by Mrs.
S. C. Rogers, and severl;ll families have taken advantage of the excellent leave Centres set up in B.A.O.R,
which offer every kind of holiday from mountaineering to the normal seaside holiday, and most of
them are situated in picturesque surroundings .
A particularly popular resort is Bad Harzburg,
catering for the mountainous inland holiday, whereas
the Frisian Isle of Norderney offers an ideal seaside
holiday. The holiday Centre in Brussels the
shoppers ' paradise, has now closed down and visits
can now only be made under private arrangement.
Apart from local holidays some families have still
found a trip to U.K. more attractive. A ~rip to the
Dortmund Tattoo was organised on a unit basis,
and despite the heat and long journey, the spectacle
presented was well worth attending and enjoyed
by all.
.
Officers' Mess.-We have said good-bye to
Lieutenants Sturgess and Sherlock, who have left
us for" Civvy Street," but contrary to the forecast
in the previous note, Lieutenant J. Bowler is still
with us for a further period. Major N. Caterham has
left on appointment as O.C. 56 Forward Base Pay
Office, but is, in fact, still in mess with us as the new
unit is based on Detmold. Lieut. H. Barley, an old
18 D.P.O. member has. rejoined the mess as part of
56 F.B.P.O. We have been pleased to see the three
divisional Staff Paymasters when their duties have
necessitated a visit to 18 D.P.O .-viz., Major V.
Hazel (7 Armd. Div.), Major E . B. Bradshaw (2 Inf.
Div.) , and Major C. Langham (5 Inf. Div.). We
were very pleased to welcome General R. G.
Stanham and Major Giltrap, who favoured us with a
recent surprise visit and took lunC:l with us.
We have been joined by 2jLieut. A. Greenfield
(from Canterbury), and Lieut. T. R Barnard (from
France), and extend to them a hearty welcome.
, Readers will have read in the last number that
Captain W. J. Morris had sustained severe injuries
as a result of a drop of 140 feet from the Autobahn.
Vve are now pleased to report that after being encased
523

in plaster for three months, he has made a good
recovery and is at present on leave in U.K., enjoying
some well-earned sick leave in addition to his normal
privilege leave. He is regarded locally as the
" eighth wonder of the world," and we all wish him a
speedy and complete recovery .
Sergeants' Mess. Since the last notes , activities
have not been on a large scale-although as Fridays
and Sundays are now regarded as "Ladies'"
nights-we find many of the Mess members present
and the ladies' presence in the Mess help to make the
evenings rather enjoyable.
We congratulate and welcome into the Mess, Sgts.
I. Lomax and J. Hutchings on promotion. They
have helped to bolster up the strength of the dining
members.
We have recently lost one of the families in Mrs.
Harrison, wife of S jSgt. Harrison, .who has retJrned
to the U.K.
We offer our congratulations to S .Q.M.S. and
Mrs. Alexander on the birth of a baby girl, Lindsey
Margaret Sheila (L.M.S.), on 11 M ':lY, at 155 British
Military Hospital. Tne Christening took place on '20
July at the Garrison Church, Detmold, after which
a christening party was held to which all members
of the mess were invited. This was the first event
of this nature to be held in the Unit.
Social life in and out of the Mess has included
whist drives and a games night to which the officers
were invited.
An outing by the Married Families was made to
Bad Pyrmont on 23 July. A very enjoyable time
was had b y everyone attending.
We welcome into the Mess S.Q.M.S. "Busty"
Crabb (ex-Hook of Holla~d) , Sgts. "Paddy"
Haydon and "Len" Virgo (ex-Toulon) , " Monty "
Malyan (ex-R.P " Canterbury), "Cossie" Cosgrove
(ex-Glasgow).
The following have left us for "Civvy Street,"
S jSgt. "Ted" Harrison, Sgts. Arthur Mossop,
and Jack Chapman, to whom we wish all the best.
S.Q.M.S. J. Robinson and .S jSgt. E. Campbell
have left us on posting to the Hook of Holland and
Copenhagen respectively.
Men's Mess.-In March we were sorry to lose
Cpl. Lomax, and L jCpl. Hutchings to the higher
plane of the Sergeants' Mess, and we all wish that
before long they will be sporting new brass crowns
on their battle dresses. Also among _the departed
have been Cpl. Mayston , Pte. Bird, posted to Railways Branch , Brussels, and Pte. McCraine, posted
to 52 F.B.P.O., and to that better land on demob.L jCpl. Laflin, Pte, Wheeler, Pte .. Cox, Pte. Brown,
R.A .P., and Pte. Beswick. .
Cricket.-A Unit cricket team has been formed.
In our first match of the season the officers and
senior N.C.O.s played the Rest, and despite a gallant
60 by P .e. " Reg." Higgitt, who also shines behind
the stumps, the former won with a few minutes to
spare.
The star of our attack is Pte. " Bill" Ford, with
over 30 wickets to his credit, while Capt. Pinkham
and S.Q.M .S . "Ray " Hansen head the batting
averages . We must also thank our scorer, Pte .
George for adding a few runs at the appropriate
mom.e nt.
To date we have won two games, drawn two, and
lost four, but with the all-round improvement in the
team we should finish the season with a better record.
Tennis.-Members of the Officers ' and Sgts.'

Messes, and their families , have the use of the
Detmold Garrison Courts. A court is also situated
in the Barracks for the use of the Cpls.' and Men's
messes. The Unit is represented on the Detmold
Garrison Tennis Committee by Lieut. M . D .
Smith.
Capt. E . Pinkham, has entered for the B.A.O.R.
Championships-singles and doubles, held at
Hamburg, and is being partnered by Major C .
Endacott.
Fishing.-Lieuts. J. Maule, Barley, and Bowler
are our chief .exponents of the Isaak Walton cultand there are signs of a growing enthusiasm for this
quiet and restful sport.
.
Hiking.-Except for one or two, this activity is
hardly a sport; and an invitation to accompany
Major J . G. E. Rippin and Capt. T. L. Markey on
their frequent explorations of the Teutoburger Wald,
is almost akin to an invitation to dine at t he Ducal
Palace .i n ancient Italian times .
The Teutoburger Wald is an extensive expanse of
thickly wooded hills, and offers excellent walking and
some good hilly ascents and descents . It is almost
uninhabited and, in a recent severe thunderstorm,
our two stalwarts were fortunate in reaching shelter
in the only farm house for miles.
The forest also has excellent photographic poss ibilities.
COMMAND PAY OFFICE BURMA
Political.-Recent events had repercu~sions in
extra duties, parading with arms, special guards ,
picquets, and armed escorts for duty journey.; into
Rangoon-and a seven-day working week to compensate for these encroachments on our technical
man-hours.
August Bank Holiday, too! The
parties are identifying themselves with prominent
flags on vehicles, mass meetings , etc.-but there
isn't much to see and our attitude remains as beforethe sooner the signal to depart for other shores,
th~ better we shall be pleased. The writer saw the
most impressive spectacle of the Iying-in-state of
the murdered leaders and officials , which took place
in the Jubilee Hall, Rangoon.
Staff.-Major L. McDonald left us for Singapore
at th~end of May, taking our good wishes with himwe are trying to overcome the postal difficulties
which have so far prevented us from sending some
of his kit after him-but we do send on our congra-.
tulations on the news of an addition to his famil y,
and hope that everything is working according to his
hopes. Good wishes also to Lieut. Newham , also
posted to Singapore, and Lieut. Arrowsmith (U .K.),
and to S jSgt. Francis, Sgt. Twiss, and Ptes. Bradley
and Poulton who have gone to their homes in
"Ci vvy Street." We welcome the following reinforcements: Captain Herd ; Lieuts. Littlejohn,
Getting, and Palmer; S jSgt. Ingerfield; Sgts .
Stevens, Spackman, and Boyd.
ProIllOtion.-Congratulations to Cpl. Wheat ,
L jCpls. Mills, Black, Kenworthy, and Mayhe w on
elevation to the ranks and appointments shown .
Football.-We are the only branch to pro vide
two teams in the headquarters league. Both are
doing well.
Weather.-A freak" sun-storm ," lasting several
days , has spoiled the consistency with which the
seething torrents are wont to pour at monsoon
time .
524

Married Families.-The quarters themselves
are not bad-but the amenities have come short of
the promise-and, well, it has not beell too good
for families here.
Monthly Acq. Rolls.-Did not arrive in Burma
till August, despite every effort, so don't blame us in
the Regimental Pay Offices.
CEYLON (69 DETACHMENT)
Greetings from Ceylon, the new Dominion. The
pace here is hotting up, with new accounts expected
in their t housands. Latest arrivals here are a new
A. jC.P., in the person of Major J. G. Forsyth,
M .B.E., who joined us from the War Office F9 ;
Lieut. J. D . S. MacFarlane (Lagos) , S jSgt. H. J.
Mason (R.E.M.E., Devizes), Sgt. B. T . Gilvier,
ex-Hong Kong, Sgt. T . H . Jones (Crookham),
L jCpls. A. Hobbs and L. Blake (Reading) ; L jCpls.
G. Coward and G. Mordaunt (Canterbury), and
Pt s . J. Fairweather and D . Stevenson (Meerut).
Capt. P. J. Powell (Meerut) has been with us for a
short period to help set up a new Officers' Accounts
Section. We have only two departures to record,
Major A. M. Burrows having reverted to Home
Establishment, and Sgt. S. J ackson for Rele .! se.
Entertainments.-Mter a period without any
organised social events, due to industrial troubles,
we have settled down nicely and have extended our
activities with educational tours to local places of
interest. The first . place" investigated" was Radio
S.E.A.C. in Colombo. A very good time was being
had by all ranks until a Radio Bloke requested that
a record should be made. Mike fright got everyone
but , finally, the organiser of these outings, Sgt. E.
Lawrence, led them off in a fruity baritone. The
record was indeed made, but" is for reproduction at
Stag Parties only. A second visit was to "H.M.S.
Jamaica" in Colombo Harbour.
Visits to Tea,
Rubber and Ma~ch factories, and even a local jail,
are foreshadowed. We, of course, keep up the usual
dance nights, and the last Sergeants' Mess Dance
was an unqualified success.
Sports.-Sporting activities were curtailed for
the same reason as entertainments, but restarted on
19 June, and with the help of the new staff, particularly Sgt. Gilvier and L jCpl. Hobbs, we have
almost a full R.A.P.C. team for football. At the
time of writing we have played 11 games since our
last report, winning four and losing seven, but with
the new intake to pick from we hope to reverse this
tally.
.
In the cricket sphere we have much better news,
fiv~ victories in eight games, and one by ten wickets .
Our redoubtable captain, SjSgt. Allen can take a bow
for his performances with the bat and ball. Sgt.
Lloyd has put in some stout work, and has a notion
that he has 11 players with ideas ' on how to play
hockey, but the March of Time will reveal whether
he is right or wrong. Our Yachtsman, Sgt. D. Jacobs ,
has, unfortunately, had to have his appendix removed,
but we are pleased to report his good progress. Ptes.
Foster and Hoyle are members of the Colombo
Rowing Club, and the first named was in a winning
crew at a recent regatta. Hoyle is still in the improver
class, so here's more power to his elbow. " LANKA. "
Capt. C. R. Wilkinson has returned to Jerusalem,

and in his stead we welcomed Lieut. A. N . Gunby
from the Holy Land. At the time of writing, Lieut.
L. V. Betenson has embarked per hospital ship for
U.K ., where, it is hoped, he w ill quickly be put upon
the road to recoverv. S.S .M. " Nobby " Clark has
recently arrived from Jerusalem to take over where
~'Old Tom" Sowerby left off, and we wish him
every success in his new vocation .
The most notable arrival in the spring was Lieut.
Dean' s wife, who spent a month quarantined !n
Egypt en route. She will be remembered by many In
the Preston Office as an "old soldier " A.T.S. , in
the name of Cpl. ' Ella Gracie . Prestonians will also
be interested to know that ex-Sub. Kay Donnelly
has arrived on the island to marry the man of her
choice, Major Sharkie, R.A.~.C.
Cricket.-We have had qwte a successful season
and at the time of writing are placed fourth in the
league table with an outside chance of winning the
championship . Sgt. Haslam and S.S.M. Clark (exJerusalem) have been the mainstay of the team, both
with the bat and the ball, and have produced scores
of 241 not out and 77 respectively . S jSgt. Ellor,
however, is the hero of the moment. In our last
game our first six wickets had falle~ for 19 runs an?
we needed still another' 1\) for VICtory. The tall
wagged well and truly, but it seemed a forlorn hope
when S jSgt. Ellor went in to bat-we still required
six runs-as our hero hadn't hit even one ball in the
previous eight games.
In a breathle.ss silence he
faced up to the demon bowler and. WIth ~he grll:ce
and ease of a Jack Hobbs calmly hit a mIghty SIX.
The next ball shattered his w icket, but what a
victory !
A note for the statisticians-Sgt. Haslam has
completed the cricketers' double of 1,000 rW1S and
100 wickets this season.
Finally, the pre-war regulars serving here are :
Major L. I. F. Barton, Lieut. F. J. Dean , S.S.M.
H. D. Clark, and S jSgt. F. G. Bolt.
F. G. D .
COMMAND PAY OFFICE, FRANCE
Well, well! As the man said to his friend, " It
just shows yer-don't it! " M y pre~ecessor spoke
rightly when he assumed that the notes ill the summer
edition of the Journal would probably be the last
from that veritable seat of learning-C.P.O. , France!
We have already learned, ho,-.,'ever, that thjs redoubtable fortress of blood, toil, tears and sweat, is
to continue in France for some little time yetalthough we wh~ are left-will, a month before
these words appear in print (subject, o~ c~)Ur~e, to
Editor's approval !) have mov.e d from thIS mVlg.orating resort to the more lUXUrIOUS (though, pOSSIbly,
less invigorating) city of Paris.
We move there to continue the arduous task of
adjusting military affairs financial in. so far as they
affect the British public, and preparmg the way for
our final evacuation from this fair country- when
the run-down of " British Forces in France" is
complete. To this end, therefore, and preparatory to
inoving off by road convoy in' the. (dangerous~y) near
future, mountains of rubbish appear as If from
nowhere-in various parts of the office-for condemnation and disposal ; Signals come and go with
amazing rapidity-the worthy Admin. Sgt .. (a ~ery
" daring" Dexter!) is to be .seen . delvmg II.ltO
hitherto unexplored cupboards and kItbags-whIlst
the S.S.M. wonders how far on the road we'll get
CYPRUS (97 DETACHMENT)

Arrivals and Departures.-Since our last notes
appeared our former scribe, S.S.M.T. Sowerby, has
sailed for the land of his birth (somewhere between
Preston and N ewcastle-on-T yne, I understand) , and
525

before being caught up by a D.R., bearing a belated
amendment to the last move instruction !
However, in spite of canteens closing 9n us all
over the place (even the "Y.M." are leaving us this
week) the leave roster which must go on, and an
ever decreasing staff-we manage to raise a smile
(even from the worthy "grandad" of the office,
Sgt. " Pete " Sharpe I). What he'll do with no tennis
courts on which to lavish his loving care, and all his
off-duty hours, we have yet to discover.
As we have no amenities whatever for social
events, we have accordingly nothing to report in
t hat direction, but remembering that " names make
news ," here are the staff casualties since the last
Issue.
Births.-Our congratulations to Pte. and Mrs.
E. F. Scarfe on the arrival of a baby daughter,
Arigela Beryl, on July 2nd. This item may interest
Nottingham (A.T.S.) readers , as both "Mumrr. y
and Daddy" were serving in that office last year.
Postings.-To Capt. H. A. J. Dawes , Sgt. Virgo,
Sgt. Rossiter, L /Cpl. Jones, Ptes. D. Harper, D.
Stallard, and A. H . Stone, we say " Good-bye and
Good Luck" in their new B.A.O.R stations.
Capt. J. Peters-Dickie, Capt. J. L. Henderson,
Lieut. E. Rodgers , Lieut. R M. Cameron and
Lieut. F. C. Snewin have left us for a warmer climate,
via the Depot. Bon voyage, gentlemen, and happy
stations in M.E.L.F.
Releases.-lricluded in those who have by now
been through the Release machine, are S /Sg ". W. L.
Jones , Sgts. Scoppie, Diver, Golby and Woonton,
Cpls. Brierley and Barbe :-, L.Cpl. Fisher, and Ptes.

Lawrence, Truswell, Busby and Scarfe. To them all
our thanks for a job well done, and good wishes fo;
success in civvy life!
.This "agony" column would not be comple te
WIthout a word of thanks to the civilian members of
. our staff still with us , but who for domestic reasons
cannot accompany the office to Paris and will'
therefore, leave us on the occasion of the move.
'
Of these, all past members will remember Madame
Diane Maire-who has been our Interpreter and
Confidential Typist since the very early days, and
has travelled around with the old 16 C.P.O. since
its inception. "Di" has been a very valuable asset
to us, and will be sadly missed.
Our second typist, Mell.e. Legrand, who though
not with us for so very long, has done a verv fine
job-will soon be !aking up an appointme"nt of
French tutor in an English school-we wish both of
them "Bonne chance" in their new spheres of
activity.
Mr. WaIter Boot, has also been with us for a verv
long time, and has been of invaluable assistance with
his wide knowledge of languages. To him, and his
worthy assistant (65 years young!) Mr. Basset-we
also wish good luck!
And so, until the next issue, and with the hope
that we shall soon be able to regale you with reports
of the "Folies Bergeres," the "Bal Tabarin " Champs Elysees by moonlight, and tales of midnight
orgies and Bacchanalian revelries from the fair citv
of Paris-au revoir.
J. V. P ..
W.Os.' AND SERGEANTS MESS, GIBRALTAR.

row :-Sgt. D. Bevan, S /Sgt. R. H. Smee, Sgt. E. W. Barnard, Sgt. F. Cra~tree.
Front row :-S/Sgt. R. L. Massey, W.O.t A. E. Clarke, Major A. R. Elliott (Officer to charge),
W.O.2 H. Adams, S/Sgt. R. G. Smith.
,il Back
526

Heather arrived from Meerut with those awful
things called Officers' Accounts, and last but not
least, Mrs. Bacon came to join her husband in the
colonv. Our second in command, Major L. W .
Mills; is getting ready for the reception of his wife
and daughter to the colony early in August, after a
separation of just about a year.
Departures.-Sgt. Jones left on Python and
L.-Cpl. Brownson on release. We extend our good
wishes for a good leave and in the latter case, PIOSperity in civvy street. Pte. Perry went on L.LA.P.
and is expected back on the next boat. Our S.S.M.,
George Birch, is now w?iting' for his relief to arrive
and allow him to proceed to U .K. on Python after a
spell of just over 3 years in Delhi, Meerut and in
Hong Kong since the re-occupation. When he goes
the office will 108e a well-liked Chief Cierk and the
Sergeants' l\less a staunch bar supporter and entertainment organiser.
. Awards.-L.-Cpl. Brownson has been awarded
the C .-in-C .'s card for good service in the New
Year's Honours' List and, of course, insisted that
he was no more entitled to it than anybody else.
Promotions.-Pte. K . Smith of our Costing Section has gone up another rung of the ladder to Sgt.Congra tulations.
Sports.-A' far as outdoor sport goes this offic::e
does not feature verv prominently, but there IS
plenty available. Recently r\ few A.P.T.C . instruct.ors
arrived in the colonv and a number of us are feelmg
the henefit of early' morning P.T. S.MJ. Eastern
has arranged Water Polo matches between the various
Services In the Victoria Barracks' pool nvice a week .
Tenni~ and hockey are among other games played
regularly out here.
Sergeants' Mess.-The garrison mess is one of
the most popular on the island and is used by quite
a number of C.P.O.s and P.O.s and several Roya!
N aval Dockyard personnel. Recently dance:; h:lVe
been held on Sunday evenings but the temperature
is now warmi.Qg up a bit and consequently a l('ss
strenuous form of entertainment will have to be
arranged.
Officers' Mes",.-Single officers live in a Mixed
Servicec; Mess in the old Japanese Consulate which '
is composed of two large and spacious houses set in
their own grounds 'w ith a hard tenn 's C(lurt hetween.
The quarters are extremel:.: comfortable mld plenty
of hand-made furniture is provided for each officer.
The mess is situated on the " Peak" and overlooks
the whole of Hong Kong.
Married officers live out in married quarters ~nd,
according to all reports, hoth they and their f" milie~
are having the time of their lives.
No. 6 COMMAND PAY OFFICE, IRAQ
These will probably be the last notes from 6
c.P.O. , as by the time the winter issue is published
it will no longer be necessary for members of the
Corps to "bear the white man's burden" in this hot
spot of the earth's surface. . yery few g.reeted the
news of the evacuation of BntIsh and IndIan Troops
from Iraq with regret.
The Office is situated a few miles from Basra on
the Persian Gulf having moved here from Bagdad
in April, 1946. It is now a shadow of its former self,
and most of the old-timers " have left for cooler
climes.
Recent arrivals include Capt. C. E . Hutchence
(Leeds and Radcliffe) , 2nd-Lieut. J. A. Dilliway
GIBRALTAR
With the heat of the summer upon us we are
finding it very difficult to resist the daily siesta. A
great struggle of mind over matter took place, thus
you are able to read these notes .
We had a grand office outing to the small Spanish
fishing village of Estepona, where much wine was
consumed, a good time was had by all, and we
returned without casualties!
Our c.P. , L :eut.-Colonel J. B. Jardine, departed
on leave to the U.K. and austerity, and returned
safely from the land of the heather. During his
absence, Captain A. R Elliot, the A.C.P. assumed the
reins of office and was temporarily" crowned."
New arrivals (a very large number for this small
office), include Lieut. J. Stevenson (Manchester),
S /Sgt. R. L. Massey (Shrewsbury), Sgt. A. H .
Rowley (Exeter), Pte. J . Boxall, (Manchester),
Pte. J . J . Carter (Aldershot), Pte. K. Cole (Canterbury), Pte. C. Grant (Dover), Pte. R. H. Janley
(York) , and last but certainly not least, our new
W.O., J. S. (Jock) Lawson, from Kidderminster.
Our departures were Pte. H. F. Worthington,
who has gone to search for black diamonds', Pte. D.
Clarke (release), S /Sgt. R. H. Smee (Python). By the
time these notes are printed we shall have wished
our late popular S.S.M. " Nobby " A . E. Clarke, all
the very best on his return home after five years on
the " Rock."
Family numbers have increased with the arrival
of Mrs. H. Adams and Mrs. R. Smith.
In the sporting sphere we have played our old
friends , the RM.P., two games of cricket and
finished all square, we now await the decider.
On the range we shot holes in the RA.S .C., and
scored an easy revenge for our previous defeat.
With the increase in staff we are looking for",ard
to producing a football team this winter to keep the
flag fl ying, and to improve upon our efforts of last
season.
Sgts. Mess Notes.-And the Powers did peruse
.t he Notes under this heading within the last Journal,
and did say of the scribe" He shall tarry awhile at
Gibraltar." Anyway, mess-mates, the trooper is
dated 30 August.
We have extended the usual hearty welcome to
S .S .M . (Jock) Lawson and Sgt. Rowley, and hope
their sojourn midst the Rock .Apes will he a very
pleasant one.
Vtl e have one departure to record-a member of
Gibraltar 1943 vintage and an old friend of many on
the Rock~S / Sgt. Reg. Smee. We wished him ban
voy age at a Mess social evening, and as far as I , or
the other members' remember, a good time was had
by all.
A "Hail and Farewell" social is on the agenda
for 16 August, and that will be duly reported on in
the next issue. With that, for the last time, Messmates, "Adios. "
.
" HOPLEAF."
HONG KONG (78 Detachment)
This is the first time our notes have appeared in
t he journal under the above title. Of course, there
have been a few more arrivals and unfortunatel y, as
far as the office is concerned , some departures.
Arrivals.--Since our last insertion Captain C. O.
Griffith has returned from L.I.A.P . in U .K . which
iJlcidentally took him away from this office for nlmost
six months; Lieut. lVlarch am , Sgt. Doyle and Pte.
527

(Devizes), 2nd-Lieut. F. G. Thomson (Glasgow),
and Pte. J. Gould (Foots Cray).
Major L. W. Purden, our present O.C., is apparently fond of high temperatures , as his last station
was Khartoum. The Chief Clerk, S /Sgt. H. L.
Stock, is packing his kit for P ython in the near
future. It is to be hoped that the rigours of an
English Winter after a n Iraq summer will not prove
'too much for him . Sgt. G . W. Cook recentl y
returned from L.I.A.P. , and SEWLROM in U.K.
Others at present on U. K. leave or the return journey
are Capt. C. J. Chappell, Lieut. P. Harrison, Sgts.
Abrathat and McDaid, L /Cpl. Millward and Ptes.
Gathercole, J ones and Knowles. Release recently
claimed Lieut. E. Miskin.
There is no Mess news as all personnel of the unit
are accommodated at H .Q. Messes.
Sporting activities are necessarily curtailed at this
time of the year owing to the climatic conditions.
Swimming in the " cool" of the evening is favoured
by those of us who find the strength to rise a little
earlier from our "charpoys" after the afternoon
siesta.
And so the life of No. 6 C.P.O. draws towards its
close, having faithfully served the purpose for which
it was created. Those of the Corps who were here in
the dark days of the war will remember with pride
the part they played in maintaining Pay Services,
often under extremely difficult conditions , during
the period when no less than four minion tons of
supplie: of all kinds were delivered to Russia along
t he Persia-Iraq route.
"PI K ELEPHANT."
. The parade in honour of Hi~ ~ajesty the King's

Birthday was a very smart affair mdeed, which has
bet:n described in the local Press by much more able
pens than mine. I think that it is sufficent to say
that we were fully represented in a gathering which,
apart from the khrki drill) reminded one more of
Ascot.
At the moment the main body of the office is
stationed in the Hill Station, Newcastle, amidst
steep hills, covered with all sorts of vegetation
and which provide some interesting walks for those
who feel sufficiently energetic. One Sunday morning
17 hardy mountain: ers set out to climb St. Cath
erine's Peak, the second highest mountain in the
area, It was a gruelling climb, but the result was
worth it. We had a most marvellous view, which I
think would only be beaten by the foothills of the
Himalayas.
There is, of course, all the usual sort of work in
the office, and at times we think that we get more
th:m our share, but with the happy crown in our
office and a really good team spirit all around, work
does not seem to be the bugbear that it is elsew here.
On that happy note, J think that I shall leave all
our less fc.rtunate comrades gnashing. their teeth
with envy because they have picked the wrong
station. All good wishes to the Journal, its contributors, and readers from the lads in the Je we l of
the Caribbean-JAMAICA.
" COPPERFIELD."
JERUSALEM (90 BATTALION)

Since our last bulletin , Colonel C. Holmes, M.C. ,
has proceeded on L.I.A.P. and SEWLROM and
we expect his return during the next few weeks.
The Mess has assumed a very large membership
owing to the present emergency necessitating all
officers being accommodated in Messes.
We do, however, achieve a cheery atmosphere
which is added to by the very good work of Lieut.
Kir;"'by, who has been responsible for pro vi din~ at
least three cinema shows a week. He has also Improved the cinema premises, which have been
christened "Fiducia" Cinema, by obtaining the
necessary paint and timber with which to erect a
projector room, enlarge the screen and add various
clever designs to the walls, including , too, the
seductive Fiducia girl in the entrance hall.
In his carpentry he has been ably assisted by
Major Plowman, L ,Cpl. Moseley (who did the
paintings) , and Spr. Philby, who operates the
projector.
.
Sunday trips to the seaside are regular and \\ell
attended, whilst some visit plac.es of historical and
biblical interest compered by the Padre.
A voluntary education scheme has been started ,
which is being satisfactorily supported and assisted
by instructors including Major Hobley (Admm.
Officer), Capt. Guran (R.A.E.C.), Capt. Muller
(Clearing Wing), and many others.
Classes m
Arabic are also being organised.
.
We welcome our new arrivals, and hope th ey will
enjoy life here. We wish the outgoing personnel
the . very best of luck in their new place of abode
or duty.
Cricket.-Su.rveying our potential cricket t alent
prior to the commencement of the cricket season ,
it was with " tongues in our cheeks" that we eventually decided to enter the First Division , Jerusalem
Area League, which contains Infantry Battns ., and
JAMAICA (71 DETACHMENT)

" The old order changeth.
." The author of
the foregoing quotation surely must have had the
Command Pay Office , Jamaica in mind, when he
w rote it.
Since the summer issue notes were despatched
we have had to bid a regretful farewell to Lieuts.
Young and Fuller, S /Sjt. Nixon and his famil y,
Sgts . Crow, Gifford and Erne, and Ptes. Crossman
and Everett. Whether they have gone to don a
civvy suit or are still in the service, our best wishes
for their success accompanied them.
The new arrivals, to whom we extend a warm
welcome, . are Lieuts. Finkel and Har'lant, S /Sgt.
Rile y, Sgts. Summers, Haughton atid Hamilton ,
Cpl. McLuckie and Ptes. Alford and Smith, Sjt.
Campbe l's wife and baby daughter, and we hope
they will enjoy their stay.
Before I pass on any more news I wo uld like to
take this opportunity on b ehalf of the whole office
to congratulate Major F. H. V. Purcell, on the award
of the M.B.E., which was notified in the Birthday
Honours List.
We feel sure that everyone who knows him and
has had the pleasure of working with him will echo
our congratulations.
It is understood that one of the latest arrivals,
ably assisted by some kindred spirits, has started a
private Zoo, having so far been fortunate enough to
collect one elephant and one crocodile! The latest
information is that th e animals were supplied
through the agency of the local Rum Distillers' Assn.,
and that both are coloured pink! (The original '42
staff of the C.P. Nairobi should recognise an old
friend in the crocodile.)
528

which, on paper, should be considerably stronger
than we. However, results to date have confirmed
our decision. The "youngsters" in the side.
L /Cpls. Barnes and Alder and Ptes. Conlon and
Gratton, although lacking experience, have proved
their worth, especially in ~keenness and their willingness to follow the example set by the experienced
players.
The side is , once more, ably led by S.Sgt. Bridgen,
and to date have only lost one match. The weakness
appears to be in the bowling, but with the recent
return from' hospital of Sgt. Nye, it is hoped that
this defect will be remedied. The best allround" individual performance has been 7 for 60
runs followed by 53 runs in quick time b y S.S.M.
Clark, who is now in Cyprus.
S /Sgt. Brigden collected 33 runs in three overs
from the RA.F. !
Both S .Q .M.S. Nelson and S.Sgt. Brigden recently played for Jerusalem Area against the Palestine Police Force side, and have now been selected
for the Army Command Trial Match.
Tennis.-Although we have not found any outstandinK players , except, of course, Major " Tiny"
Boggis still with us, tennis is flourishing again.
Both the Officers and the junior ranks have beaten
the Sgts.' Mess. Whitsun provided the opportunity
for the. junior ranks' championship, won by Cpl. G.
Chadwick after a hard fight with Pte. R . Green in
tht final , Cpl. Chadwick, after eliminating the only
challenger from the Sgts.' Mess (S.S.M. Clark) ,
also won a recent American Knock-out Tournament,
contesting the. final with Lieut. Lewis.
Football.-At the moment we are rather at a loss
to know how we will manage to turn out a team, as
b y the time the season starts quite a fe'.v of our
defence stalwarts will have departed .
Already
Johnny" King,
our net" custodian, has departed for other parts as has his name-sake. Cpl.
King. "Jirnmy " McDougal, and " Nobby " Clark
are leaving in the near future , the first on release and
the latter to Cyprus, while yet other probable depa ~
tures are Jocks " Mathers and Paice to U.K. All
success in the future, lads !
Lieut. Tozer has now departed for " Civvy Street,"
and the team will greatly miss his cheerful managership , which job he passed on to Lieut. Fabian.
Athletics.-Our athletes are now steadily training
at Mount Scopus for the forthcoming Army InterU nit Team Championship. We have the nucleus of
last year's team al).d several promising athletes, who
have joined us since, and this year we are hoping to
win the Brigade Championship.
Lieut. Lewis , the Coy. Sports Officer, is now
concentrating on the . Hammer, and hopes to emulate
the feats of Dr. O'Callaghan.
Swirnrning.-Our amphibious operations are
still progressing favourably, and each Sunday our
two three-tonners set out for Bat Yam and El Jura
alternatively, for a dip in the blue Mediterranean.
We combine with our swimming activities, a game of
baseball, football, and all-in Rugby.
Sad to relate, on several occasions our threetonners chugging away up the mountains around
Jerusalem have conked out, and then our long wait
was whiled-away b y the melodious tunes of our
impromptu choir.
Our Water Polo team defeated a scratch side from
the Roya l Irish Fusiliers b y seven goals to one.
(Scorers, Alder 2, Sullivan 3, Lewis 2).
The Water Polo Team, thanks to the generosity

of the Y.M.C.A., who loaned us their Swimming
Baths during the Winter Season, have now reached
a very good standard of play. The team has been
greatly strengthened by Lieut. Wood and Lieut.
Lewis, who were in the RA.P.C. team at . Leeds,
which won the West Riding Water Polo championship.
Table Tennis.-Our Table Tennis has at last
met its Waterloo. We were defeated by the RA.F.
H.Q. North Levant by six games to three, after a
very exciting game with the majority of the games
being won and lost by a very narrow margin. Total
results to date: Played 12 ; won 10 ; lost 2.
A very enjoyable social evening was held at St.
George's School, and a very good game of Table
Tennis was witnessed b y about 120 spectators. The
Singles concluded three games all, but in the Doubles
the schoolboys romped away and finall y won the
game by 6-3.
Sergeants' Mess.-Since our last notes appeared
the keynote in the Mess has .been departures.
Member~ who have proceeded on release are S /Sgt.
Lo;c', S. /Sg. Russel and Sgt. R H . Smith . S .S.M.
King is now with C.P., Egypt and Sudan vice
S.S.M. "Bunny" Austin, who replaced him in
Jerusalem . " Bunny" is not, of course, new to
Jerusalem, having been here during the war days,
when he was perhaps remembered by many for his
" big dog " which always followed him around, and
at times perhaps gave the show away.
S.S.M.
" Nobby" Clark is now with 97 Det. in Cyprus.
He was replaced by S.S.M. Watson (ex-Foots Cray),
who recently arrived in the Middle Ea;t (not for the
first time). The postings of S .S.M. King and Clark
were due to the departure of Married Families from
Palestine and now, of course, ~alk of El Ballah in the
Mess is practically non-existent.
The 2nd Battalion, R.I.F., have been repJaced b y
the 52 Light Inf. (O.B.L.I.), and the month of May
was notorious for two hectic social evenings in the
Mess. when a farew,,1) -was given to the Fusiliers
ancia welcome once rnore, was given to an English,
County Regiment. During the early days of June a
Triangular Indoor games evening was organised
with members of the 2nd Bn. Sherwood Foresters
and 2nd O. and B.L.1. ~Notre Dame) Sgts.' Mess.
On the Billiards Table and Table Tennis Table we
managed to be the leading lights, whilst on the Darts
Board though our members seemed to need more
practice in tht: English Pubs " in order to compete
agai nst the Foresters.
Although the restrictions, for which the R .A. P.C.
in Schneller are probably the most afflicted of any
troops in Northern Palestine, are still with us , the
bar is patronised only by the regular few stalwarts,
ably assisted b y members of the O.B.L.I.
The
R.A.P .C. personnel, who in more palmy days were
'fortunate to serve in Jerusalem, will realise that
Schneller is in the midst of the Mea -8h,e arim Quarter,
which is, of course, probably one of the most
notorious hide-outs of the I.Z.L! (Terrorists),
therefore , in order to proceed to those few parts of
Jerusalem which the authorities consider safe
enough for British troops, it is necessary to travel
through this quarter in t,ansport, and, of course,
weapons are carried at all times.
.
In the sporting world the Sgts.' Mess provide
quite a reasonable proportion of t~e .Company's
cricket team, but, alas, as for the TenniS, Its standard
529
~-----------------------
is very low as will be realised when not only did the

junior ranks defeat the Sgts.' Mess in a recent
American Tennis tournament, but, sad to relate, so
did the Officers.
LAGOS, NIGERIA
J. J. J. M.
We must apologise for having been too late ill

contributing news to the summer issue.
During the last six months many changes have
taken place due to releases , and that happy event"Tour-expired." Amongst those to whom we have
said farewell are Lieuts. Robotham, Hopkins, Bird,
and " Tich " Cra'w ford; S jSgts. Baldock, Kendall,
Cornwell and Hunter; Sgts. Snowden, Bryant, and
Clarke ;
Cpls. Perring and Yelverton.
S jSgt.
McKay has been seconded to the Nigerian Government, and we hope he will be happy in his new post.
We welcomed S jSgt. Cummins; Sgts. Porter,
Bullen, and Prior, and Cpls. Steel and Cruse. To
these new arrivals we must add Capt. Kidma:n,
S jSgt. Olsson, and Sgt. Wood, who created a record
b y leaving U .K. on Friday, 18th Jul y, and arriving
here on Saturday, 19th July. We shall be pleased to
accommodate anyone from home who wo uld care to
spend a long week-end with us !
Old coasters who have served with 77 Detachment
will be interested to know that C .P. and R.P. Offices
have now moved from the Racecourse, the Officers '
Mess from Ikoyi and B.O.R.'s Messes from K.G .V.
Park, Lagos , to Lancaster Barracks, Yaba.
The
Offices were previously A .O. R. barrack rooms , SO our
new accommodation falls far below the standard
which we knew in King's College.
Vve have had a real rainy season this vear with

the result that the ground around the offic~s has
been a quagmire sufficient to bog down lorries and
on one occasion certain coasty people were' seen
taking swimming lessons in the flood outside their
quarters. The Daily Times reported a fall of
30 inches of rain in 14 days, with a record of nearl y
six inches in 24 hours.
Although reduced in numbers, we still manage to
run a soccer team in the Army League , and have had
quite a successful season. We had also had some
office games in which Officers and O.R.s (old and
not so old) have competed. It was exhilarating to
see Capt. Ross playing a stalwart game at back .
Lieut.-Colonel Stewart displaying deft touches o~
the wing, and Capt. Jones opening an attack on goal
in grand style. It can be confidently said that all
games have been enjoyed by both players and
spectators. Congratulations are extended to S jSgts.
Gallagher, Giddy, Harding; Sgts. Binks, Standley,
Harold and Cpls. Farmer, Wilkinson', Heath, and
Twiselton on their promotion to those ranks:
And now, until the next time, we say" Odabo."
" BATURE."
MALTA G.C. (72 DETACHMENT)

There is not a great deal to' report from the Georgf'
Cross Island this quarter, I regret to say. However,
one or two items of importance cross m y mind, so I
put pen to paper, and I think that I echo the thoughts
of all members of the Detachment in saying :_
' We offer our congratulations to : Lieut.-Colonel F. G. Norton, our Command
Paymaster, on the award of the O.B.E. in the

Birthday Honours.
S jSgt. and Mrs. Grant on the birth of their son,
T homas.
S jSgt. and Mrs. Cullen also, on the birth of their
son, Patrick.
.
.
During the past few months we have had the
pleasure of seeing n",o distingui s~ed visito~s.' firs tl~,
Brigadier R. W. Hackett, who paid us a VISit on his
way home. We hope he enjoyed the short stay in
Malta, and, secondly, Captain G. F . Vaal, from
\V.O. (F9b), who came to tell us all about these
" new-fangled" machines that "the powers that
be" are sending us. Luckily, Maltese numerals are
the same as in U.K. !
Our "Agony Column" this quarter is yery
short; we have had t? say good-bye to Li~ut. P.
Cozens, who was repatrIated on Python, after spending the better part of two months in hospital. We
sincerely hope that all is well now . To Captain
L. J . Gee we extend a sincere welcome and greetings
on his joining us from the " Land of Pharaohs."
At last someone else to whom we can tell the old , old
stories of the Blitz and Siege! Before these notes
appear in print, we ~hall have said "Sah ha" to
Captain and Mrs. Poole-not forgetting David
Michael-who are due home on Python almost
immediately. Captain Poole will be missed in the
Command, as he has not only been a very efficient
Cashier for two years, but he ' has been (unofficially
and unpaid) "Command Photographer" - a job he
has excelled in. The Detachment will miss him
and his camera, at the Unit Social functions in the
future. We all wish him best 0' luck on arrival in
nice level stretch of sand. 4 C.P.O. (Base) had a

hand in the placing of the sand here as on our
removal from Cairo someone very carefully loaded
a large box of sand which had been emptied from
the fire buckets on to a " ten tonner." The unknown
individual evidently didn't like the idea of the desert
being sandless through the filling of fire buckets .
Accommodation here is varied. For that horrible
thing " work" there are both wooden and Nissen
huts unless you are in the know, then you go to
either Central or the Command Cashiers and work
in a brick building. The idea of the brick building
in this case is so that the local light-fingered gentry
will not find it an easy job to pinch the "dibs."
These are guarded at night by a Basuto guard who
are determined to ensure it does not go whilst they
are there. We next come to the tent. This is the
erection under which all ranks sleep, and have as
their private abode, sometimes with another three
to five perSO:1S according to luck. The third type
is more of a shrine thlll accommodation. It is the
lVlecca to which numbers look but few attain. To
arrive in this Valhalla one thing only is necessary,
that is a wife sent out from the U.K., under the
sanction of the War Office . Then you arrive at
and live in' a Butlin. This has electric light, fans,
hot ' and cold water and a bath, not just something
where you turn a handle and the water pours over
you. No, I am not jealous. I'm in one.
Amusements here are varied and cater for most
tastes. If you are energetic there is cricket, tennis ,
and swimming. Swimming is a great favourite here
as it gives one the chance to undress and get brown
all over or at least nearly so, as well as a bit of
exercise. I have always heard Pay Corps personnel
are a thick skinned crowd, but I d d n 't know how
thick till I started sunbathing and shed more skins
than any normal being could ever have.
If it's inside amusements you want there is a
recreation room with table tennis, darts, and other
indoor games.
Letters home can be written in
comfort here also if being " pranged" with a pingpong ball can be ignored.
For both indoor and outdoor entertainment there
is photography. A photographic society has just
been formed and should prove successful as the
light here is ideal, and there are any an10unt of
subjects awaiting snapping. Pending completion of
the dark room , discussions on various aspects of the
art are being held.
Since we have left Cairo the comings and goings
have been pretty heavy, so I will content myself
with saying welcome to all the newcomers and best
of luck to those who have left us whether it be on
Posting, Python, or Release.
Sports.-As one wo uld expect the close proximity
of 91 Coy., R.A.P.C ., led to friendly rivalry from
the first. The opening round was accorded to our
rivals on the football pitch where they gained a wellearned victorY. Our ego was, however, bolstered
up on deliverU;g a defeat to them when hockey sticks
clashed .
Then, of course, followed that very serious b :.;siness
of cricket. We are very pleased to welcome S jSgt.
North, the R.A.P.C. XI 'k~eper, who assumed
captaincy of our team by unanImous vote. Amongst
other newcomers we had Pte. Bob Sparkes, recently
demobbed, who also gave such sterling service to
our football team, Pte. Eddi Cox, late of Bournemouth
arid, more recently, Lieut. Townsend who j<?ined
us from Nottingham . Add to these the remaInder
u.K.!
Major S. P . Holland severed his connections with

the P av Office in May, on being released from the
A.P.C. /M.T.F. , to take up a Civilian Officer's
appointment at Headquarters. He has been employed
in the office for 34 years, so there are many of the
older members of the Corps who remember him
well. The staff wish him every success in his new
appointment.
It may interest read(!rs to know that H.Q ., Malta,
now adminifters Tripolitania and Cyrenaica Districts, imd that G.H.Q., M.E.L.F., controls Maltl
once again.
And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, concludes the
notes from this bastion of the Empire for the quar ter ,
but before closing we take the opportunity to seJ ~d
best wishes to old members of the " Fighting 72nd,"
wherever they may be.
" MELITENSIS."
4 C.P.O. (BASE) M.E.L.F. (92 COMPANY)
Brig. R. W. Hackett and Officers, Malta Detachment.
530
Yes, the heading is quite ' correct, and here are

some notes at long last from the spot on the Canal
zone where all newcomers to the Middle East are
welcomed with open arms and prayers of "May
these ' bodies ' please be allowed to remain here and
work."
In a few cases the prayers are answered,
and the "body" then moves from the Base Depot
here to 4 C.P.O. (Base), which entails moving into
another tent and being posted to Debits, Imprest,
or some other wing to work.
For the benefit of those still in the U.K., w: .o may
find themselves boarding a ship for the r. iddle
East and those who knew us when we were in ~ :airo,
but have long since departed from our r.1:d : . here
is a brief idea of what Fayid is like
The camp is situated between a range vt 1. ills on
the ,,,,'est and the Great Bitter Lake on the East on a
531
THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JO URNAL

and Miss Rowbottom remain with us in a drasticall y
reduced staff. (U) K Street has a.h:nost re verted to
its American owners, and th~ entire Br~tis h Army
Staff are now concentrated in the Joh.n Marshall
Building ..
The return of comparative norm al times to the
U .S .A . . has considerably brightened an already
pleasant existence, and quite a fair proportion of the
R.A.P.C . are sporting cars for their business and
pleasure.
These are rather reasonable in price
compared to the smaller U.K . models-a trend not
followed b y much else unfortunatel y. Finding ourselves entangled in the national policy of economy in
dollars neither officers nor m en are quite as flush as
might be desirable.
. Leave, owing to the prohibitive cost of living, is
not too frequent here. When we do acc umulate
s ufficient funds we can, assisted b y a free travel
allowance of 700 outward miles, get to places only
dreamed of prior to our posting. Miami., the Adirondacks , and New York City are favourite vaca tion
spots, and one or two stout hearts have even m ade
the long trip to San Franciso, stopping off at (relatively) nearby H ollywood to see their favourite film
stars.
We fear there is nothing in the field of sport to
report from this small detachment. Individuals get
a game of hockey or soccer on occasion, and there
are some fair golf courses nearby. Several good
beaches are within convenient distance onChesapeake Bay for swimming, and a pleasurable afternoon's boating is to be had on the Potomac Ri ver.
be filled , due to demob and L.I.A.P. \Ve managed,

however, t o carry on and gave our best against the
stron gest of the league. One or two of the more
. experienced players we rt chosen to represent the
Arm y, Services, and also Nairobi in certain matches.
At Football , we did not do so well in the Army
league. At the finish we ended half-way down the
league, quite a difference from last year when we
were second from the top .
A Civilian L eague has been formed and we we re
fo rced to unite w ith 0 2E and Military Records.
After a poor start we are doing quite well , havin g
won two and drawn one of the last three games. In
- the course of this revival we m anaged to draw with
the league leaders, a Scots civilian side, Caledonians ,
containing several well-known personalities in the
soccer world. A win over the leading R.A. F . team,
Eastleigh , gave us great encouragement, and we are
hopeful of continuing our present progress and
reaching one of the top league positions.
\ Ve, as proud holders of the Services cup, are
looking forward to the start of the Cup fixtures
\\ith great expectation.
H ockey is now starting, and despite the loss of so
many players, we are endeavouring to arrange a
series of friendly matches and hope that we shall be
able to obtain a full fixture list.
Before saying "kwa heri" may we express the
fee ling of all in this office by sending greetings to
ex-Nairobi members at home ?
"
The Mohawks Rugby Football Team, Nairobi.

of last year's teams in the persons of Cpl.-now
Sgt.-L~wler and Ptes . Lacey and Moll , and we had
the makmg of a strong team .
We have now, af!er a somewhat shaky start,
settled down to a faIr share of victories in which
the batting of Lieut. Townsend, S /Sgt. North, and
Ptes. Cox and Lacey allied to the bow ling of Lieut.
Town.send again and Pte. Moll have played a
consplC ': OUS part. In playing O .O.A. , we stand at
the moment on equal terms with one game each .
T~e rubber match should produce some lively
CrIcket.
our previous Journal representative, who has

returned to U.K. on PYTHON with Mr~ . Petty
and to Lieutenant "Ri!l" Davies, who h 2s take~
local release and is now at the Inland Revenue
Offices, Nairobi. To all we wish good luck .
Major T. H. Taylor has now left us to take over
duties :-vith the Somalia Gendarmerie at Mogadishu,
and LIeutenant and Mrs. Valentine have left for
Mauritius.
The Pay Corps Camp at Salisbury Road has now
closed down and its members have transferred to the
Nairobi Transit Camp-so well known by so many !
Members . o~ the Corl?s helped to take part in a
Pageant deplctmg the HIstory of the British Theatre
which was held on the Nairobi Racecourse on
31st 1\1ay, and also with the running of the sideshows. It wa~ a n:ost successful ciay resulting in
over 2, 000 bemg raised towards the K enya National
Theatre Building Fund .
We ha ve recently had the pleasure of welcoming
Mrs . Taylor and her daughter Beryl, Mrs. and Miss
Shand-Tully, Mrs. Valentine (who has since left us
fO.r Mauritius) and Mrs . Sargeant. We hope they
will have a very pleasant stay in East Africa.
The Sporting activities of the Corps have been
confined mainly to Rugby and Football. This
being the first season for Rugby, and as a team, the
first for many of the players, we did not expect outsta~ding re.sults.
In fact, our team was the onl y
Unit team In the league, and praise must here be
given to all those players who were always willing to
fill gaps despite their lack of experience. We were
unfortunate in. temporarily losing some players
through injuries, while the places of others had to
NAIROBI (87 COMPANY)

Since our notes appeared in the las t ~dition of the
Journal many changes have taken place. Colonel
F . J . Bellman, M.C., who has been Command
PaYJ!laster for the past four years, will shortly be
leavmg for England on the "Ascanius." The keen
interest taken b y Colonel and Mrs. Bellman in the
welfare of 87 Coy. w ill be remembered b y all with
much pleasure, and to both of them we extend our
thanks for their services in the past and our best
wishes for the future.
A farewell dinner was given to" Colonel Bellman
at '!'?rr's Hotel , Nairobi, on 15th Jul y, and in
addItIOn to the Officers of the Corps , representati ves
from the Co:nmand Secretariat were present.
A hearty welcome is extended to Colonel W. Vero,
our new c.P., and 'we hope he will enjoy his stay in
E~st Africa.
We have made our farewells to Lieutenant and
Mrs. R. Burrows, who h ave left to make their home
in Northern Rhodesia , to Lieutenant R. Petty,
532
NORTH AMERICA
H aving missed the boat for the last two publications, your Trans atlantic scribe determined to make
this edition to reassure those who may have imagined
the banks of the Potomac had been evacuated for the
third time since 1789 . . (Or thereabouts.) Happily,
this is not so ..
Of the old hands, Captain G. J. Kilb and S.S.M.
F. Rice remain , and _we have welcomed to these
shores in recent months our new O.C., Lieut.Colonel F. J . Bairsto, late of Salisbury, S /Sgt.
R . G. A. Young, of Officers' Accounts, Manchester ,
and Sgts. F. Pearson,V. H. Steward, and A. M. L aing,
late of Radcliffe, Preston,. and Edinburgh respectively.
Welcomes, unfortunately, cause reluctant
farewells, and our best wishes go to Lieut.-Colonel
R. D. Ogilvie at his new station, and to S /S ;st. H . T .
Champion and Sgt. J. Hodgson in their new life in
the countries of their adoption. These N.C.O.'s
elected local release in Canada and the U.S.A.
respectively, each havi ng taken unto himself a WIfe,
from those countries.
Sgt's. R. J. Parsons, S. Jackson, and H. J. Womb\,fell have returned to the Old Country on release,
the former with the promise, or threat-" I'll be
back." V,Tell, you're always welcome, Roy.
This is definitely a families' station, and those of
Captain Kilb and S.S.M. Rice were well established
when we had the pleasure of welcoming Mrs. F. J .
Bairsto and her two daughters . Mrs. Young and
Mrs . Steward, with their respective kiddies, are
expected daily, and it is our fervent hope that they
wi ll be established before publication of this article.
We extend hearty congratulations to S gt. F.
Pearson on his marri age to Miss Doris Elizabeth Hill
of Cobden, Ontario. This happy event leaves only
one eligible bachelor. How about it, Sgt. L aing ?
For the benefit of ex-Washingtonians we would
m ention that Mr. Fraser, Mrs. Nelson . Mrs. Flick ,
O.O.A., M.E.L.F.
It is regretted that we were not able to supply
notes for the summer issue, the reason being a.
marked lack of news and shortage of time. Even
now it is ver y difficult to release oneself from the
" not so very normal" everyday duties of O.A.B.
life in order that our tales of woe are certain to appear
in the next issue, but, here, briefly, is our story.
Major H. Watson (late A .P.O., Manchester)
assumed command of the Unit early in March,
Lieut.-Colonel G. J. G . Cave leaving us for ~he
Command Cashier, returning to O.A.B. some time
later.
To Lieut.-Col. Watson fell the task of organising
the office in preparation for the arrival of officers'
main accounts from Manchester. As one might
imagine" this was a very difficult business , but
thanks to the efforts of all the staff, officers in the
M.E.L.F. are still receiving their pay.
At the end of May we welcomed Lieut.-Colonel
H. P. Lambert, who arrived direct from U.K. to
take over command. Although new to Fayid , Col.
Lambert can tell most of the "squaddies" tales of
overseas service.
Owing to so many new arrivals, it is impossible to
greet each individual, but to all those volunteers let
me quote that well-known refrain "\ho's Sorry
Now? "
Amongst the recent departures have been Lieuts.
Greenwood, Martin, Prier, and E vans , S /Sgts.
Lane and Barnes, Sgt. ~hooler (who may like to
know that the Sgts. lines are now very peaceful in
the early hours of the morning) , and las t but not
least , Cpl. Carr, Ptes. Gilbertson and \Vard. To
those ex-members of O.O.A. who I might h ave
forgotten to include, I apologise.
Entertainments.-Since the arrival of the draft
533

from Manchester an Entertainments Committee has
been formed, and are now very busy organising
dances, not to mention a play that is alleged to be in
procluction.
Other clubs formed in the Unit are the Rifle Club,
members of which hold a meeting every Sunday
morning, fortunately, the meeting place is some
distance away from the office area, and also the
Photographic Society, which has definitely proved a
great success.
Cricket.-Unfortunately, O.A.B. does not possess
its own sports ground, but in spite of this, a very
successful team has been fielded, this success can be
judged on league position, which is now second, the
league leaders being our latest victims.
The enterprising batting of Lieut. Prier, now in
U.K. on Python, was a very great, but now sadly
missed, asset. L /Cpl. Jelley, Captain of the team,
has done his share of scoring, and it looks as though
he'll carry out this hard hitting policy to the end of
the season. At least we hope so.
D. J. C.
Durban. We "hall have a Badminton Court and ;]

Tennis Court is being constructed.
These conditions will compensate somewhat for
a poorish sort of office, and the inconvenience of
being some ten miles out of town. On the move
we shall lose the services of Miss Marcuson, ou;
typist for some six years, and this opportunity is
taken to thank her for the good service ~he has
always given us. We shall miss her.
The threat of moving to Clnirwood has coincided
(possibly purely aCCidental) with two more marriages
in the Unit and congratulations and best wishes are
extended to L.-Cp1. -R. Clifford who married Poris
Noel Jonquier on 12th July and Pte. J. W. Rees, who
married Mae Eisele on 2nd August. We hope they
will be happy in their ventures.
S/Sgt. T. R. Taylor, S /Sgt. E. H . Chalkley (and
family) and Pte. G. G. Harris, have departed for
U .K. and we wish them " happy landings." ,
Sgt. W. O. Motson has taken local release and is
rlOW working for Nestles Ltd. at Estcourt. We hope
he will not have caus,~ to regret his decision to stay
in South Africa.
Ex-SI:,Tt. Cruickshank and Ex-Pte. Braund (one
time of this office) have returned to Durban as
settlers. We hope to see more of them.
Congratulations to Cpl. and Mrs. R. S . Green, on
the birth of a son-a future probationer.
Many ex-Durbanites will remember L.-Cpl. A. J .
Fellows, and they will be interested to know that he
has now risen to fame in a big way and sits in his
own office as Racing Editor of the Daily News and
Sunday Tribune. If his tips were as good as hi s
articles, we could all make fortunes.
TOTSIENS!!
W.P.
SINGAPORE (75 COMPANY)

There seems very little to report from the Command Pay Office, Singapore, this time-organised
sports such as footb~ll and cricke~ are a1mos~ at. a
standstill. The revival of the Smgapore Dlstnct
Football League II was expected, but so far it has
not materialised.
It is rumoured that some of the Sergeants' Mess
members, led by S.S.M. W. H~mphries and S /Sgt.
Fraser, are very proficient at "Euchre," and will
soon be taking on all corners.
Sunday bathing parties to Changi are still very
popular as are the occasional Wednesday afternoon
trips to the Singapore Lido.
A new Shackle Club (N.A.A.F.I.) has been
opened on the site of the old Fleet Canteen, and
includes a W.O.s' and Sgts.' Section which ,,'-as
transferred there when the Pegasus Club closed
recently. This Club appears to be very well sup
ported , and is run on the same lines as the N.A.A.F.I.
Clubs at home.
Under "arrivals" this time, we welcome Miriam
Frances the infant daughter of Lieut. and Mrs.
Chappl~, born at t~e British Mili~ary Hospital,
Singapore, on 15th July. CongratulatIOns!
.
Other arrivals are the staff of the O.A.B., Smgapore and when they have finally settled in, no
doubt we shall hear from them! Meanwhile, Major
Pittha~ and Co. are very busy putting all their
officer clients in the pay picture. They are out in
the blue at Nee Soon, but we expect lots of doings in
the near future .
J. W . R.
SOUTH AFRICA
Many who have passed through Durban during
the last SIX years will be interested to l~arn . that at
last sufficient pressure has been applied by the
Higher Power.s to dig us out ot our home in Garhck
Hou ~e and by the time these notes appear in print,
we shall be safely and" comfortably" housed .i n what
remains of Clairwood Camp. With the summer
approaching we spall miss our air:-conditi~ned office,
but as in most things , there are consolatIOns. The
small portion of the Camp allotted to us is comfortable and well looked after. We shall have the
advantagt of ::\ Canteen (~ot to be sne.ezed at in t~('se
days of high outside pnces) good foo~ and wld~r
spor~s activities.
The Canteen contams what IS
reputed to be the best billiard table in or around
16 F.B.P.O. TRIPOLI. (MELF)

It is a- long time since any news was forthcoming
from this office, therefore the moment is now ripe
for past and present events.
First of all, I will deal with the ofTIce staff.
Starting at the top, Major H. Cuthbert has been
our O.C. since March.
He relieved Capt. A.
Roberts, who was here on temporary duty after
Major P. Stevens returned to U.K. on"Python"
in January. We still have Staff-Sergeant Sebb0rn as
chief clerk, with the following as his "underdogs."
Sergeant Irons (Debits), Cpl. Taylor (fmprest),
Pte. Armstrong (Booking) ; these three coming here
in March, when Cpls. Curtis, Watson, and Sheriff
proceeded on release. Pte. Beck deals with Bills
section. In the Base Cashiers ("the old firm" ) we
still have Lieut. J. Morgans and Pte. North, the
former being due for release in a few weeks.
At the moment of writing we are in the throes of
staggered L.I.A.P., with one person away at a time,
and the others having to deal with his job.
Up to July we had been living in style at a very
nice house in town, and had things down to a fine
art but had a rude awakening when we had to move
out to hand over to married families, and invade the
Tripolitania Signals Squadron. Along with us came
our old counterparts of long acquaintance, the staff
of the Army Post Office, who sh3re the Banca DI
Napoli and quarters with us .
Last season we managed to raise a football team,
combining with the A.P.O ., going under th.e title
of the " Fiddlers XI," and reached the semi-finals
in the Area Cup before being knocked out by the
R.A.F. XI.
L.N .G.N.
534

1947 Autumn

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1947 Autumn

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THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOUR NAL

Lieut.-Colonel A . L. D UNNILL, O.B.E.

The Roy al Army Pay Corps Journal is published

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

Articles, photographs, etc., should be for warded

All articles printed in this Journal are copyright,

Officers' Club N otes

Old Comrades Association

Open Air Banking

Financial Disarmament of the Japanese

Birth.s, M arriages and Deaths .

A Pay Office in Japan

The Sudan in 1940

N otes and N~ws from Offices

The Royal Army Pay Corps Journal

District Pay Office,

. It is, we feel, a pity that so many who leave

Officers' Dinne), Club

At the end of this year Vo!, V will have been

R.A.P.C. Officers' Club

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

A brief record of service of the officers who

The Club Foursomes

Versus R.A.S.C. at W est Hill on 1st August, 1947

Ellis & Huxham

fixtures. This year, for the first time there

This is primarily .an account of Corps

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

ROYAL ELECTRICAL AND MECHANICAL ENGINEERS

other scorer of note was Colonel Hudson, who

The Corps batting first against the R.A.E.C. ,

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That is where we must leave that game for

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ROYAL ARMY SERVICE CORPS

Lt. Col. Malpass, 1 for 46

Pte. Mercer, 1 for 44

to this low total. Unfortunately, we were only

Pte. Mercer, 0 for 28

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Pte. Smith, 0 for 18

In the game against the R.A.S.C. the wicket

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Yorkshire second eleven, and the latter for

does not swing, but comes back sharply from

Major Sadler, 4 for 43

Major lVIarrison, 2 for 12

to dispose of the Corps side for 92. Before

. By winning the toss against the R.A;.O.C.,

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Cpl. Nicholls , 0 for 14

At the time of writing these notes, there is one

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Pte. Mercer, 1 for 5

Sir Guy and Lady Riley, General StanhaIn

. It was pleasant to see Lieut.-Colonel Milling

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