The Royal Army Pay Corps Journal

Vol. IV. No 26.

So, Pall Mall, London, S.W .I. June, I937 ·

All readers of the Journal ,·",i'11 be deeply sensible of the g reat honour which has been accorded to the Corps by H.M. The King in appointing a member of the Roya l Family to be our Colonel-in-Chief.

The appointment of :Major General H.R.H. Prince Arthur of Connaught, K.G., K.T., G.C.l\1.G., G.C.V.O. , C.B., was announced in the Coronation Honours List on May I Ith and the Colonel Com­mandant in despatching a telegram of congratulation to His Royal Highness, admirably expressed the appreciation of all past and present members of the Corps .

* * * The outstanding event of the past

quarter has, of course, been the Coronation of Their Majesties The King and Queen . So much has been written on the pageantry in London on May I2th that little remains for us to say .

The Corps v,'as represented in the Pro­cession by a detachment of one Officer and seven W.O.s and N.C.O.s and as they passed by this ancient Editorial bui lding their appearance and soldierly bearing gave cause for the highest praise to all con­cerned.

* * E lsewhere in this issue appears a repro­

duction of the Piapo score of the new Regimental March o'f th~ Royal Army Pay Corps. It has been so arranged that it can be withdrawn ·fro111 the Journal without difficulty.

Summer, 1937

The Old Comrades Association held their Ninth Annual Meeting and Dinner in London on 30th ARril. A fuH account of the proceedings appears in this issue .

* * * The following telegrams were exchanged

bet\\'een the Colonel Commandant and H.R .H. Prince Arthur of Connaught.

Equerry, 4 I Belgrave Square, London, S.W. I.

Please convev to Prince Arthur the sin­cere appreciati~n of all ranks of the Royal Army Pay Corps of the honour accorded to them by His .Royal H ighness' appoint­ment as their Colonel-in -Chief.-J . Arm­strong, Colonel Commandant, Byways, Farley Green, N1'. Guildford.

Colonel Armstrong, By \\'ays, Farley Green, Gui ldford.

IVlost g rateful thanks for your k ind congratu lations.-Arthur .

LONG SERVICE AND GOOD CONDUCT MEDAL. The f()llowing have been a,ward ed this m edal

under Army Order 76 of 1937. With Gratuity.

7657694 S.Q.M.S. R Bond . 7733256 S.Q.Ivi.S. G. Garl'ett 5609515 S.Q.M.S. J . W. Griffin. 730875 S.Q.M.S. J . Manning.

7657858 S.Q.M.S. A. Robel'ts. 7733419 S.Q.M.S. G. L. Rogel's. 7657961 S.Q.M.S. R. Scott. 5609494 S jSergt. C. R. Bone. 7657911 SjSergt. B. E. Evans. 6839894 SjSergt. S. G. Mudd. 1415698 S/Sergt. J. Plunkett. 6(777138 S jSel'gt. C; H . Westoll. 6189505 Sergt. C. H. Meaden. 6190218 Sel'gt . T . M. Mills. 76t:iIil035 Sergt. G. E. C. Pentney. 6447119 Sergt. R. Plowman. 535701 Sel'gt. J . Troops

LA TE N'EWS. We deeply reg ret to announce the death

of Lt.-Col. H. R. W. Dawson, v"hich took place at the Queen Alexandra's Military Hospital, l\1i~lbank, on June 20th.

..

Corps Sports News Arrangements for 1937.

Wed., J une 30th

Thurs., Ju ly lSt

Golf . Summer Meeting at Wentworth.

Lawn Tennis at Roehampton .

Friday, July 2nd J Annual Meeting, R.A.P.C. Officers' Club, So, Pall Mall, S. W. I,

at 2.I5 p.m.

Sat.. J nly 3rd

l Annual Din ner, Officers. Naval and Military Club, Piccadilly.

Cricket v. R .A.O.C ., at Aldershot.

Cricket v. Army Educational Corps at Aldershot. 6th )

7th f T ues. , J nl y Wed ., July

8th , 9th f

Thurs., Ju ly Friday, Ju ly Cricket v. Royal Army Chaplains Dept., at Aldershot.

GOLF. The Annual Meeting of the Army Golf­

ing Society was held at Prince's Club, Sandwich, on April 26th and following days. The Corps for the first time ,,,as represented in the Generals' Cup and for the 6th year in succession entered a team for the Army Golf Challenge Cup.

This year those two well tried and trusted veterans-Majors Bednall and Meek -vvere abroad, so we had to look for new blood, whi~h we were able to find amongst the probatIOner Officers novv stationed at Aldershot. On e of them- Lieut. Thomp­~on-who 1:as . ;played Golf for Wiltshire, 1S an e~penenced and powerful golfer \\'ith a handIcap of 7 \\'ho shows promise of O'et-tin?, better still. ""

The other-Captain Carter-is a sound and business-like golfer ""ith a handicap of 9 · The team chosen to represent the Corps, therefore, consisted of these two and the only. tv,;o members of the old brigade still servl11.g at home--lVIa.i ors Evers and Stan-11am, the former being' Captain of the team . . W e were dra \\'11 ag~ainst the Essex Reg t . 111 the first round WIth a starting' time of 1.40 p.m. and the knmvledge that if \Ye ,\'ere fortunate enough to win we should 11ave to start out 011 the 2nd round at 5 p.m.

:Major Evers, in spite of the fact that he had played the best round of the team on ~!l e previous day (being the only one to

touch money " from the sweepstake with a nett score of 73), decided that Stanham :ho111d play 1st String , himself 2nd, fhompson 3rd and Carter 4t11.

As ,,·ill be see11 fro111 the results g iven b elow, ,ye succeeded in beating the Essex

55

Regt. by I2 Holes to o--Stanham and Evers, playing well, were each 3 up on their opponents at the turn and then had to fight for their very lives. Four holes l ~ter General Ho\\'ard had puIled Stanham down to I up and lVIcDowell had pegged Evers do\\'n to all square. Stanham was fortunate in . being able to take the last 3 holes to fi1l1sh 4 up-Evers sticking manfully to his g uns, did well to finish all square against an opponent who was fig~ l ting him every ya rd of the \\·av.

Thompson l{ad the best of h is opponent all the \\ 'ay and after being 3 up at the turn, rubbed it in and finished 5 up.

Carter was also 3 up at the turn and managed to retain this lead nntil the end.

R._·LP. C. ESSEX REGT. Major R. G. Stanham 4 General G. W. Howard 0 Major A. N. E vers 0 1. McDowall 0 R. C. Thompson 5 R. L. Dickenson 0 Capt. D . G. Carter 3 Capt. H. J . Laverty 0

12 0

It was 4 .50 p.111. by the time our last couple in this match had come in and at .:; p.111. we were again on the 1St Tee to face the ~oyal Corps of Sigua ls No. I { nit who had been victorious over the 2nd Team of the Royal Warwicks.

Our Captain, after his dog fi gh t in the previous match, gave himself a few minutes in which he said he had an extra cup of tea (?) and Thompson played 2nd string.

We ,,,ere defeated by the Signals by 13' holes to 9 and I think it ma y be said in all fairness to our opponents that we v,'ere unfortunate to lose . All members of our

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOUR NAL

team in varying degrees lost their putting touch. In addition, Stanham met an op­ponent \\'ho played the game of his life, \\'ho holed putts from every corner of the g reen, and amongst other bits of frightful­ness, holed out from deep rough \vith a full mashie niblick shot in 3, when Stan­ham \,vas lying dead for a birdie 4·

Thompson had the better of his opponent all the way from tee to green, but usually the steadiest of putters, he found on this occasion that he could not get his putts to drop, with the result that he too \\'ent dov,n , but with not such a heavy fall as Stanham.

Although Evers and Carter both won their matches

t it was too much to expect

them to pull back the 13 holes already lost.

ROYAL SIGNALS (No. 1 Unit) .

Capt. J. F. Longfield Cap.t. E. S. Cole Capt. R C. Wood·

bridge P. T. S. Brown

RA.P.C. 8 lVIa,jor R G. Stanham 0 5 R C. Thornpsou 0

o Major A. N . E vers 7 o Capt. D. G. Carter 2

13 9

No\v for the Generals' Cup.

Major General Musson V,, as dra\\'n to play 1\IIajor General Thorpe in the 1st Round, but owing to the latter General having to play for the Argyll and S uther­land Highlanders in the retired Officers ' Team, our General received a walk-over. In the 2nd Round Major General Musson had to meet a previous holder and a finn favourite for the Cup this year, in the per­son of General Sir Walter Kirke .

This ,vas a g reat match which ended in General Kirke just managing to win on the last green after Genera l Musson had been 2 up at the turn of the round.

Had General Musson had an opportunitv of playing through the first round it {s probable that the experience gained in that round would have just turned the scale. but this being his first attempt at the Generals' Cup, he is to be cong ratulated on the .great fi ght he made against such a redoubtable opponent . V\Te hope that he will compete for the Cup next year \'\Then he should have an excellent chance of "vinnino·.

Summer Meeting. The Annual Summer Meeting \"ill again.

take pla<;e at the Went\\'orth Cl\lb, Virginia. \]i,iater , Surrey and will be held on Wednes­day, June 30th. Full particulars and entry form s have been circulated .

Competitions. A knockout competition on handicap fOl

members serving in the War Office, Alder­shot and Eastern Commands is in progress.

First round results are as follows ;-. l\Ia .ior Broadhurst beat Major Baines 2 and I. Lt. Thompson beat Col. Ormsby­J Oh11son 6 and 4. Major Barratt beat Lt. Holman 4 and 3. Capt. Hamilton beat Uajor Garratt 3 and 2. 1Vlajor Evers beat Capt. Carter 7 and 5. 'Major Stanham beat Lt. Burne 6 and 4·

At the tim e of writing these notes not one card has been received for the Half­Yearly Spoon Competition. The Hon. Sec. is \\'atching the post most anxiously, for he­is nursing a card with a steady return of nine dO'wn, and if no cards arrive, this. card goes in at 11.59 p.m. June 30th , 1937 to enable him to win his first and probably last spoon.

Other I terns. The Buffs G.S. met at Prince's. Sand-.

,,-ich in April last. Major Stanhaill com­peted and must have returned · from the meeting with a very full car for he \,von the Brickman Cup, the Senior Medal and the Trevor Cup . There \vere one or t\,VO other events \'\Thich other people won and apparently the only reason they did so was because Major Stanham 's handicap or age· were too 10\\' and barred his entry .

Matches.

56

The ninth of a series of annual matches \yas played against the Royal Army Ord­nance Corps on May 19th at Fleet. Difftculty was experienced in raising a team and eventually the match ,;vas played with six a side . vVe made a good start in the morning by ,,-inning two and halving one foursome but could only win t wo o~f the singles in the afternoon, the other four matches all being \yon by our opponents.

. ~he m~!ch "'as played in perfect con~ dltions and was a most enjoyable one . The. detailed scores \\'ere as fofloy\,s ;-

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

SINGLES.

RA.P.C. R.A .O.C. Major R G. Sta nham 0 H. S. MitchelI (5 & 3) 1

Col. 'vV. E. C. D. Major A . N'. Evers R C. Thorn PSOll

(3 & 1)

o l'ickthall (4 & 3)

1 Brig. W. N. Stokes Lt.-Col. A. W. A.

1

o Capt. D. G. Carter

(5 & 4) 1 Harker 0 Major J. G. Woods o R M. Brydges (4 & 3) 1

lVlaJ01' W. Tanner Major S. F. BalTatt o (1 up)

2 4

. FOURSOMES. Ma~or R ~. Stanham H . S. lVIitchell Major A. N. Evel's Col. W. E C D

(ha.lved) 0 P' k h' l' . R. C. Thompsoll Bri o' I,c'T t N

a 1 S(thaklved) 0

C t D G C 0' VI. L • , 0 es a,p. . . arter Lt.-Col. A. W. A.

. (5 & 4) . 1 Harkel' Major J. G. \Noods Major S. F. Barratt

(3 & 2) R IV1. Brydges

1 Major v.,T. Tanller

o

o o

~ECO~D AND PAY OFFICES SMALL BOQE ~IFLE LEAGUE

It is not possible to publish the results of the Le~g~le Competition in this issue.

Th.e st~hst1cs are now under compilation and It WIll be realised that th d 1 1 b' e e ay las

een unavOIdable this year on man -co~m~s . ~owever it is h-Gped that ~f~~e thIS Issue IS published all Club '11 1 . . d ,s WI lave r eceI ve the final result.

Hearty congratulations are due to tl three members of the Leao-ue and C le ~~ su~cee~ed in ,f3'etting th:ir places inO~~! e~~lar Army RIfle Team in the Inter­

Ser VIces Small Bore Competition It' ~~'pe~ that many more names will appear il~

IS eam next year. The three members were;- S S M A h . S S t B . .. s el, gt. Cooper and g. ruce.

ViT.H.S.

Another popular misconception.

"The Officer-ill-charge of Records. "

57

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Corps News-Officers POST IN G S-O FFI C E RS.

From "The London Gazette" ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS.

Lt.-Col. and Staff Paymr. S . A. Godfrey, llaving attained the age for retirement, i.s placed on ret . pay (March 18).

Maj. and Paymr. H. H. Morrell to be Staff Paymr. Cj\darch 18) .

lVla j. and Paymr. G. W . Butler to be Staff Paymr. ("March 19)'

Col. and Chief Paymr. R. W. Madie, having attained the age limit for retire­-ment, is placed on ret. pay (March 31).

Lt.-Col. and Staff Paymr. N . Forde to be Col. and Chief Paymr. (March 3 I) .

Capt. and Paymr. W. Vero to be Maj . (March 28).

Maj. and Paymr. H. J . H ollingsworth to be Staff Paymr. (March 3 I) .

The fo llg. to be Paymrs. (on prob.) (Jan. I ) :- Capt. I. S. H ogge, Leicester R.; Capt. W. G. Harker, W. York R.; Capt. H. M. Campbell, A. and S. H . ; Capt . R. T. ' O'B . Horsford, Leicester R . ; Capt. H . T. Pepper, Welch R .; Lt. R . C . Thompson, Wilts. R.; Lt. (now Capt.) D. G . Carter, King's Own R. ; Lt. R. D. Coate, Devon R.

Lt.-Col. and Staff P aymr. H. R. W. Dawson is placed on the h.p. list on ac­-count of ill-health (April 29) '

Capt. and Bt. Maj. arrd Paymr. C. D. Vint to be Maj. and Staff Paymr. (Apr. 29) .

Maj. (Asst. Paymr.) W. Spence, having attained the age for retirement, is placed on ret. pay (May 6).

Staff Sergt. -Maj. P. Plowman to be Lt. (Asst. Paymr.) (May 6).

Col. and Chief Paymr. R . A. B. Young , O.B.E., having attained the age for reti re­ment is placed on ret. pay (May 15)·

Lt.-Col. and Staff Paymr. A. B . Cliff to he Col. and Chief P aymr. (May 15) ·

Capt. and Paymr. S. N. Hill to be Maj. and Staff P aymr. (May 15) ·

Capt. and Paymr. L. G. Daish to be Maj. (June II).

DEATHS.

Major (Assistant Paymr.) E. A. Rason died 30.4.37 (at Worthing).

Captain (Malta) .

F. O'Driscoll died 17 ·5·37

The following moves, casualties, etc., of Royal Army Pay Corps officers are notified for information:-

Colonel E. E. E. Todd , O .B .E., Palestill e to vVool\,-ich, 25 ·3·7 ·

Colonel N . Forde, Eastern Command to Northern Command, 31.3·37 ·

Lt.-Col. W. S, Hack, North ern Ireland Distri ct to Canterbury, 31.3 ·37·

Lt.-Col. J. Sawers, London to Aldershot,

1.4·37· Lt .-Col. 1. P. Brickman, O.B.E., Shre\\'s-

bury to Egypt, 29·3·37· Lt.-Col. E. W. Grant , O.B .E. , Canter­

bury to Eastern Command, 3 I. 3 . 37 : Lt.-Col. H. P. Fennell, Gibraltar to

\~Toolwich , 8-4·37· Lt.-Col. A . S. S. Herbert , Woolwich to

\~Tinchester, 15 ·3·37· Major H. C. Pewsey, Lichfield to Malta,

29·3·37· -Major W. Eadie, M.C., Eastern Com-

mand to London, 1.4·37· Major F. T. Baines, Ceylon to Wool­

,,,icn, 8-4.37 · Major G. W. Butler, P alestine to Shrews-

bury, 19·3 ·37· Ma'ior H. J . Hollillgsworth, Warwick to

Lichfield, 26-4·37· ::\Iajor W. lVlarshall, Eastern COlnmand to

\~Tar Office, 1.4·37 . Major lVI. Blair, Gibraltar to Scottish

Command, 24-4·37· Captain R . S. E llicott , Aldershot Com-

mand to Egypt, 2·3·37· Captain H. H. Cottier, Barnet to Chat-

ham R. Sigs., 22 ,3·37· Captain H . P. Lambert, Eastern Com-

mand to Gibraitar, 3·3·37 · Captain A. J. L. H opkins, Preston to

Hilsea, 20.4 .37 . Colonel A . B. Cliff, Egypt to \Vestern

Command, 18.5.37· l\IIajor C. D . Vint, Hilsea to Western

Command, 26-4.37. Captain G, B . Cooper (Glos'ter Regt .)

joined Wanvick, 15 .5.37 . Lieut. (Assistant P aymL) P. Plowman

commissioned, 6.5.37 (Leith).

Philately TH E. chief event in the philatelic "vorld

dunng the past quarter has been the issue of stamps to mark the Coronation

of their Majesties the King and Queen. It may safely be said that never before bave such elaborate arrangements been made for supplying an issue of stamps to the public. . For months orders for the new stamps have been pouring into the office of every dealer in London and the provinces. Col­lectors were determined to order sufficient supplies before the sets increased in value having learned a lesson from the Jubile~ series in 1935. Especially heavy were the orders for sets of each colony posta lly used 'on the day of issue.

Thousands of new members have been 'attracted to the hobby through this issue but wl-:ether they are genuine collectors, souvelll r hunters or speculators time alone, will show . The fact that the ~ verage face value of the Cro'wn ColQny set is about six ­-pence means that the set is brouoht w ithin t he means of thousands who could ill afford to obtain the Silver Jubilee set where the :average cost was three times as much. Naturally prices will not rise to the same 'extent although postally used copies of some of the smaller colonies may turn ou t a goo~ proposition. Among these are AscenSIOn, Fiji , British Solomon Islands Cilbert and E llice Islands and Viroi~ Islands. b

With a few exceptions the sets will re­main on sale until 31st December unless 'suppl!es run out before that date. The -pnncIpal exceptions are Canada (",here it is ,understood the one value (3 c.) was on sale -for .3 \/i1eeks only) , South and South West :Af:lC~, Southern Rhodesia and Great Bnta1l1. In the Rho?esia set there is already a marked shortage 111 London and the price

.-bas advanced very considerably. _ Most of the stamps for use in the Crmyn 'Colonies are printed in London and already 'orders have been placed for sets bearin o-

'" YOUR CORONATION OPPORTUNITY.

. CANADA CORONATION ISSUE sent "FREE to ~ 11 sending l !;d _ ~,tamp for my price li st . of Mint. Used , and Posted direct to YOU" .sets of CoronatIOn stamps from 6d, upwards,

-ARCHIBALD F. McQUARRIE Pioneer of First Day COZJcrs (rom the E m/>in,

161a, STRAND, LONDON , W.C.2.

the head of King George VI for Ascension. St. H elena , Fiji, Grenada and Kenya and these are expected to appear shortly. As soon as these are issued the present (George V) sets will be advanced in price and so those who have not completed their current sets should do so at the earliest oDDortunity .

The same remarks apply to Egypt where, on . Augu~~ 1st, the new stamps with por­traIt of K111g Farouk are to be p laced on sale. * * *

Some people get a certain amount of satisfaction out of making philatelic 'freaks' . The latest craze appears to be to put the stamps of five reigns on one en­yelope an0 send them through the post, III the behef that these will become rare. There is nothing unique in these covers since all stamps of Victoria and Edward VII are no longer valid for postage. If you include freaks in your collection by all means buy one such envelope but do not think their value will ever increase!

* * * In my last notes I expressed the hope

that collectors in the Corps would get to­gether and form an Exchange Club. Since then a Club has been formed and already we have twenty members. Particulars have been sent to those w110 ,,,'ere known to be collectors but doubtless there are a large number who have not been notified. De­tails will willingly be sent to these if they will 'write to Capt. A. L. Dunnill, Com­mand Pay Office , 80 P all Mall , S.W.1. Any collector can become a member on payment of an Entrance Fee of one shilling and this is the only expense, no commis­sion being charged on sa les. It is hoped to send out one packet every month. The May and June packets are now both in cir-culation. A.L.D.

Coronation Stamps CROWN COLONIES. 135 stamps, complete. unused ... 27/6 DOMINIONS, etc. ()7 stamps, complete. (S.A. &

S_W.A . in bilingual pairs), unused... ... ... 30 j-ON FIRST DAY COVERS. Crown Coloni ('s . complete,

75/-; in blocks of 4. £15. Dominions, etc .• complete. (S.A, & S.W.A. in bili ngual pairs) 75 1-; in blocks of 4 ... ... ... ... ... £13 The Newfoundland set of 11 is included in the Dominion, etc., sets, (mint and covers). Subject safe arrival. Pro rata refund on any that a re lost or not day of issue. Selected cover s only. no dirt y or damaged. Suppl y is limited. J. STEPHEN, 12, Cook Street, Liverpool , 2.

THE R OYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOuRNAl -

The Corps Coronation Detachment Ho"v does one express a million and one

thrills in a thousand ,yords? Even before the actual day of the Coronation Proces­sion, our Detachment had many thrills and varied experiences.

The members of the Detachment number­ing 8, with 28 lnedals and 194 years' service, looked very smart and efficient when they ,yere gathered together for the first time on Friday, 30th April, 1937, \"vhen we had a preliminary drill lasting It hours under a G uards Instructor, after­wards being inspected by the Colonel Com­mandant. First Thrill- \\'earing the ne\\" uniforms; Second Thrill-hearing a Guards' Instructor gently reproving an erring S.Q.M. Sergeant on parade , but call­ing him " ir" at the same time-Guards ' discipline indeed! Our Colonel Command­ant addressed us, and said amongst other nice things "I am sure you \\-ill do \\'ell, after all the Corps has the pick of the Army, and you must do \yell". Then on Sunday, 9th May, 1937, \ye gathered to­gether at K ensington Park Camp, and the first reception \\-as "not so good" . vVe \yere told we were not on th e list for th at Camp at all, but an i l'l~rvie,y with th e Camp Commandant chang:ed all that ; fortun ately the writer, \yho had the honour to be O. C. the Detachment, kne\\- the Commandant \yho·--m-structed his Adjutant to place th~ Detachment on his list, and to provide tents, hi s final jocular \yords bein g: cry-ou had better arrange th is at once, thi s officer is a boxing man"-such is fame I

Just as \\-e had settled do\m, th e rain commenced , and it las ted pretty ,,-e ll throughout our stay in camp, ho\\-ever \ye all kept chee rfu 1, and even lIl anag-ed to get in some drill. The members ~of th e Detachment had evidently put in a lot of practice, for their move ments \yere \\ell and smartl v execnted_

On the day before the Corona tion Pro­cession, \\-e had a conferellce \\-ith the Ma rsha l of onr G ronp (No _ 1 2) \yh o took us out in the rain to sho\\" us our place of assembly , and to tell us all about th e evo-

60

lntions we \\-ere expected to perform during the Procession; round street is1ands,_ throug h ga tes, arches, etc., all most inter­esting, if somewhat perplexing to those­\\ho did not know London very \yell.

Then came "the" day , commencing with the issue of t\yO small tablets of chocolate ,. t\\-O lumps of sugar and eight milk tablets to all processional troops, our ration for the· day.

Parade at 9.30 a .m. and off \y e \ye n t to. the place of assembly, thence to a position along K ensing ton Road. Even here the streets were lined with spectators but as \·\-e turned to reach Hyde Park Corner the spectacle of packed stands and theering thous?,nds met us- Throug h the gates and then a baIt, H .M. The King \\'as being cro\yned, and ,ye could hear the broadcast of the Ceremony _ Th en on once more, through the cheering cro\yds, and the gaily decorated streets , past the Guards sur­rounding Buckingham Palace, along the Mall with its large stands on each side and millions of faces, do wn Whitehall, round the E mbankment-here there v"ere-49,000 children, and ho\\" they cheered-up Northumberland Avenue and a10n o- Pall Mall, a special cheer from those f01;unate enough to be in seats at No . 80; we could ~~ea r t.hem, but \\"~re too busily occupied

~.;:eepI.ng- our dress111g" to look up_ On to­Plccachlly , \\'here ,ye reached our place on th e. route , ~lld then a halt for 25 minutes, durm g whIch we consumed our ration. Crowds 9f people here , all cheering and throwin g: down cigarettes to the tr;ops­some of them got enthusiastic and com­menced throwing oranges, bananas anQ even apples down fro111 their seats in win­dows- .well meant, but just a bit dang;erous. One faIr lady offered the O_C. Detachment a g: lass of i\ine-but from a safe distance_ Off again, and althoug h \\-e did not realise it , we \\'ere in for a real march thi s time . Up Regent S treet. along- Oxford Street , past the gloriously decorated Selfridge building_

(concluded on page 77)

THE ROYAL ARJ\lV P AY CO H.PS JOUR~~AL

The Colonel-Commandant . P 7LOlo by "11I1t.stra/, d Plzotocra/I," Ealing-Ins pect ing t he Detachment in Regen ts Par:k Barracks, London .

61

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Contract Bridge By Lt.-Col. J. GROSE (late R.A.).

WH EN Wellington rode on to the field of Ligny and .saw Bh~cher' s prussi"ns drawn up 1ll full VIew <?f

Napoleon's advancing army, he shook hIS head sadly. On the same day at Quatre Bras, Ney's advancing army could see only sparse skirmishers along the banks and hedges. More than once in the Peninsul~r War the heroic Marshal had launched hIS columns headlon o- and seen them shattered by the thin red'" line waiting behind ju~t such a screen of skirmishers, and so thIS time he paused and lost a grand oppor-ttmitv.

The battle tactics of Blucher and Wellington exactly illustrate the difference between such conventions as the One- and T wo-Club with their strong opening calls of "Two" of a suit, on the one hand, and approach bidding systems on the other. Those V\ ho use the latter are content to put out a skirmishing call of "One" on almost all occasions and to deploy their forces <Tradually in consultation \\-ith their part­~ers , while the former parade their panoply at the outset.

Of approach bidding systems, the Losing Trick Count* is the easiest to master and the most satisfactory because its rules are founded on sound reasoning and not on arbitrary formulae which have to be learnt by heart. The system is said to be com­plicated and slow, and certainly som~ pr.ac­tice at it, dealing out hands and blddmg them alone or with a friend, is necessary before taking it into a rubber, for the table is apt to erupt if one of the players becomes immersed in a protracted enumeration whenever it is his turn to call . Besides, if the mind has to be switched off from the general situation and concentrated on counting losers, the results are sure to be cjeplorable. In fact, the system is only for those who will take the trouble to acquire by practice the ability t o value their hands easily and quickly, and it is for them that an outline of the principles is here set down. It is guaranteed that their mastery

*"Tbe Losin g Trick Count" . by F. Dlldley Courtenay and Colonel \iValshe.

will amply repay the time and trouble spent on it.

To count the losers in a hand.

In No-Trumps, count 3 losers in each suit, with one off for each Ace, guarded King or Queen, but a Queen, to be reckoned as a non-loser, must be balanced by an Ace in opener's haI?-d. (?y a King in responder's hand) unless It IS 1ll sequence as QJx or KQx. Example I.~x.x.x.x.x \7 x 0 K.x.x

+Q.x.x.x In Spades count 3 losers

(although there are 5 small cards) In Hearts count 3 losers

(although there is but one small card} In Diamonds count 2 losers

(one off for guarded King) In Clubs count 3 losers in opener's hand

(N 0 Ace in hand) but count 2 losers only if partner has opened vv ith a bid of "One Heart" because OK balances the +Q . Example II.-+A.K \7K.Q.x.x OQ .J ·x

+J .x.x.x With this hand, for a No-Trump opening

call, count In Spades I loser.

Hearts I loser. Diamonds 2 losers. Clubs 3 losers. Total 7 losers.

But with a suit declaration, every card in the original caller's trump suit above 3" is reckoned to be available for trumping short suits, and for the original caller's partner, when raising the suit, every trump but one is available for ruffing . Example III .-+x.x \7 - O A.x .x.x.x

+A.K.x.x.x.x With this hand, for a Club call, there

are 3 available for trumping the third round of Spades and two rounds of Hearts" so count in Spades 2 losers

in Hearts I loser in Diamonds 2 losers in Clubs I loser

Total 6 losers.

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

But for . a Diamond call, there are on ly two available for ruffing so that only one Spade and one Heart (or two Hearts and no Spade) can be reckoned as non-losers and the total is 7 losers. ' . That is all there is in counting the losers 1ll a hand. Anyone can learn to do it almost at a glance, and it is of use to any player even if his partner will have nothin o-

to do with it. b

But to go on with the system:

T o open the bidding, the requirements are:

( I ) At least 2 Quick tricks . (2) Not more than 7 losers. (3) A second ,possible \bid if pa,rtner

should call a minimum suit take out. The reason for this third p rov iso w ill appear directly . Example IV.-+A.K.Q .x \7 Q.x O x.x.x

+Q .J.IO.X \7Q not being g uarded counts as a loser but with Spades or Clubs as trumps, ther~ are . only 7 losers ~s the fourth trum p is avaIlable for trnmpmg the third round 0t Hearts. With this hand, the Dealer should call "One ~h~b", because if Responder m~kes a mIlllmum take out of c'One DIamond" or "One Heart" Opener has a second s~itable bid of c"One Spade" , whereas If he were to open with "One Spade" and Responder then made a mini­mum take out of "Two" in either red suit Opener would have no convenient response:

If the reader will now pick out from packs of cards or printed records of hands ~ dozen hands of the strength on which it IS ~sual to open the bidding , and count ~heIr lo~ers, he will see that a hand which IS quahfied for an openino ' bid of "0 No T- · ". . b. . ne

~ I ump IS com paratI vely nch and rare. ~hIS do~s not prevent a No-Trump declara­hon bel11g reached in conj unctlon with partner, but <;m the infrequent occasions when t~e opel1lng ~all i~s "One No-Trump", th.e part~er ca n VIsualIse the sort of hand WIth ·whlch '.le is being invited to co­operate and bld accordingly.

Now for t_h.e 13-esponder, partner having opene<;l the blddmg with "One" of a suit of whIch he, Responder, has not <Tot <Tood support. b b

(I) With 1 0 o r 9 losers, call " One N _ Trump". 0

(2) With 8 losers, make a minimum suit

take out or call "Two No-Trumps". These t\VO ~alls are forcing for one round and that. IS the reason for proviso (3) in the ~eqUlrements for opening the bidding. This IS the esseI?-ce of all approach bidding sys~ tems for It enables partners to bid up slowly when strong \vithout the fear of the calling stopping prematurely. .

(3) With 7 losers, make a minimum suit take out or call "Three N 0-Trumps".

(4) With 6 lose.rs or less, make a jump take out, suggesting slams.

The yard stick (call it a half-yard stick for remembrance) is 18 losers, and so the Responder, putting his partner (who has ?pen.ed the bidding) with 7, and having 10

1Il hiS own hand, calls "One No-Trump" because IS - (10. + 7) ~ 1. If he has 9 losers and cannot raIse hIS partner's suit he still calls "One No-Trump" although he expects tha t his side can make two 18 - (9 + 7) = 2. The opener can bid a<Tai~ if he has less than 7 losers, while if hebhas not l~ss th~n 7, a "One N 0-Trump" de­claratIOn ':Tlth a margin of safety is better for a partlal score. Also it allows of the opener rebidding his suit if his hand is unsuitable for No-Trumps.

Sh<;mld the Responder have adequate sup~ port 111 the Opener's suit, he will raise it to ~'Tw~" with 9 losers in preference to call­m g One N 0 -Trum p" . Both these calls warn the Opener of weakness and at the sam.e ~ime g:ive him the chance of calling agaIn If he IS very strong.

~f th~ Responder has S losers, his expec­tatIOn I.S three tricks in the best joint declaratIOn: IS- (8+7) = 3. There is room for consultation and Responder may force Opener to bid again. He can do this according to the shape of his hand eithe; by a minmum suit take out, by a' bid of "Tw~ No-Trumps" or, if he has good sup­port 111 the Opener's suit, by raisin<T to "Three". This call also is forcilw for

b

one r_ound because it is found that with trump control an extra trick can be expected, but the call should not be made without strong trump support, such as A.x .x.x, 'Q.J.x .x or x.x.x.x .x . ~hus the .numbers 7 and 18 are the only

arbItrary tlungs that have to be learnt by heart: The rest is practice and intelligence . One Illustration will be given of ea~h.

Score, AB game-VZ love; dealer Z. r

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

'y's hand: +K.x.x.x \/J.:x.x.x OQ·6·5-4 +x

Z's hand : +x \/A.K.lo.x OA.K.J.S.7·2 +Q.J

Z calls "One Diamond". A and B pass throughout.

Y counts 8 losers in Diamonds (he has available for ruffing so. only counts I

-13 . 'n Clubs and OQ IS balanced. by osel 1, . 1- faIrly

+K) but his trump support IS on y .aood ~nd the hand is a ~oor. one . . He th.er:­fore would be quite un]~st1fied III fO;;1110' especially in a minor SUIt . Y calls Two Diamonds" .

Z has 5 losers; he adds. the 9. shO\\'n by his partner, total 14. ~aklllg thIS from 1.8 , his expectation is 4 tn~ks. He ~.an no',\I show his Hearts if he hkes, knowmg that

Y ·'11 11 "Three Diamonds" unless he \<V I ca . f'd

-can support Hearts also. But Z IS a raI f "Tv,lo Spade" bid from one of the oaf 11 "Three Dpponents, he there ore ca s Diamonds" .

Y thinks "Now my trump suppo~t h~s become strong, partner having r~bId hIS suit. I showed 9 losers before, I wIll show him 8 now. He has shown 6 10sers;,~ and 8 I;1ake 14". Y therefore calls Four Diamonds" .

Z has - losers, and Y has shown 8 ; also Z has sor;e intermediate cards and probably trump control. He calls "Five Diamonds" . Will he make it? See Problem 1.

One more illustration of the system. Score aame all. B deals and calls ."One Heart"~ Z calls "One Spade". ThIS ~all shows 7 losers (the same as an opemng suit can) . A passes. Y has the very weak hand shown in Example 1 : +x.x.x .x.x \/x O K.x.x +Q.x.x.x. He counts 8 losers and good trump support. iBy the rule he can call "Three Spades". But this call would force for one round, and Z miaht call "Three No-Trumps",

o . 11 "F S d " show another SUIt, or ca our pa e~ . in any case Y knows the final declaratIOn would have to be "Four Spades", so t~1ere is no point in not calling "Four" straIght off , and he does so.

It is apparent that "Fou:" is .a weak:r response to "One" of a ma~or SUIt .than IS

"Three", and the old maXIm apphes: Do not disturb a game call.

Problem I.

.Kx.x.x \/J.x.x.x O Q·6.S-4 -!ex

Y

A

Z

+x \/A.K.IO.X O A .K.J .8.7· 2 +Q.J

Z is playing a declarati?n of "Five Diamonds", the bidding havlllg been:

Z A Y B 10 No 20 No 30 " 40 " 50 " No "

A leads +Q. Forecast the play of ~he hand and say what chances Z has of mak1l1g his con tract.

Problem 11.

+7. 5-4.3. 2 \/5 O K·9· 6 +Q.8.3· 2

Y

A B

Z

+A.J.10.8.6 \) A·7·6 0 10 +K.10·9-4

Score, game all. Dealer B. B, I \/. Z, I.. A, No . and all pass.

Bidding: Y, 4 +

A led \/ K which Z took wi th t~e Ace and led \) 7. Dummy trumped thIS and led + 2. T o this , B played +9, and A's +K fell on Z's +A.

How should Z play the hands and what are his prospects?

N.B.-AB are playing any well known system.

(For solution, see page 77)

Royal Army Pay Corps

Old Comrades Association NINTH ANNUAL MEETING.

The Ninth Annual General Meeting was held at Messrs. Harrods, Knig htshilidge on 30th April, 193 7.

The Chair "vas occupied by the President, Colonel J. C. Armstrong, C.B., Colonel Commandant, R.A.P .C., supported by Brigadier H . B. T oller, C.B., C.M.G., Colonel W . S. MacFenzie, C.B.E., Colonel R. A. B. Young , O.B.E., Colonel H. Dues­bury and M1'. R. C. B. Sharp, J.P., Chair­man of the Committee.

The Chairman in his opening remarks said that the attendance at the Annual Din­ner was expected to exceed those of recent years and he was very glad to see so large a representation at the Annual Meeting.

The Hon. Secretary read the notice con­vening the meeting .

The Minutes of the Eighth Annual Meet­ing were approved and confirmed and signed by the Chairman.

The Chairman then explained that during th e past year an appeal had been made for the late King George V Memorial Fund . Taking the ,,,, ishes of the members re the Jubilee as a precedent, the Commit­tee had made a g rant of £2 c; to the Memoria l Fund . This "vas app~roved by the Meetin g .

In SUbmitting the Annual Report and Statement of Accounts for 1936/ 37 the Chairman remarked that he could add little except to !Oay that they reflected the OTeat­est credit on all concerned. The ROeport and Accounts were adopted.

The Chairman !O aid the Committee wished to recogni se the great services of Major­General A. 1. Musson. C.B . and Col~nel R. A. B. Young , O.B.E., who had done so much for the Association and asked them to confirm the election of those two officers as Vice-Presidents of the Associa­tion.

The Chairman proposed that the Commit­tee be re-elected with Mr. Sharp as Chair­man, Colonel Duesbury as Hon. Treasurer a~d Mr. Browne as Hon . Secretary. Cap­talll Con,nor seco~ded and the proposition was earned unammously.

M1'. Thurgood nroDosed a Vote of Thanks to the retiring Auditors, Lt.-Col. Robson

6S

.a.nd ,,]Vlr. Bell. .Be _said that it gave hin) g rea t pleasure to do this as they deserved very great thanks, and that the best they could do to shew their appreciation was to re-elect them. This was proposed and carried.

Colonel Young suggested that the names of the Auditors should bear a prominent place on the front page of the Report. The Hon. Secretary informed the Chairman that this would be done in future.

The Chairman said that the next item on the Agenda referred to matters relating to the Dinner and would probably lead to some discussion as to the best means to meet a situation which possibly required some special consideration.

The Hon. Secretary said that he had re~ ceived notification from Messrs. Harrods that in future it would be necessary to increase the price of the dinner ticket by one shilling , i .e., to 7/ 6.

After the situation had been reviewed at some length Colonel Duesbury proposed that the next Dinner should be held at Slaters in Leadenhall Street. M1'. H. Downs seconded.

Before putting the proposition to the meeting the Chairman was informed that accommodation for the Annual General Meeting could be arranged on the same day and at the same place.

S.S.M. Cooper said that while the cost of the Dinner is of primary importance it seemed that as we were now getting d

greater number of men through the schoo~s \;ve should imbue in to them a g reater spint of comradeship. Mr. Norris said that the spirit of comradeship was instilled into the men at the school but it was up to the offices they joined to further this.

The Chairman said that it was fairly clear th e youngsters were not supporting us , which was a areat pity in view of the marvellous start they had made. The cost seemed to be at the back of it. He was all out for a cheaper dinner and hoped all ,,"ould do what they ('ould to get th e young~ sters to come in.

The proposal of Colonel Duesbury was

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOUl{NAL ______ _

then put to the meeting and carried unani­mously.

Colonel Mackenzie proposed and Briga­dier ToIler seconded that Mr. BrO\yne should be granted an honorarium of /:..,25·

Mr. Browne, in expressing his tl:at;tks intimated that the work of the AssocIatIOn had O"1'O';.\In enormously and that he \oyas not able °to devote as much time to its affairs as he would wish. He therefore felt that he would have to relinquish his post as Hon. Secretary but had agreed to c~rry ?n for another year. In the meantIme he hoped it would be possible to find a suc­cessor.

The Chairman said "This is the first I have heard of this and I kno\\' that Mr. Browne will help us in any way. I appreciate what he has done, but he has got to earn his living \;vhich is no easy matter outside the Corps. Although he looks young, he is not getting any younger and '-Ne must give the ~ost serious consideration to what he has Just told us. He has done so \yell for us and _,Ye must not overdrive a 'willing horse. vVe shall have to try and find someone else at the end of six months. I am grateful to Colonel Duesbury and the other members of the Committee for their fine \\"ork but there is Qnly one jman who can do- a secretary's job. This was bound to occur sooner or later."

Mr. Thurgood said that rumours of this had been heard and suggested that an assis­tant might be provided. It would be a difficult matter to take over the job.

Mr. H. DO\NnS said that he would like to make a proposition which \\"as a little 'lll1usual. Apart from Mr. Browne having no time to himself, he thought they should consider the position of Mrs. Browne who had sacrificed much owing to this reason and he proposed that a suitable present to the value of £s should be given to her. This was seconded by Sgt. Lancaster and carried unanimously.

It was proposed by Mr. Thurgood that all out of pocket expenses be paid to mem­bers of the Committee in performing their duties. Members had frequently to travel to London and their expenses sometimes amounted to J 5/ -. He did not feel that any member should be asked to bear this

expense personally. On a show of hands it "vas decided to

allow the Committee the power to g~ant expenses, keeping them as low as pOSSIble.

Colonel Young . then said that he woul.d like before the meeting 'ended, to express hIS thal~ks and those of Major-General Musson, for the proposition to confirm thei~' appoint­ment as Vice-Presidents. He was shortly retirino and \\'ould be living in North Wales~ He had ahvays had the interests of the Association at :heart land \wou14 be only too pleased to do anything he could.

The Hon. Secretary read the names of members whose deaths had been reported since the date of the last meeting , and the members stood in silence for one minute as a tribute to their memory.

Mr. Sharp proposed a hearty Vote of Thanks to the Colonel Commandant for presiding. This was seconded by Colonel Youno' and carried unanimously.

b

The Meeting then closed.

NINTH ANNUAL DINNER The Ninth Annual Dinner of the Old

Comrades' Association took place at Messrs. Harrods, Knightsbridge, S.1V.I on Fri'day, 30th Apri l, 1937. There was a large muster, representative of all ranks, past and present, the number being 315.

66

The Chair was occupied by the Pres~­dent, CQlonel J. C. Arm,strong , Colonel Commandarit of the Corps, supported by lVlajor-General ifusson, Brigadier Toper, Colonels Mackenzie, Young , T odd, Rlley, Vida1. Duesbury, Mr. Sharp, Chairman of the Committee, Mr. BrO\\"lle, H onorary Secretary, Captain Beech, Honorary Solicitor and a large number of the Officers of the Corps.

The "Roll of Honour" occupied its cus­tomary place in front of the Chairman. Music Vias provided by the Nimbu~ Orchestra of Ex-Service men. The guests of the evening were Mr. Bovenchen, Deputy Under Secretary of State for War, Mr. Watherston, a former Director of Fin ance and Nfr. T. H. S. Wyllie, Private Secretary to th e Under Secretary of State for War.

The following telegram \\'as despatched to the Private Secretary to His Majesty.

THE ROYAL ARMy PAY CORPS JOURNAL

'''The Old Comrades ' Association of the Royal Army Pay Corps, assembled at Ran-ods, Knightsbridge, on the occasion of their Ninth Annual Dinner, send loyal and respectful g reetings to His Majesty and wish him a long, happy, and prosperous Teign. Sig ned J. C. Armstrong Colonel Commandant. "

The toast of "His Majesty The King " was proposed by the Chairman and drunk VIii th acclama tio11.

In proposing the toast of the " Old Com­rades' Association" Major-General Musson 'said :-"Your Excellencies, my Lords, ... I am sorry, I'm afraid I had forgotten that I was not speaking to one of my customary audiences. I do not know whether you are aware that I am a live member instead of a chartered gasbag and I am therefore able to make this or any other speech. There is another small point and that is that at these dinners in the past when I gazed round at my fello\v Chief Paymasters and the controlling body of the Associa­tion, I have been struck by the Irish, Scotch, and other foreign nations repre­sent~d. It so happens that things are im­provmg for during the last three months we have managed to get rid of two Macs and next month a 'Young' Irishman fol­lows. We part with these Officers with Tegr~t; bu~ I am right in saying that after gaelIc, donc and erse, you will be a lad to hear a little English. I hope I ha;e con­veye? to you the idea of my qualifications ar~d Impress you with my academic person­alIty; but I have to confess that I no w ieel consurned with that hesitation in­dec.ision, and lack of clear expre~sion WhICh are the principal traits of a Chief .Paymaster.

"I am perfectly aware that there are many kinds of English-Ancient British as spoken by G racie Fields-the Costina School in moments of ex~itement, and s~ on. In that class all the best claims come irol11. Lancashire. There is the refined Enghsh of Telephone operators and the English with the Oxford accent. Talking about Oxford we have with us to-ni o'ht three distin ,Q, ui shed scholars from Oxfo~·c1. All the Civil Service seem to come from Oxford . First of all we have \\I ith us a 'new cOl~ler. Mr. Bovenchen, who suc­-ceeded SIr Reginald Paterson as the Deputy

Under Secretary of State for War. I hope this night's experience will not fri ahten him into not coming again . Mr. W:ther­

.. s~n..1 who has stood me for five years and has einerged from his retirement in a state of health in which I am very a lad to see

. 0

hIm. , .' Last, but not least, ,;-,,'e have Mr. Wyllie, the Pennanent Under Secretary's Private Secretary. Sir Herbert Creedy can­not be here as he has t wo other enO'aae-

f . b 0

ments or tlllS evening and so we welcome Mr. Wyllie as his representative. Mr. Wyllie at Oxford obtained, prizes in Latin and Greek verse. He should provide Latin and Greek verses to go with our Regimen­tal Marches, which v,70uld be quite an un­usual precedent, provided he gave us the translation as being the only person who really knew what the words meant.

"I have further to confess that I am really unable to pronounce the title of this Association. 'Comrade' is a 'word which denotes mere commonplace. As a compli­ment to our guests I may say that the Ox­ford dictionary did not know what it meant, so it came to the conclusion that 'Chambermate' was its equivalent. That sounds to me most unpleasant-the pronun­ciation seems to me to become bolshevik and the meaning immoral. I prefer the word 'friend' and I notice that the quota­tion on our menu cards seems to be of the sa:me opinion: 'Friendship is a word, the very sight of which in print makes the heart warm'. There is nothing new in the word 'friend' or in the association of friends. IVlany years ago, in the early days, I seem to remember being introduced to the works of the Greek Philosopher, Aristotle, who thrived about the year 350 B .C. and there was one quotation, which was an ethic, that for man friendship was essential to his happiness. Well now that is perfectly true to-day; I think \\'e all agree that trouble shared with a friend is halved. I think that some people in the Corps do 110t realise their responsibility to this Association and I think there are many who do not realise the assistance g iven by the Association . If they did realise membership would be 100 % . I{ererring again to the word friend, there is another qnota tion fr0111 J ulins Caesar, (he \\'ords bei!l g spoken, you will remember, by Mark Anthony,

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

' I am n o ora tor , Brutus is; . 'But , as you kil O\\' me all, a pla1l1 blunt

man 'That love lilY fri end; and that th ey

kno\\' full well 'That gave m e public leave to speak of

him' and that is th e sentiment t o have in your hearts as I ask you to rise at-id drink to t~e health of th e ' Old Comrades' AssocIa-tion' ."

Mr. Bro\\'ne, in responding , said:-

"Once more it has fallen to m y lot to reply to the toast of the Association. Th .,:: past year has been a y~a~ of. st eady pr.o­g ress . ~) ur financial pOSItlon IS on a satIs­factory basis. Thanks to Colonel Duesbury we have been able to meet all calls u pon us; but \\'e have to look ahead a little and the time may come \\'hen we may not be able t o get any donations and have to rely upon our subscriptions !o meet heavy calls upon our resources. When we read of re­armament prog rammes, blockades and mandates, not th e mandate, a g irl clerk described as an appointment with a boy friend (laug hter), it behoves us to look to what we have got and I can assure you our treasurer is quite capable of doin g that.

"We are pleased to-night to have our President back \\·ith us again. (Applause.) \ Vc. have also .all our Vice-Presidents, t vvo of them happily restored to h ealth and the other t wo as they say in the Gazettes, on first appointment (laughter). It is said that an Associa tion should ah\'ays advance and mak'e progress and I th ink that \\'e can satisfy ourselves ' that we are advancing. That - ,ye are no\\' becoming a really im­portant body , able to do som e good, for the Corps at large . is apparent. It is for that reason I sh ould like to see the younger members join. for this Association largely exists for their benefit.

"Last year I expressed the hope that, one day, we would march past to the tune of 'Oh for a General of our Own'. Now ,Ye have one and I congratulate General Musson on being the first to hold that important office.

"We have been very lucky this year, as regards the employment of our members . There have been occasionsvvhen ,ye have been unable to' find men for jobs; at the same time we know that this h as been a

yea r of unexampled prosperity, as is shown by th e . fact that the number of 'people: une1l1plo'yecl now, who want "'ork, ~s very small. W e cot.ile). do a lot more lIT that \yay if we had sufficient time at our dis­posal; but we all h~ve our own. occupa­tions and this work IS only done III a sub­sidiary way ; ·therefore, we can say. tha~, at least, the unemployment questlOn IS fairly satisfactory.

"Well, the Corps has developed of late· yea rs; when I joined the Corps, many years a o'o we were really fine fellows , thoug h I ";,a'y it myself, and we fancied our chance ;. then the Great War came along and through some unfortunate reason or other "'e were not so popular. I remember a tale beino told of t wo fello ws coming h ome on the leave boat, who had not seen each oth er for some time; one said to the other,. 'I see you have joined up , w hat are you in "?

I thought you were unfit.' . 'The Pay Corps', replied the other. SaId. t~e first, 'Lord , lumme, myoId woman IS 111 your regiment.' (Laughter. ) That sounds funny now, but it was not funn y at the time and that was h ow the Corps was regarded by many; but we have altered all that and the Corps is once more highly th ought of.

68

C'I won't de tain you longer, but I would like t o ask the Office H. ep reselltatives to keep constantly in front of them and those in their offices the sound advice that every­one in the Corps should be a m ember of the Old Comrades ' Association. As time goes on there is no doubt that we shall require a ll the members possible; not for th e sake of the subscrip ti ons, although these are very welcome, but for the infiu-· ence ,ye can bring to bear on other matters, if \\'e have a larg er membership .

"I should lIke before I fini sh t o repeat a littl e of what the Genera l said . We w el-­come our Vlsltors ri ght h eartily; Mr. Bovenchen for the firs t tim e, Mr. W ather­ston , an old friend. and Mr. W y llie wh o, has beeu"'itl1 us before and who , I anI sure, " 'ill be with us again. We "vish them a very nleasant evening and h ope they have enj oyed th emselves.

"Thank you very much for being so natient; I h ope we shall have just as fine a g-a therin g- n ext year. Wherever we hap­pen to be, I hope that the same spirit of chivalrous comradeship will always remain vcith ns. "

THE ROYAL ARMV PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Mr Bovenchen then said ':Tl~ere is no . the proo-ramme to 111chcate that

name on b ' . k and I did I \\"as going to get up t.o spea 1l1til not know that I was g0111g to do ISo , l

. t a rro' but I do feel tlat your a lllOmen b ' . h t ' . t i Id not like to leave vVlt ou say-

gues s v\ OU . ed this even-ino' how much they have enJoy . in~ and \.vithout thank~ng you most S1l1~ ce; ely for your hospitalIty . I thought for a mo~ent that one of your other gue~t~ ouo'ht p~operly to reply; but I remem ell

b M W Hie if he spoke would on y thatkl' .!". Gr~ek ~nd although' he probably spea - 111 I ' . th him \yould have brought a trans atlOn ~l . '

this ossibly would have been 111 Lat111. Then

P I thought that Mr. Wathel:s~on

should reply; but as he is a m~thematlClan 1 . uld have thanked you wIth a mathe­le wo emberc matical formulae and as you are m Id t of the R.A.P .C., of course, you cou ?-o be expected to understand mathematlcsf (laughter) . Therefore, by a process 0 elimination it remained for me to ~ay , thank you for a most pleasant even:ng . G eneral Musson brought out quotah<;>ns that showed that he had ha? an educatlOn in Classics and in modern l~terature .. If ~

be permitted to cap hIS qu<;>tatlOns I n:a

Yld say this. He said how Importa1:t

\\ ou A . t ' f thl"­friendship was in an sso~la 1011 0 .' l ' d' I too feel that there 1S a g reat deal ~~ntr~lth in another quotation. I b~lieve it comes from Shakespeare and runs I.count myself in nothing else so haP1?Y a~, m t~e sole remembering my good fnend s. . VV e 1 been happy to-nirrht by meetmg _olel l ave . b f ' I" (A) friends and making ne,v n enc ~. 1 -plause . )

l\Ir. Brm,vne then read messages that had been received from Royal ~rm'y .Pay Corps' offices abroad and from mdl vlduals v,ho \"ere unable to be present .

The following telegram \Va~ rec~ived from the Pri va te Secretary to HIS MaJesty . " The King sincerely thanks ~h~ members of the Old Comrades' AssoClatlOn. Royal Arm y Pay Corps dining tog.ether th1s e:en­in a for their loy al g reet111gs and gOO? 'y~hes which His Majesty much appreCl­ates. "

The Dinner Committee \",ere Mr . H , Down (President), Captain C. W. Connor, S.S. Major D. Syme, and S.Q.M.Se_rgts . H . J. L ent, F. V. Mundy and G. E. N eedham .

OLD COMRADES' ASSOCIATION. COMMITTEE NOTES. .

. f the General Comnu ttee The quarte l~b I1;'~1\ll1~Ia~1. S.vV.1. , on 7th .April,

was held at , ' 'Jf Nir Sharp , t he chalr was 1937 .. ltdl bt~1eNt~s'jncThurgo~d , th e other members occuple .y c' t " J F eehally Mr. H. Down~ present bemg ap ,.;:t lll . . D S' me and P . G . S S M s G. VV. l\l1t chenel , . y . h C 1 ~1 H

. . . Q M S H J Lent Wlt 0 on~ . - . Thompson and S. .1' . . .' 'd Mr E J W D b Honorary Treasurer . an ..' . ues ury, . . Browne Hon~H'ary Secreta ry. . . b

The ~linutes of the previous meetm g havm11

e~~

dealt with, it wa,s. ~fci~\~f ~~a;d~i:d ~~mt~e o'~R~~. of deceased membelI s S 10 be borne by Associa tlOn Honour" and t le expeuse

FL~.\~I: . a<.:coL1Jl ts for the year e l~ d ed 31st l\Iar ch , 193'7>

were adopted, subject to a ltl1dlL 'ad the report fo r The Honora ry Secretary len 1 e< . l' 1 t

. 1936-1937' After dlscuSSlOn and s 19 1 . the yeal . ~ decided that this be adop ted amendments, It wa" l ' ' t l the st at ement of and pl'lnted . to get leI WI I b '

ccounts for' the infOl'matlOn of the mem el S. . a The l\genda for the Genera.l Meetmg ~as ~IS-

d and appl'oved and after a long dlscu.s~lOn cusse " . . t d Id er] on th.e subject o.f the annual dnnnel' , I ' dwa~t ec tl ' to lace the mat ter on the Agenda an 0 am le d p. . of the members An appeal from the Old

eClSlOn t 'bl ' ,X7 ales for assistance to at tend t he Contemp 1 es OL 'V" 11 b t ex-ser vice review on 27th Jun~ was he ( to e ou -~;de the scope of th e AssociatIOn Fund ~ ., " The ballot fo r places allotted. to t he AssoclatlOf" t '. the Coronation processlOll resulted as fo-o Vlew 15/ S Q M Ss J . T. lows '-Four seats at -, ' . . . 1 cl Madl~v and F. E . Matthews, M1'. F. H. Godsel aD ' L / Ser ;;'t. T . McA l' thur ; two seats a t 2/6, S. f:i .M . .

o d S . t J 'Stevellson : fi ve free places, Syme an etg . . . N dl ) SS M O. Thol'llhill , S.Q.M. S. G .. E: ee 1ia~, Nie~sr~ . E. J. V·l . Browne, J. R Plu lllPS, and- v, . W . Bm'ton.

* * * The Management Committee I:ave met mont~1 1y

and have deal t with seven apphcatlOll s for assls~-. ance, fo ul' being fro m non-members. Gra~lt s W~ l ~ mad.e in five cases, and 111 one case a gIant was. obtained from anoth er fund. No grant was made in the remaining case. d f '

The Honorary Secretary read correspon en c~ lom Ca nada. House ' ~md: Sout h Afn,ca, H ouse rela~mg t~ the visits of the Co'ronation Contlllg.ent? None lot our Alliecl Corps we re in En gland m tllne fo ~' t l e Dinner. He stated that he had personally .. v l s~t,ebd both t hese H ouses to see wh at could posslbly ~ done to entertain t he th ree m~mbel's of the ovel ­seas R A.P .C. who wer~ m t.hlS countr y. It was decided, after due conslderatlOll, t~1at tune ,would not permit of my fo rmal enter tamment as they were due to return home on 14th May and a f.u~ programme had been ar ranged {Ol' the shor t peno

70

they wer·e in London.. 1 f' The Committee report , WIth reg ret! the cleat lS o .

the foUo,wing members since the last lssue :-Col~n eI ''''T. C. K ennedy, a t Cheltenham, Mr . J . H . Smlth, at Manchester , Mr. L . ' N. J enner, a.t Urmston , .Lt.­Col. W . A. Bl'it ten , O.B.E. , a t ~ol'k , ~1aJ <,)l E. A. Raso n, at W orthin g, and CaptaIn F. 0 Dnscol~ , at Malta. Letters of condolence and . wreaths, wh eH~ possible, ha ve been sen t to the rela tIves .

(Si gned) E . J . W. BROWNE , Honorary Secretary _

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

OBITUARY The death occurred suddenly , at 1\'lun­

caster, York, on 18th March, I 937 , of Lieutenant-Colonel Will iam Albert Brittell, O. B.E., at the age of 50 years.

Colonel Britten was appointed a civilian Acting Paymaster on 27th November, I 914, and joined the Army Pay Department as a temporary Captain and Paymaster on I3th February, I917. In January of the follow­ing year he became a Temporary Major and Staff Paymaster. In December, I9 19 he was g ranted a permanent commission as Lieutenant and Paymaster. He was pro­moted Captain on I 3th February, I922 ,

Major and Staff Paymaster on I7th October, I 923 and Lieut.-Colonel on the same date . At the time of his decease he ",.;as serving in the Northern Command Pay Office , York.

The funeral, with military honours, took place at York on 23rd March, the service taking place at the Garrison Church and the interment at Fulford Cemetery . The coffin covered by file Union Jack was borne on a gun carriage, and an escort and firing party was provided by I80 rank and file of th e ISt Bn. The York and Lancaster Reg iment, under . the command of Lieut.­Colonel H. E. de R. Wetherall, D .S .O. , M .C. The rear detachment was composed of 20 rank and file of the I 5/ I9th The King 's Royal Hussars .

The service was conducted by the Rev. H. F. S . Collier, C.F ., Assistant Chaplain­General, Northern Command, and the pall bearers, officers of the Royal Army Pay Corps, were as follows: Lieut.-Colonel A . A . Cockburn, Major H. W . Taylor, Major C. E . E lliot-Hey,,,'ood, Major J. M. Mac­Namara, Captain E . D. Edinger, Lieut . G. Ross and Lieut . O. G. Plo,;vman .

Among those present were Mr. C . J . Brit­ten (brother) and Mr. B. A . W y les (brother-in-law); Mr. F. Go~den (A nnv A uditor, N orthern Command ) , and Mr. W. K e11dall (Assistant Army Auditor, N orth­ern Command) . The York Branch of th e British Leg ion was represented by Captain W. A. Price.

* * * Captain Ch arles Stanley Rayner , wh o

7I

died, at the ag e of 52, on 2nd March, I937 , joined the Army Pay Corps as a private in Aug ust, I9I4. He served in France from I9 I 5-I 9 I8 attaining the rank of A / Serg t., ,,,hen h~ was discharg ed to a temporary commISSIOn.

In I920 he was g iven a permanent com­mission as Lieutenant and Paymaster, was promoted Captain in 1923, and retired with a g ratuity in I9 26.

He ,·vas in possession of the I9I5 Star, .l3ritish vVar and Victory .iVIedals and the Meritorious Service Medal.

* * * The death of L. W. Jenner (No. 7657248,

late S.S.M.) occurred on 7th March at U rmston, Lancs.

J enner enlisted in the R.F .A . in I902 and transferred to the Army Pay Corps at Aldershot in I903. He remained here until he was posted to London . District in I9II and 3 years later went with the B.E.F. to France and \Vas mentioned in Despatches. In I920 he was promoted w.o.n. and was posted to the R.A.S.C. Pay Office and in I9 23 was promoted W. O.I. He went to Sierra Leone in I927, but \;vas invalided, and ,vas discharg'ed in the same year.

In addition to the I914 Star, British War and Victory Medals, he was a,;varded the Meri torious Service and Long Service and Good Conduct Medals, and the Medaille D'Honneur of France with Diploma .

* * * George Hodgson (7657410, late Sergt.)

died at York on 28th March, I937, aged 59· He served in the R. Artillery from I897 to I909 and was discharged with the rank of Cor DoraI. From I899-I902 he served in India .

In N ovember. I914 Hodgson enlisted into the A rm y P ay Corps and served throughout the Grea t W ar in the Corps at York: he proceeded to Sierra Leone in I921 returning home in I92 2: he was discharged \~'ith the rank of Sergeant in I92 3 .

He was in possession of the Long Service and Good Conduct Medal.

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL ------------~------------------.----------~----------------

The death of Colonel Edmund Walcott Ne\,vland occurred at Bournemouth on June 2nd.

Colonel Newland was the son of Captain C. F . Nevvland, R.N. and was born on nth January, 1858. He \NaS cor~missioned to the 64th Foot (N. StaffordshIre Regt.) i.n January, 1878, promoted Lieutenant 1879 and waS Adjutant from 1879 to 1882. He \~as promoted Captain in 1885, took part i.n the Operations in Zululand in 1888, and transferred to the Army Pay Depart­ment in 1891. In 1901 he was appointed Staff Paymaster, promoted Major in 1906 , and Colonel and Chief Paymaster in 1909.

In 19IO Newland was Command Pay­master, Malta, in 1912 Command Pay­master, Western Command and in 1916 Command Paymaster, Gibraltar : he re­tired in 1919.

Col. Newland was mentioned in War Despatches and awarded the C.B.E.

* * * Major (Assistant Paymaster) Edward

Alroy Rason died at Worthing on the 30th April, at the age of 57·

He enlisted into the ranks of the R. Artillery and served · therein for over 23 years reaching the rank of Warrant Officer.

In 1917 Rason was appointed Lieut. (Asst. Paymaster) in the Army Pay Corps,

he was promoted Captain in 1925 and Major in 1932. He was placed on half pay on account of ill health in December, .1936.

* * * Captain and Paymaster Finneen O'Dris­

coll died very suddenly at the Military Hospital, Imtarfa, Malta on the 17th May last. He was 43 years of age.

He left Woolwich for Malta as recently as the early part of this year and the nev,ls of his death will come as a shock to his many friends and colleagues in the Corps.

Captain O'Driscoll leaves a widm.v and four daughters to whom the sympathy of the whole Corps 'will be extended.

Captain O 'Driscoll enlisted in the Royal Horse Artillery in 1912 and had a dis­tinguished record in the Great War in France and Belgium. Wounded, mentioned in dispatches, he was promoted 2nd Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on the Field. Later, as acting Captain, he was with the Army of Occupation on the Rhine.

72

Promoted Lieutenant in 1919 he served in a special Staff appointment in Ireland from 1920 to 1922 and it was from this appointment that he joined t~e R.~.r .C. on 23rd November, 1922, servlllg hIS pro­bationary period in the Hamilton Office.

He was promoted Captain and Paymaster on 23rd November, 1927.

Whilst in the R.A.P.C. he served at Hamilton Aldershot, Chatham, West Coast of Africa: Chester, Preston and Wool\;vich prior to proceeding to Malta.

A colleague sends this tribute :--" O'Driscoll had a genial personality

which allied with that fascinating humo~r so usual in the native Irish, made him a most likeable man. His cheerful smile and ready wit often brightened a dull busy day."

* * * The death occurred at Southend 011 the

21St January of Pensioner D. A. ~oo~l­roffe at the age of 62. After serv111g 111 the Wiltshire Regiment, Woodroffe trans­ferred to the R.A.P.C. and after 22 years' service was discharged in 1919.

* * * W. J. Hale (No. 130, late S.Q.M.S.)

died at Winchfield Hospital, Fleet on the 26th March, aged 82. Hale enlisted into the Royal Artillery in Dublin on the 28th August, 186q, and served in that Corps for over 16 years, transferring to the Corps of Military Staff Clerks in 1886. After 7 years in that Corps he was tr~nsferred to the A.P .C. in 1893 and was dIscharged III

1890 with 30 years' service . He was stationed for six years 111

Gibraltar and three years in Bermuda, and was in possession of the Long Service and Gco:! Conduct Medal.

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

The Editors acknowledge with many thanks re­

ceipt of the following Journab: " R.A.M. C. News and Gazette," Mar., April , May.

" The Wire," April , May, June.

" The Sapper ," Ap ril, May, June.

" The Gunner," April , lVlay, June.

"R.A. O. C. Gazette," Mar., April , May.

" The Wasp," March.

"The Accountant".

"R.A.V .C. Journal," May.

"A. E. C. J OUl' llal. " ! pril.

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Our Chess Page C(}rrespondence Chess.

Several organizations for the .promotion of Correspondence Tournament p4iy exist in this country and for the moderate player the Chess Amateur Correspondence League (Hon. Sec., Mr. A. J. Hamblin, 282 Wood­bridge Road, Ipsv"ich) is admirably con­ducted. Among many other activities, an annual Tourney is run for a Silver Trophy, and that for a Silver Queen (runner-up a silver pawn) has just concluded. The following game was played in the :final of this contest and includes an interesting Queen sacrifice.

(The Chess Editor, having published in a recent number, one of his own chess tragedies, feels that despite its length, he need not apologise for publishin o' this, one of his happiest efforts.)

Game No. 42. Wllite. Black .

E. H. Fleat'. A. J. Hamblill.

1. PKA 2. KtKB3 3'. BKtS 4. BR4 S. Gastles 6. QK2

Ruy Lopez. 1. PK4 2. KtQB3 3. PQR3 4. KtB3 S. BK2

~\'Iore usual is RK1 , but this , the Won'all attack, has mu ch to he"said for it. The -iaea -is to open up the KB file , a ftel' ha.ving closed the centre bv PQS, as actually happens in this game, th e KR, remaining on its present file.

7. BKt3 B. PB3 9. BB2

10. PKR3

6. PQKt4 7. PQ3 B. KtQR4 9. PB4

Played before th e mol'·~. popular PQ4 to prevent BKKtS, and to provide a hol e for the Knight,

preparatory to PKB4. .

11. PQ4 J2,. PQS 13. KtR2 14. PKB4

10. KtB3 11. QB2 12. KtQ1 13. KtQ2

As per pIal! a e·vised :1t mOve 6.

IS. BK3 16. KtQ2 17. BxKBP lB. KKtB3 19. PQR4 20. KR1

White is in no

14. PKB~ IS. KtB2 16. PxP 17. Kt(Q2) K4 lB. Castles 19. BQ2

hurry and there is time for thi~

..,'> I ,) .

precaut,ioua ry measur·e. ZOo QRKt1

21. PxP 21. PxP 22. PQKt3 22. PKt4

So far Blac k ha,; achieved a very creditable de­fence under difficult conditions but thi s move seems a little rash as exposing the K side. It is difficult, h0,wever , to find other than passive alternatives.

23. KtxKt 23. BPxKt . 24. BK3 24 PR;>; [,' 2S. QR5 2S: BK1 ;):~ere . .. KKt2 was needed to prevent White' s qlJ-amt l'Ound-the-mulberry-bush manoeuvre to bring hJS KB lIlto play , which folJ.ows.

26. QKt6ch 26. KIU 27. BQ1! 27. RKt1 ~. QBS ~. RK~

White wants to play BKt4, but if Black tries to prevent thiS by 28 . . . KtQ1 Z9 BKt4 (just the same) RKBl , 30 QxRch ! BxQ, 31 RxBch, etc .. with wmrnng compensation for th~ Queen. .

29. BKt4 29. KtQl 30. QB3 .

. And Whit~ ha.:; succeeded in his manouevre bring­~ng lusKB ll1to play. Not QB2 here as this square IS reqUIred for the 1'00k.

30. BKts 31. RB2 31. PIU5 32. PB4 32. RR2 3~ BBS ~. KK~ 34. KtB1 34. BxB 3S. QxB 3S. KtKt2

Here Black should. have played ... QBl first , a~ then Wlnte Il?-ust elthel' lose a tempo withdrawing his. q, or submit to tl~e ~xchang~, when despite a poslt:lOnal advantage, It IS QuestIOnable if he can obtam mor·e than a draw . -

36. KtKt3 ' 36. Q1H . Too late;, for White has now a sacrificial line pre·

pa red, which, however , Black can hardly have been expected to foresee.

Position after 36 .... QB1.

37. KtRSch 37. KR1 3B. QxRch !

Vie beheve this sacrifi ce to be sound 111 every variation which may follow .

38. KxQ

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

39. RB7ch 39. E:Rl Not . . . KKt3 because of 40 RKt7ch E:xKt

41 PKtAch KR5 42 KKt2 and mate follows In a, move 01' so.

40. RxB 40. QKBl 41. RQB7

,\Vhite' s li ne is here rendered soun d by t he fa ct that no ventilat ion is obtainable for Black down his KB file.

41. QQl 42. RKB7 42. QKtl 43. RB6

Curiously stronger than the more natural looking QRKB1. Black must not be allowed to r etu rn hi .. Queen for a roo k and Knight still less fo1' two rooks, as White' s Q side pawns will become exposed to th e B lack Kt. yia RA.

43. KR2 44. RR7

'T he sam e reply w'ould have h eld if 4.3 . . . QR2. 44. QKl

45. PKt4 45. QK2 46. P R4 46. QQB2

Black is helpl ess to prevent the break th rough . 47. PxP 47. P xP 48. BxP 48. QKt3 49. RB7ch 49. KKtl

Forced ; if . . . KRl , 50 KtB6 and mate follows. 50. RQ7 SQ. RKBl

Of course if ... QxR, mate in two by K tB6ch. 51. RR8! 51, . R esigns.

An amusing r.oup-de-gt·ace. Mate can only be postpo~ eclJ by enormou s ma.t erialloss and if . . . RxR. MaLe m two as before.

End=Game

The above POSItIOll occurred in a recent Russian Tourney and th e following sacrJ­ficial line is well worth y of study .

1. BxP ch A fa mi li al' sacrifi ce in such positions but the

succeeding Hook suicide is som et hing new, we t hin k. 1. KxB

2. QR5ch 2. KKt l 3. R xP!

Th e pawn at K t5 j usti,fi es t hi s. 3. QxR

4. PKt6 4. QxK t P FOl'ced.

5. QxQ 6. KLB,)

5. KtB2 6. BK2

74

7. BR6 8. BxP! 9. KtKKt5

10. RKBl 11. RxKtch

And mate next move. forcill g sacrifi ces.

7. BB3 8. BxB 9. K tQ2

10. KtBl

.An unusun Il y fine se ries of

Problem No. 21.

By W. A. Lebedeff (Lening rad).

6

White (1 0 men ) White mates in two.

Solution to "Handica'p" position (Dr. L. S. P enrose) This Christmas cO!1undrum is in eftect a mate in

five problem whi ch is solv3d by :-Move, 36 KtK4! (threa,t ening K tB6 Mate) . Black has two def.ences. 36 . . . 13xKt, 37 QKKt3ch BKt3, 38 QQKt3 and

ma,te next move. Or 36 ... QxKt, 37 QQKt3ch QQ4, 38 QKKt3ch

QKKt4, 39 QxQch BKt2, 40 QxB Mate. Thu s \Vhit e accompli shes his H andicap task of

matin g within 40 moves. A very beautiful li t tle composition.

Solution to Problem No. 20 (by F. W . Andrew) RQB5

ODD REMARKS HEARD RECENTLY

On Lhe Range- ClThat' s beLte?' SIR-it's just cutting the s'ix ring " !

In CIA" S ection-ClBut what 's an unen­titl ed pers()nn el entitled to"?

I n I.1'1HY Sc ho ol- 'G ive an example of a COR OLLARY'- " ACI I 59 is a corol­la ry to ACI I 58".

Latest Pro'V erb-T oo many Cooks make a recogni sed mess

[

THE RUYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

The Corps '. .

•

In 'THE photogr:;tph \vhich accompanies

this article recalls an incident in the life of those melnbers of the Corps who

were destined to serve with the Detachment in Poona, and can be regarded as evidence ·of one of the very fe w occasions on which the R .A. P.C. is called upon to fi g ure in a prominent way in connection with a func­tion of historical importance, the pa rticn-1ars of which, so far as can be remembered, it may be interesting to relate.

In the circumstances in \\'hich th e De­tachment existed ill Poona any un toward incident was always eagerl y antici pated as ·a means 9 f varying th e joys of life which in the mair; depended upon th e efforts of j'ts. melllbers .

It happened that qIl , 7tl1 November, 192 I

the then Prince of Wales was due to land in Bombay preparatory to his tour of India , .and Poon a was to be his first call. E laborate preparations both municipal and military we re in prog ress for his reception and welcome, but th e members of th e Detach­ment';"lere mostl y concerned \\'ith th e fact that the day was to be a holiday and there was a special Race Meeting in the after­noon, to be attended by the Prince. Not for them th e fl ourish of trumpet or martial air, for it was doubtful whether by virtue 'of our uniq ue position as a Detach ment in India (subsisted entirely by Imperi al F unds) the authoriti es recognised our ·availability. In any case that 'was our idea and the n otion of our having to parade at all was farthest from our minds. Three days before the arrival of th e Prin ce in Bombay hO\;vever , a bombshell fell in the \Vanovnie Camp. Orders were received tll at a party of 50 men with medals were re­quired 'for parade, and to proceed to the Judge's Court , where the Prince was to be presented with an Address of Welcome. The camp for the next day or tv,'O pre­sented a spectacle comparable almost to tIlE' Ca ledonian Market for although th e 50 re­quired h ad been detailed, it became a p rob-1em for each to regale him:elf acco rdill .2: to regulati on at such short notice \>.lith so little facility at our disposal. Ga rm ents h ad to be procured at all cost and it is trne to say th at. very few of t.hose wh o

Poona, _ 1.1 , J

paraded could claim ownership of all the garments which adorned them.

As the day approached there "vas some little anxiety in the minds of those respon'­sible, as to what sort of a spectacle would eventually represent. the Corps at so im­pOl-tant a function, but the hour of parade, 7 a.m., and an inspectiqn allayed all anxiety. On t.he contrary the Corps had surpassed it.self, for the party marched out of Camp a credit to themselves and to the Corps they represented.

The Judges Court was some 3 miles distant from the Camp, and entailed a march through P oona, which vvas carried out at sucb an early hour in order to escape the heat of the day. On our arrival \\ 'e were permitted to dismiss and to pass a \\'ay our time as best v\le might until the hour appointed.

It may be well to say that the Judge 's Court was a building standing back from the roadway in its own grounds, and ap­proached from the road through a recessed g·ate \\'ay. A temporary platform had been constructed in t.he gateway from "" hich the Address of Welcome was to be presented.

Behind the Court ran the railway line from Bombay to Poona, and soon the Royal Train was due to pass along. The Detach­ment voluntarily arranged themselves on eit.her side of the line and as the train approached they gave the Prince his first ch eer of welcome to Poona . It was no h alf-hearted cheer and it brought. the Prince t.o th e windovil of his coach.

About an hour or so later the procession \\ 'as due at the Court and the Detachment \\'as dra\;vn up inside the low walls which

. encircled the Court Grounds and was en­abled to have an uninterrupted view of the whole proceeding . On the platform in the gate \yay h ad assembled the dignitaries chiefl y concerned in the presentation (mostly Parsees), while the roadway ' on eit.h er side \;\ as thronged with black faces. It was not long before a faint, far distant murmur could be heard which g radually swelled into a t.umultuous roar of cheering a' th e R oyal Procession approached. The 'Prince's ca rnage stopped at the platform,

75

T H E ROYAL' ARMY P AY CORPS JOURNAL

the Prince stood up, and the reading of the Address commenced. The ,,-riter, standing at a point of vantage, will nev€r forget the incident of the Parsee gentleman, who, owing to a combination of nervousness and wild excitement, time and again lost his place in the reading , shaking like a jelly and finally reach ing the climax of hesitation so prolonged, that the Prince came to the rescue by reading his rep ly, This ordeal over, the Procession moved on

to a function further afield. The Detach ­ment however were destined to rernam until after the return journey.

On this occasion they were formed up in two ranks, and must have presented a pleasing spectacle, for as the Prince passed by he appeared to be making enqu1ries as to who and what we were. It ,,'as after­wards learnt that such ,,-as the case and that his remarks as to our military bearing were highly complimentary, and ,,-hy not? for every breast bore meda ls g listening in the Indian sunshine!

,.A'."I'"

Our important duty had been well accomplish_ed and \Ye were ordered to re­turn to our quarters. The march back to camp proved a severe testing time as it was­no\\- the hottest part of the day. No band to assist in forgetting fatigue, but that mattered little. Everyone seemed to realise that perhaps our reputation was at stake and marched va liantly. As the Camp \\'as approached one could detect in the­sound of the footsteps, that feet \,"ere ge~-

ting a trifle big for the boots " 'hich con-, tained them, and we had still to climb the­hill past the Detention Barracks where we­suspected critical eyes to be peerin g at us, for in India we had friends even in the Detention Barracks. We reached the foot of the hill and lo! half \\"ay up stands a member of the Corps \\"aitill R " 'ith camera in hand.

The \Yord is passed round, efforts are made to chuck a chest, the pace' quickens, and as we \'vere, believe it or not, so YOlt see us in the picture. A .E.} .,

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PRIMROSE AND BLUE

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THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS J OURN AL

Contract Bridge Answers to Problems on page 64.

Problem I.

YZ have one loser in Spades, one in Hearts and one in Clubs. Z must get rid of the Heart loser somehow.

A has probably led from .Q.J. 10 and others, so B holds .A, and the best chance of makil}g Dummy's .K is not to cover .Q which will win trick I. A cannot see that Z is then trumping Spades and he will next lead .J ,,,,hich Z \<vill trump.

The first thing for Z to try, after clearing trumps, is to establish +K, for if A led from .Q.J.IO.X .X, B's .A ,vil1 fall on the third round of Spades .

So far the game wil1 have gone: Trick. A Y B Z

I .• Q .x.x . x 2. .J .x.x 07 (not 02) 3· Ox 04 Ox - OA 4· Oxorx? OQ Oxorx? 08 5· .x . x .Aor.xO J First chance-If B's Ace falls, the con­

tract is safe. for Z's V 10 can be throv,ln on .K.

If .K does not clear , it must be O'ot rid of to prevent the opponents leading Spades when they get in. Z leads 02 .

6. x? Os x? 02 7· .x +K.x OK 8. erK or erA* erx erx erQ

A has now to lead either a Heart or a S:lub, and he can see that DUlllmy is trump­m g Clubs, so he may prefer a Heart­Second Chance. If he leads a Club, Y trumps and leads a Heart, and Z ,."ho has been watching the discards, may be able to finesse against the Queen or trv for the drop-Third Chance. -

* A probabiy has at least one of these two as B {with .AJ passed the first round of

the bidding.

Problem 11.

At trick 4, Z leads V6 which Dummy trun;ps. pummy then leads a trump which ~ WInS w~t~ the .• Q. (There was no point In A dece1Vlllg.hlS partner by dropping .K on .T the (\.~e 1f he had .Q; also Iwith • KQ ongln ally as well as VK, A would

77

ha ve cal1ed "One N 0-Trum p" over Z' s "One Spade.")

Now ""hat is B going to lead? If he leads a Heart, of course Z wins by throw­ing his 010 on it and trumping it ;n Dummy. So B must choose between Diamonds and Clubs. He has both these Aces in his own hand t and \ivi11 probably choose to lead a Club up to Dummy's Q rather than a Diamond up to Dummy's K. A Club lead also gives Z his contract. Only in one case, i.e., if B leads 0 A and follows \yith another Diamond, is Z put to the necessity of trying to locate the er J.

tSince he opened the bidding ,,·hen vulnerable .

The Corps Coronation Detachment

(coatiaued from page 60)

On, ever on, through the Marble Arch, along East Carriage Road, down Constitu­tion Hil1 and to the Palace once again.

The end of our march, we thought; the rain had jl1st commenced, but what cared ,ive; but it \;"as by no means the end. We had to take a very devious route to get the Lining Troops into the rear, and a~tual1y we did not reach Kensington Gardens Camp until 5-45 p.m., very wet, but happy, as we felt we had done our job, hoped we had done it well, and could take our reward in a g lass of the best.

It was an experience of a lifetime, which none of us would have missed.

Next day we parted and rejoined our respective stations, still a bit damp, but ""hat did that matter-we had played our part, e'{en if it was a small part, in the Coronation of the King-God Bless Him.

The Detachment consisted of the following :-

Major C . E. Elliott-Heyvirood, York; No. 7657376, S.S.M. C. W. Newell, Chat­ham, R.E.; No. 6906699, S.Q.M.S. W. G. Jagot, Aldershot; No. 7657790, S.Q .M .. S. E. Knight, Woolwich; No. 5508369, S/Sgt. S. W. J. Knight. Eastern Command; No. 1408677, S/Sgt. F. C Ulph, WooI­wich; No. 7734085, Sgt. D. C. J . Adams, Chatham, R .E.; No. 7657619, Sgt . H. A . Stock. \Voolwich.

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL ---------------------------

-

~ . :. .A STRANGER IN A STRANGE

LAND I was talking the other day to an old

friend of mine. He describecl himself in the course of conversation by the title which forms the heading to this artic1e. You will probably think that this is a queer way for a man to talk of himself, par­ticularly at home here, and even more so when I say that my friend \yas a Warrant Officer, \Nho had served at home and abroad for over t\\'enty-seven years--the last man on earth \~Iho should look upon himself as a stranger, and to whom no land should be strange.

But he " 'as speaking nothing but the literal truth. Let me g ive you the con­versation .

"Yes, that's what I am. For twenty-seven . years ' I've been a soldier, for fifteen of them a Warrant-Officer. I did my share 'of work, I gave orders which were obeyed, I " 'as asked for, and gave, advice where it \\as wanted. I \\ 'as, I think, well thought 'Of by my Officers, and well liked, I hope, by the non-commissioned officers and troopers . I could \\'alk into a hundred and 'one places, and be sure of finding a warm welcome, and my friends. And no';,v--\yell , things aren't quite the same. I'm not g rousing , but I can't help noticing the difference . I didn't think , either, that there would be quite this difficulty about gettin o' into a job."

"But", I said, "your job now seems -alright, and as far as I can recollect, you haven't been out of work since you finished a year ago. What \,vas the difficulty ?"

The Pensioner smiled. "You're a young man yet. Just wait till you are my age. There's plenty of work about, but there are jobs and jobs. When you get to the wrong side of forty, or nearly fifty , as I am, you don't feel like starting a new career \\' it11 a pick and shovel. I'm fit enough. but it -stands to reason that I can't hope to com­pete \y ;th men young enongb to be my

sons wlien it comes to hard manual labour, for long hours. And besides, I'm not afraid of hard work, but I certainly feel that I don't want to start navvying at my time of life. Now look here, I'll tell you exactly what happened to me.

"When I finished, I had t\;venty-seven years' service, all "Exemplary" character. and a bundle of testimonials from my officers. I was a fully qualified riding instructor, and what I didn't know about horses \\'asn't worth knowing. I was fit and strong , and after all that service you can't help being smart . I wasn't quite blind to the fact that I'd have to look for a job one day, but I wasn't in any hurry. Of course, what I did want ,.vas to work amongst horses, but once I got out, I realised that,with so .few of them about, jobs with horses are very feyv and far be­tween. And I realised something else, too. T n my ' ignorance--and foolishness--I hadn't bothered about a vocational training course. I don't know why I didn't, but there it \;vas, and I only hope that nobody else who serves as long as I did finishes without one It didn't take me long to fjnd out that if I'd had a month vvith a motor, it would have been worth ten times as much as my twenty-seven years with the horses. However, there it was.

"I came out of the Army for a job. What could I do? Before I joined the Service I drove a horse and cart , but even supposing I had had a trade, I should have forgotten it. I had my pension, so I wasn't abso­lutely broke, but at the same time I had my \\'ife and family , and they had to be kept in reasonable comfort, and the young­sters educa tec.1 . I'd managed to sa ve enough to set up house, after all these years in quarters, and I suppose was really well off compared with some of the poor devils who finish without a pension or any­thing. Still, I had .to find a job.

"Eventually, much against the g rain, I took a job as a navvy-you already know what I felt about that. I wasn't going on the 'dole' though. It was during this spell that I really felt myself a stranger. I was workin g amongst men, few of them knew anything of the comradeship of the Army--the 'mucking -in' spirit. They looked on me as an 'old soldier', and they didn't meall it as a compliment . Yet I knew that there were jobs to suit a man

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

like me, but I didn't go to the- right 'pJ:aces to find out. At the time, I was workino' . . '" on a ne\\' aerodrome, pushl11g barrow-fuIs of clay about. One day a man asked me \"hy I didn't try to get on the W .D. Constabulary, or one of those jobs. H e seemed surprised \\'hen I told him I didn't know anything about them, but he gave me a bit of information about such jobs, and put me on to a place he called the National Association. I wen t there, and in a very short while I was back at the aero­drome as a Warden-and I don't feel so mnch a stranger now. "

This sounded all very nice to me. "V/e11", I asked , "what is there in this job? Does it pay you?"

"Actually there is not an enormous ~l11ount of money in it, although the \,vage IS reasonab~e . But with a pension, I have enough to lIve comfortably, without having to do a lot of hard manual work. The hours are much the same as they are in any other job, I'm not cooped up indoors and, what I think is a OTeat advantao'e' I . h '" '" , am :WIt men of my own age, who have been 111 the Service themselves, and with whom I have thus much in common. Mind !'ou, I don't say that I'd choose this job 111 prefere~ce to anything else, but I can 'see nO.\\I that If. I had gone the right way about th1l1gs I I111ghJ have found something else - but whether I should have been better o~ I wouldn't like to say. If I "vere faced wIth. the problem of finishin g with the Se.rvlce again, I'd make sure of three thll1gs. I'd make it my business to save as much as I possibly could, so that when I came out, I could afford to look round. Secondly, . I w~uld make it my business, b~f?re I ,dId £111sh , t? take the rust off my b.1 a.11:s, a.nd try to pIck up the threads of cIvlhan hfe before I had to take part in it, and last~y , wha tever other considerations theI~e . I111ght be, I'd have a Vocational Tra1l1111g Course ."

"W Id . 0~1 y:ou advIse other pensioners to take a Job lIke this, though?" I asked.

"E . very time. For a man who has no t~ade, and n<:> other qualifications which \\r~uld ~nd hU11 a skilled, or even semi­skIl~ed .1ob, this is a good life. He has his

IchOlce ; the Post Office, \iV.D. Constabu­arv G - , overnment Nlessengers-there are

many Government open ings for the pen-

79

sioner. . His job. is sure, he can stay till he \\'ould otherWIse be past work, and he need not ~ear competition from younger men. I thl11k that every lon o'-service man sho~lld make it his business to

b

have himself regIstered for this type of work before he comes out."

Well, that i~ the Warrant Officer's story . Other old soldIers (thi~ time it is a compli­ment) may draw theIr own conclusions and take advantage of his experience. '

I nser /,ed at th e 'reques t of th e Geneml S ecretary , NaUonal Association fOT Em­pl?Y ln ent of R egular Sa.ilOTs, Soldiers and AZ1'In en, 14, R O'''wick PIC/.ce , London, S. rv.I.

Book Review.

. "The Briti~h Arn~~-Its History, Customs, Tradi­tions and Uniforms , by P ay-Lieut. Comm ander E. C. Ta.lbot-Booth, R. N. R. , publi shed bv Sa.mpson Low, Ma rston & Co. Ltd ., London, pI:ice 7 /6.

The a uthor, a.lthough he represents the sister Sel'vIce, served IllS early t raining in a branch of the lal~ d . force~, and he com es fr?m a family whose sel : l ces al e al~lost entll'ely mIhtary. Apart from ha"lI1g made a ' ibng stud:, of mI li tary history be is t herefore well steeped in t he traditiOli s and customs of t.he Army.

This book is not a history of the a rm y in the generally a.ccepted manner , as it part.icul arl y set s O~lt t~ p.1a ce .on record the many ch.erished customs, tl adItlOns, I1lcknames and so on, wIth their origins ra ther t han concet;Jtratin g on the actual fi ghting serVIces of the regIments.

Her~ is a collection of extreme historical in terest The hlstory and founding of the army, its weapon~ and un~ fo rm s throughout the years is traced in a,n mterestll1g mann0l'. Th e different kinds of Colours and Sk1.nda rd s "re discussed, Guard-mountin O' and the c~relllony of trooping the colour is d esc~ib ed . :p'ull lIsts of t he old numeri cal titles form an interest­Ing and vaIuable fea,ture.

. E very l'egim en.t and Co.rps of the R egular Army I.S ~I ven , wIth ItS. batt.le honours , colou r badges . I eguu en.tal h~n.e, m cknames, mottoes and detailed descnptI<?n of ItS full dress, service dress and mess d~'ess umforms, and a brief sketch of it,s oriO'in hl st.ory and various titles down th e ages. 0'

T he boo k is. well illustrated in full co lour and in black and whIte, showing R ecrim en tal and KillO"S Colours, full d:l'~SS uniforms . ~rests , badges ra.~k badges, medal l'Ibbolls and riecora.tiolls and so on: Ther.e a re also pl~otographs of the actua l ca p badges worn by all regIments.

!\. tremendous .amount of material i packed in to ttns work , a nd It cannot fail to appeal to thos:~ who make a hobby of Service ma tters , t,o those who are ont t.o kn ow more of such t hings , and ~o ;J.ll t hose who are actua lly in the Bri t ish Army.

(The R.P. Requests the Pleasure of "

ON l(£cflVlNG HIS F,f.{$T INII,TAftON 10 A "8AGGIN~ PA R:Ty (- WHIC+I • FOR TH£ ~fNEFfT 0': fHE UN' IN Iru:t1'EO, MUSI NoT 'BE O>NF()S'ED WI1H A 80TTL.€ PARTY, 1"H£ FL~DGI..ING iHoU~Hr I, wAS Sol'vlli .. fHING AR~AN<rE'D Ib C€L.~gRAr~ HIS PROMOTION I VIDE YfL.LOW PERIL. , 193l

80

~~ (~/ HE WAS SOoN ~ISfL.L.USIONED, OWEVS'f<: WHEN Ht: FoUND fHAT HIS SI1Afi>~ IN mg ' P({OCEE 0 IN ~5 CONSI S T~() OF. COUN'TIN tEi UP To SQ. ABoUT 11 MIL.LION 1iMtrS, t.10VH: 1"0 -n,E' O/SGUST 01= AL.L. THE <qUESTS WHEN Ht; WOUI..() CoUNT AL.OuD. AT 'THE iABLI: .

- --

"10 WINO IJP-rHE H~epy GAiHERINGi, A C()",Y (OR. I~ IT A ' BROOD'?) Or: SEC'f\ION L.~ROER.S CHECf( UP ONL.Y 10 FIND THAT ON~ P£.RYEi.. IiAS CHEATE' 1) , A~o PUT TwO &301<..5 lri ONE ENVELOPE AND As THIS JOURNRI.. IS NOT PRINTdo ON ASBESToS, IT IS REGRETrE D THRT '111E RESUl-T c;,qNNOT e~ ILLOS-TRAi~l). ~L.£y. IJil

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS , J OURNAL

PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS. To be Warrant Officer Class I and appointed S.S .M.

7657468 S.Q.l\I. S. W. W . Scott, 27/ 2/37. 7657794 S.Q.M.S. A . D. D 'Allenger, 1/ 3/ 37. 7658155 S.Q.M.S. H. R H udson, 6/ 5/ 37.

To be Warrant Officer Class II and appointed S.Q.M.S.

3434645 S; Sergt. R Becconsall, 1 / 2/37. 7733784 S/ Sergt.. T. H al'ding, 8/ 4/ 37. 2867327 S/ Sergt. H. Gibbs , 19/ '4/ 37. 7'809652 S/ Sergt. F. W. Loveder, 21 / 4/ 37.

To be Staff Sergeant. 2,867621 Sergt. '"".1. Low, 22/ 1/ 37. 1417030 Sergt. T . Hilling, 8/ 2/37. 7815407 Sergt. L. McDon ald, 1/ 3/ 37. 6280394 Sergt. C. W. Langham, 1/1 /37 . . 7733857 Sergt. F. Offord , 1Ci/ 2/ 37. 3234243 Sergt. H . Clark, 27/ 2/37.

4065 Sergt. A. Kent, 1/ 3/ 37. 7717187 Sergt. A. Stew art, '2 / 2/ 37. 5909217 Sel'gt. A. G. H azzal'd , 5/ 5/37. 1417473' Sel'gt. T. \-,.,7. M. Lancaster, 6/ 5/ 37.

To be Sergeant. 3852391 L/ Sel'gt. R Smit.h, 22/ 1/37. 1060625 L / Sergt. F. G. Watson, 2';3/ 37. 3178389 L / Sergt. C. Watson , 2/ 3/37. 1071601 L/ Sergt. B. C. Horton, 9/ 3/ 37. 7583533 L / Sergt. G. W . H ewitt, 10/ 3/37. 6911328 L / Sel'gt. F. G. Thomas, 10/ 3/ 37. 6197916 L/ Sel'gt. W. T. Pinkney, 8/ 4/37. 781996 L / SeJ'gt. T. Bewick , 8/ 4/ 37.

7880446 L / Sergt. J . McClafferty , 11/ 5/37. To be Lance Sergeant.

2321299 Corporal J. Pilkington, 15/ 2/ 37. 54219 Corporal J. Russell , 26 / 2/37.

26552G6 Corporal:M. L . Walton, 8/3 /37. 1070661 Corporal R E. J ames, 9/ 3/37. 6341593 COl'poral C. A. Fraser, 27/ Ci/ 37. 781352 Corporal G. T. Nye, 23/ 4/ 37.

2320'652 Corporal W . H. Ould, 1/ 5/37. To be Corpor·al.

577183'0 Private E. M. Bullous, 1/ 4/ 37. 819469 Private E. Lewis, 1/ 4/ 37. 3'17l85 PrivcLte. S. G. Chenery, 1/ 4/37.

5948252 Priva.te J . F. Pettie, 1/ 4/37. 45954 Pl'iv.tte H. C. Wilson , 1/ 4/ 37.

2754173 Private. A. King, 1/ 4/ 37. 6;457'624 Private J. G. Craig, 1/4/ 37. 7262048 Private E. Deeley, 1/ 4/37. 6398259 Priva.te J. V. Ackland, 1/ 4/37. 7262232 Private S. H. Smith, 1/ 4/ 37. 7884750 Private K. W. C. Hon1sey, 1/ 4/37. 7262536 Private W. J . Kincaid , 1 / 47 /37.

Continued in the service' beyond 21 year's. 7657794 S.S.M. A. D. D 'Allenger, until 28 / 2/ 42. 7733183 S.S.M. H. V. Scott, until 28/ 3/ 38. 7733209 S.Q . .M.S. H . G. Hancox, until 4/ 2/ 39. 3759997 S.Q.M.S. W. L. Hunter, until 9/ 4/38. 7657609 S.Q.l\I.S. P. W. Smith, un til 26 /3/38. 7657559 S.Q.M.S. F. Murakami , until 16/ 7/ 38. 7733350 S.Q.M.S.. H . A. Tal'l'ant, unti l 31/ 3/38. 7733098 S.Q.M.S. J . R T. Norris, until 12/ 10/37. 7733133 S.Q.M.S. H. L . Bal'thel, un til 9-/ 6/38. 7'809687 S.Q.M.S. M. McDonald, until 13/ 1/ 39. 7733056 S.Q.M S. H. Corbett, unt il 15/ 11/38. 773'3251 S / Sel'gt. A. Wickes, until 19 / 2/ 38. 7733234 S/ Sel'gt. C. Sw-ann, until 7/ 9/ 38. 1002270 S/ Sergt C. H. Peasley, until 6/ 12/ 38. 1037999 Sergt. C. G. Lewis, unti l 28 /9/38.

81

7657266 S.S.M. H . Brindley, until 1/ 5/ 38. 7733151 S.Q.M.S. F. C. Barrett, until 16/ 1/39 .

Re-Engagements t o Complete 21 Years' Service. 5492522 Sergt. E. R Ransom, on 16/3/ 37. 1060625 Sergt. F . G. Wat.son, on 9/4 /37.

Extension of Service to Complete 9 years with the C·olours.

78R~864 L/ Sergt. S. F. Troke, 2f2. / 2/37. 5616638 L j Sel'gt. T. G. A. Willia.ms , 3/ 3/ 37. 7'260523 L / Sergt. C. McLaughlan, 8/ 3/ 37. 830423 Co rpI. R Clal'ke-Halifax, 8/ 3/ 37. 819882 Corpl. C. Reeves, 18/ 3/ 37.

6138520 CorpI. G. F. A. 1nglis, 18/3/37. 5105757 L / Sel'gt. M. H. Cuthbert, 3 /3/ 37 . 5617624 Pte. W. G. P. Lyn ch, 221/4/37. 4450136 Pte. A. D. Dickinson , 22/ 4/37. 2323455 Pte. F. West, 22/ 4/ 37. 833488 Pte. T. Grant, 92/4 /37. 54571 Pte. J . Smith, 22/,4/ 37.

3129303 Pte. G. A. Bartlett, 22/ 4/37. 838672 Pte. L. W. Parkinson , 22/ 4/ 37.

78850'48 Pte. C. J. A. Day, 22/ 4/37. 7262610 Pte. B. 1i. F(;nton, 22/ 4/ 37. 788542.3 Pte. F. Potts, 22/ 4/ 37. 408152 Pte. J. A. Whelan, 22/ 4/ 37. 519059 Pte. A. E. Rousseau, 22 /4/37.

5105791 COl·pI. E. A. Jones, 3/ 5/ 37. 41450136 Pte. A. D. Dickinson, 22/ 4/ 37. 58837'59 Pte. G. B. H ansforcl , 22/ 4/ 37.

Discharges. 773'3066 S.Q.M.S. G. C. Dyson, 28 / 2/37. 7733840 Sergt. W. 13radbury, 27/ 4/ 37. 7657367 S.Q.M.S. A. R Graves , 4/5/ 37.

Probationers jOined at Aldershot on 1/ 4/37. 4745165 Pte. G. Haigh, Y. and L . Regt.. 5568693 Pte. W. J. Blatch, Wilts. Regt.

406978 ' Tpr. J . G. Gregson, R Scots Greys. 7261~53 Pte. J . W. Reed, RA.M.C. 2323275 Sigmn. M. J. Churchill, R Signals. 412J153 Pt.e. S. Beattie, Cheshire Regt. 4123178 Pte. C. B. Dolan, Cheshire Regt. 4388257 Pte. P . J .. Stack. Green Howarcls . 833146 Gm. C. E. R G~dlow , RA.

2612837 Gdsmn. D. Moody. Gren. Guards. 4269975 Pte. J . France, H,: Northd. Fus. 6011212 Pte. E. M. Hayes, Essex Regt. 4689432 Pte. J. L. W. Tipler, K.O .Y.L .I. 2695170 Pte. A. MacFarlane, Scots Guards. 5725523 Pte. vV. P. Raleigh, Dorset Regt. 6913088 Rfmn. H. Chtl'k , RB. , on 6/ 4/ 37. 7885497 Pte. E. J . Mundey, RT.C. , on 14/ 4/37.

Probationers transferred', 1/ 10/ 36. 5617624 Pte. W. G. Lvnch. 44501;:·6 Pte. \. D. Dickinson. 4031365 Pte. F. W. H . Armitage. 2323455 Sigmn. F. West. d33488 Gnr. T. Grant.

5.4571 Pte. J. Smith. 3129303 Fus. G. A . Bartlett. 5883759 Pte. G. B. Hansfol'd. 838672 Gm. L. W. P al'kinson.

7885048 Pte. C. J. A. Day. 7262610 Pte. B. H . Fe.nton. 7885423 Pte. F. Potts. 408152 Tpr. J . A. Whelan.

2818549 Pte. J . C. Alexandel'. 319059 Tpr. A. E. Rousseau.

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ft "

CORPS NOTES AND

NEWS.

Aldershot COMMAND PAY OF F ICE , ALDERSHOT .

Sergeants ' Mess Outi ng.-The Sergea nts ' Mess m embers pai~ a v isit to Griffin Park on 3rd AJ?rll on the occaSlOll of the Brentford-Manchester City match. Favoured by weath er conditions , an ideal day was spent. The footb all was of the h.ighest order (" Tha cudna ~xpect owt else when t · City play!" declared one of the ali en members of our otherwise respectable party) a nd made many of us wonder what that game was which we h ad watched for so many afternoons previously.

T ea was-ta ken in the W est End and then indi­viduaLs (including m arried men 1) were left .to their -own devices. Th·e l)a!'ty was re· assembled III w.hat was considered to be due co urse, a gen erous tune allowance having been ma<;le for most forms of recreation. On·e of our sem or m embers wa,s very 'full ' of London. H e said how nice the ships looked sailing up' and down .t~H~ river. He wa s only look­ing through some raillllgs a t the lighted buses on t he Embankment. It would h ave b een unkind to have pointed out his mistake to ~im , as h e . w~s enjoyin g t he outlllg and perha ps dldn t know l11s way a bout very well.

We a re lookin g forward to 1937 / :'8 season 1

Tennis.-Gr.eat keenness has been shown in thi s branch of sport and in order to cater for the com­parati vely large number of match players we. ha.ve entered two team s in the Alder shot a nd Dlstn d L eague. It is rather early in t h e season to m easure our' chan ces in t he League b ut we have hopes .

In the Sel'gea,n ts' Mess L eague the mess team h as played two ma tc,h es witl~out losing a set_ "'l e have four of last yea r s team III S.Q.M.S. Corbett, S / Sgt. ,;>;'iilson, Sgt. Meadows and L j Sgt. McLaughlan and with Sgts. Cook and E vans the team has been con­siderably strengthened .

Vve hope to h ave .some good ~.ew s ull~er this h eacling for the next ISsue of the Journal .

Football.- Football notes at this season of the year appear out of order but it is thought n ~cessary to record! the fact tha t the D etachment Side was success ful in reaching the · fin al (of the Cavalry Brigade Junior Cup. Although beaten by four goals to one by "c" Squadron, Royal Scot s Greys., t h e defeat was not so emphatic as appears In pnnt.

Next season it is hoped to provide I!I0re com­p etitive football by entering th e team 111 one of the la rger Snorts Groups.

Command

82

Cricket.-Referring to notes in t he Spr ing issue, our anticipations as regard s a successful season and weather have not up to t he present matenah sed.

Of the six match es arran ged , two were ea ncelled owill cr to rain and of t h e r emainder (all played und e~ condit ions not associated with crick et) we ha ve 10sL three a nd drawn one. Th ese results a re very surpris ing in view of the strengt.h of our team (on paper at an ~ ra te). , but we a re hopll1g to record our fi rst v1ctory 111 the very near future .

V.le were so rry tha,t th e match aga inst E astern CommanJ was one of th e cancell ed fix tuJ'.2s as we were a ntieipating a plea sant gam e at the same time meeting old fri.ends. W e are 100k ll1 g forward to our visit to , iVoolwlch on th e 11t h June and only hope rain will not again interfere.

RiHe Section.-The '-'Vinter season has now ended and t he followin a summa rises our resul ts:­

R ecord and Pav Office L eag ue Winners (sub -ject, to con-firmation) . .

H ants. L eagcle, Divs. Il a nd IV-About. J111dwilY · Ladies' L e:tgue-Lower half. .

Owing to t he many chan ges wh Ich have tak en place during the l?as t year o.m t eam s ha\~e been. a ]jtt le weaker t ha n 111 t he prevlOu.s years .. The ladles failed to reta,in t he All-En gland champIOnship , but it says much for 'the I~ew m embers t hat t hey were a ble to carry the club lOtO t he semI -final.

The a nnual competitions resulted as follows:-" Bell" Medal-S.Q.M.S. J agot. " Daily Mail" Cel:~jfi cate:-L/ Sgt. Woodthorpe . " Daily Tele6raph Certlficat e---:-Sgt. M~adows. " New s of the W orld " Certlfi cate-S.Q.M.S.

J agot. In addition , during t he year , eight Class "A"

Marksmen 's Badges were obtained and (we hope) fo urteen S.M.R.C. CoronatIOn m edals.

Sgt. Cooper scored 1.00 a nd 98 .£<;>1' the .Re.gul~r Army in t he Inter-Serv ices competltlOn-thls I S Ius fourt h successive year as a m ember of t he R.egular A rmy team.

Since the las t notes Mrs. Flux and Mrs. Thompson have joined t he list of " possible" ma kers. Are t here 'many of the R an~ P .O. league t eams who ca n say t h at rfi ve o~ th eir . member~ have scored possibles in competltlOns thlS season .

With reference to page 31of th e Ma rch number of the R.oyal Am1Y P ?,y Corps J oul'1lal , ~e hope that Chatham have received t h e result of then mat.ch. with Aldershot by now!

T H E ROYAL ARMY PAY CURPS JOURNAL

Costing School.-The only item of interest that we find worthy of comment is tha t the results of the Royal t:loclety of Ari;s Intermediate (Stage II I Book-keeping examinatioll held in March last show that all the s tudents were awarded a " First Class" pass, t hus adding to the splendid record a ttained by candida tes from this school. Once more we con­gratulate those concern ed for this ·excell ent achieve­ment.

Arrivals_-Major R G . Stanham joined for duty on 22nd Februa ry on leavin g t he War Offi ce.

Departures.-Lj Sgt. J . J ames was posted to E a.stern Command on 8th April , Lt. -Col. T. L. Rogers, O.B.E. , to Singa por·e on 2nd March, and Ca,pt. R S. Elli cott to E gypt on 1st Ma rch.

WOKING.

\iVeJl , folk s, h ere we are again , full of \'im and vigour, and itchin g fo r work to do. Yet again this Detachment has managed to squeeze quit e a lot of fUll into a m ere t hree month s, a nd , if memory .will gi\-e aid, here is t he t a le of our " woes and strife" . First , as was promised in the last issue of the " Journal" , we entertain·eel the St. John ' s Bowliug Club to a games tOUl'ua ment in th e Sergean ts' Mess and , still adhering to tradition, complet ed t he even­ing lI' it h the usua l dra w, whi ch <Lgain ·enabl es the two bodies (not corpses) to tie for first place ill the loca l Games League. Such occasions inva riably pro\-ide the max imum amou nt of fU ll , a nd to all non-vVokingites we offer our deep est sympathy when t,hinking wh at you 've missed . H a rd upon t he heels of t hi s function followed a trip to our very excellent fri-ends, the members of the Sergeants ' :Mess of No. 1. Compa ny RA.l\I. C. at A ldershot, wi th whom we. sperit an exceedingly (not exces­sive ly 1) ha ppy evening , an d whom we hope to see a.t '-'Voking in t he very nea r future.

Thi s year we .inaugurated an annua l St. P at. rick ' s Night Dance, w11ich was held in the Mess, invita ­tions being .extended , of course, to our civilian cl) l· lea,gll es in the office. If the night of 17th March was blur red with pa per ha ts and streamers, Il0t forgetting shamrock , you ca n blame our Entert,a ill ­m ents Committee, who, how ever, decline to accept respouisibility for t he lack of bona fide Irishmen. M ark yo u, there were some real wild I r ishmen presen t , plus a goodly number of-shall we .sav te ·lllpora ry-Irishmen.

On th e lOtJ1 May we were deligh ted to be "at hom e" to t he members of the Sergeants ' Mess of the A ldershot D etachment RA.P.C. a nd yet another very pleasant evening was launch ed, spent a,ncl1 burst ( don't mind my very mixed meta phors). W e have come to th e conclusion that our Aldershot fri ends enjoyed the evening, too , this opinion being confirmed by th e many heart breaking attempts by t he · 'O.C. P arty " tha t had to be made before he succeed·ed in sh eph erding certain gentlemen of the RA.P.C. to a hired ' bus Aldershot-bound.

As I keep pressing pen to paper, so i t occurs to me that w e have had a jolly happy time during the past quarter , for the t it-bit of our fun ctions was undoubtedly t he Coronation Dan ce given on 12th :May. vVe were ve ry fortuna te indeed in securing the services of the band of the 1st Bn. Royal Welch Fusiliers . In addition, t he M ess was ' correctly

dressed with over-all effects, which lent considerauie. impetu.s to t he .e \·ening's success . In this evening. we really tou cheel the hig h spot in entertainment. a nd , let it be added, demollstration of loyalty: eyen if some mutt did .eulogize the Sergeant :Major a nd call for t hree cheers for " Old Bill " , what did it , or what does it, matt er ? A delightful feature of ' our functions has been the attendance of our offi cers. (W e belie\'e t hey enjoy attending. too! ) -

\ iVith t he a.rrival of our present, warm w eal her came t he slimm ing-bug, which touched some of om stalwarts (and / or wi"es I). One poor chap we wot of took to cycling in the early h ours before . br·ea kfast. Nature, however , works in mysterious \\-ays and the ·dflict ed chap in question recovered within a week and now sleeps in. T ennis, too, has become a mania. Some play tennis som e play a t it. ; t he ma jority are sheer rabbits , but everybody has a ha ppy t ime wh·ether hitting or missing the white sphere, which , to many of us, is merely a wraith . Incidentally, sighs of relief went up . throug hou t the deta chment when Sergt. Punter , L j Sgts . Bindlzy and J enkinson were " shangh a ied " on to t he te nni s committee. This has at last solved t he problem a.s to who is responsible for . rolliucr . t he court. Th e Sergea nts' Mess, 1st Bn. Royal , Vel?h F usilie.r s, we.re recently OU!' g:u:ests at a tenm s toumament a nd , though we sc raped through t{) W111 , we wonder how we shall fa re in a return match on a grdSS court.

Of the Co rps Dinner it is needless to write , -e x­cept to take pride in a 90 per cent. att enda,nce from this Detachment, a nd to tender our very si ll cere tha nks to t'he clinne,r com_mLttee for a splendid evening.

Tittle-tattle,.-

Thanks a mi ll_ion to th e ladies of t he D etachment a nd civ ilian friends who come forw a.rd with good g ra ce a nd prepare t he re freshments for Sergea nt s ' }less - functions.

Sergt. potter , being fortunate, was ad mi tted to . the M.Q.R on 9th March .

All other Ranks, except a t hin red line compris­ing th e S.S.M. , 1 S.Q.M.S., 1 S j Sergt. and 1 Sergt., are in some dauger of proceeding Itbroad thi s com­ing trooping season .

The same other ranks mentioned in the preceding parag raph h ave now completed t h eir dental t reat­ment.

Private Potts is welcomed from the School. W e . could do with more. We wish him Sll ccess in t he Corps a nd , should h e r emember t he following from a not very new song, advise him to p ay no heed to " Yo u t a ugh t me how to love you , So teach m e to forget " .

U p to now, these notes have assumed a ha ppy t,one. There is, however, one piece of sad news , namely that Lieut. Colonel A. \ V. M. C. Skinner, our R egimental Paymaster , is a,t t he moment oh leave pending retiremen t. W e are sure our r egrets at losing L t . -Colonel Skinner will be shared by ma,ny of the older lll embers of the Corps. To our departing Regimental P aymalSter we ,v;ish m any happy, peaceful da,ys of well -earned res t.

" GHILLIE" .

THE ROYAL ARMY P AY CORPS JOURNAL .,

Eastern COMMAND PAY OFFICE,

EASTERN COMMAND.

The Coronation has filled all our minds during -the past few w.eeks,. and the central position in which this office IS situated has once agam proyed a yaluable asset. Unfortunately , we "ere not allowed to retain all our office windows which for Coronation Day were t aken over by Coml.nanel H ead ­quarters . A ballot by a.ll clerks fOl'mll1g part of t he various br-anches was helel for cert.al11 wll1dow positions and quite. a goo~l)" number of our, office staff were fortun ate III obtalllll1g tickets. Breadasts wel'e served in the canteen from about 5.0 a.m. onwards and by nine o'clock our cook (Mrs. Strong) must ha~-e beeli sick of the sight of eggs and bacon_ The r esources of our canteen were sever-ely taxed ; neyertheless thanks to the excellent provision made bv ouL' en er~etic Club Secretary (::Mr_ Richbell) and the assistal~ce of volunta ry help-el's we were able to satisfy the wants of some 30.0 members. of our staff and visito :·s. The CoronatIOn processIOn has alrea,dy been fully elescri?ed elsewh·ere and .so. "e will not weary readers with a detmled descnptlOn. As . however. the RB.C. commentator forgot to men­tiO;l that a ' Detachment of the Royal Army Pay Corps formed part of the Procession, we would like to give an assura:lce that .they were actually there and , what is more, that then appe~rance an~ general bearincr was of a standard of which we mIght feel proud.o Most o~ us have 10.ng since forgotten the actual wewht of a Service nfie, but we have It on good <wth~rity tllat by the time the CillT~p in K en­sing ton Gardens was reached , thos~ ca rned ty th ~ R .A .P .C. Detachment were welghmg 's ell over a hundredweight.

Since our last notes were written the promotion of our former A.C.P. to Colonel and Chief P aymaster has been a nnounced, and we would like to ta,ke this opportunity of "ffering ~ur somewhat ?elated con­gra tulations to Colonel N . Forde. In h .ls stead Lt.­Col. E. 'vV. Grant, O.B.E. has now JOll1 ed. and. :ne wish him a pleas:tnt st~y with us. A.nother fmmhar ficrure is also back agam tIllS time 111 t he person of "Nla jor T . Kingan, who has return ed for a spell of re-employment.

A.lTivals a nd departures hav·e been numerous among the "Other R anks". and we have regretfully said good-bye to th e fol lowlll g who haye been posted to the stations a,s shown :-S.Q.M .S. A. V.,T. Llssen­cLen to London (RP. ), S j Sgt. /I. G. H azzard to York (R) , Sj Sgt. '1' . Lancaste l to Houllslo~> Sgt. F. W. J on es to Egypt and Sgt. E. A. h.ll1g to Cba tham. In t he case of S j Sgts . Hazzard and Lal:­caster the posti.n gs .were consrqUeiJl .t upon the'li' nromotion. We congratulate them b.oth and hope they will find 110 di ffi cul ty 111 carrymg the extra weight of the crown.

l\ewcomers wel comed to the o'ffi ce are :-Sgt. L . A. ewson from Singapore, Sgt. F. Pond from ' Vool­

wich , L /Sgt. L . R. Spooner from Hounslow, L f Sgt. G. T. Nye from H ounslow and Cpl. R Barnes from Barnet ..

Sgt. E. A. Kin g and. L f Sgt. L. R. Spooner have recently taken the matnmomal plunge, and w~ WI sh th em every happiness. Neither ha ve been With .us any length of time so we h';1ve h~d no opportumty of meeting the ladJ es of then chOI ce.

Command ' Ve were looking forlward to· the commen cement

of th·e present cri .::ket season With great expectatIOns, but so far they have not been realIsed. Our first crame-Offi cers "and VI,I. O.S v. The Rest- resulted in ~, win for th e form er uy 2 runs, the scores being, Officers and W.O.s 57, The Rest 55. The low' scoriug of both sides was no,t due to any particularly bril­liant bowling feats but rather to lack of pntctice a,moncrst the batsmen. How ever , the game helped us to °100sen up and the a fternoon in the open ail' came a.s <k yery pleasant change. Our second game wa,s to have been with the 1st Bn. G renadier G ual'ds , but unfortunatelv this had to be callcell ed owing to Coronation duti e"s. The third, with the Record and P ay Offi ce, Hounslow, resu lted in a draw, the scores being :- E. C. P.O . 119 for 3 (d eclared) , Hounslow 115 fo'r 6 (Lt.-Col. Robson 5 for 31) . As wIl l be seen from the foregoing , Lt. -Col. Robson lS still bowling with all his old skill , whilst Major Ban'at t h ,LS quickly found his best fonn , two delightful Slxes which he cracked belllg worth gOlllg a long \\"ay to see. Our game with Aldershot had be~n eagerly awaited, but a heavy downpour overl1lght made play i.mH.03sible . ' Ve are hopmg for betterlortune when we visit Aldershot.

The H,iHe League sea-son has just rea..ched its COll­clusion and once agall1 we expect to find ourselves in the low-er half of the table. ~hjor O. D. GalTatt is to be congratubted upon being the . one and only member of the team to obtam a posslble , although OIle 01' two others came alon g with some useful ninety-eights.

BARNET.

Sin ce our last notes appeared cha.ll cres have occurred :­Ar~ivals.-S.S.M. E. Ma,ck

S.Q.M.S. J. Spooner from Pert.h , from Hounslow .

a number of sta ff

from INoo lwich, P k T. 1\1. Bn tes

Departures.-Captain H . H. Cottier to Cha tham (Si gnals) , S.S.M. W . Ev erett to Woolwlch , Sgt. J. Stevenson t.o Hounslow, CpI. R. L. Ba 1'1l es to Easterll Command.

An addition to the worthy holders of t he Long Servi ce and Good Conduct iVi_edal is reported in the person of Staff Sergt. G. p.entn ey to. whom our congratu latio ns were duly accord ed With lVlnslCa l HonoLlrs.

Congratulations to Staff Sgt. H. Gibbs on his p romotion to INarrant Rank; also to Corporal Vl. Ould 011 his appointment to L ance Sergeant.

IN e :tre pleased to know' tha t Lance S~rgeant F air­clough has be·en placed on the Marned Quarters R,oll.

Trooping -Season , 1937 J3S.-S.S.M. E. Mack is under orders and ::3 .Q.M.S. H . Gibbs and L j Sgts . R Fairclough ancl W . Ould a re on the waiting li st.

It is to be hoped that the future will permit re­s urnption of the sportmg actiVities usually asso­ciated with this st a tion. Tentative arrangements as r egards cricket have been made to this end.

To those who are not acquainted with t he ideal si t uation o,{ the Barnet Offi ce I would add that we are situat ed in t he heart of the countryside with most of the Londoll amenities at onr door.

OFFICE REP .

THE ROYAL AH.lVIY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

CANTERBURY.

W·e take thi s opportunity of welcoming Li eut.­Colon,el IV. S. H ack and family to Canterbury. It is hoped tha t their .stay in Cantffl:.b urywll! be pleasan t a ll d m emorable. Lt. -Col. H ack has assumed the duti es of R egimental P aymaster in place of Lieut.-Colon el E. VlT. Grant, O.RE. , who is now at E astern Command

Captain J. M . A. Bradc1ell leaves us for th e Cos t­ing School short.ly a nd he ta ke.s wit h him OU I' \-e ry best wish·es for a happy a nd successful t im e a t Aldershot.

Promotions .- To Co rporal Chenery we offer CO Il­gratulation s on hi s promotion to that rank.

Social.- A Coronation Ball , run by t.h e Units of this Gal'l'ison, \\'as heJd on t he 12th Mav in the Garrison Gymn _Lsium and it was not cliffi cLllt to see next mOl'l1ing t ha t the dan ce was a great success.

.'\. few days later , the majority of the Offi ce Staff went t.o London to view the Decorations- at leas t that was t he origin a l idea. One or two found t heir way to E aste rn Command and renewed a ull acquaintan ces, some visited VlTest End shows and a few saw deco ra tions. The we.c,ther was faid v k ind and everyon e thoroughly enjoyed them selves: OUl' thanks a.re due to. a ve ry hard working Committee for the way 111 "hlch thiS t.yplca l P ay Office Outing was alTa.nged.

. Spo.rt .- So faJ' we have been un able to take pad m any form of outdoor sport, partly beca use the w eather has not been of the rig ht kind and pa rt.ly because some d iffi culty IS expel'1 enced in rai sincr a team . Now that King Sol has made his appeara~ce :-sotto voce-and the Garri son tenni s courts look lIlV I t l11[<:;' , pe rhn ps we shall. at least ha ve SOlllfl Pcrry acLi vi Li es to report. ' ,

. . ' Rifle Clu b.--:-Th e rifl e club has :suffered many I-lclssl tudes t hl last season and so we are not feelin g too ashamed of Our very Iow placin g in the postal l e~g u e . The wllltel' seem.ed to be a continua l pen od of ' hi gh pressure' as far as work was con­cerned and· it was with .diffi culty that t.ime wa s f~n1l1d to compl ete fixtures at a ll. let a lone to prac­tIce. Mos t of the old hands crave up altocreth el'

d d . 0 ° an we cou nte ourselves fortun ate when we had seven from which to choose our team of s ix. Lo ts of fun was had by t he remainder , however. and ev~n If scores we re low t ha t did not prevent t he fil1lsh es to t he V<1nous competitions being extremely close ,

Spoon s, g i\'en on th ~ " drop po in ts hand icap" system were won by LI eut. (now Cap t.) Brad,d-ell (2) , Cp!.. In g lt s . Lin tel' nncl F ear. Oth er co mpeti­tIons were t.a ken by . Mr. Med e (lucky card ) . Mr. R eyn ard (ow n hnllcll cap) a nd Cpl. R eeves (firin g hom standll1g posItIOn ) .

I ~'h e Club Ch:tll enge Cup was cl esen 'edJy won by 1\[1 .. Reyna rcl WIth a ll average In matches S1l1ce ~hl'lstmas of 93.11. Cp.!. Linter- who was nctually III th e lead for som e time-was a. close second wiLtl 00. .

Cp!. L . Ing li s ba.s had ha rd and tiresome wo rk as secretlwy a nd OUi' t ha nks a re due t,o him for thl'! splendId way in which he carried out hi s duties as such. EFJAYEL.

85

CHATHAM (ROYAL SIGNALS). 'vVith the 1'·ecel1t adve ll t of fine sunny wea ther,

fl annels, telll1lS racquets and cl'lcket bats a re begin­ning to show their appea rance outside the office and 'we h\>pe\ it .will , continu-e; .fQr ·w.e 'at e looking for: ' ward to paymg . an.d r ecelvlIlg VJSltS from other offi ces, and havIllg a chance of displaying our · prowess (or sho NlI1g our lack of it) .

We have just opened the seaso ll 's sportincr fix­tui'es with a crick:e t .. will agailist our old frienods a t _ 'vVa d ey, and a tennis Will in the 1st round of t he ~astel'll Command Challenge Cup against the Train­mg Battn. R.E. 'B ' tea m. In this match tIte Chatham office \\'as represented by S.Q.M.S. Sh.epherd wi th Sergt. Doherty and S.Q.M.S. Elam with Sergt. King. OU.r pa irs won both their matches in stra igh t sets .

o.ur veteran, Major G. Lidstone, again rep resented us III the Army Billiards Cham pionship , but once­more . had the misfortune of having to lower hi s flag t.o ~llS o.ld ' bogey ' Sel'15t. Cottle of the R.oyal Engineers, the eventual wll1ner of the Championship .

Our gallant Major IS a lso to the fore in the Bowls and is Capt.ain of th e office club which has now be­come. a ffiliated. to t he English a nd K ent County Bowlll1g AssoclatlOLl s. In the county ma tches he is skip of a rink which won the firs t ronnd . H e and his partner, l\Ir. Pratt, also managed to win in the 'Rail'S ' but he lost his singles match by the odd pOll1t.

The overseas li &t for the coming season includes the na me of S.Q.M.S. W. J . May and should he be. found a berth on some ' t roopel> his cheery coun­t enance and freq uent jokes would be sad.ly missed bv t he office st<Lff. However, we unders tand that the sharehold·ers of the Bar Billiards \ ssociation are end eavouring to persuade him to "sell his chanc& in t.h e trooper " and remain here, as hi s daily con-tribution s are greatly va lued. .

Since t he publication oJ th e .l ast notes, we have­had t he pl easure of welcoming to th e offi ce 'aptain H. H. Cot tier and hope t,hat hi s stay with us will b-8 a plensa nt one .

Pte. A. D. Dickinson a rt'ind from the R.. \ .P.C .. School and we wish him every success in the Corps.

HOUNSLOW. Badm int on.-The Sergeants Mess ha,ve concluded

n yery s uccessful season and th8 numbers who have pa rt icipated in t he art have increased dming the winter. Many ,who originally t.hought tha t there was nothing in the shuttle game have now changed t. heir minds, frequ ent ca 11s for a " breather " being J!ecessa ry .

Two successful to urnarnents have been completed - an open doubles a nd a handicap singles which r esulted as follow s :-

DonIJ les-S.S.M. Cooper and S.Sgt . Keml~ton. R,unners up-Sgt. H ewet,t and L.Sgt. Burden. H andicap Winnel'-S.Sgt. Murphy. Runner np-L.Sgt. Nye.

The handicapper wa s present and the form dis­Rlayed noted. for future handicaps.

The progress made in th e game is particu.l a rly gratifying and practica lly all who took pa rt in the tournaments have leal'l1t t.h e game here.

Billiards.-The Sergeants Mess have also had a YE'r\" s ll ccessfu l yea r wit.h th e ivory balls, to say nothing of snooker. and the annnal handi cnp for the mess cup resulted as follows :-

Willner- S.Q.M.S. Bishop. Runnel' up-Sgt. Stevenson.

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

O.C.A. Dinner.-The office was well repres·ented -at the last annual dinner. Many old and new acquaintances w~re made, and the hope h.as be~,I~ expressed that WIth the decrea.sed cost o~~next yeaJ :s djnner an even greater number of comrades WIll gather.

Moves.-We welcome S. / Sgt. T.W.M. Lancaster and family from Eastern Com mand IHli::\. , .. congratu­lat.e him oil his promotion to that rank , and L / Corpl. T . Smith from the School.

L jSgts. G. Nye and L. Spooner h;; ve left U.3 for -Eastem Command.

WARLEY.

Although events of some moment haye occurred 'since the las t issue of the " Journal" , their interest to members of the Corps serving at other offices is .somewhat doubtful.

Ho.wevel', failing announcements of events of a cataclvsmic nature. a bri ef summa ry of casualtIes may ~uffi ce to rai'se an enquiring eyebrow 01' to elicit a n astonished 'Hmmm ' here and there.

\Ne are very glad to welcome Lieut. S. Holman, M.B.E. , who has rejoined the fort from serVIce m Egypt an.d P alestll1e and who plIes the franlnug stamp with the sa me marked dexterIty and unde­. niable enthusiasm of old .

L / Sgt. C. A. J. R (I?uke) Fr.a,zer .has recently joined from Warwick brll1g1I1g . WIth hIm a bundle of mu sic, and a \'oice already tned <?ut and ehclbng fre nzied clapping, whistli ng, stampmg ~f feet and other ind ications of wholehearted apprecIatIOn. On 'the occasion of our fi rst cricket match of th e season , but unfortunately after our visitors had left, Sgt. Frazer gave to ngue, ap plying all the req.U1slte ges­tures unhesitatin gly and WIth no little vIgour ; th<:l clenched fist (non-poli t ical) the haughty WIthdrawal (a mere .suggestion of a backward pace) and t!le Chiding fi llger (capricious) -one of the "Old lI1 ch s-pensables". . " . . . ,

::vIr. Geo. D. Cale ot the cIvlhan staff has been transferred to vVarwick on his promotion to. Gra.de ill and has our good wi shes . \Ne shall mIss hIm during the coming cricket season as he kept an admirab le wi cket and handled a very effectIve bat, inclining rather to deli c~cy and low cunning t.han to wholesale vlOlence whIch IS a popular attItud e at W~q. . .

L j Sgt. A .. P. Gilbert is married. .Th.at IS not a simple statement, It almost come<' wlth1l1. tl~e cn:te­gory of cataclvsmic events, and th.e fir st IntImatIOn was received with much head- sllak1l1g, mouth open­in g and other evidence of astonishment. R,allying to the cause, however , the s taff present.ed Mr . . a nd Mrs. Gi]beI~ with a clock (sa ns any ulterIor I?lOtlve) their good wishes, and, indi\'idually , thel:' sym-pathies. . ..

On \N ed nesda y, 26th '\J av, \\'eentel'taJ[~ ed VISItors from Chatham and enjoved yel'y good cl'l cket. We were defeated . the sco re being:-

Chatha m 110 for 8. Warley 83 all out (in every respect).

W e are - pleased to say .that t he extreme tip of the tail conta ined sOlllethlI1 g of a stmg---:the last sp'asmodi c twitch bore semblance to a whIplash .

\Ne hope to regale you in the next issue with accounts of further cricket matches and the Annual Outing which has been arranged provisionally for . Ju ly, and any other events which may occur in t he mea ntime. A.P.G.

86

WOOLWICH. Arrivals and Departures.-This heading agam

.figw:es prominently in , our news. Si nce the last Jl'otes appeared we have welcomed , . as our ChIef, Col6nel E. . E. E . Todd from Pa lestm.e. We hope he will lik e hi s sta v in Woolwl ch . Pnor to Colonel Todd 's arri\'al, we had with us Lieut.-Colonel E. \ N. Grant (from Canterbur;' ) , for a sho rt spell before going on to Eastern Comm and , ~nd he fill ed . 'the Chair" yacated by the departure of Bt. Colon el Duesbury to Veptfo rd. .

Li eut.:Colonel H. P . F enll ell .has a rl'lved from Gibraltar and Major F. T. Bmn es from Ceylon. In welcoming them we hope th~y, too , WIll find. com­pensation s ill being statIOned III the MetropolIs.

\Ve al'eeted Lieutenant A. K. Hunt from York and . at'" the same moment, extended our congratula­t ion's on hi s promotion.

Lieut. Goode has arrived from Chatham to renew acquaintance with the accounting maclunes. _

Privat es J. C. Alexand·er, C" J. A. Day , B . _i. Fenton , T. Grant, L . VII: .P a rkmson , A. E. Rous­seau and F. West have .lomed from t he Aldershot Pay Schoo] and, have n.ot yet deCided .whet!lel: the theoretical 01' the practIcal SIde of P ay wor k IS to be prefened 1 •

Staff Sergt. B. E. E va ll s, fl:om ~al est: ne , " looked in" en route to civi l life. \ i\te "~Ish h1111 the very best of luck in hi s new surl'o l1ndll1gs.

Other additio ns to our strength are Sgt. H. H. Pope and L j Sgt. J. Bentley w~o , we ~),re so~ry t o say , have been admitted to R.\I . Hospital, Netley, from J amaica and P alestHle respectIvely.

Sgt. W. H. J ones, after a spell at etley has taken up duty in the offic~.

Sgt. T. F. Pond , 0': dI schar ge fl:om Hospital , was with us a short tlme hefore belI1 g posted to E astem Command Pay Office.

Staff Sgt. T. H. Cottam has left 1;IS for Pr'eston: \Ne congratulated S.S.M. L. ? r.> Alle nger .o\hd~

promotion and very soon aftelwal d~ , we wele I, ding him the' ioe,;itable "au r evOlr" for York s

ad vantage. d t h ' lt Congl'atula~ions are also ext,end e as e l.esu .

of the followmg:-promotions.-Lj Sgt. B. C. Hort~)I1 to Sergeant,

Ptes. K . HOI'Il sey, R King , E. Lewls. H . C. WIlson to Corporal . , d G C

Awards. - Staff Cgt. C. H. Weston . L .S. ;~n . . '\'Ied;] l , L ISgts. W. T. C. Cole,s and E. Le~ l s , Bo~k­keepina Certificate 1st Clas Stage 11 Inter. RS.A., L j Cpl."'R \N. Holl and , Class I Trade Test.

Birt il .-To L j Sgt. a ,:d MnL BlIlks-a son, John K enneth , on 20th AprIl, 1937.. . .

Cricket .-A t the tIme of wnt1I1g these notes, our t t od Two l)r:l ct lce aa.mes <;e'l SO l1 ha s no ve operL. o. 1

i":li Lo be aban doned . There is, however, a. qUIet y op'timistic atmosphere in this section and we are fa )] I ' . j' , a aood <; umm er and the fulllllrnent 0 a 10plllg . Ol . ,. 0 '.

generou s lIst of outll1gs. . . .. h Billia rds,,-Although our sportll1g actIVitIes . ~ve

been reduced to a minimum, we ha.ve ontn,, ~d durin the past winter to. carry. out the fi.xtures 111

g t' Wl'tll t he GarrI son BIllIards Leag;ue. It connec ',lOn . th ' . . del'~b l e pleasure to report a.no er suc-gIves CO Il SI ,,, 1 t f th

cessful session in the Leag u.e and to add 1.13.., or. e . d tim e the Detachment h a.d it.s n<1lT'.e IOscnbed

~~co~le shi eld as winners. Apart f~'om the hOl~OUl: of aga in coming out on top , many enwya.bl.e evel1l 111'S

ha,ve been spent. due lal:gel." .to the exce ll ent spor -in g sp irit in which the mdlvldua.l games have been played.

T HE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOU R1\i AL

. Whilst , th e team (Gompo.sed _ of "si x, players) has been subject to more than the usua.l number of .changes due to postings, etc., good fortune in find­ing suustitutes to f.l] vacancies has atLEllded us. This has brought to h ght much hIdden talent and provides CL con,fident outlook for future efforts in the competition .. Th;!nks <1.I;e due.. to .-a ll .members ·of . the team (past and p; 'csent) for their regular attendance .at the matches ; this has, in 110 small mea,sure, con­t ributed to the successful result.

Coronation News.- "Ve a.re glad to record that

London DEPTFORD.

Arrivals and Departures.-On 31st March we wel­·c(}med back Lt.-CoL and Bt.-Col. H. Duesbury from temporary duty at Woolwich and Lt.- Col. ·W. S. Hack left us fo l' Ca nterbury on the same day.

New a1Tivals are S / Sgt. C. 'V. Lunn from 'Pales­tine and P te. \ iV. G. Lyn ch from Aldershot, to whom we extend a hearty welcome.

S.Q.1Vl.S. A. R Graves was discharged to pension 011 4th .l\Ia.y .

Messrs. Peacock and Fulton, Grade IV Clerks, had 1.0 leave owing to the retu rn of military per­sonnel from Palestine, but we are glad to say that fU1~her employment was f.ound for them in the Reg imenta l Pay Office, vVoolwich , and the Command Pay Offi ce, Eastel'll Command, respectively .

Birth.-Congratu la tions to L / Sel·gt. and Mrs. Cox on the birth of their son "Michael George" <)11 20th February.

Sport.-\Ve have not yet commenced cr icket this season but a.re now .eagerly awaiting the opening match on 9th June.

At a Table Tenni s match with the sta ff of the \Noolwich l)ost Office we lost by 13 events to 9-­a great inYprovement 011 the .resu lt of OUT last meeting. .

Promotion.- Congratula.tiolJs to Corpl. E. Deeley on his promotion to that rank on 1st April.

LONDON. Arrivals and Departures. --Capt. Sha w-Hamilton

will be leavin g on Ju ly ht to attencl a Costing 'Course at Aldershot and is being relieved by Capt. Hogge from t h;Lt stat ion. VIle wish them the best -of luck in their new station s.

S.Q.U .S. Lissend en has joined us again from the 'Command Pay Offil:e, Eastern Command, after a long spell in hospita.l. \ iVe extend to him the usual welcome a.nd wish him a speedy return t.o 11 ea lth .

Corpl. Barnes joined on temporary _ duty from Ba1'l1et during the quarter and has no\\' been posted ·to the Coml11 anJ Pay Office, Ea st.el'll Command.

Northern COMMAND PAY OFFICE, YORK.

Promotions, etc.-VIle welcome Colonel N. Forde 'Who return ed to t hi s office on 23rd :;\~[arch, and "heartily congratuh te him 0 11 his promotion . Con­gratulations are il lso extended to S.S.M. H. R Hud­son who wa s pI'0 .. 110t,ecl to that mnk on 6th May: he was t,ransferl'ed to Le ith on 17th of that 1110n'th a.nd takes the good wishes of the office with him. We a lso cong ratulate S.Q.l\LS. T . Ha rd in~ and Sgt. 'W. T. Pinkn ev wh o were p romoted on 8th Apri l.

! ... / Sgt.. j\. E. Clarke a.nd. Sgt. D. W elch joined ·thls office on the 6th and 24th April respectively .;md make we lcome add itions to our bill ia rd team.

S.Q.M.S. E . Knigh,t, St,~fj ~gt. F. C. U lph ,and Sgt . H. A. Stock, of this office, were selected ' to repre­sent th e Corps in the Coronation Procession. An honour deserved ly earned and worthily fulfi.1led.

We congratulate the fo llowing on th e award of the Coron at ion MeJal :- Colonel B . L . Duke, D.S.O., .O.B .E. (Officer .i / c R. A. Records) , Colonel E. E. E. Todd , O.B.E. , Major C. G limshaw, O.B .E . , Major }\ . Greenwood. Lieuts . A. E. Jones, C . . R. Haddock, E. lHcCarthy cl nd A. K. Hunt, and Sergea.nt H . A. Stock .

District His assistance was ,ery welcome and would have been more so had he beeJl with us dUl'ing the c ri cket season.

Congratulations.-To S.Q.M.S. Simpson on the award of the Coronation medal, S / Sgt. Mudd on re­ceivina the mecla l for 18 years " undetected", Ae&sr~. E. P. Vllright, J. T1II11er , E. A. Burgess, 1<'. T. Fowler, \N. Ra y 011 promotion to Gmde ill Clerk.:; and Miss O'Dwyer on joining t he mnks of establi shed female clerks.

.1\11'. Ray was posted to the Army Pay Office,' Bar­net. on promotio!l , nnd wIl l be a usefu l a.~l dltlOn t o t heir cricket team. V.,7 e aI'·e sorry to lose hIS sel'Vlces both in the o,ffice and on the cricket fi eld .

Drafts for Overse-as.-The following have been placed on the waiting li st for overseas :--S/ Sergt . Mudd, Sergts. Spe!ICe a nd Fisher and L /Sgt. Richal'dson.

Sports and Gen aral. -The cr icket season has now opened and , weather permitting, together with the assista.nce of the younger Co·rps members now serv­ing at this station, we are looking fo rv. -ard to a. fairly successful season.

Attendance at the l'Ifie range has ·dropped off con­sid erably . in cons' quence of a n epidemic of colds, pressure of work nnd the bus strike. The c.nly shoots which have taken p]ace .were Postal League Matches, the results of which are now awaited.

v'iTe are pleased to sav that Mr. VV. E. (ex-S.Q.M.S.) Bell, who has 'been absent from duty, seriously ill for nbout seven we·eks, has ma.de a splend id recovery and is now back in ha.rness again.

The Officer.' vVarrant and Kon-commissioned officers who represented the Corps 011 the Corona­tion procession were in pected by the Colonel Com­mand;1.1lt in Regents PHrk Bllrracks on April 30th. \Ne congratul ate them on t heir smart appea ra.nce and on t.he remarks of Drill Sergea.nt Teece of the Grenadier Guanjs who W<1.S very pleas ed with ~he manner in which the rifl e mo vements were carned out.

Command L / Srrt. Clarke comes from the R.eg imenta.l Office a nd "Sgt. vVelch has rejoined from P<11estine .

Obituary.-\Ne regret to have to report the death of Lt.-Col. and Staff Paymaster Vii. A. Britten, O.B.E .. who pa . ed awa), suddenly D,t York on . 18th March. A se rvi ce was held at the Ga.rrison Church and the interment was at FuU:ord hurch , York. ~n the ~rd Ma.rch. Officers of th e RA.P.C. at.tended as pall bearers, and t.h e othel' moks fol­lowed t.he coffin- the escort being provid ed by the 1st Bn . the York <I nd Lancaster R.egiment. Among the many floral tributes were those sent by .1\1rs . Britten , . General Sir 1\ lexand.er \iV ard rop and

THE ROYAL ARl\lY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Officers of l::I eadq l< <1l'ters, NOi th em Command, Major General 1\. I. 1\1uS30n and II H.cers, Royal Army P ay COI'PS, Y'iiar Office, amI Office rs i!nd Other Ranks of the Command and Regin~€lItal " Offioas, York .

M arriage.- The ma rriage took pla ce Oll 1st l\iay , at Grove Methodi st Chapel, York , of Mr. A. J . L. Rogers , son of .Mr. and Mrs. A. F. Rogers of York , and Mi.ss D. O. M. Macnnmara , daughter of Major J . M. Ma,cnama ra , R1\.P C .. \Ne offer t hem h€alty congra tu lations and best wishes for the future.

Coronation M edl ls .--W e are pleased to report that Colon el 1\ . Fo rd e, i'lLI ~ o r J. M. l\J.a cnamara, Lieut. G. \Ai. P cnll , a lld . 1I'lr. G. Ha nney were awarded mecla is on th e occasi on of Their Majesties' Coronation. .

Rifle Notes.-_l s the sh ooting S.e.LSO tl has now fimshed , th ere i3 no t hing much to report as regards acti\'iti e.'. \;.,' a re lo o kill ~ forwa rd to the publica­tion of t he r:i n"l placings in the League tab le. hop­ing, of course, tl1<:t wc are not at the bottom .' The consi tent shoot in g of L / Sgt . Monks was rewarded by hi s winning t he Spoon for t he month of March after be ing " I u,w·er-up " seve ral tim es t his seaw n. The <l \'enlge gun score of L / Sgi. Monks in t.h e spoon shoot.' thi .s se a:,');1 is 96.2. Despite the efforts of the Handi ca pp ~ l'. S.S.M. Chen el'Y has won hi s third spoon tl11 s season , bei ng t he winner for th e month of April.

Bill iards.-::\ otes under th is hea din g would, nor­m ally haNe consist Ed of a brief chronicle about the final nla<.;ing in the Sgts. ~ ~ 33S Billia rds League, in which L / Sgt. Cla rk e coll :cted a prize [01' the highest brea k Ju rin g t he ccmpeti tio n, a nd a few

" Shiner" Wright.

No rthe l'l1 Command Pny Offi ce , YOlk. Billiards Champioil J 1936 / 37'.

88

notes abo ut the same N. C.O. failinO' in the Army­Billiard Championsilip to Sgm. Sw~n at Strensall in April. We wer3 all certa in th~t . " No.b.by " 'll'ould. get through but he had- sOlne bad lu ck and just lost. Bettel' luck next' time. But a new star has risen in th e firm am ent in the person of our old friend S / Sgt. Wright, known to the Police and creditors as " Shiner". The Billiards Committee conceived the brilliant noti .m of usin g up ou·r surplus billiards funds by purchasin g a cue, throwing it into the ring, and ha\' ing a " fr ee for all". After much cogitation, meetings, arg umants, suggestions, and mutual re­crimina.tions, this , it was decided, should t ake the· form of a. H andicap Competition , and handicaps were duly allotted. "Shiner" , very much on form , duly walked away with the prize, and is now issuing cha.llellges to all and sundry with particula r reference­to all ex, York billiards players.

Despite S / Sgt. Wright ' s "Billiards" it was voted a very success ful evening. Our grateful thanks are d ue to our ve ry good friends the R.S.M. and Mem­bers of t he R. A.M.C. Sgts. Mess for allowing us to use their Mess , not only for this Tournament, but for all our mat ches during th e Sgts.' Mess Billiards League, without which concession we· should not have been able to run a team.

LICHFIELD . These notes would not be compl ete without the

Co ronation news. Although we a re not so fortunate as our P all l\Iall friends on these occasions, Lich­fi eld did well ; t he illuminations, firework s and searchli g-ht display being parti cula rly good.

Th e flo odli ghting of the Cathedral and other builclin O's , t he Gondolas and Glee Singers on Minster Pool. a~ld t he genera l decorative scheme of the City refl ect · O' I'eat cred it on th03e responsible, and brought t housands of visitors to Li clifield.

On the 17th May the "Corona tion Bower" was celeb rated in t rue- ancient stvl e wit h the added attraction of the de<.;ora tions . - Th e wea th er , for a welcome change , was glorious.

Co rona t ion ten nis and bowl s toumarnents were a rranged bv a local committee Our members t horoughly enj oyed the games th ~ v. played . Mr. Pri est and Mr. Moss each took a cup for the quarter fin als at Bow ls. S / SO' t . Ede <md - L fSgt. Stewart got. to t he semi-~nal s 0 of the tenn ~s doubl es bein g­beaten by t he ul tImate wllln ers. If t he tou rnament had been' kept strictly local we IT' i'2;ht have securer! t he cup for t he m ixed dO~lb l e s with th os~ two very consisten t players, S.Q.M.S. and i'lll' . . Ay lll1. It wa s most. unfortunate t ha t Mrs. Ede wl'en chcd her knee very badly at pra ctice and co uld not take payt .. [t is !lice to see her getting about agalll but It IS a ve ry slow job.

The tennis team is very strong at the moment and Vi e h,:ve beaten OUl' old friend s (h e Th eologica l Co l­l e~e n nd the Combin ed Depots Sgt .. ' Mess . An attnl ctive fixL ure lIst ha been ar ranged by our hard \\'o rkin g Secretary, L jSgt. B. Hi gson , and it is l?] €<l. in g to note that the l::!llt es ha ve not been left out.

OUI' ReO'imental P aym aster has left us for the bell s and goats of Malta; we tnlst that both he .and Mrs. P ewsey will enjov th eir stay at th a t sta tlOn. \Ne extend a hearty welcome to our new R egImental Paymaster , Major Hollin gswol'th ~n rl hOI?e he WIll enj oy hi s stay here. L/ ~gt . Stewal t h<l s !ust hea.l'd t hat he is posted to SalIsbury on t he 7th June, so· t he tf n!li s tea.m will lose a sta lwart , but we heal' t hat Pte. T anner, who has just joined us , is very-keen. INKY.

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

REGIMENTAL PAY OFFICE, YORK.

Office Notes.-Congr<l tulations were extended to S.S.M. A. K . Hunt on hi s gazetting to Asst. Pay­master as from 1st Nfal'ch, coupled with regret at his departure fO I' Woolwich on 8th March. ~In hi s .place we have S.S.i\I. D 'AIJ enger, from Woolwich , who seems to ha ve settlecl in comfortably.

S/ Sgt. A. G. Hazza rd a rrived from" Comma nd Pay Office, E astern Command, on 24th :May, and on the same day L / Sgt. Cozens was postEd to Com­mand P ay Office. Yo rk.

vVe also had a;1 increa se on the Civilia n Staff on 19th A pril , whe<l ;,] 1'. E. Baisden jo;ned from Lich­,fi eld on promotion to G rad e Ill.

Office Dan Cl! .-The R ecord and Pay Office Sports Club held a Dan ce at the Alban)' H all 011 3rd March. The fun ction went with a swing, thanks to t he excell ent org IIL1 ZatlOn by S.S.M. A. K. Hunt and L / Ssts. Cozens ,. nd Cia rke. _-\ la rge com ­pany was present, includ ing Colonel E. James, D .S.O., M. C., Officer 1/c R eco rd s, Colonel V.'/. S. Mackenzie, Commalld P aymaster, Li eut. Colonel A. A . Cockb ul'lI , Regimenta l Paymaster , Ca ptain A. J. S. Tuk e and LIeut. Ross, Regimenta l Pay Office, and Major H. \N. Tayl ol' and Captalll E. D. E tiJll ger, Command P ay Offi ce, as well as other offi cers on the

s t.a rf. of t he NO I th em Command. All units in the Oal'l lSon

l. were represented , and quite a number of

~he CIVl. !lI ll staff 01 th~ offi ce attended with their frIends. For t he fil'st time several members of the Suppl em cnt <:! ry Ressn e tnrned up and tatea their lI1 tentlO ll of att endIn g lu tu re fun ctions of a like naLure. If t he Edi Lo l' j" good enough to publish a photogra ph of some of t hose who werc present, it r~ay be noticed that. few Corps members are visible. 1 hey w 3r8 all present, but t he photographer afterwards regretted that. he was too close to get them i11(,0 t.he picture!

Dancc music was played bv the band of the 15/ 19th Hussa rs. . -

Th e Second i\ nnual Di nn el' and Smok ing Concert of the Supplementa ry Reserve, R.._-\ .P .C. , was held at. t he W indmill Ho te l, York , on 28th Ap ril.

The procoodlll g.s opened at 7.38 p. 111 . wi th dinner Wllll;h w;;s t,ho lon ghly enjoyed by a ll present, and t he smoklll g concert Wh lCh follo wed provided vast am usem€llt all J ou ne! . Lt. Col. A . A. Cockbu l'I1. the RegImental Payma:ster. pl'esi:led, and Capta ins K D. E dlllgel' and A. J . S. Tuke, and Lieut. Plowman were also p: esent . The arrangements were ca rried ont by lVIl'. F. H. Go~to n : (fo rmed .v of t he S.R.) a nd both he a,nd t he enterta ll1 ers a re to be con­gratul ated fo ~' pro viding a highly su cce3~ f ul function.

R eproduced by ki"d pen" iss;"" of t he "Fod.shire H ern Id' ,

At the R.A .P.C. Dance.

89

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

R t/Jroduced by /till d jJerJll iss:ol/ of till! "J ·orl.s/tiTe H er a ld"

R.A.P.C. Dance, Albany Hall, York.

Northern Ireland District Social Club.--O ll. F riday, 23rd April l~~t , '" e. eu­

joyed another of our " Ji llner a,nd th ea~r.e, evel1lngs at the Queen 's H otel and EmpIre Th ea,t l e.

A t dinner we welcomed officia lly: as new men~­bel' Lt -Col \N . D. N. Ro botham, NfaJor L. E. Jam~s, M.C.·. S.S .M. B. H. Clark , S.Q.M.S. J. Mannin g and Sergean t W. A . J.o11 es, a~d co ~weye.d to them ou r be~ t wishes [o r th eIr ha,ppll1 es ,Lt thiS station.

At th e S '1./1 e time we had to bid "Goodbye" t o S .Q.M.S. " Sam" \iV alk el ', whose depar~ur.e 0'11 d l S ­

charae creates a gap which WIll not eaSIly b e fill ed. W e ~njss hi O"ood spirits and heartY' laugh , as do his R.E. and R .A.S. C. friends .

Sport.-This heading is almost a new one for. u s . and a1'1 es through t he for~n ation \ of a Garn~on Staff and Depal'tmental Cricket CI ~b , ~ f w lllcl1 Lt. -Col. Robotha m has been elected Captam.

K gh t 0- our members took part in the first m at~h ve~sust.he R.A .S. C . . and enjoyed a good game,' but were deservedl y beat en.

. t t l R a1 Ulster In our second mat ch , agal11 s l e oy c

Constabulary, we suffered wh at seemed. to be <Lt least halt o r BeHast 's averag·e annual r amfall, but

90

ill spi te of this we were not 'damped ' a nd a good game end ed in an ho nou1 a.ble draw.

Gi\'ell good weathe:', our fi x.t u re li st p romises some good sport.

_\. handi cap l)illia rd toul'l1a ment held by c t he­R.A.S. C. Ser geants ' Mess resulted 111 a final md.tch bet ween S j S!St. Ppence r and Sgt. ivl onk s of t hIS de­tachme nt. V',le all congratula ted S j Sgt. Spencer on bein O" t he ultim a te · .... ·inner o r th e Challenge Cup put up by th e Mess.

O.C.A. Dinner.-Lieut . E. B. Godwin , S.Q.M.S. E G. L. Bro\\'n and Serg t. W . A. ~10n ks made the· lo'ng pilgrimage to H arrods for thIS event, and all report the usual success .

The Coronation.-Owing to the intervenin g dist-[ SOln e ,'00 nlil es we were una ble to take a nce 0 ' , . . _ t l

a nv adive pa rti.cl-;:>ation Jl1 t he celebrat~on" TIe~­'sei'v.es but did our best to do honoUI to , le1T Ma: es ties . One of our number, S.Q.M.S . Brown, wa~ luckv enough to be chos~n for duty. as steward

. . tl - Abbey ' so f<Lr he 1:S v,ery retIcent about neal l e o . . , • t" on to eve rything , but we a re hopll1g a.s 1me goes . ' a lea n a li ttle mO're of wh at he saw and d id. o

I

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Scottish Command COMMAND PAY OFFICE, EDINBURGH.

Joinings.-Major M. Blair (Gibraltar) , Lieut. C. O'Leary (Leith ) and CorpI. ? F . Mockler (Preston ) have recently joined us. We hop::: they will enJoy their tours of duty here. .

Discharges.-Lce. Sergt. J . Davies has recently been discharged a nd we wLsh him every success in Ci vilian life.

Retirements.-vV e a re a ll sorry to lose Major W. Spence w ho recently retired a ,~d we hope he wi iJ ha ve many happy years In retirement.

LEITH. Last QLlarter we welcomed Lieut. O'Leary to Leith

and alre:Luy we have had to wish him God speed on trans fer to th e Command Office, Edinburg h. , ;\i e will st ill see ll im occas iona ll y .

A welcome and co ng rat ul a tions to Lieut. P. Plow­man, from P alestin e, 0 11 promotion to that Ra nk,

and S.S.M. Hud son, from York ; on promotion to. W.O.1. Both joined us during May. May their. to ur of duty in Leith be pleasant.

Vie also welcome S .Q.M.S. Becconsall, from Egypt- local cricketers will now have to look to their laurels.

Major H . H. Cox is under orders for Malta, and. is at present on embarka.t ion leave. vVe hope his. stay Oll the Isla nd of th e Knights wi ll be a happy one.

vile are a ll looking forward to 'Summer ' (it fell: on a vVednesday last year ) a nd to our Annual Out­ing-date and destination not yet fix ed- but we hope. to tell you all about it nex t t inle-ma,ybe like the '· Pac kman". who " vV as a t t he feeing mal·ket and wha Kent a' t ha t were fou , and wha n ever spoiled. ~L sto rv by co nsiderin a in 'twer t rue".

- 0 MACSHE:MI.

Southern Command EXETER.

I have no arrivals to report in this i.-sue, but the major pa rt of t he -Mili ta ry Staff have received in­structiolJs to hold t hemselves in readiness for eit her Foreign Service or the W aiting List. Serg ts. vVebber a lld Lyth.goe a re for the boa t next Trooper and S.S.lV'-- Wilson , S.Q. !\:L S. Osbome a nd Sergt. Allen a re waiting . At the time of goin g to press nothing is known as to destina tion or da t es .

Corona ti on Celebra tions in E xeter were on a pa r with t hose elsewh ere. On the Sunday preceding l\Iay 12th a Civic Church P arade a t Exeter Ca th edral was held CI,t which repeesentative bod ies of Milita ry and semi-mili ta ry orga lli sat ions a ttend ed with th e Mayor a. nd' Corporation. The iLlumi na tions of t he ancient Ca(,Ledral and Guildhall wer·e an in teres ting feat ure of the spectacles presented in add ition to the bunting a,nd oth el' decol'ations which were li bera,l ly displayed .

Rumou rs a re: ti ll current as to the move of th e Office to more suitable accommoda tion , but noth in g is cl eilni (,e on this point to date.

Congratula t ions a re extended to Lieut. Quinn on receiving the King George VI Coronation Meda l and to Staff Serg t. P lunkett on joining the 'Old Soldier-s ' wi th t he award o,f the Long Service and Good ConJ ud Medal.

The la uours of the horti cultura.list s r esponsib le for th e la wn at the front of t he offi.ce hav·e been pleasantly r·ewarded, anJ a very co-lourful display of flo,wers meets th e eyes of t.he s taB, when , at some infr.equel1t intervals . it is possible to gaze through the fron t wi ndows. The thanks of th e staff are accordingly presented he rewith to those worthies for enlive ning t he view .

The Sec r.eta ry of t he Minjature Rifle Club pre­sents his apologies to other League Clubs for this office' s inab ility to complete the programme. This was due to , a lllong oth er reasons, the non-a vailabili ty of a miniature rang·e, one rifl e "dying on us' , and damage to the telescope. "Vi e hastily cabled for a t elescope fro m the F leet to remedy the la,tter dis­abili ty, but it wO l.lld appear that the Navy ha,s other bones to pick tha n this 'urgent l'epair ' .

The Sec retn ry hopes to make a fres h start next season , opt imisti caily hoping th at pa ragraph 1 of these no tes re Foreign Service doe- not baulk his ambi.tions. BUKRA FER MISH MISH.

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WARWI·CK. Moves.- 'N e were sorry to say goodbye to Major ·

H. J . Hollingsworth on his depa rt.ure for Lichifieldij it is no t reaJly good by e as he often calls in a t the. o ffi ce. V..re has ten to cong ratula te him on his recen t prom otion to S taff P aymas ter ; he will be missed at our bowls; d c., gathe l ingci t hi s sumlner.

Lance Serg t. A. Dawson has left us on being posted to Clwster : we expect he w111 find the work much less hectic th an in a regimental 0 ffi ce. Lance Serg t. C. A. J. 1. Fraser has been post ed to vVar­ley ; he won ' t feel s trange as he wa.s previously st,a.tioned there but he wi ll be missed ve ry much a t St.. Nicholas Church where he was a, meinher of" the choir , and took a.1l acti ve part in all funct ions connected wit h the pa rish. Private F. Armitage has arrived from the school a t A ld·ershot j we hope his s tay in , i\7a rwick will be a happy one.

Miniature Rifle Club.-News of the past qualter ­must of necessity be concerned with the one and only past ime IHLn1,ely. riA e shooting, in whi ch it_· has been po~s ible to indulge in these days of aJa rms and excursions, when few' of us have any clear indi­cation as to wh ether we are coming or going. At one time we reall y d id t hink we were on the road to reaso ll able success-b ut the team 's tail would not. wa.g ! so we shook ourse lves, and that so shook t he hea.d that now we a re wondering if we shall be as high on the final list as last year. Mystified and bewildered a t erra. tic hooting, even by t he crac k shots; brought, about the discovery of a loose fore­sight and an untightened backsight; " There you a re," ·ex. claim ed the exper ts (ta kin g no blame un to t hemselves ) , " no wond er we could not shoot. " The fa ults a re rectifi ed, whereupon the S.S.M. makes three 99" running and is beaten on th e very last " lap" of the season by a " possible" scored by the cctEtain (which is as it shou ld be). -Wh a t we want rea.lly is a machine in to '",hich we can feed targets , and ammuni tion and which. after sufficient t im e for d iges tion , will produce bt; ll s the while throwing out a nything und er a ' t en'. Ql1ite unofficial of course !

Captain 'T, Cheadle very sportingly put up a· clock for competi tion, ea ch member choosin g his handicap ; t her e were three ti es which had .0 be fired off on one uf the match !lights; the t eam was

TH E RUYAL ARlVIY PAY CORPS JOU RNAL

short of one of its nsua l men l be l's t ha,t, n igh t. It . l 'd 'ts best and th en when all was about over and

( I I . , '. f h n t l'i ed awl everyone exha usted, 1Il comes a res , u 7

confi dent individual ; was h~ not one o·f t he tea:rvl~ .­" Th e clock is mi ne," says Ile, and It was so! 1.

Yates was t he winner and he well deserved h iS success for he has been beaten . on t he P?st Oil tw·) or three previous occasIOns. We undel stand t hat on th is occasion he slept a ll t he afte rnoon , to~k a n erye to nic and ani 'ed at t he ran ge.m a taxI . to preserve his equanimity; still eVen thIS IS not o ffi cl al ~ So, rel uctant ly , we clo'e another E nloyab~e.season .01

shootill g; we would lI ke to g'o on but v. h~~e we I~­dulge in shoots th e slu g also In dulges m shoots, nice young succul en t ones, :l Il U all els.e shoots too, t~p ; 'a no,ther t hin g also s hoots, thiS ~llne ?o~r; RAl i'l I Have vou seen It? Never mmd , Splln" is here. Summel: is comi ng and so, we keep hop~ng, th e m);t hica l good t ime. E.R.h..

Bo ·",,'s.-The season has now commellced and we are faced with a ,fixt ure lIs t of 2.2 match es Wit h out side clubs, apar t from our ow n lIl ter-sectlOJ1 and cup compet itions . . 1

So fa r we h:1\Ie played t hree mat ch es WIt l.out r e cr l'~tering a win .owing to a numher of our player"

o V " ' d t "open bein er newcomers to t he game 0 1 unuse , . 0 . . ' _ gree~ " bowling, but .the matches and t n mmlIlgs have been greatly enJ oyp.d. .

\Ne have on ly had one casualty up' to th e present. -a sen ior menlb er is - ti ll vel' v h azy as to wh ere

. the match was , w hat it Wil and If so , w hy? 'Ration::;' are suppli ed fo r home matches at a rate

equi valen t to . the hi gher rate; an d ,LW,LY, a.t the Il igher rate WIth meal ser vlc·e element .

Th e g reen at present I ~ not 111 t.he bes t. of C?~ ­clition but we are t acklin g It. 1I1 t he n gh t splrJt - 0 a - to get it in a better condi tIO n even t han last ~ea~~n , when we were complimented by a¥Ipth e visiting clubs. . ,:

Tenn fs .- Th e weath er , so far , has not been kmd enou gh fo r u s to star t, alt hough our cour t is look­ing in fin e condi tion . S:Q.M.S. H. J . J ordan was appointed captain of thiS section fo r the present

season. . C 1 1 V Awards,-W e off er congratu la tIO ns to OO\l e .

N. J ohn son , D .S. O., and. Lieute na nt Vi. A. \Villiams, M.B. E. , on receivin g H.M. CoronatIOn M~~. d'

GB·neral.- Th·e list of those procee In g ove rseas dUl'in er the coming trooping season a nd t hose wh o are o~ th.e wa i tin g h st was received recent ly a nd Wa rwick is l epr.esented by Lance Sergeant· Davles, Pocklington ;Lnd Fra3er who appeal' on t he walt lJl g list. . .

The Coronation h;:s, of co urse beell the ~o l e tOpiC of conversat!on fo r some weeks pa st , ;l lld I.lere In "Varv/icll: t he celebration.s took t he fo rlll 01 lunch in the P :n k for t he chJl dr·211 . sports I ll. t he iLftel'lloon, il ll d a bonfi re and fi rewo rks a night. U niortunately, rain spoilt th e latte r, . and It was postponed until Whit i\'Iond ay . T he offi ce here was one of t he buil din ers ill t he tow n fl ood h ght!ng p lan , ;md it looks a t~tall y diffe rent pIa e un der ~h e li gh ts to t,he official place I t actua ll y I S .. W~rwlck Ca t! e was al 0 fl oodJ lt a nn a new depal t ut e was

St. John 's House, Warwick.

92

THE ROYAL ARMY

t he illumination of t he ground.s in side, local cha ri t ies benefi t ing by t he small charge t hat was made.

O.C.A. Dinner.-Nine m3mbe rs out o [ our total of six teen attended the dinner and thoroughl y en ­joyed t hemselves ; i t was very pleasing to be amongst old friends again fo r a few hours. The Dl11ner Com mittee are to be congratulated on the l'esults of their efforts .

Garden PartY.-Colonel V. N. J ohnson, D.S .O., Office r if c R ecords, and t he Office rs of t he Detach ­ment , RA.P .C., will be 'at H ome ' to t he sta ff a lld t heir famili es on Friday, 23rd JuJy . Thi s h as now become an annual event , and is eagerly looked for ­wa rd to by all t he 1'< t aff. It is hoped that the weather will be kincler th an last yea r, wh en th e event had to be postponed twice before th e weather decideu in our IaVOL,l'.

Boxing.-Many mem bers of t he office llHve ta k en an in terest in t he boxin g shows arranged in t he neighbourhood this past winter , ana t bose in pa r ­ticular who have assisted as officia ls, etc. , are to be congratulated.

Warwick Carnival.-T his is bein g held on t he 26th .June a nd as usual t he de ta.chm ent a re taking a ll act ive par t, mo re part icul arl y S.Q.M. S. J orcla n . ' V·e understand t hat Major H ollingswort h (now .l,t Lichfi elu) a. lI a Major K elly a.re ",gain ju dgin g t he J iLZZ Ba.nd competition- it is hoped that all t h e ha nds will be in cl uded t his year ; t here was a, s li crh t omission last year! '. -' 0

Supplementary Reserve Notes. To P ri vates H. J . S. Walkley and . ,,,,,T. G. Boydell

\\'e ·extend hearty congratulations on bein g promo ted to t he rank of Cm'pOl'al from 17t h Feb ru a ry a nd 6th ~la rd.l respecti vely . . Also to Cpls .. G. C,. R,a pel' , E. H ll'ons and J . H. Sq Ulres on theli ' appomtment to Lance Sel'gt. on 9t h iVIay, 4 t h Ap ri l and 15th :Jl ay.

\""Tha.t a p ity we have no Sercea llts ' Me1'<8 and how we wish t hey lived nea rer. '"

The training season i sta rt ing and we shaH be me~tll1g some of t,he S.Rs durin g t he peliod of t rmmng. 'We t rust they win fin d t hi s period as lllteresting as they d id t he p eriod last yea l'.

St. John 's House, Warwick. Dignity at all Costs.

Once upon a t ime the r~ wa!.' a h ous2, a ve ry , \'er)' old.ho Ll se,.rellow ned III a ll 1::lIIds fo r it s great bea uty .

); ow thiS house was occupied b y a Gover nor and hi s mini ste rs, a nd right well were t hEir enactment, ma de a nd t heir disiI.ll owances en fo rced.

Xow it cam e to pass t hat Lhe HulO' of t he 'o un t ry W il S belllg acclall'necl K in g an cl all good li eges we re ado l'lll ng ~hell cfomalll s wLt h p,Lt,riotic fl ags il ncl. to kell s, wen' cl and wo nderful to be hold.

The old, old house stood a lone ill i t , lln ado l'll ed dignity and beauty.

PAY CORPS JUURNAL

,Lt S t he day of festi vitv a.nd accJama t ion d rew ' n ear the GO I'e rJlor saj el un t'o hi s minist ers " Adonl ed lI' e must be; send in to t he Cap'i ta l t hat suitable uecora.tion be g iven us ill orcler t hat om attitude m a.y no t be mis ta ken by t he popu lace. "

Thereupon a loyal a nd hum ble req uest was des-­patched to t he a ncient Capita l of t he la nd. T he !'equest was refusecl; yeL ill order t'o pacify t he . loya l li eges a pa rcel was sent for t heir use. T hi s pa r cel bein g opened wit h gr ea t rel-e rence was fou nd to contain , to t he g rea.t surp ri se of a ll , a col12ctioll ' of em blem;; belong ing to a ncien t a nd lon o- .l ost ci vilisations, in deed Some said certa,in of th en~ were . li ke un to t ha t garment a.ffected by a nort hel'll race a nd calJ ed (it is believed ) 'spol'l'ans'.

Iat g reat disg ust t he lieges retul'!led to t heir ' tab les and continued to deliberate t he q ll e tion of the persona l element at a rate higher 0 1' lower acco rding to 'w hether one or more had pa l'ta.ken of t heir evening meal or any meal at a ll. se \'era llv' or in dividua lly . vo lun taril y 0 1' compulso; ily. •

""Then the Goyern or heard of t he murmurin gs. he waxed mi ghty indigna.nt and sent for his i\b ster of Arts sily ing , " if t hou canst not hil ng up thi s. washing t hat has been sen t unto us t hou shillt buy-0 1' hire a s ui table em blem t hat thi s old hous3 may not remai n na ked: as to who sha ll pily fo r thi s [ ca nnot say ."

Then was t here hea I'd t he most m igh ty deli ber ­a liOlls which mig ht have cont inued unt.i l t he ne-xt I des of Ma r ch wit hout avail had not the M.A. seized npon a fe llow sufferer . t ill'Ust him into his cha riot and d ri \'en fo rt h to t he sell ers of goods and mercha ndise wi thout. Th en ensued an amazing combing of t he neighbouring ll1 il r ts for t he diyerse and va ri ed pieces of th e req uired ado rnment: for leagues a round t he cou nt ry was searched. labo urers p ressed in to in s ta nt sel'\'ice a nd money dispensed and soon c;'t l'a \'a lls descended on th e old old house fmm i'l :!l quartE' rs wit h an asso rt ment of lI'are, a m,lzing t.o behold.

Calling ill el'en t he cooks a nd t he bottle was her t he 1\1. A . set t hem to wo rk , direct ed well il nd tl'Ll ly by a regresentati l' e o f t he Ruler ' ;:; fl eet. ; day a nl1 lll ght t h Ell'e was hea rd t he ham mer and sa w . t lie fl op o f brlls h, t he pleasa nt bn nt 3r o f t hose who wo rked a nd cll rsed at t he wo rk th ev lo\'ed. \ i\Then a ll was readv Samson ',vas bronght' fo rth to li ft. ' 0 ea ilv. t hi s "ma l'I' el o f inge nuity ' into t he place p repared for it.

Thu s without t-.he s t l'il in s of marti al lll u , ic. wit h. ou t a chee l' , unn ot iced . on t he Yel'V dav befo rE' t he g reat Celebration the ' enlblem fl oated' out ill t he breeze , il, fi t exp ression of t he loyn ltv wit h:1l all ci t he dignity of the old. old house.

Honour was ;-;aLdlecl unci d ignity rellla in e L ER K .

Western Command PRESTON.

Football.- Fo r t he fir st t im e for seYer;)l years it was fo und poss ibl to i'U1l a football tea.m two lllil tc hes being p layed a.gainst teams selected ' from t.he staffs of t h e Del)ot. T he Loyal Reo-iment a lld one a.gainst t he RA.S.C . . 0

.If t.ll e te.a.m did not exact.ly cover t hemsel ves wl th glory Lt showed t. hat enthusia,sm a,nd the wiJi to win wa.s not lac kin g. It was a pleas ing sigh t to seE' rn en w hose A rmy days n re now almost forgotte n talo ng th en' p lace wit h t,he " Yo ungsters", nnd i t

93

i ~ rumO llred that if t,he Nlanage r of Preston Korth E nd had not been too b usy t,o wa tch OLl!' d i sp l a~rs t here might hal'e been a differen t ta le to te ll at ' Vembley i

Th e first, two ga mes l' suI ted in 3-1 ,,,ne! 4-2 victo ri es a nd it was only afte r a Yery hard struggle t hat the Loy,il s su cceeded in t urni ng t he tableg on us bv beatilig :IS 2- 1

T ile follow~l g si.xteen players were called upon :­S / Sgt,. Omerod (Captain), M r. H arry P rince . :'I I 1" .

Hensha.w. 1\[1'. T{es woncl ha lgh, :'IfI'. 1\J l1rp h.\·, e l'gL

T HE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

- v\iatts, 8el'gt. ~Iehille tR.E.) , L j Sgt. ::\lcCbff erty, L j Sgt. Street, Cpls. Blackmol'e, Copestake, Modder

. and .-\'stlev , :!.., j Cp] s. H ansford and Dunl1, the scorers being Mockler (21) , HesJ1lo11dhalgh (2), Cave (2) and Blackmore (1).

,\le are hoping that next year ,,-e shall be able to :1ccept the cha,llenges which were received from te,llllS in ba [Ta ~ks towa,rds the end of ih e ~easoll.

Social Activ itiEs.-The annllal Christmas Party fo r children of Mi litary and ciyilian members of the staff of the Record ~nd Pay Offi e was held on December 18th. Tea. ,,-as in th e canteen (we said

. and mean ' tea') and was followed by a ll elltertain­lllellt in the Gal'rison Library. L /Sgt. Billdley "as a g rea t success ;lS ' Clown and ::\11". F reel dy vVestrope

. an admirable Father Christmas- in fact . t he most popular person present' Colonel Bois, ' Officer i j c Records, l\l:ijor !-Ioward, R.P. , ~lajor Eynon , Capt. H opk ins, Ca pt. Day ar d Lieut. .-\ Il del'son were all present.

Annual Dinner.-After a lapse of "everaJ years it was decided to reviYe tile cll Etum of holdin g an

. annual office dinner , and accordingly, on 31st ' of J anuary we gathered in the Station and Victoria Hotel. a lmost the first land mark to be sighted on

. arriva l in Preston. Colonel Bois , D.S.O ., :M.C. , I~l'esided, supported by the R egime ntal Paymitster, ~lajOl' J. S. E ynuu , 1\LC., Capt ain Hopkins, Capt. Day and Lieut. P. A. Andel'Soll. , Ve had an oppor­t.uni ty to meet our new S.S.M.-S.S.1VI. ' Nh·elan on post ing from Lichfi eld and to take farewell of S.S. ::\!. Hovvard-bound for Lichfi eld . A smoker followed dinner and we were enterta ined not only by professionals, but by Cl wealth of hidd en amateur talent, Cpl. Smith , bariton·e ent ertainer , S.Q.M.S.

. Craven , who told us " The Tale of his Life, Sir " (th e things that man ha s clone~) , ::\Ir. Frank Levett

and -;\1r. J ack Stafford who both sang songs. :\11'. H arry P rince and h is monkey were a lso present .

Chester Races.-On the 4th of Ma,y ' we yisited Chest,er Races. 'l'be coach left SUlllners H otel (an old \~'orld -hostelry) at 9.30 and after a stop at. Frodsham, to wet our respecti "e whistles, ani \' eel in Chester at lunch time, where we made our own arrangements , and, whatever t hey wer·e, we all got thoroughly wet. At 5.;)0 we met in the Pied Bull for tea , a nd alllu,:;ed ourselves I!1 our ow n way (usual RA.P.C_ style) until 7'.30 when we left for Presto n. Some meml.: ers of the party were rather reluctant to leave Chester , but eventua ll y we got under way anci returned via the Mersey Tunn el, t he Litherlallcl H otel (wh ere we called) and Ruftord (no one seelll s to remember exactly where in Rufford). lVTanv wi\-e !3 of memb-ers of the Social and Sports Club- joi ned us 011 t his outing , etlso ]\IIiss Adrema.

The next Club outing is to Pilling on the bt of June, but more of that ano n.

Arr ivals, Departures, etc .-Since we last appea reel in print we have had' to welcome L j Cp!. Dunn from th e School , L j Sgt. Street and Gpl. Cope:3take from E gYl:).t, Cpl. Astley from Palestine, S. S.M. Whelan from Lichfi.eld, f.i j Sgt. Cott am from vVoolwich and last t ho ' not l.east, L jCpl. Hansford from the School. We have lost L /Sgt. Bindley to Woking (we not ice they have start ed gloating already) , Sgt. Hoberts to Chatham , S j Sgt. Jones to pension . S.S.fi1. H oward to Lichfield , L jSgt. Searle to Chath,lIP :1nd Co rporal Mock ler to Command Pa:-r

Offioe, Edinburgh , wher e, we und erstand , he is en­joying a well -earned rest. L j Cpls. Bladmore, Smith and Kin caid have been promoted to COl"ll)o rals, L j Sgt. MacClafferty to Sergt. and we have to COll­gratulate Cp!. Blackmore on his marri a ge at East er and L j Sgt. Orchud on the birth of a cla.ught er.

Commands Abroad EGYPT.

, Vlwt an excitin g quarter! .-lnnual Inspection, Ban ,'ge Outi ng, hol'days, Coronation celebrations, new ~yst ems a lld , of course, our wedding, have te be recorded.

Weddings are pe rhaps the start of all of our -troubles, some smaller tha n oth ers , so we will open with a short description .

On 7th .-\pril , 1937, S. j Sergt. Vine wa s ma rried to )Iiss M. H iggi nson, daughter Qf S.Q.lI1.S. Higginson. The ceremoll Y was p.eriol'med in t he St. George'5 'Garri son Church and the church \,,;lS packed. The proceedings went without CL hitch-perh aps the bride­groom seemed a iittle nervous but that was quite understandable. Th e bride looked po itively radi­an t as she came up the aisle on the arm of her father who incidentally also seemed a little Il er vous.

The reception ", as held in the Sel'geants ' :Mess a lld wa s enjoyed by over 100 .guests. The wedding spirit was very eVIdent and Jad·ed eyes too,k on a new spark le. A yery jolly dance was held in t he evening.

The preliminary parade the next day for the Annual In . pectiOli by the .Areil COJTIlll an'der was a '{ery different matter and sparkling eyes were not so eVIdent. The actual parade and in spection took place on 12t,h April 8,nd judgin g by t he complimen­tary r·emarks from all and SU lldry we fee l that our high standa rd of previous years hns been maintained.

The .-\.nnuaJ Outing to the BalTage WitS held on '"' un dny , 9t h }\ (ay, 1937, and wa s attended by 150

94

member s. families and friends . Trams ' transport ed us from A bbassia to the riyer

steamer. Ap,propriately enou gh for t,he Detachm ent the name of the steamer was the "Puritan". It was a delightfully cool day. Lun ch was seryed on th e boat and sports were indul ged in during the a'[tel'lloon. These sport,s were shown on the pt'o­gramme a.s " chi ldren' s sports" , but races \\'ere arranged for th e young and the ;l,ged. The course wa s down a slope. In t he " young soldier ' " race (quali­fication less than 21 years' se rvice) a certain Quarter­master Sergean t was posted at th e foot of the slope and competitors had to go round him and then back to the startin g point. It, wanted :1 ce rta in amount of pluck to stand and await the orLsla ught of our " young sold iers". They're off' Down the slope t hey charged and the in evitable ha,ppened. Th e fir st wave, hefty young co rporal s and sergea nts stl'll ck the Q. _ f.S: abaft the beam and h e was ca rri ed som e ten yards before hitting the deck. Th e wa "e coll apsed and the 'old ' young so ldiers in the second wav.e were left to complete the cours e at a stead:-' trot. The resuJt, caused a. certaill amo un t of a lt er ­ation in the plans of the committee as t he pri.-;e was originall y chocolate but th e resul t necessi ta l ed an amendment, "Fo r 'chocola,te', read 'bottles o[ beer '." The old soldiers' r ace (qualifi cation oyer 21 years ' but under 45 years' se rvi ce) was a mu ch steadier aff air and the ga llant old gentl emen d id not unduly bother the staff Sergt. who had t.aken t he p lace of the Q.M.S. at th e foot of the slope.

THE I~OYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Wedding Group. Marr' g f Sj la eo Sgt. Vine and Miss M. Higginson.

I n 11.oint. of fact some of t he competitors never l'eached hlJn at all. As the "old gua rd " ambl ed u t he slope to .the ,fimslullg point t heir breathin~ ~~ ulld ed. more !tke a n escape of gas. Many old scorc~

eJ.e_ WIped off by the spectators in the va ri ed re-malks and shouts of encoura,O'ement 1'1 II of the "011 ' ' .' ft I ' '" . ' le co apse i CU llS a er t lell' exe rtI ons did not las t ~.Ilg,. as the Il e~~ race was the Laches' Race a lld it ,~as C" case of up sknts and at ' em" What ., stlmulatlll g effe ct thi s Ind 011 t'he o lel Id'· I TI < , so lers. l ere was no turn up for t he book as the leadin g place' were filled by the 'youllg ' young ladies, al thouerl~ some fast tImes were returlleel bv tIle '011 ' 0 1 I' . P . ' ,I e el' YOUIl.<' ae les . erha,ps t he hlo'h spots of t Il e 'ft' 0 w. . I I ' 0 ' a ern oo n el ~ Il eac leC III t he moullted events :md t h·ere was

Ico llls le,erabl e co ngestloll to witlle. s the finish of t1~ 'e a·e les race.

Te,1 \\'a s a welcome interlude and the bO:1t left 0 11 the retul.,·n Journ ey at abo ut 6 I).HI T ' b I· were ru I I t l .. . om 0 ,),s fast. I C UrIllg l e .return journey and hearts beat t C ,el and fasLer -J, '/,t~l stentorian voices put an end o ~u spen se Wlt.h Ere You are" '\ ' I dav. . ., vely lappy

Coronation Day was c:debrated ill Cairo bv a parade and march past at Gezim in the mon;ill and .a show at t he . am e place in the a fternoon 'm~ eV

I enmg, terminating with an excellent 'firework di _

R~. . s

m s~rgea~ts ' dMesS.-Our fUIl Ct ioll s have been ve ry q ue ~l en] o?e , dances, etc. being held faIr ly fre­Rueny: '. 7I/e were aL home to our friends of the

?yal. All Fo rce on Saturday , 22nd May, 1937. A n ;1abol ~~~e and, sple ~ld l dly worded challenge for t.he h ISCbUl ' Y:lS receIved. from t hem (this chnJlen ere

M8S een fl a med and IS IlOW "on the line" J' tlO

1 ess) 1'1 f . _ . . . . 11 1 e in th' . l~ un con lllJ.enced WIt h a cr icket match it f e a[te] !lOon. P erh aps one could hardly call

un especlally from our point of view as we were

95

9~ell. and b trul.y t,rounced. Our opponents collected luns efOI.€; tea and we were optimistic enou h

to suggest t hat they batted Cl, second time to eri~e us sO~le sort of. a game . . 'Whether our friend ]v ri~'als ~octtI~d the WIcket dunng the tea interval is' a mat-el 01. con lecture; suffi CIent to say we were all out

,wltlull half an hour for the magnificent sco re of 28 The tea tIme gossIp as regard s batting a second tune wa,s forced down Our throats when t he . gestecl. t hat we had another knoc'- H I y Stugu-

t l I 't f '11 K. vve accep e WI 1 a ac n y u y convinced that Ollr first inn.in ers debacle was all wroncr " l ~s l't w~s It I 0 t' . _ . . 0: .n. " , c. 1ere v a repe-ItlOn of ~he . fwst Innlll gs a nd the R " F ··d ·f t d 11 ' b' . r:L . e ea ,e ~ y an 1Illllngs and som·e odd runs.

' Now 1'01' t hat Biscui t ' was the slocran of . oppon ents. 0' OUI

We had .a g ra nd nig ht in the Mess" I'll co t I < l ' ll ' . e games IlS]S ee 0 , 11 la rd s, ~nooker darts sl-I' ttl 'b b aa " I . I I f . . ' " , "es. cn -k'ne, :SlOve-la. pellny , d01111110es and phat. ' The eel~n es~.dlspl ay.ed . was tremendous. Th e crib and

sho, e-h ,1Hpelln." players were obviousl I' hi stnm g a,nd frequ ently req uired the servi!es ~~g y. m~sseuse. Backwards and forwards the ba~t~~ 1;-~.a1ed. A severe bombll1g attack by the " Pha t" . Ig It was neutralIsed by brilliant work by our

Domlll1oe plato~n , who consistently risked a ll on a,

s_lIl g ~ throw- the double blank". It was onl b kleepm g the game open 111 this way that we ~ep~ ~leTl1 at ba.y. Gleeful shouts mingled with rrroaris ~L.llllounc~d to the world that in f>Ome corner ~f t he Mess a laId had been r epelled Our a l ~·c 1)~ ·t ' .1 d be " . t' . . . 0 v ,,1 Y la , el ._ 111 s . r~?t . tral1l~ng for t he lendering of "Poor

?odh l~oblll but, tIllS co uld ha rdly be put. into effect ,LS t e filia l results wer·e 24 erames :111. The RAF ~here fore ,gl~)I'lOu ~ly failed in

o heir attempt to ' c~p~

1~ll e the ~~ISC Ul t - llLlt. what a l1e:1r thing ' H ard b ck , B..A.}. A splendId evellln g and nothing would

e lllore welcome to us than Cl, further challenge.

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Rifte CIUb.-Shooting on the Open Range finished with our Sudan Trophy shoot which too~ place on 19th March. A month's intensive tra.llllng was arranged prior to the shoot in which an added in­terest wa,s the award of a cup by Captain O. P. J. Rooney for the highest. score. This was WOll b~ S .Q.M.S. Black with the score of 79: The rest ot the team failed to ri!'e to the occasion our score of 519 being 44 points below last year 's figures.

On the Miniature R ange we have been without the services of S.Q.M.S. P. Black whjch no doubt affected our position in the League. W e have entered a team in th3 Sergeants' Mess S.B .. League Egypt Command and ou r first match w~l?h was against t he 1st Royal No~th~lInberland Fus lhers re­sulted in a win for the l' uSlhers by 7 POllltS.

Cricket.-So far. the Goddess of Luck has not been in attendance' for w·e have played six matches , two of which have been d:rawn and foul' lost_

Billiards.~It was with regret tlHLt we said " Au re\'oir" to the E gyptian Sta te Railway Cup .. This is a grand trophy open to all teams III Cano, militar '{ and civilian, and used to occupy a prominellG position amongst ou{, silver, vVe were drawn against t he station H eadquarters, R .A.F., in th e firs t round and , e\'er t he optimists, took the cup down with us-a bad om en. Vole all felt that if we could get over this hurdle we had a good cha nce of again COll­t est in g the finaL Perhaps it was the different tables lhat affected our play; suffi cient to say that th e old g uru'd , S.Q,M,S. Black, Sergts, Tappenden and So,werbv , won their games whi lst S,S.M. Rooker. S j Sgt. Morris and Sergt. Jordan lost and although level in games we were bea,t en 011 aggrega te. H ard lucl,- a near thin5'

The garrison C. of K Champion ships commence in the n<:a r future. ,,,le have a good number of ent ri es from the Detachment and hope to annex a trol~hy or two.

Area Commander's Inspection, Cairo.

We have yet to strike the winning vein which should not -be far distant, now th at the newcomers to t he side have become ~sed to " local conditions" .

W e welcome Captains Ellicott and Ha,ggard to the team.

Tennis.-Since the last notes, much tenni s has been indulged in by all (probably due to the fa,ct tha.t we were able to Wltness Baron VOll Cmmm 1Il

action during the Cairo Interna tional Championshi,Ps at Gezira) and t he committee has no,w a hrge chOI ce when deciding on a " well balan ced" team.

W e have reoently had two friendly match e;' against the Ezbek ieh Services CI~lb and each team en joyed a decisive victo ry on theIr own courts .

DUI1ng the Whitsun Holiday s, an American H andicap Tournament was arranged and so numerous were the entries tha t only half of th e games were completed by Whit-Monday.

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GIBRALTAR. Th e 'excitement during th e last week among

office rs and other ranks <, t the imm ediate prospect of 'sha ring t he Sgt Major 's old-tim e privilege ?f dra wing the Higher Rate .of ratIOn allo\\'ance ad lib led the wri.ter into the vam hope of someone burst­in g forth into verse, 01' at least viv i 1 prose, for pub­lication. ",re hereby, nevertheless , chall enge them . and others , to do justice to such a t heme m ,L subse.quent issue ! . . , .

General.-vlle congratlllate MaJor G. H. W llh ams Oll his award of th e King George VI CoronatIOn medal. .

. On 8th IVJal'ch we welcomed Lt.-Col. B.ogel's and S.Q.M.S. Bril!lSOITl in a breezy intedude t~ the " daily round" fo r a few hours, off a troopshIp on th eir : way to the F a r East , and would stress how deli O' htecl we alwJ,Y:s are to see a,ny Co rps personnel whoo CiLn get ashore here. Just a,sk to be piloted to Fortress Headquarters I

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Valete.-vVe bade farewe ll to Lt. -Col. F ennell and family on the " Dilwara" on 4th A pril, and to Major Bla ir fin ally on 19th April. We wish them all happiness in their Hew stations.

Salvate.-We welcomed Lt.-Col. Oldham and family , Capt. Lall1bert and Sgt. HOl'l1by recentlv and trust they will enjoy their foUt' yea rs on th~ " Rock" .

Sergeants' Mess.-On 24th F ebruary we enter­tai ned the members of the RA.M.C. Sgts.' Mess at a ve ry enjoyable games evening.

'''' e play "cricket" regularly on our dart board and have to record that Sgts. Riddington and Hornby scored 310 for 5 wickets on 31st March, and S . Q.~\I.S. Mills and S.S.M. Deacon, recently, 502 for 10 . wickets.

vVe are not suggesting anything clever, but would li ke to hear of rea ders' better performances " wit.h the bat" .

S. S.M. Stenning enli vened the solemnity of Ollr las t -hour of Poker Dice on 5th May by deftl y pro­ducing " 5 Aces in olle". "Ve do not know how frequent,!y this happells , owing to ou:' non-mis.spent youth, but suggest that the way 111 wh ich this occasion was c~lebrated was singula rly appropriate.

S.S .M. Stenn1l1g, however , sti ll maintains he was llnlucky.

Cricket.-Th e Corps was honoured in the selec­tion of S.S.M. Deacon to ,skipper the Oth er Ranks ~eam v. The Officer" in the garrison game which lI1 augurated the season on 25th ApriL Hi s contri­bution was 3 wickets for 26 runs.

Th ere followed a week's visit b y a Yorkshire Gents XI which was almost completely ruined by rain .

Despite obvioLls diffi culti es (RA.P. C. total st,ren.gth here, IS only 15) we decided to carry on runnlllg a cl'lcket team with the promised aId of two members of the A,KC., and were rewarded bv all pxcellent ini tial vi ctory on 13th May over ou\' old fl'lends the RA, lVI. C. bv 8 wickets. Good bowl­ing and keen fielding kept,' their score down to I~O and a fin e knock of 82 by David Deacon made the rest easy.

HockeY.-Staff and Departments brot! O'ht the most successful season in th eir history to <:> a close 011 14th Apri l by being beaten 3-0 by the 2 jR Norfolk Regt. , newcom ers and a splendid team in the fi~Hd of the Inter-Regimental Cup. Ti1eir season s figures of-Played 62, won 42 drawn 11. lost 9, goals rOl' 239, against 99-speak for them­seh :es: and one of out' representatives did not miss a smgle game! . Tennis.-On 24th Februa ry our tennis representa ­

~I ve gave us a very pleasant " planned" tournam ent In whI ch we enjoyed a different partnership in each set of 7 games. Mrs. NIce proved the winnin O' lady nnd David Deacon the winning gentleman. b

On 25th March new a, rnvals and those due home were all present a t a, most enjo~rab l e " whist -drive" toyrn ament-cum -"at hom e" on "A" court. The wIIHler. was Roger Deacon with 15 points (out of a pOSSIble 20) a nd runn ers-up Mrs. Deacon and S.Q. ~.LS. Prowse ea?h with 14 points. " II! t he senIOr tenl1lS league we have made a good beg,lI1ll1n g WIth WillS over the B..N . Depot and RA.M.C. , and a dmw with RA.S,C.

On the 25th May we were rather unlu ckil y de­feated br the RA . .in the inter-regimental knock -out competItIOn, HI whlCh we ha,d the temerity to enter a team, by 5 sets to 4 . Our tea.m consisted of Lt.­Col. Olclham and Major Askin: S.S.M. Deacon and

97

S.Q.NLS. Owen: S,Q.M.S. Prowse and Sgt. H01'llby .. The last-lI amed a re provlllg a hot pall' and won all their sets .

HONG KONG.

. Hong Kong Calling.-H ey nonny nonny ~ Summer IS a cummul. Green turf, daisy challls, pretty mmd,ens, nut bl:owu ale, leafy lanes, t he white tops of the busm.ell s ha ts, yellow sands, peppermint rock , the smlle 111 Grandma's eyes as she gingerly ' c rack~ that rheuma tIc finger , and a thousand and o~ne SIgns and portents of the silly season in Merrie . England remlllcl us that we are ex iles.

Here, the 10llg sweat. has just begun. The tem­peratur·e 18 111 th e llInetles and the humidity around ' the hundred . Portly Warrant Officers no longer walk t,o t he office, but lll ay be seen reclining in expensive . 100k1l1g cars, ' the.H' cheeks mcarnadlne, t heir eyes . refiectl\re and their hea,rts tr?ubled at the frightful cost of hVlllg. III the hot still Tllghts \-'i ldows think of remarrYll1g and husbands haye kind thoughts of ' absent WIves.

The last trooper departed on April 16th. We said­goodbye to Sergeant True, Mrs. True and young . Hal'old: V\re are sOlTy to lose them and hope that the! Will be post ed to a congenia l station at Home.

No sooney had the 'due Home next one old bov' bngade fimshed marking off their ca.Jendars wh; n. III walked S, Q. M. S. Bradshaw straight from Sho ,, -­b~ll'yness. The di _tingL1 i s h ~d and charming ly eccen­tuc gentleman who orgal1lses :'he domestic sid e of' th IS office at ?nce plied him with questions, utterin O'

.gloom~ warl1lngs as to t he cODditions of brushes~ scrubbmg, ~I S left by out-going tenants, making oracu.la r pronounc:em~nts re .climate, prickly heat. the cost of It vlllg, If marned, and probing the, finanCial , moral a ll ~l psychologlca.l condition of the new ar l'l va l a ncl hI S famil y in one and the sa me breath. -

S.Q.M.S. Bradshaw proved more t han equal to the t as k of l'eplYlllg. ~e smiled serenely, said ' nothmg, and was Immed Ia t ely seized by S.Q.M.S. Plttham , ou " office tenms l'epresentati ve and secre ­tal'Y to th e Armv ten nis scheme Hon O' Kon O'

" It was most" opportune of S.Q . M~S . B:::~d sh aw to arnve a,t t Ins moment," cooed the dulcet, voi ce of the tel1n~s sec ceta ry , for t he vel'~r next day the a,nnyal tenlllS match. Command v. R.egimental , was takmg place. W o.uld S.Q:M.S. Bradshaw play?

He wou ld a nd dId , proVIng a ~owel' of strength to , th~ RegImenta l s~d e. He and Ius partner, S.Q.M.S. J\lhller , won th eIr games,. However , one mickle doesn't ~ake a muckle, and Command, with all the, t<1lents at theIr chsposal, won th e match .

The occa,s i.on was marked by t,he final of the Lang Cup, a tel,IIIlS .trophy: competed for annua ll v by th e offi ce staff, CompetItors, i: ncl t hat lIlcludes every- . one and anyone ',vho knows th e difference between love fifteen and [o\-,e t hirty (just twice as expensive) a re diVId ed II1tO two. sections and handicapped wit,h a~l 1I1ge nLll ty tInt I a.lmost devilish.. Emerging. flOm the long drawn cut s truggle, which for ruth ­Jes' ness rIvals the Spani sh wal', came t h·e genial countenanc~ of S.Q,M,S, Ha,rman , and-dare we, men tIOn It ?-th e chief handicapper- S.Q.M.S_ Plttham.

S.Q,.M.S. Pitt.ham won t he trophy 6- 0, 6-2. The, match, however. was not so on e sided as tbe score sugges ts. S.Q.,M.S. Harm.an p ut up a really good' fi~ht, mos t of th e games gOlllg to deuce seyeral times, With many IOllg ra ll ies.

THE ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

After ten, a nd oth er liquid refr2shJll €nt s, for whi ch \y e haye to thank t he D etach ment Officers who we re our kind hosts , t he cups and shi elds were p resented

-t o t he winn ers by Mrs. Smyt h , wife of our A .C.P . T he C.P. , Colonel Light loot, made a short speech

i n which he took t he opportunit y of wishing bOil voyage to S.Q.M.S . a nd :Mrs. ~lill e r who a re due to sail for H om e on S.S. "Ra jputana " on :;"fay 1st . T he C.P.·s rem.I ,·k s were l' eart~ lv endo rserl bv t h e whole Deta chm ent. " Dusty " , as 'he is affect iOl'tately kllow n to all , h ~tS worked tremendously hard fo r th e D et .. chment. U nlik e so many social organi.se rs his presence h as b een felt rather t han hea rd , a nd every t hin g h e has do ne ha,s beeIl ma rked by a, quiet efficiency a nd tact. To Mr s. Miller we ex t end our very best wish es for t he fut ure happin ess an d pros­perity of t he famil y. Hospi ta,b le and generou s minded. she will b e missed by everyone, and not least by th e sin gle mem bers of t he D etachment w ho h a\'e always been m ade so welcom e.

At th e same t ime as we said au reyoir to S.Q.M.S. Mi.llel' . we \\'elco med t h e w~ves a.nd families of 8. Q.IV( S . Bradshaw , Ser geants Burrows a.nd Fillch , t h e latter two ha.vin g arrived. in t he Colony early ill April . "file' rust t hat t heir sta.y here will be pleasa,nt an d en ioyable.

Owing to t he hot wea t her the 80cial and sporting a,ct ivities of th e Offi ce a re more o t' less cur t ail ed. V,l e played our last crick et match of t h e season a gai nst t he Chi nese R ecreation Clu b at Ca useway B ay on th e 21 st J a nuary , a nd lost by 49 runs, Tsui vVai Pui , th e Colony tenni s champion and D avis Cup player , ma kin g 118 ru ns ont of a total of 19l. Colonel L igh tfoot. k nocked up a styli sh 39 a nd 1 ergeant B urrow scor·ed 32 fo r t he D et achment.

T he m ont.hly office sh oots cont inue. Recently t he mini a t ure l'an-ge has been refm bished a.nd coni fort­a,ble mats h a,ve been provided t.o ease t he tummies

. <tnd other po rt ions of t he fi rel's ' a natomy , wit h a, r esultan t improvement in scor es. Th ere are several very useful shots am ong t h e person nel and i f eve" we ' have to de fend t h e P [lY O ffi ce a.gainst a, for eign a agreSSOl'. t h ere is no doubt t h at t he attackers will b~ consid,erably sur pri sed at th e a.ccu racy of th e fi r e power p roceedin g from t,he Adrem a Room and sun d ry other st r ategic posts. J nt ernational spies a nd obseryers pl ease note.

T alking of observers , I am . ubconsciou sly [Lwa,re o f t he r.eproachful eye of my Section L eader fo cussed on th e ba ck of my neck. Gentle r eader , it is t ime to stop a nd start t ickin g bills.

V ER.Y , NKR Y J U NIOR

MALAYA.

Since th e publicatio n of th e la st notes from Nlalaya t he st a tu s of th e Comma,nd P ay Offi ce. }.I[alaya , has been changed . To t hose of us who h ave seen t h e big expan sion in t h e M alayan Garrison a.n d th e con sequen t increase in fin an cial m atters , it was not : urpri sing t hat i t was con sidered n ecessary to appoint a Chief P ayma ster as Comma,nd Paymaster a,nd T reasury Chest Officer. In consequ ence, Colonel T. L . Rogers , O.B.E. , a rrived in Sin gapore on 3rd April , 1937 , and assum ed duty as C.P . and T. C.O. W e congratula te him on his promotion and hope th at his st ay in Mabya will be a pleasant one.

Other a l'l'i va ls were Sergts. Mo d.ey, Fox , Wil son , L a.wson , J , Mills a nd Went .# Th ey h ave now be­come a,cclim atised and are fast acquirin g th at know ledge of 'Malaya which dist in gui sh es t h e " Old

. Coloni als" from t h e "New Chums".

Se rgts. ~ew son a nd B row n ha ve depa.1'ted fo r t he U. K . a,Ll d have, we hope. fo un d st at ions to t heir

liking. Cong ra t ula t ions to S j Sergt . L [tngh am, Sergt. f.

G . Thom as and ~j Sgt . J ames on t heir promotion to ran ks a s s t a.t ed .

On 4t h M,U'ch , 19,37, S.Q.NLS. RowLlIld w a~ m a,rried a t St . Andrew 's Cat h ed ra,] to 'Miss vVol,t lw , l ate of Sa.lisb u:'v . who h ad a rr ived on t he S,\l~l e mo'rn ing on H . 'I' . Dilwa ra . T he bride was O' iven awa y by Lieu t.-Colonel H . Gol.ding , O.B.E. .

e

and 1"11's . P ea,rce act ed a s }.Il a t,ron of Honour : t he dut ies of best ma n were carried out by Ca.pt. C. Bal'l1es, D .C.M. A fter t h e ceremony ,t recept ion was h eld a,t Col. Goldi ng's r esidence a nd t he to (l,sts usual to such a.n au sgicious occasion w ere honou red ill wh ole-hearted manner. Th e very best wishes o f the D etachm ent for t h eir futu re li appiness are te n · clered to S Q.NLS. a.nd M rs. Rowla nd.

T he coming trooping season will see many ch an ges in t he personnel of thi s offi ce. Out of a t ot ai s t r en gth of 3D offi cers and oth er r a nks, one t hi rd ar e du e fo r relie f a nd t he a rrival of the list of reliefs is being awa. itecl with much eage1'll ess, in order th at. t he probabl e cl1 anees o f a ni ce ~tation m av he con-sidered . -

Th e a rri val o l t he t roc l)shi p D ilwara on 4 t l~ Ma,rch , 1937, b l'o il ght more 'families to increase t he detachmen t stren gth . For t he p resent t hey a re located on t he islan d of P ul au B rani , but as eight new q ua rt ers a re b ein g b uil t at F ort · Ca nnin g it is expect ed t ha t all P ay Corps fam ili es will b e quar­t ered t here wit hin the next few weeks .

The cosmopolit a n population of Sin gapo re sho\\'ec1 its loyal ty to t h e King in no uncert ai n m anner durin g Coronation ·Week. Th e decorat ions in t h e st reet s, th e li gh t ing of public b uil din g and th e ·fire ­wo rk s displays and p rocessions by va.r ious communi ­t ies provided ::meeta.cle.s whi ch even London could not produce. Two lar ge crowns li t up' at ni gh t ou For t Cannin g reservoir were visib le for mil es and' a sea,);chlight di splay from th e ,sC),m e posit ion w ,tS ver)' e ff ecti ve. U nfortunately , t h e principal lant el'\1 pro­cession by the Chinese sect ion was m a n ed by h eayy tropical rain, b ut even t hi s setback did not damp the ~trdour of th ose t akin g part.

The sportin g activities of m emb ers o f t he deta ch -ment have been curtailed owin g to th e inclem en t w eat her . T he clerk of th e weath e·\' h a.s an un­sportsmanlike h a.bit of openin g t he fl oodgates wh en leiost expected a nd usually w hen som e fixtUl'e h as b een arranged. ,\Ve still keep hoping , h owev er , t h at some r eall.v fin.e w eath er w ill come soon and "dvan ­t itge will t hen be tak en of th e oppo rt uni ty to l'e(lnc(' surplu s a. voirdnpois . M J .D .

98

MALTA.

Si nce t he last. Notes it grea,t deal has ha ppened wit hin ou r D etachment and firstl y I m ust r ecord t h e tn1aic death of Captain F. O'D ri seoll on W hit Nlon­day, 17th M ay , 1937. H e was in "h a~'ness" un t il th e Offi ce closed on Sa t urd <ty , was ad nutted to h os­pi tal on Monday morn in g a nd di ed sud denl y :-It

4.45 p.m . th e sam e day. H e w a.s buried with full mili tarY hono11rs on t he

foll owin a dilY. Th e wllole D e.tach men t support ed by all t l~ e Civ ilian St aff , attend,ed . Eight Ca.p tain :: aCted a,s Pa,ll B earers , and eigh t of the D etachm ent ca,rried h im to his last r est ing pl ace. Th e Comm[ln c1 P aym aster (Colonel Ch arlton) ' supported by M a jor P ew sey and M a jor M oran follow ed Mrs . O'Driscoll. Miss O' D r'; scoll and Mrs . P ewsey, :;Lnd th e

THE ROYAL ARMY

1:~m:aiI1d e r of t he Deta chment and the Ci\'iIia n Staff c<l!ue( t he ma ny wl'eat hs which had beell reeei \'ed

I ,he Band [l nd Bu g lers of t he 1st Duke of vV elli na~ t on s l~egt. a.ttended a.nd t he F ir ing P a rt . Od elscort or 1 Offi cer a nd 108 m en were furni s l~~d'lb . t l e 2ud Bn . R Ifl e Brigade. Y

The wreaths, which were bea utiful , were sent b all U m ts III cl'l a lta, a lld included Th e Ofli ,y R. A .P. C., Th e W.O .s a nd N. C.O.s of the D Itcells , men t R L\. P C 'I' h C' T e ae 1-T ' . ~ ... . , e IVl.Jan Sta.ff of t he Office

he .o ld Comrades j\ ssoci atio·n RA P C . d th ' O~~' J'l SO Il Sergea n ts ' Mess . , . ~ . .. , .I n e

th lh e ;Ylmp~ th y of t.he whole Detachment here and e woe Corps, goes out to M rs. O'Dri scoll

he,r fa mIly III t heir grea t berea,vement. a lld D I aLso regret ,~o s t,~te th at L t .-Colonel H. R. W .

a ws.o n who , ,tS n 1y las t notes stat ed , had lef t Hdel slu ch sa,.d Cl1 'CLlmstances, is still yery ill in

J. ~sll?~ ta at· MIllba nk . Th e latest news received i~ a l l om comfo rt lll '"

Amidst t hese sact t im es t here is happilv m ' I t record HI .the lIg hter yein . ' _. , uc 1 0

t~I:[~on!~~~~ si~~~~iV!~~S. th~'l~!~ri~~i~ bs~111\ t sp~ ~ n~l~~ < . el s las n ever beell surpa.ssecl Strada R al

was Illdeed a p ' t , d . ec e I I cl ,. le m e an ma ny other Rart s of t he s. an _ w ere .decorated. a t very -great .ex;ense Th l~oces~lOn of Decorated Cars through Vallett~. an~ · e p l oeesswn Jf Decora ted Boats D l' '

. 111 t he Gr d H b ' . g l alsas , et c

1, an - a·I' our wer e spectaCles of b ·'11' ., he troops were 011 d t C . 11 lance.

fi red a feu-de- '0' f ' u y on ?ronatlOn Nigh t a nd G rand H b J 1 T10hm t he Ba.StlOl1S s unounding the

. a 1' our. e R.A F squad' , ' d,

F'::'i~~rt~e~\~~I~yw:.~:c~lle~n;i~a.ftedt ' ~ i ~,~~~~R: o:~d e~h: Ar - I 'M : per ec lon .

rlva s.-~\I~i1. J O l' and 'Nhs P ewse S S · Mrs: . Bailey a ll d S.Q .lvl.S · aY:. , . . M . and fanulles, and t he fami li es of Ser~d M r" . Cole a nd Gra nt have a rri ved ilnd we exte° td Ma rks and Sel'gt . welcome and t ru r:,t t hey into th em a h earty

Promotion -S S 'I . mS ay lave <1 pl easant st a.y .

W . .1 . H . cott w as a . t d

a rran t Off\cer Class 1 on 27t l " P?OIl1 e to ~,IJ congra tulate him. Unfortuna~ F eb(fu:Ll'Y and we soon. pa ckin g for his de a rt ' e y 01 us) he was

:,~kl~g ;:t~;nec~~sa~~ al~~~~lge~~;n t~O f!·a.~~~t~~fe ~~~, th e~l a.nd wish them .~Lll th'e bes~ ~1.tlu~~rry t o lose

."', e l ecelved a hurned visit from S .S.M · Pl el s. Plowman en route to' U K H . (now Lt.) mornlll g with us. ' . e spent a. happy

· Billiards and Snooker.-'\i\7 . 'm our Garri son Mess Con te· t

wel.e m?re successful

S / Sat L " l pe 1 IOns thlS year • 1 0 ' awren :e beat Ser gt H h' .

fin-a.l of t he biJ\ia ~'d s and S / Sat 'Wr,~;ti n es in the beat Sgt . Gn1ntin t he fin al<>of th < n (R. A. O. C. )

V',7 e . have recently had ; , wond e.f snoo~er. . . wa tchlll g exhibitions of H orace L- uJ , e Xpel'le ll ~e III

bourne Inm a.n. WJlO spen t a. fort . l~ l um and M el­to Chin a.. Our standa rd sI ld

l1l g It hel:.e en route

wond.er ? . 10U soon Improve-I

· Tennis.-S().J:ne.. (~iffi cu.lt " -' . m g a t eam of six for t h ~, W.lS .. expel'lenced -JI1 fincl-,ll1d ~ e r "e'mt T . Le ol11lll cllld '\NalTant Offi ce" s w'eek-of bA'pril F·ernl1J s eague beginnin g in t he 'fir~t

. o'weve r we succe I I d I match w as pl aye 1 ' ec ec an tI e fir st t he RA '0 C '-" c. '1~ay on th e delightful court f) f oppon ~ n ts . i~ , P1l1 0 a , and ended in a win for our a st rong positi~l~ci~;I ~I~eCs t.he De1taLchmen t has h eld 1ng tit . . e omm a l1 c eague but d than ' l'~ U1~ 'oool~~h~ s~[~s~n jjst. end ed we lo~t no I~~'~ a big loss d ifficul ~ l~O I ~.g U ~r tea m pla,ver s o f 1936, ours. However we stille~I.'1ce 1n i1. smalI U ni t like

, a ve a tea m 1Jl t he L eag ue

PAY CORPS JOURN AL

99

- even if . " only !ust"-nnd a lt houa h .' eluded us. JI1 the SlX matches la e e Vlctory has maUl uudlsm,p'.ed 'tIld look f .p Yd.d to date , w e re-Th' .1 < onva r to fut .

. IS year we stru ck a n innovati ure ,POJl1ts. lad les pail' in t Il e " Fa lkner Cu '" e n by en~enng t .he have competed from fi ve U . p ompetlt.lOn . P all'S Score a nd M rs. Hum p hl'i es nl~~sld1.~d a t present Mrs. 1I1g played fo ul' ma tches wo th "econ.d Rlace, hav ­to play. W e would all 'be 11 ree, wlt h fo ur more a trophy for the COl'PS '1t B efie~ t o see them win

The H andi T c l e .l " t venture. Johnson" C ca bP oUl'l1 ament for the " Ormsby-b ' up egan on :May 25t h ' d th fi

e Jought ou t in June wl ' -C 1 in e nal will M .C., will presen t t he C~:l 00 dneh G . H . Ch a.rltOll , a t the R. A.P. C C ,t po an old an A t Home 'f . om . An after no A .

ourna ment for all ranks will b I o~ m ~ncan afte l: ~he fin al for t he "0. -J " eC

p ayed lmmecli a t ely

. Mlmatu.re Rifle.- ,U t he 'b Yp·. n fl e t' . • . egmn1l1 (7 of A ' l · . sec 1011 was fo rm ed and th C ::> . pI'! a t he r>rogl'amm e I)y puttil~g' u ' le , .P . m augurat ed petI t IOn among the memb . p s~ vel .s~O?l1S for com­some wooden ~ oon was ~~ s. n addltlOn , a ha nd­mittee , suitabl;P decorated a~Tanged " by t he Com­plate wit h wiIl~ner 's nalne tWh It h Corps nbbon a nd a

C 1 I ·ereon

o one Gha rlton capp d .-fOl'm ance by' . . e a consistent month 's per wmmng th e fir t .] -

Se rgt. South des 't 0" S Sl: ,:er spoon, and with the wo ' d pI e oleat competlLlon, w alked off

Ii' 0 en spoon. rom a s haky star t I " ra,ng the bell" (0 ,' ;' ~ ell members consistently

pipes ) we have now ~ r~~~dt~, ~ere h eld in s t eel sta,rted a m agazi.ne of P.possibl~I?!dly and h ave even

,\Ve hope furth er to demonst · t . t he L eague shooting c la e our prowess wh en

Sh . omm ences · .00tll1g for the second monthl ' . JJ1 pro aress and as C I Y spoon IS now well spoon ~t the 'fi t C' tt o onel Chad ton won hi s own

, ' rs a empt he 11 as p t f SHO Oll for t he mnner -up . ' ' M u up a~ y rther

In addi t ion to thi s 111 O~l I ay comp~tltlOn. nOIl-handicap bas is fo'r ~vSila l e , ~!.sod sl·hoo.tm g, on a t o follow. , c vel lHe a , WIth another

Certa in .dead-eyas are reported t ordered sm table cabinets to hold tl

O have alrea dy

!la 'f,e already (Ill a.n ticipa iion) liftede t~Iophiesf t hey

111 u t ure notes. .. . r e 0 this

Brevities.-S S M S t' t 11 " . co t (now 111 Jeru~al e ) i1C ua y an easy win.ner of tl \. .'1 - , m ~as Pa.lestine papel:~ please copv ~ e f pn wooden spoon .

S.S.M. Lovenng wa nt t - k four shots went The C~ " 10 P 1l1?W where the oth er in. . lVl 0 Ice ha ve been ca.lled

Sergt Morgan co ' ld 't d plained'that it w as \bl~l k ~ee owndt he ba rrel , com-bol t was still I'n ' t ' c e up , an then found the

.. " POSl Ion . F U'll1g a t "sna p" fi. all reS of men S / S t L

satd _he' d .struck his l':tan in the " ;~cul!r;' a~renc~ · Cl.rlcket.-Up to the t,ime of aoi~ng to ,vell1th IS Itt l.e to l'epol't in the W'W f~ " .pl ess ere our own li t tl D t 1 ' ,0 cllcket 111 so far as

C e e ac ll11 ell t IS concerned .

t !l e °A~~:l l~!~~ltT~'i ~ll ~\lI~~~~eal}t tYran t took pa rt in tune aO'o and show d I 0 l e season a short t he ' , "'k ' ll ' ~ t la t they had lost none of

.1.1 s I 01 ent husiasm . cl S;nie g Irl . a. Combined Smafl U nits XI which in G ne ec 0 onel Cha.rlton , S.S~I. Bailey S , t l-/R,[l~ m,l,d

S' MA organ, entertained~ a. st ronD" XI ef~o~

· . " t . ~ n gelo " wh o won b '" 11 . after a. very enjoyable ga,me. y a sm a m argm

In t he forthcoming Governor 's Cu.P C t 't' t he C S U XI d ompe 1 lOn i . . . fire . r aw n aga inst the Ri.fle B.riaad • n ~I~e firs t. round a fter which t hey m eet t,he R \ F m e semI-final (do t,hey ?). , .. l .

THE ROYAL AR~IY PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Detachment Outing , Malta.

Arran gement. · are bei ng hurri ed forward in con ­nection wi t h our Annual Inter-Corns J\'[a tch y . R.A .O.C_ . and t hi s yea i' the spirit of optimism expl'es. 2d in the pl'eyious pa rag raph exists, i f pos· sible, to a n e\'en g reate r deg l'ee . Meanwhile Messrs. H ammond . Hut ton and V eritv mav I'est a Sllred that they '· will no t be supel's-ecled- "by anyone ·a t­present stat' oned in Ma lta for thi s season. at am' j·ate. .

Detachment Outings.-Sergea nt G l'ant was chi E fl~­in strumcnLal in promotin g outings fol' the Detach­ment. On Sundav. 16th }1av . two bus loacl s of t he DeLa chment a ncl ' fa mili e~ \\;ent to G hain TufFi eha and spent a l'eally fine day on the sand s . Con­gratul ation s, Sergeant Grant. and may we ha \'e lll any more.

Coronat ion Medals. - Co ngra t ulations to Colonel Cha rl ton and 1Llj ) [' Moran wh o ha \'e j ust I'ecei\'eu their Coronation Medals. BARRA CC\ .

TIENTSIN. Th ere ha ving been no news from Tientsin for

many moon s, t he Offi ce R epl'esentative ha.s at la st decided tha t he w ill mal(e som e attempt to justify hi s ' appointment, in addi t ion to collecting sundl'Y odd "bobs" '[01' copies uppli ed.

T he trooning sea_on 's ca!' u a lt,i e ~ ha ve now end ed with th e depa rt He o f S.Q. iVLS . P eters for hom e, and the a rrival of S.Q.M.S. Bl'a nson as his r elief. Our llOpe is that th e form er get a good . tation · a t. home, and that t he latte r enj o.vs lu stay in Tient in .

Congra t ul at ion s to S/ Sgt. Stewa rt OIl his pro­mo t,ion.

Th e a llnnnl innocula t,ions hayin g been comp12ted , and t he Detachlll ent, has in g quite recovered from the' eff ect ::; th ereof, we can cast our eyes tOIl'ards the . . port in g world fo r some news. .

Owin O' to lack of numbers . ~mort as a Ulll t Oil our own j . °out of th e qu e.; t ion,' lnit. one 01' two of our

T OO

lIumbel'- t ake acti" e parts in the Sta ff a nd Depart ­mentals Sports Club.

Th e sma ll uni ts in t,he Tient sin Area f'Ol'ln ecl ,L Rifl e Cln b in December la t. and S j Sgt. Stell- a r-t and L j Sat. Elgood have bee;l r.egulal' members of the teaJl-;=' which has representeel tha t club aga ill st vHrious' shoot ing t,ea ms in t,h e dis t ri ct . mlel hol d firth and seconcl places l'especti vely ill ' the ma tch ayerages. W i th t hese .·uccesses before us we are quite confident of li ftin g the Colonel L ightfoot Cup from th e ma ntelshelf at Sh .llIghai t,his y.ea r.

Tennis al.ld cri cket have just comm enced . and we hope to be able to r·epol't some ~ u cces es ancl quote a few a.verages a t, a later date_ Major C. J . H . Treg­lo wn and Serg t . G ilber t a re onr hopes in th e cricket fi eld . while th e tenni s COUlts see seve ra l of tlte Detachment wielding th e racquet.

Plans a re well in hand , a t t he tim e of wri t ing, for the l-ocal Co ronati on celebl'ation s . and Ti entsin would ha rd ly Le recogni sed by the old tim er with its ga y decora tions of fla gs and mult i- colonl ed bunt­ing . 'Th e prog ramm e includes th e Trooping of t,h e Colour by th·e 1st Bn. t he Lanca hire Fusiliers, ::I..

Church Ser vice. a Fun F air 1'01' th e children. a nd a. Firework cl isph;y. It will certa inly pl'ol'ide a spot of colour in th e otherwi e .omewhat drab atmos­ph ere o'f Tientsin.

One of our Deta chm ent h ns be·en hea rd to ask ,,; hen -it is ' lik ely to get wa llll here. As tb e t em­pera tme a t the moment is 92 in the shade. we can olll y sngg·est th a L he keeps wearing hi s leath er jer­kin and fur ha t, for a month 01' so.

Vi' e must present our sin ce re. apologies to both, ~U~ .. M.S. Sh epherd . wh o left us in November la. t , and to S.Q.M.S. Mortell. who joined us as hi s reli ef" but trus t th flt th ev will excuse our ommi s:on to report their respec-til' e depa rt,llre, fllld an iva l. , ve hope th at th ey like t heir p l'esent stat.jo ll ·. A.Ji' .E.