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There was always
something very much doing, what with a nightly soup kitchen,
military chess, and photographic proclivities. I remember,
for example, what I understood to be a battalion organized
scheme for testing the Rushall defences, being completely
transformed by the unheralded addition to the defence of a
contingent of regular troops. Brain had brought them over
from a local barracks especially for this occasion.
Eventually, Brain left us and Chapman took over, after
Hackett had been brought in to B.H.Q. Chapman was a grand
soldier with a fine record in the last war. He set about
the company and made it efficient in its parts and conscious
of its power. No company operated better than this new "G"
Company on exercises, and no names deserve mention more
than Chapman, Morris, Hooper, Richards, Martin, Nutting
and Arblaster - to name only a few - for the part they played
in the life of the company and the battalion.
And, lastly, our youngest company, known as H.Q. Coy.
Scott, the O.C., has always been ready to take on any job
which needed doing. Shakespeare said : "Man in his
time plays many parts." How truly can this be said
of "Scotty". His company has not been in the limelight,
simply because it contains the Signallers, D/Rs., Transport
Section, etc., all of which play a lone hand in their respective
activities, but excellent work
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has been done by
many members of this company "behind the scenes".
In this connection I recall the names of Sergeant Callow,
that untiring instructor on the signalling side, Sergeant
Shenfield, who was responsible for the administration and
who will be remembered for an excellent lecture at the Institute,
Sergeant Bostock, Sergeant Carson, Corporal Bird, Corporal
Allitt, Corporal Mobbs of Beacon fame and many others, among
whom one must mention the energetic dispenser of our creature
comforts over a long period, Corporal Aston, and that tall
military figure who for so long was our evening guardian of
B.H.Q., Sergeant Sleigh.
But whilst I have always stressed the importance of the
company in an area like ours, I should certainly be guilty
of neglecting a most important factor in making the battalion
efficient if I did not say a word about personalities at
B.H.Q. Trevor-Jones has already been spoken of elsewhere;
also Jerromes, whose original job as Q.M. was taken over
by Hackett, who came to us as a member of the permanent
staff. Jerromes, after a short and fretful life with "H"
Sector, became our Catering Officer and took under his wing
the Beacon Camp, and his work there will be forever remembered.
Much could be written about the Beacon Camp. Sufficient
to say is that it came to us through the kindness of the
Birmingham Corporation towards the end of 1941. Thanks to
the help given by Goode, we very quickly put the place in
order, and the first
(......continues.....)
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