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Wadsworth, who
succeeded Ayres and, despite a reputation for drollery, was
sincere and able. Moss, who in a hundred ways helped us all
at H.Q. and looked after our transport problems so thoroughly.
Then Pepper. How should we have carried on without our Security
Officer, who "protected" us from our enemies within
and fleeced us so unmercifully and on so many occasions for
the good of the Comforts Fund.
In the last two years of our existence, B.H.Q. became the
home of quite a strong permanent staff. In order of time,
Timings comes first. What a boon he was when he came to
us as A.A. in the early days of 1941. His past experience
as a staff officer, his precision and urbanity, combined
with a fine sense of the incongruous, lightened the loads
on the backs of all officers in command. Throughout 1941
and the greater part of 1942, he was alone at B.H.Q. by
day, whilst leaving it to the untender mercies of the amateurs
by night.
The serenity of his "home" was disturbed at last
by the entry of an Adjutant and a Quartermaster. Hackett,
the Q.M., we already knew, and he very ably filled a gap
which had been open for some time.
But Crews, the new Adjutant, had a hard job at first to
pack in his bulky self comfortably. But he did it eventually
and successfully by means of the most optimistic outlook
I have ever met,
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combined with energy and unconquerable goodwill.
By the end he had become part and parcel of the battalion.
Then our P.S.I's. The first to arrive was McElhone, who
will always be remembered by his stocky figure breezily marching
by the side of a platoon, drilling them in the true tradition
of the army. Then Thorley and Trumper, both of whom also
helped us so much in our efforts to become soldiers.
Nor can we forget Tinsley, whose quiet efficient work helped
to make the wheels go round so smoothly.
I should be guilty of the grossest ingratitude if I did
not give Miss Morris a special mention. Competent, loyal,
and attractive, and with it all so serious a Home Guarder
that when it came to forming a ladies' contingent there
was only one possible candidate to be put forward as Officer
in Charge.
Having brought the opposite sex into the picture, I cannot
pass on without a word of praise for the Women's Auxiliary
H.G. All they have undertaken has been done with great enthusiasm,
and very well done too. Their work on the signalling side
is worthy of special note.
Another at H.Q. will perhaps be remembered by most as a
cheerful face peering through the serving hatch in the Mess.
But his real job is Storeman, and if Jones ever wants a
testimonial I know that he has only to apply to our Q.M.,
whose right-hand man he has been for so long.
(......continues.....)
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