The Royal Army Pay Corps Journal

Vol.

n.

No. 9.

,I

Spring, 193 3

From "The London Ga_zette"

"

80, Pall Mall, London, S.W.I,

March, 1933.
A year ago we published a statement
showing the financial result of the first
year of the Journal. On another page of
this issue will be found the profit and loss
account for the year I932, and the balance
sheet as at 3Ist December, 1932, from
which it ",ill be seen that the total profit
for the two years has been over II6. With
this as a reserve fund we hope to enlarge
and improve the Jowmal so that the
accounts for each year shall, as nearly as
possible. balance.
On another page appears a notice of the
forthcomin g Annual General Meeting and
Dinner of the R.A .P .C. Old Comrades
Association, Ivhich will take place on
Friday, AprjJ 28th. We hope to be able
to say in our next issue that there has
been a record attendance.
The publication in recent issues of "oldtime" groups has evidently been of considerable interest to the older members of
the Corps and has brought to the Editorial
Office a number of photographs, some of
\\'hich are reproduced in this issue, while
others will appear in future numbers .
COMMAND PAY OFFICE , ALDERSHOT , 1903.
. We are ind ebted to Mr. G. Steph6'l1s of Carmarthen for pointing out that the N.C.O. whose
name wu_ om itted (unknown) ill the p'hoto und~r
this hp<tding in the last issue (Vo1. 1, page 314) IS
Stu.ff Se rgeant Norton.
We are a.lso inform ed that. in the S'tme row the
name WQlsh should read Welch. This W.O . later
tra.n sferred to .the A.O.C.

ROYAL ARMY P ~ Y CORPS,

Lt .. H. W. T. Marden, M.B.E. , Dorset Regt., to
be Lieut. and Payma.ster (on probation) (August
22, 1932).
.
Lieut. E. C. Brewer from Border Regt. to be
Lieut. and Paymaster (January 1, 1931) an d to be
Temp. Cap.t. (January 1, 1932) .
Li eut. (Temp. Capt.) E. C. Brewer to be Captain
and Paymaster (January 1, 1913) with seniority
J anuary 1, 1931.
Lieut. -Col. and Staff Paymaster H. Duesbury to
be Brevet Co lonel (January l. 1933) .
Capt. and Parmaster T. A. Meek, M.C .. to be
Brevet Major (January 1, 1933).
Capt. K. C. Johnstone-Jones , M.B.E. , M.C., R
Tank Co rps, relin9uishes the grading of Capt. and
Paymr. on cea.s mg to- be employed with the
RA .P.C. (D ecemb er 21, 1932).
Co l. and Chi ef Paymaster F. M. Watkins, C. B.E.,
retires on retired pay (Janua.ry 25 ).
Li eut. -Col. and Sta ff Paymaster E. E. E. Todd,
O.B.E. , to be Co l. and Chief Paymaster (January
25) .
.
Capt. and Paymaster C. N. Be<jnall. M.C. , to be
MaJor and Staff Paymaster (January 25) with Regt!.
seniOli ty Jun e 10, 1928 . and precedence next below
Major A A. Cockburn.
(Sll ~h ~eniority not to
count for Army sen iority, pay and a ll ces., increase
of pa.y or r etired pay).
M!l.ior (Asst. PaY!11l'. ) R .Cl eland. M ..C., havi~g
attaIned the a~e lImit for retIrement, retIres on ret..
pay (January 30).
Ca,nt. J . Moulrling from Dev on Regt. to be Cap,t.
and P a,vlll r. (February 23) with seniority February
23. 1931.
Capt. a nd Paymfl.ster H. J. H. Cox. O.B.E., to
be Ma ior (March 15)..
.
Lt. it D. Buck from, RA. , to be Lt. a nd Paymr.
(March 16. 1931) , and to be temp. Capt. (March 16,
1932) ; L t. (temp. Capt.) R D. Buck to be Ca.pt,
and Paymr. ( [arch 16) , WIth seny. March 16, 1931.
REGULAR ARMY RESERVE OF OFFICERS.
Col; ~. M. Watl.<ins, C. B .E. , having attained the
ag<l hmlt of ha ~)1"ty to recall ceases to belong to
the R es. of Officers (February 26).

OUR CONTEMPORARIES.

Th e Editors acknowledge with many thanks re.

ceipt of the following JOUJ1l fl.ls :"R.A.M.C. News a nd Gazette," Dec., Jan .. Feb.,
Mar.
" Tbe vVire," J an., Feb., Mal'.
"The Sapper," Dec., J an., Feb., Mar.
" The Gunn.er," J an. , Feb. , Mar.
"R.A.O .C. Gazette." Dec., J an ., Feb.
" The ''Vas p','' Dec.
" 'l.' he Account.ant "-(Five copies).
" R .A. V. C. Journal." Feb.
" A.E.G. Jouma l," Jan.

.,

Corps Sports News

Arrangements for 1933 .
Friday,
SaL,
Mon.,
Tues.,
Tues.,
Wed.>
Thurs.

June
July
July
July
July
July
July

30th.
1St.
3rd .
4th .
4th.
5th .
6th.

Friday, July

7th.

Thurs., Jnly 13th.

Friday, Jnly 14th .

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

J OURNAL

28th April, prior to the meeting of the

Old Comrades Association.

The Annual meeting of the Hockey Section will be held ~t Han'ods at 5 p.m. 011

Cricket ?

}
}

{
}

Royal Army Chaplains Dept ., at Aldershot on Upper

(UffiGers) Grou nd.
'Cricket v. Army Educational Corps, at Aldershot on Lower
(Officers) Ground.
Lawn Tennis at Roehampton.
Lawn Tennis at Roehampton. (Ladies' Day).
Golf. Summer Meeting at Worplesdon.
Annual Meeting, R .A. P.C. Officers' Club .
Annual Din ner. '
Cricket v. R.A.O.C . , on the United Services Ground at Portsmouth.

HOCK EY .
Th e first full season of the Hockey Section is nearing its end. Compared \\'ith last
season, there has been an improvement in
the standard of play and an increase in the
number of players available; so far 25
players (9 Officers, r6 Other Ranks) have
participated in the various matches this
season .
The detailed results are given beloll', six
games having been scratched by our opponents on account of sickness, ground
unfit. etc. From the point of view of
results alone, a fair share of success has
not come our way. This is mainly due to
the difficulty experienced in successfully
filling the inside positions in the fOr\\'ard
line during the first half of the season, notwithstanding which the majority of the
matches were closely contested . In the
opinion' of those best qualified to judge,
the progress of hockey in the Corps has
been most satisfactory.
To field a team consistently and complete
a programme composed wholly of away
matches over a large area reflects the
loyalty and enthusiasm with which this
recent endeavour 'to maintain the Corps
sports activities is b'eing supported by all
concerned .
The Committee have therefore concluded
arrangements with the' Civil Service Sports
Club whereby the Hockey Section will be
able to play their home matches next Season
on the.Civil Service Sports Ground at Chiswick, and have full use of the excellent
facilities provided there .

GOL F ING SOCI ETY.

Campbell T odd Cup , 1932.
. Wibner-Major T. A. Meek, Edinburgh.
.2. Up.

Runner Up-Lt. -Colonel H. Goiding,

Perth . I DO\,vn.
lIaif Yearly Spoon- December , 1932.
Winner- Captain O. D . Garratt, HOlil1S. low. 2 up.
Army Golf Challenge Cup . .
. It has been decided to enter a team again
this year for this competition which takes
place at the Royal Ciuque Ports Golf, Club,
Deal, commencilig on Wednesday, 26th
Ap.ril.
Ann ual Meeting.
';I'he Annual Summer Meeting will take
place ' at Worplesdon on Thursday, 6th
July. Full particulars and entrance forms
will be circulated in due course.

Matches.
The ' following fixture has been arranged
to date:'.~,:,
23rcl May, v. R.A.O.C. Golfing Society
at Fleet.

Handicaps.
Major T. A. Meek-from 6 to 5.
Playing on the Fulford course at York
on the 29th December, 1932, Major W.
Goldthorpe, one of the oldest members of
the Club, holed ' in one at the 17th, which
measures no yards.
We congratl1late Major Goldthorpe 011
this remarkable achievement.
2

Royal Anny P ay Corps Hockey Club , 193233.

S/.al',dil' g :-CaRt. E. A. Smith (Umpire), Sergt. T . Lancaster, Sergt. J. Heh.ir, Sergt. R. Smith,
.:3ergt. E . J. BUInet.
Sitting :-Ca pt. A . L. Dunhill, Capt. R. S. Ellicot, Major j\: .4. .' Cockbum, Capt. J . L. OliveI',
Capt. O. D. Garratt, Capt. G . Haggard, Lieut. J. H. Clowes.
ROYAL ARMY PAY CORPS OLD COMRADES '
ASSOCIATION .
The Fifth Anlluaj' General Me~ti ng of the !{oyal
Army Pay Corps Old Co mmd cs Association wiH
tak e pla .:e at 6 p.m. on Friday, 28th April, 1933
~t .Mes"rs. H a l'l'ous, Knightsbl'idge, S."V.1., and
It IS hOfl~.~ that every member. who Cf\n possibly
attend, wLll be l?resent. The, tllllO has been fixed t o
suit the convelllence of everybody.
Thl' Fifth Annual Dinner wi:J take place, the
same even ing at 7.30 p.m. al so at Hal'lod ~. The
chair will be taken hy the President, The ColonEll
Co mmandant of our Corps, who will hold a reception befo re dinn er.
Th e Comm ittee have mad e every endeavour to
secure the comfort of those attending , and it ill
hopt'd that _tlWr efforts will be reward ed by
record assembly.
Tickets , price 7/ - each, call he obtained from
Office Rl'presentat,ives, or from Colonel H. Duesbury . R.A .P .C. Reco rd and Pay Office, Deptfol'd.
S.E.8. Dress :-Lounge Suits.
E . J . W . BROWN'E,
Honorary Secretary.

Hoc key Results.

Opponent
For Agst.
1St Tn. Bde. Royal Arti llery
3
I
Military College of Science
I
9
Depot Queen's R. Regt.
I
7
Depot Royal Fusiliers
0
3
:M ilitary College of Science
1
4
Royal Air Force (Uxbridge)
I
3
Depot Royal Army Medical Corps 0
3
Royal Air Force (Uxbridge)
0
I
2nd Tn. Bde. Royal Artillery
2
4
Tn. Brigade Royal El1gin~ers
I
7
Depot East Surrey Regt.
0
1
Depot Royal Army Medical Corps I
I
1'n. Brigade Royal Engineers
2
3
Depot East Surrey Regt.
I
3
I{.A .S .C. Aldetshol:
I
5
Depot, Queen's R. Regt.
2
I

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

THE

JOURNAL

COL.~Bt~~C:.t.NZIE.

"The Signallers"

[Editorial Kale - Colo' lel :\l acke ll zie . at th at time a s ubaltern i!: The Gloucestershire Regimen ,t, \\8S a pric;ouer of war in Pretor ia
f rom r\uyember. l S~9. to June. 1900.1

Some day, n o doubt, it ,,~ill be definitely

decided wh ether the Great War was \von
by the politicians or th e propagandists.
Perhaps t!Je soldiers, as disinterested spectators of the controversy might reasonably
be asked to adj u dicate, but, if th e individual soldier selected for the task has a t
any tim e been a prisoner of war ill the
enemy ' s hands the politician's chances of
securin g the verdict wil1 be very remote.
Th e captive sees the p rogress of a war
through enemy gl,asses fitted with distorting

themselves prisoners of war in the hands

of the Boers in November, 1899. They were
confined in the Model School. This building occupied the corner site at a crossroads,
as shown in the p lan .
The officers were accommodated in the
classrooms of the school and their soldier
servants in tents (K) p itch ed in th~ playground. The g uard consisted of a detac~ment of the Zuid Afrikaandsche R epubhk
P oiice-commonly termed "Zarps" -wh o
also lived in tents (J) pitched in the p lay -

114~'m'l.
111'1.1
~~f!llMh1I..

.",,1'[
fllIll tWf

g round . 1'\\'0 sides of the rectang ul a r a rea,

(A to B B to C) \Nere fenced in with spiked
railings: and the other t wo sides (A to D,
D to C,) with corrugated iron sheets about
8 ft. hig h . The sma ll roundhouse (E) and
th e adjoinin g p remises were buildings
whi ch in this co untry...; a re usually disting uish ed by the label "Gen tlem en." Five
a rm ed sentri es were constantly 011 duty.
One patrolled from A to B, another from
n to C, while two shared th e beat from A
tu E and E to D . ~he fifth was usually
0 11 duty a t the hospital gate and along the
line C to D. At one end of the school
building \Vas a gy mnasium (F) with windows facin g across the roadway to the
house opposite (C).

lenses supplied by the propagandist. The

resultant effect has to be experienced to be
understood. The average man succumbs
to the slow sapping of his morale by the
insidious psychological wa rfare of the propagandi st , wh o exaggerates all news
favourable to his own cause, minimises or
suppresses unfavourable news, a nd does
not h esitate to disseminate fal se news . it
takes a man of exceptionally toug h mora l
fipre to survive unaffected by th e general
atmosphere of g loom a nd depression produced by an unbroken succession of tales
of defeat and death and disaster.
So it was with the ntl e hand of Brit'ish
officers who had the misfortune to find
4

ROYAL

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ARMY

PAY

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JOURNAL

were removed from the gymn asium ; officers

were no longer allowed to obtai n cash;
alcoholic liqu ors of all kinds were forbidden; and a daily parade state was prepared and checked. U ntil Churchill escaped th e Boers did no t even know how
m any p risoners they had got . These
m easures were n ot very severe but they
were effective , and, though severa l plans
of escape were made, they \I'ere ~ hand oned
one after the other as impracticable . .
And so the days dragged on in ever
deepeni ng gloom. Fresh prisoners arrived,
each batch more despondent than its predecessor. The Boer press blazoned their
triumphs \\' hil e the tale of British disasters
grew longer unrelieved by th e faintest incli cation of success for O UT arms, until at long
last a day davvued when the first tiny rift
in the clouds appeared.
For some time o-fficers had noticed a
thickset man with reddish hair who, daily,
walked up th e road past the sch ool accompanied by a large St. Bernard dog. Pedestrians were n ot allowed on the side\yalk,
which was the sentries beat, but occasionally the dog s trayed on to it, and one day
his master came over and haulell him off
by the collar. As he did so he muttered ,
"Cheer up boys: good news ." Not very
much, but enough to provide food for interminabl e conversations and conjectures. A
da y or t wo later the same performance took
place and "The Dogman" (as he came to
be known ), said somethin g like , "They've
had a bad knock, " but this time the sentry
was on the alert and shouted some order
in Dutch. After this, although he still
walked past the prison, the Dog man appeared to ha ve given up the attempt to
communicate with the prisoners.
HIS
appearances became irregular a11d though
he was occasionally seen to enter the house
across the road (G), he never approached
the railings. His aftempt seemed to have
ended in failure .
Then 'one morning it \"as noticed th at
th e g uards appearecl to be very excited,
a nd later on the Commandant gleefully
announced that the Boers had captured an
important positi on commanding th e tow'n
of L adysmith . He said th at the final SHrrendeT of the ga rriso n could now on l ~' be a
lilatter of a day or t\yo . It ,\'as th e dav of
the Boer assatilt on \Vagon ,Hill. Th e 'day
\Yore on in deepen i ng depression. ' The

Life in this confined area \Vas drab and

dreary. Day succeeded day in soul destroying monotony. In three weary month s
the only news the p risoners got of the
progress of the war was throug h the Boer
press, o r by word of mouth from the Commanda n t .
The two newspapers which they saw
were "The Standard and Diggers News"
p ub lished ill Johannesburg and "De
Volkstem" published in Pretoria.
Both
",ere biling ua l.
Tbe English ne\l'sprint
was uniformly depressing, and, though the
Dutch part of these newspapers was laboriously translated by a n officer with a slight
knowledge of the la ng uage, tlle ;lope that
some more cheerful n ews from th e British
standpoint might thus be disclosed \NaS
doomed to disappointment.
The only cheering incident during th ose
three months was th e escape of M r. Wins ton Churchill. H e escaped over the iron
wall of the roundhouse, (E) while the sentry whose duty it was to patrol from D to
E had st rolled over for a q uiet evening chat
with h is comrade at a point somewhere
between E a nd A. From time to time one
s till comes up against the old ly ing rumours
that Churchill "brok e his parole," ancl that
"he let his pals clown ." Both are absolutel y untrue. From sta1't to finish the
Boers never g ranted parole to anyone. All
prisoners were under guard of armed
sentries from the time th ey were captured
until they \Ven~ released. Churchill diclnot
" jet his pals down." Captain H aldan e of the
Gordons (now General Sir Aylmer H alclan e) followed him ill th e a ttempt to escape
and was caught by the sentries while astride the wall of the roundhouse. H e was
compelled to return at the point of a rifle.
Churchill lay in the shrubbery o n the far
side of the roundh ouse until he was told
. by Lieutenant Grimshaw of th e Duhlin
Fusiliers (killed at the landing on Gallipoli) ,
that there \vas 110 h ope of Halclane bein g
s uccessful in a further attempt to join him .
Not till then did h e walk awav to comm ence th a t amazing journ ey to Portuguese
East Africa wh ich h e has described in his
b ook "From London to L adysmith via Pretoria. ' ,
After Churchill's escape thin gs \"ere
tighten ed up a bit. All dumb-bells and
bar-bells-everything in fact that might
conceivably be used as a lethal weapon5'

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

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JOURNAL

down , On the other side of the road the

two cbildren acted as sentries, leaning in
their customary positions over the verandah
rails, and when danger thr~tened, one or
other of them tapped a warmng foot on the
\-vooden floor of the stoep. The elder girl
with the flag would then step into one of
the living rooms, so that an empty passage
presented itself to the Za rp if he looked
in at th~ open doonyay.
Every day m~ssages were exchanged and
the whole extraordinary story of how it
had all been made ]J()ssible came out. The
1 eop le opposite, (Culling worth by name),
were of British birth but the father wbo
was employed in the Post Office had been
a naturalised burgher of the Transvaal for
many yeal's .
The Dogman was named
Paterson. He too was British and he too
had become a naturalised burgher of the
Transvaal. He held a responsible position
in the State Telegraphs. All were strongly
in sympathy with the British cause. Paterson, by virtue of his position, had access to
all the telegrams which anived from the
front and so he got the true news of the progress of events before even the Gov~rnment
officials themselves. This news was seldom
if ever disclosed in the press unless it was
favourable to the Boers. Paterson had carefully taught the two elder Cullingworth
girls to send and receive m~ssages in the
Morse code, and every day he brought them
the latest authentic news from the front .
In this way the prisoners learnt of th~
relief of Kimberley, the capture of Cronje,
the relief of Ladysmith and the iapid advance of Lord Roberts, as soon as President
Kruger himself. The Boer propagandist
still carried on his campaign, publishing
false news and withholding unfavourable
news as long as possible, but "De Volkstem" was no longer of any interest to the
prisoll~rs except as a tremendous joke.
IL became more and more difficult to listen
with solemn faces to the scanty, and often
false. information vouchsafed by the Commandant. The whole atmosphere of the
prison changed.
It was too good to last. As more and
more prisoners came in the Model School
became uncomfortably crowded and the
Boers got nervous about the securit" of the
pris.oners .
They built a huge cage of
barbed wire, lit by electric light standards
about a mile outside Pretoria and a11-

newspapers when they arrived confirmed

the ne\ys. They were jubilant and the fatt:
of Lady smith seemed to be definitely sealed,
but the cloud was to 11ft before the day
closed, in an entirely unexpected manner.
The house opposite (G) had naturally
been an object of considerable interest to
the prisoners. Th~y knew th~ exact composition of the 1!ousehold-father, mother,
t\\o g irls of about 18 or 19, a small g irl of
about r2 and a boy of about 10. They knew
that the father \\'ent to work of some kind
every morning and returned in the evening,
and they knew that the family spoke English amongst themselves-not Dutch , The
house itself was of the usual South African
pattern, with a "stoep" or verandah in
front, A central passage led from the front
0001' to the back premises and the living
rooms opened off this passage, The small
boy and girl used to wait every evenin g for
their father's return leaning on the rai lin gs
of the stoep, one on either side of the doorway .
On th:s particular evening two officers
\yere lea'n ing against the spiked railings
exactly opposite the doorway of the house
wbich stood wide open in th~ hot summer
weather. They were chatting despondently
about the bad news, when suddenly they
noticed that one of the older girls was
standing about midway dO'w n the central
passage, calling up with a small white flag.
When she saw that she had drawn their
attention she signalled a message in Morse.
It read "Ladysmith safe, Boers driven
hack with heavy loss." The cloud had
indeed lifted. In a very short space of time
every officer in the prison got the glad
ne\ys and it became necessary to impress
01] some of the junior officers that they
~u~t disguise their feelings, otherwise susplClOn would undoubtedly be aroused so
all did their best to walk about ;vith
lugubrious faces and suppress the joyous
relief which they felt.
Arrangements were immediately made
for the receDtion and sending of messages.
The lower halves of the gymnasium windows \yere of muffled g lass so an officer,
(Captam Burroughs of the Irish Fusiliers)
stood on a chair in the r00111 , took the
messages and sent replies. He was 'carefully guarded by his brother officers' and
whenever the Zarp whose beat extended
from A to. B, came within range he bobbed
6

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

110unced their in tention of moving their

prisoners.
At th~ same ti.me both Paterson and
Culling\\'orth wer~ called up 'for active
service.
Whether suspicions had been
aroused, or whether it was simply a case
of a comb out to meet the dwindling man
power, has never been known. Both of
them tried to escape to the British lines ,
both were captured in the attempt, tried
for desertion and thrown into gaol a t ,Pretoria.
.
Th e officers were moved to their ' new
prison and Haldane successfully effected
his escape in company with t\\'O other
officers.
The Cullingworth girls made one more
attempt t.o commun icate with th e p risoners
but little could be done on an open hillsid~
in full view of the sentries. Th ey did not
come again, and in any case, since Paterson' s removal, they no longer got authentic
ne\\'s.
The days c1rago-ed, but the old attitude
-of d~spair ha.d disappeared for good and the

Pi\. Y

CORPS

JOU,RNAL

prisoners looked- hope'ftll1y to the future.

In June, I900, when Pretoria surrendered, Winston Church.ill and the Duke of
Marlborough ga ll oped through the town to
the prisoners' enclosure. On their appearance
the
nrisoners
ctsarmed
their
guards, who made no resistance; they were
free at last. Paterson and Culling\\'orth
were ~mm edia tely released from gaol, and
the pnsoners had the long looked for opportunity to thank their benefactors bv \rord
of moutb. Both fami lies were p resen ted
\\'ith toke ns of the deep debt of g ra titude
which the prisOllers owed them but no
tangible token could ever express \rhat
th ey felt.
More than thirty yea rs have gone by
sill ce those dark . December c1a ys when a
\rhole nation was plunged into'the depths
oE depression, To the unfortunate officers '
\\'ho \\'ere then in enemy hands that depression \\'as a lmost in tolera bly in tensified,
a nd those of them who survive to-cia v still
think of th e joyous lifting of the dOl;d by
t1-,e unselfi. h action of those kind people,
\rho risked so much on their behalf.

THE

ROYAL ARMY

PAY

CORPS

Will all .correspondents address Sgt. V. RU SH, R.A.P.C, 80, Pall Mall, London, S.W.l.

CA~O . KANN

E. M. JACKSON.
I.
2.
3.
5
6.
7.
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9.
10.

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White resigns.

GAME No. 10.

White

IS.
16.
17.
IS.
19.
20.
2I.
22.
23.
24.
2.1.
26.
27 .
2S.
29 .
30 .
31.
32.

Black
DEFENCE.
S. FLOHR.
P-QB3
P-Q4
Pxp
Kt-QB3
Kt-B3
B-Kts
P-K 3
Q-BT
KtxKt
Kt-Q2
B-R4
P-QR 3
B-K2
P-QKt4

Q-QI
P-Kt4
P-KKts
B-Kt4
BxB
Q-B2
QxKP
B-Kt 3
Q-R4
BxB
Castles KR
K-RI
R-KKtI
Q-Kt 3
PxP
P-K 4
Q-B4
QR-KI
Kt-B 3
Q-K 3
Kt-Kts
P-B3
Q-Q2
P-Ks
Kt-K4
Px Pep
Kt-Q6
RxR
QR-KKtP
Q-KKtz
R-Kt6
R-R6ch

GAME No. 11.

The following pretty game was played
by S.Q.M.S. Bell, ,playing for the War
Office first team against the Admiralty in
the Civil Service Leagne.
White
Black
S.Q.M.S. BELL.
ADMIRALTY
P-K3 (a)
1. P-Q4
P-Q4
2. P-K4
B-Kts
3. Kt-QB3
Kt-QB3 (b) .
4 P -Ks
KKt-K2 (c)
5 B-Q3
6. Q-Kt4 (d)
Kt-Kt3
P-R4 (e)
7. P-KR 4

ROYAL ARMY

PAY

CORPS , J OURNAL

END- GAME.
A very pretty ending recently sent us
by S.S.M.

QKt-K2
Q-Kt 3.
R-KKtI
B-KKts
Kt-Bsq.
Kt-R 3
B-R4
II.
P-R 3
P-KKt 3 (f)
12. Q-B3
Kt-R2
13 B-B6
Kt takes B (g)
14 Kt-Kt4
R-Bsq
IS Q takes Kt.
R-KtI
16. Kt-R7
K-Q2
17 Q-Kts
K - B 3 (h)
IS. Kt-B6ch
P-QR
3
Q-Q2
19
B-Kt 3
20. P-QKt4
P takes P
21. P-Ktsch
22. B takes P mate.
8.
9
10.

Our Chess Page

CHESS CHAMPIONS.
It is very mteresting and profitable to
compar~ the different styles of the World
Champions. All chess players have ,. heard
of the great Morphy who was the plOneer
of the brilliant style. Our own famous
Staunton was more of the sound ord:r.
Then followed Steinitz who was an artl~t
lit~rally to his fing~ tips and excelled ID
intricate combinations.
Lasker of more
recent times was probably the soundest
world champion who ever played. Capablanca had a marvellous sight of the board
and a profound knowledge of the openings.
His conqueror, Dr. Alekhine, the prese~t
World Champion, is a deep analyst and IS
constantly varying his play from the usual
weH-known lines with moves of his own
which he has evolved after much study
of th~ openings. Of the coming players
who are likely to succ~ed the present champion, S. Flohr who played recently at
the Hastings Congress s~ems to be the
most likely candidate. His style is open
and free and he Jlways dislikes drawing
variations 'a nd as a consequence will take
risks. Appended is a game played against
one of our strongest and sound est players
which well illustrates his style.

THE

JOURNAL

NOTES.
(a) Usual now is Kt-KB3, to prevent
P-K 4
. (b) Or P-QB4 is also good.
(c) Or Kt takes QP. B takes RP. Kt-

While to play and win.

P~OBLEM No. 6.
By Nathan Rubens.
A very delightful study with a Queen.
sacrifice uy an American composer.
Black (4 pieces)

QB3, etc.

(d) A very strong move forcing the

reply Kt-Kt3 with the subsequent powerful attack.
(e) This w~akens his position badly but
there was little choice.
(f)
Disclosing still further points of
weakness.
(g) Better wa~ Kt takes Kt but the
position is lost now .
(h)
Forcing Black into a mating net.
A very well played game with a neat
finish . Both S.Q.M .S. Bell and the Chess
Editor play for the WaT Office first team
with excellent results.

White (4 pieces)
White to play and mate in two moves.
Solution to PToblem No. 5 by the Chess
Editor.
Key Kt-K2.
If (I) P-Qs
(2) Kt-B4 n1ate.
If (I) P-Bs
(2) Kt-Q4 mate
The two moves possible to Black avoid
a dual.
.Solved by "A. J.," "R. V.," "Well.
wIsh er" and "Beginner."

GAME No. 12.

A brilliant recently played skiqnish .
HUNGAIUAN DEFENCE.
White
Black
H. M . LONMER.
R. G . WHITE.
1. P-K 4
P-K 4
2. Kt-KB 3
Kt-QB3
B-K2
3 B-B4
PxP
4 P-Q4
Kt-K4
5 KtxP
6. Q-Kt2
Kt-KB 3
KtxB
7 Kt-QB3
8. QxKt
KtxP
P-Q4
9 KtxKt
10. Q-Ktsch
P-QB 3
11. KtxP!
Q-Q2
12. KtxB!
Resigns

TO CORRE SPONDENTS.

F.J.-I am still a waiting your amended position.

A.J.-No you cannot wm with this force.
" 'WELL ,WISHER. "-Ask for Herr Schmiele.
R.V,-Thanks for wishes. Your position is a
Win for vVhite.
'
A.C,-N~, I ca nnot see anything but a draw.
S.~.-Thls move wa~ played by Pire a't Hastings
and IS entIrely new-It has ma.ny advantages and
prevents the entry of the Knight.

THE

ROYAL

ARMY -' PA:.Y._ XO~:rS_ JOURNAL

"The Suez Canal

carried through the gigantic scheme .of

making a path for ships from Port Sa1d,
on the Mediterranean, to Suez, on the Red
Sea 8S miles a\yay. The route selected
incl'uded some small lakes, ~nd large depressions below sea level \\'luch, \\'hen the
sea \\'as given , access to them, ,,"ould
become lakes and so reduce the amowlt
of diggin g n~eded.
.
The grea t advantage to be .gaJl1ed by
connecting the Mediterranean \:'lth the Red
Sea had been striven after wIth ~lOre or
less SLlccess and with varying motives for
some three thousand years.
. .
The Gulf of Suez, the Heroopohtlcus
Sinus of the ancients, extellde~ further
north than it does to-day. There IS g round
for supposing that an upheaval of the Isthmus has taken place since the Exo?us,
isolating the part known as the Bltter
Lakes, which evaporatecl, and sanc~ storms
eventually reduced to mere c1epresslOns dry
at the time the present cat;Jal was cu~ .
Egyptologists hold ' th a t the 1ll1e of transIt
at the Exodus was throug h Shaloof, a
station on the existing Suez Canal some
fifteen mi les north of Suez.
According to the Bible, the \yhole host
past over the Red Sea in one night-hence
the sea or lake mLlst have been very narro:v
at this point, and later receded to the POSItion it now occupies. It is reco-rdec1 that
Seti I in I380 B .C. cut a ca.nal fr~m the
N ile near Bubastis by WadI Tumllat to
Heroopolis to the "valls of Pithom. Heroopolis ",as a port, possibly at the. head of the
Gulf of Heroopoliticus, or may be at the
head of the lakes.
.
At the time of the Roman occupatIOn
this so-called port was eight Roman miles
N .W. of the Bitter Lakes. Sand storms an.d
'evaporation would account fo-r mnch o~ thIS
decrease of water but it \vas more hkely
cause 1 by a convu'lsion of the earth's crust,
aided by th,e' two foqner agents.
The canal of'Seti I was a fresh or sweet
water canal and served a three-fold purpose.
It supplied drinking water to the town and
garrison, it fertilised large areas of dese.rt,
and acted as a .fosse or "brooks(of defence"
against Bedouin ' raiders , The Egyptians
were not a maritime nation and did not

Looking at a map of the wor~d eighty

y 'e ars ago and being asked to P01l1t out a
place where a big ca~al could be ~ut
through a few score mIles of land whICh
\yould most benefit navigation, one would
\\'ithout doubt have chosen the Isthmus of
Suez,
'
" 1'
This isthmus compelled shIps sal mg
between Europ~ and India to voyage round
the Cape of Good Hope ,
When trade with India became g reat, an
"overland route" was organised across ,the
isthmus , Ships landed cargoes at CaIro,
and the goods w~re thence transported on
"~hips of the desert" to S~ez, where
they \\'ere again put aboard Sh,lP, But as
thousands of camels were reqUIred to deal
\yith a single cargo, this method provecl
very e..'{pensive, In 1857 a railway bet\~' een
Cairo ' ancl Suez improvecl matters conSIderably, ancl was much used by passeng,ers and
mails but it was, at best, a makeshlft.
Th~ Suez Canal passes through a flat
desert and 1S open from end to end, and
was tl~e first of the great ship canals, It
will always be associated with the name

Tll e De Lll sseps sl,alue 01

I',

A short history by S,S,M. GRIGG,

R.A.P.C.

Porl Said

I,~f

the famous Frenchman, Ferdinal~d de

,'oLesseps, whose statue 'overlooks Port Said
Harbour, It was he who thought out and
10

THE

ROYAL

ARMY ' P AY

intend to use this .canal for shipping.

Of Pith01l1 there is no trace , though the
site is known, but a similar treasure city,
built by Rameses II (Rameses the Great)
has been discovered, and the old canal attributed to him has been traced. Pharoah
Necho, in the sixth century B .C. is credited
\\'ith having carried on the water canal to '
the Gulf of Suez, but this was a fresh
water canal and not a ship canal, though
Pliny tells us that a ship canal of fifty seven Romar:i miles was projected.
The ship canal appears to have been
actually commenced, but abandoned, as it
\\'as feared that the Pe-rsian rovers might
use it to invade Egypt, and also the cost
in slave lives was heavy, for according to
Herodotus, thirst, fever and ill-treatment
accounted for one hundred and twenty
thousand lives. Shortly after the Persian
conquest, Darius I, son ' of Hystaspes, decided to catTY on the scheme. This was in
520 B.C " and he successfully carried the
canal through to the Gulf. In 250 B .C.
Ptolemy Philadelphus widened and deepened the canal, so that the largest galleys
could enter the Nile from the Mediterranean and sail into the Gulf of Suez .
Neglect , coupled with great sandstorms,
silted up the north-western end unti l it
became almost impassable , and no effort to
restore it appears to have been made , until
A.D.98. Trajan then repaired it, probably
re-cutting the north-western portion, for
his canal entered the lakes at the western
extremity, some miles south of Heroopolis.
About this time there is a big gap in
Suez Canal history, and it is not until the
seventh century that an y definite development takes place. We then find "Amr" or
"Amron," the Arab conqueror, taking
great interest in navigation and opening
up trade with the cities on the eastern side
of the Red sea via the Callal. This canal
was in active operation for three hundred
and fifty years, so that some sort of canal
across all or part of the Isthmus has existed for three thousand years.
The present sweet \Yater canal covers in
part the original site of 1380 B.C., for it
runs from the Nile north-east to the. site of
Pith?11l, thence due east to Ismailia, and
contlDues parallel with the ship canal to
Suez. From Ismailia it is forced by pumps
th.rough piping to Port Said, some fifty
m Iles. When the French occupied Egypt,
rr

CORPS

JOURNAL

Napoleon decided to have a ship canal cut

dir~ct from sea to sea, and appointed an ;
engineer named Lepere, who in 1798 re- :
ported that the lev~l of the Red Sea was
30 feet higher than that of the Mediter- '
ranean.
This report, coupled with the '
Battle of the Nile, terminated the project ~
as far as Napoleon "vas concerned.
In 1841 English surveyors proved .
Lepere's report to be wrong, and in 1849 '
De Lesseps took up the matte-r, surveyed _
the desert and satisfied himself that the
levels of the Red Sea and Mediterranean '
were the same, and decided that there were :
no unconquerable difficultIes in the way"
His plans were pnt on paper and submitted
to the Khedive of Egypt, but he was unable'"
to stimulate any interest in the scheme.,
He retired to his farm in France until he
read of the death of the Khedive, when, he
immediately p-roceeded to Egypt t<? ap~~'
proach the new ruler-Khedive Said Pasha :
-found him encamped in the middle of the ,
dese.rt, but a strong advocator. This was in 1854, but it took t,\o more years before'
the Sublime Porte gave their sanction to '
the scheme.
De Lesseps then formed the "Compagnie
Universelle du Canal Maritime de Suez,'"
half the capital of which was raised by the enthusiastic Khedive, and the remainder '
mainly by French peasants--Iet it be said"
en passant, that British capitalists refusedto interest themselves in the Canal.
The first spadeEul of sand was turned at '
Port Said on April 25th, 1859, some 30,000 labourers, conscripted by the Khedive, '
being employed. The total amollnt to be
excavated was 80 million cubic yards, and
the work at first went very slowly ahead. _
A crisis shortly occurred, for the new Vice- ,
ro)" IsmaiL Pasha, refused to ratify the
concessions granted by his predecessor. and.
consequently the men were withdrawn. Tlle,
engineers hired ",hat men they could and
installed huge steam dredgers, but the
settlement of the crisis cost the enormolls
sum of three million pounds.
The discharge from the mouths of the
Nile made the approach from the Mediterranean end to the Suez Canal very shallow
and necessitated the throwing out of the
two great breakwaters. These breakwaters
comprised 25,000 concrete blocks, each
weighing twenty tons. The channel between the two walls had to be dredged, and

THE
THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

Kantara, on the eastern bank of the

Canal at the southern end of Lake Menzaleh,' is the most historic spot on the
present waterway. This was the meeting
place of all caravan routes entering Egypt
from the east, and o~ those going to Palestine from Egypt. It was at Kantara that
the merchants from Gilead brough t Joseph
to sell him into captivity. Probably Mary
and Joseph halted here when fleeing from
Herod. The Pharoahs camped here when
invading Assyria, and so did the Moslems
en route to do battle with the Byzantine
Emperors. During the Great War a s\ying
railway bridge was thrown across th e Canal
at Kantara, and from a few huts and a
lonely minaret a town g rew as if by magic,
with wharves at the canal side for big
steamers.
To g rasp fully the magn ituc1e of De
Lesseps undertakin g and the difficulties he
had to surmount is hardly possible from
this short summary, b ut the following
figures may help to convey an idea of the
task he undertook and successfu ll y carried
th rough : The original
8,000,000.

cost

The actual cost

20,000,000.

was

estimated

was

round

ROYAL

PA~ '

ARMY

CORPS 'JOURNAL

J OURNAL

Width at top from 150 to 300 feet .

it; became necessary, at a later date, to

more than double the length of ~hese '..va11s.

After ten yeaTs of hard and anxious

work the canal was finally opened to traffic Ol{ August 15th, 1869, with great pomp
and splendour , but the rapi~ grow.th of the
size of ships necessitated Its be1l1g both
deepened and widened in 1886 , and again
in rS90. Shortly after the cutting '~'as
completed, quantities of oce~ n fish, \\'hlch
had invaded the canal, w~re found d~ad on
its banks, their death having been caused
by the excessive saltness of the canal water,
brought about by the rapid evaporation.
CeTtain fish have now become used to this
condition and thri ve in the canal. Pelicans,
flamingoes, herons, cranes and duck can all
be founcl on the lakes-a ll fish eaters .

CORPS

. Depth 26 feet.
Total amount excavated 80,000,000 cubic
yards.
Since the opening in r869, the depth has
been increased to 34t feet and its width
almost doubled.
Traffic is \yorked much as on a single
line rai lway, by a system of block signals,
being divided up in to sections, and provided with "gares" or sidings, in which a
ship ties up to allow another to pass. All
the signal. stations are telegraphically ~~n
nected with the head office at Ismallta,
half-way along th e canal. At thi s office
there is a model of the cana l with dummy
ships, which are moved as the vessels repres~nted by them advance . A ship is taken
through the cana l by a special pilot, and at
night while undel- way she carries a strong
searchlight in her bows to illuminate her
course.
To-day the Suez Canal is the most
fini shed and prospercus artificial waterway
in the world. The British Government
ho1.ds seven-sixteenths of the shares 'and
has ten d ir~ctors on the board of management . The capital SHm (4 ,000...0-00) invested by Great Britain in r 875 h a& been
repaid about eight times in dividends and
interest .
The value of a share (250 Francs) \\'as,
in March, 1928, 18,000 francs, and during
the previous year (1927) the British
Governmen t received no less tha n one and
a half mi ll ion pounds in respect of dividend on Its investment.

at

R.A.P.C. Old' Comrades Association

COMMITTEE NOT!;,S.

nex t meeting. Tb e question of memorials to Old

Co mrades dying ov er$OOS, whilst serving, and where
rel a t ives are not in a position to bear t he cost,
was di sc ussed, and it was decided that the O.C.A.
shou ld hear such cost. t he mem ori al to be in uni formity with those of ot,her unit regarding cost.
An appli cation for assi$tance r eferred from the
Management Committee wa s dea lt with , and assistance sanctioned until the anp l! cn nt wa s al>:e to
start work again.
The receipt of th e following donations wa s reported :-Five pounds from R efresb ment Fund,
Royal Arti ll ery Record and Pay Office, Woohl'i ch.
three pounds from Cornma.nd Pay Offige, Ba lisbury,
from an Office Fund , and five pounds from Commalld Pay Office, Sa lisbury, frolD th e grant made
by the South ern Command Ta.ttoo. 1932. The Committee de$ire to express their great appreciation of
these eJfiorts to augment th e fuuds.
.
The Co mmittee repo rt, with deep regret, t he
deaths of two Old Comrades :-Mr. W. Thorne at
Brentwood , and S.S.Major A. F. All ix at Millbank.
E. J. W. BROWNE.
Hon ),. Secty.

The Comm ittee of Mn,nagem ent have met monthly

and disp.osed of I.I1l'ee a pplications for assistance,
from members of the Association , in each case relief was prompti.y granted, a nd the appl icants enabled to tid e over their temporary diffi culties.
Other matter s dea n with included the employment
of ex-members of the Corps. arrears of subscript ions, affiliat.ion with the British L egion , the annual
dinner, a nd minor matters.
The General Committee met at 80, P all Mall, on
the 11th January, 1933. Mr. "V. Wood land pres ided. Other mem ber$ [resent wel'e Mr. J. Thurgood. Lieut. J . Fee hall~'>. S:S.Major P. Plowman,
S.Q.M.Sergt . .R. T . Va .bntme, and Sergt. T. F.
Pond , with Col. H . Du ~ bury, Hon y. Treas ., and
Mr. E. J . W. Brown e, Hony. Secre tary.
Further di scussionIS ,took \olace reg,areJiing the
qu estion of emp loyment, t.he views of the Presid ent
and Managem ent Co mmi ttee 'were placed before
the Committee. and it was finally decided that th e
H onorary Secretary should co mmunic:l t e with
various bodies, a nd mak e a fUIther report at th e

The Royal Army Pay Corps Journal

PROFIT AND LOSS ACCOUNT for the YEAR ENDED 31st DECEMBER, 1932.

Dr.

To Printing (Vat. 1 Nos. 5-8)

Stationery
...
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Postages, Carriage, etc.
Dept eciatioll of Typewriter
Fee for R eproduction ...
Typing and Cler ical Ass istance
Miscell aneous Expenses
.. .
Batnnce, being N et P1'ofit

.. .

s.
'" 215 17
313
15 16

d.
8
8
9

1 10 0
1

Cr .
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235 19 0

By Sale of Copies
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..
Profit f!'Om Christmas Cards
Profit from Diaries
Mi5cellaneous Receipts

67 12 1
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1 1 8

1 7 6
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80 8 3

321

9 11

BALANCE SHEET as
LIABILITIES.

s. d. s.
Sundry Cred itors
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Subscribel's [or Copies paid for in advance-Copies
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R eRer ve for DoubtJul Debts .. .
PRonT A:-<n Lo S ACCOU NTBrough t forwa rd a t 1.1.32 35 19 3
Profit for Year 1932
... 80 8 3
---116 7

d.
3

4!

321

9 11

at 31st DECEMBER, 1932,

A SETS.

s. d.
107 17 6
2 2 Iij

Cas h at Bank
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Due from Adverti sers
Due 1'1'0111 SUbscribel'sCopies
Posta.ge
Diaries

s. cl.

- -- 109 19 IQ.!
20 16

...

Typewriter-Cost Price
Less Dep recia tion

42 8 0
8 4
12 8 0

---

55 4 4

5 0 0
4 0 0

100

about

187
80, Pall Mall,
.London, S.W.I..
liSth JanUllry,_ 1933.

'rhe total length is 87 mi les , of which

66 miles is actual cana l formed by cutting, the remainin g 21 miles be:ng
through lakes.

0 7!

187
Amliled al/d fOl/l/d correct,

R. W. HA C1\ETT, LieutenanL Colonel.

L. E. JAMES, Captain .
H im . .4I/dilors .

A ''U'i ew Of tile Suez Ca.nat nea'r i SlI1nilin.

12

0 7!

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

J OURNAL

Contract Bridge

THE

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

essential that partners should confer and
arrive at the best trump suit-or No Trump
--':'for their combined hands, and not each
declare hap-hazard on his own. To achi~ve
this object, they must bid up gradually so
as to g ive each other information about
the strength and distribution of their cards.
before they decide on the final declaration.
Now, the w hol~ structure of the biddingstands upon the opening bid; if that is.
unsound , the edifice is built on sand.
If the dealer or the player whose turn it
is to bid when those before him have. passed , has sufficien t high card strength
to open the bidding, he should do so;
otherwise, he should pass. To decide this
point, he must estimate the value of his
hig h cards correctly, for it is the high
cards that enable th~ pair to dominate the
bidding and insist on th e choice of trumps.

Last year two incidents occurred which

may serve as illustrations of the nature of
the game of Contract Bridge. .
(I) A married couple appbed for a
divorce on the ground of incomp atibility
of their plav as partners in the game.
(2) A p-Iayer drew an automa tic pistol
and shot another across the table, not
because she- it was a lady II"ho fired the
shot- had caught her victim cheating, but
merel y because sh~ had decided that he
was not playing his cards as helpfull y as he
should.
Such incidents show th a t Contract is an
exciting game, and that is a distinct recommendation to persons who are not addicted
to the misuse of firearms a nd the Divorce
Court. They demonstrate also the strong
feelin g between partners that the game is
apt to arollse, and th ere is no doubt that
the interest of the play is enhanced by the
nec,essity for intellig ent co-operation, both
in ordinary rubbers, when the pairs are
join~d together by chance, and even more
so in matches and tournaments in which
the competitor plays throug hout with the
partner of his choice.
These contests are bein g got up more and
more among all classes o f players, and they
afford exc~llent entertainment to all who
take part in them, but to compete successfull y , it is necessary that partners should
adopt a sound system of bidding, and
master it both by working at it together
and by practising it in p lay.
When Contract first became popular,
man y of the London Clubs-places 'w here
anythi ng new is viewed with intense suspicion-admitted it to their precincts with
reluctance and considerable hesitation, but
their hostility has been turned into enthusiastic support, as is proved by the number
of entries for the Portland Club Challenge
Cup al).d the widespread interest taken in
the contest.
The writer of this article has been il1vit~d to give an 'o utline of the first principles that gov~rn the bidding and p lay.
To begin then with the bidding: it is

TABLE OF HIGH CARD TRICKS.

Honours
Average Value.
AK . ... .. . .. ... . .. . ... . .. ..... 2 t ricks
AQ
AJIO
KQJ
"
KQIO

~Q
KJIO

} .......
.

"

"

Kx & Qx
(in diffe rent suits)
QJx& Jx
}
Qx
(in differel1t suits) .. ... ..
Kx
(x denotes a small card).

Of these high card tricks, to justify an

opening bid, a hand must contain at least
t,,o and a half tricks . There are exceptions, of course, to every rule, but to this
rule the exceptions are rare.
When a hand is found to have sufficient
h igh card strength to op~n, it is usnally
advisable to bid on.e of the best suit that
it contains, provided that it cloes contain a
I4

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

J OURNAL

DOUBLE DUMMY PROBLEM.

biddable suit. Any suit of six cards is a

hiddable suit ; if there ar~ 'b ut five cards of
the suit, then the~r should include half a
high caTd tr ick, i. e., a K or a QJ; whlle
if there are on ly four cards, one and a hal.f
high card trick s are required.
When there a re two biddable suits to
choose from, a fi ve card suit i generall y bid
he fore a four card on e; if they are of
eqllal leng th, th e hi g her ranking suit is
bid first.
When there is no biddab le suit in th e
hand , it may be 1J ecessary to b;d No
Trulllps rather th a n pass on a good hand,
b ut On e No Trump is not a ve ry good
opening bid, a nd some players prefer to
bid a not quite biddabl e min or suit if one
is available. In any case, a 0 Trump bid
requires that th ere should be some strength
in a t least three suits.
The discussion of th e One Cluo and th e
Two Club conventions the forc in g T\\o
and of all multiple ope;ling bids ~u s t be
deferred, for \rant of space, to a futur e
1l11mber of the J ournal.
Answers to an y questi ons on Contract
th at rea ders may care to send to th e Editor
\rill also appear.

S4S 6
H .AS
D. none
C.lO,S
S.KQ
H.K S
O. S
C 97

S. non e
H. ,6
D JO ,7
C. 234

S.A
H 4
DJ93
C S6
Diam onds are trumps.
Z lea ds a nd
makes all th e tricks against any defence.
Soluti ons to th e problems appear on page
43 of this issue.
Editorial Note.-An articl e on Co ntract B rid g~
ha !.Jeen introduced at t he requ est of a nUllluer 01
our r eaders. a nd th is first a rt icle is inten t ionaJly
eleme nta ry for th e beneu'i t of those \\'ho ha\e not
p rev iously s tudi ed t he gam e. S uch reauers arc
recom me nded to o lJt<ul1 a n e lementary text !.Jook 011
the s u bjer.l , such as "Co ntl'act B~ ld ge . 111 S IX
Le~Jo n ," by T. Hope Re.ford. CM .G . (p'l'Ice 2/ )
or "ConlnlCt " by Melvlll e
mllh (p rl e 1/ )
FOI t hose " :"0 1;05SO )S sOlll e knowl edge of lhe
o l' t hodox game a ll .illLerestin g "~ok i " Adva nc.l
CO lltr<l c L.' by Melvlll e Sm it h (p l"l ~e 1/. ). Jll ead l
case CH I'e s hould be tak en to obLal1l t lt e "ILe t edl
t ion of th e hooks, iss ued a ft er Lhe new 1<1 \Vs win ch
C'L1l1 e in to operaLion in Nove mb e ~ , 1932: we,re pub li s hed . E very playe r sho uld. 01 oL\l's e;. p~ sse;s 'I
CO Py of 'Tlt e L aws o f Contract Bridge (rhollla ,'
de '" R ue &. Co. , Lt d., prt ce 1/ ).

CONTRACT PROBLEM.
Sco re love all. Z deals,
I S :-

Z
A
Y
B
No.
3H
3S
SH
No.
6H
A ll pass
A's ha nd S.A3 H .AKQJIO 2 D.A7S C.Q 7
B's hand S. IO S H. S743 D.KQ 3 C.A JO,13
(Dummy)
Y leads th e Kin g of Spa des.
sh ould A play the hand .

Station Pay Office, Cape Town.

Th e nallles of those in the ph otograp h on page 7
a l'e as follows:Ba ck. Row:-Sgt. Gooderh am, Gp L J aco!,s,
. gt. S. Hun t .
Cerl /re (in Itni/oml ) :-Office Ord erly , Sgt. (now
Ma jor) Burridge, S j Sgt. Ford.
Fron/. Row :- Sgt. Ba,rton,
.Q.M.S. ODonnelL
S.Q.M.S.
F.
W.
H ,.mb lill. Co l.
Newberl'Y.
apt. Ploth eroe, Sgt. B'lrnes, Sgt. H aw kin .

The death of D. D. Ca thca rt (l ate

S .Q . 1.S. , No. 467) took place at Hallwell,
Ea lin g, 0 11 16th F ebruarv, a t the age of 66
~ear .
H ~ enlisted in Aug ust , IS T , a nd for
just over eleven years served in the Band
of the R oya l Military Co llege. In Octobe r,
T Rg2 ,
he transferred to th e Corps of
l\Jilita r~' Staff Clerks, a nd ill th e foll o\\in g
.\ea r to the Arm~ Pay Corps . Fi fteen
yea rs later, in Ig07, he was cLscharged to
pension.

Ob;tuary (CO ll lillll Cd / r OIlI pa ge 17 ).

John E . Calder (Late S. Q.l\I.S., No.

2R4) died on 1sth Febru a r~r , a t Hudswell ,
Ri chm ond, York s, a t the age of 71 yea rs.
Th e deceased enlisted in the Dorset Regiment in Jul y, rSS - , a nd in l Sg0 , transferred
to th e Corps of Military Staff Clerk and
later to the Arm~' Pa\' Corps. After sixtee ll yea J:s in th e Corps he \\'as discharged
011 pension in Jnly , T906, \\ith 2I years
total se rvic~.

15

THE

R OYAL

A RMY

P AY

T h e death of . Li eut-Co lon el Th o,mas

M iddl eton R obinson t ook p lace a t E ms\ro rth (Han ts) on 2nd Decerr!-ber , 193 2 .
Th e deceased who was born In Janua ry ,
1849, join ed th e Arm y Pay Depar t ment
as a Paymaster on 18th A ug nst , 188 1, \\'a
promoted Ma jor t en yea rs later all d retired
from the Corps in May, 1898.

H arry J ones (la te S.Q. 1.S . , No. 185)

died at the age of 83 years on 18 Ja nu ar y,
I933 a t his home in Sou thsea.
T I~e deceased en li sted in the l~oya l
A rt ill ery o n 20th A ug us t , 1873, a n d ser ved
for nea rl y eig hteen years \nth tha t C<;>TpS.
H e tra nsferred to th e orps of MIlita ry
S taff C lerk s in 189 1 an d s ubseq uently ~ o th e
Hoyal A r my Pay Corps , but his t? tal service in the t \Vo last named Ul1lts only
amounted to just over fi ve years an d he w~s
discha rged with t he ra ll k of S.Q.l\I. S. III
October, 1896.

T he death of Ernest H a rtl ey took place

on 6th A ugust, 1932 , a t S utto n in Craven ,
Yorkshire, in his 51st yea r.
The deceased wa born on 3rd Februa ry,
1882 a nd enliste I in the East L a ncashir e
Reg ~;llent at Coln e, L a ncashire, 011 l oth
December, 1915, after ser vin g fo r fo ll!'
month s \\'ith thi s un it, he tra ll sferred t o th e
La bour Corps and remain ed with th em for
nea rl~! t\\o yea rs , a ft er \\ihi ch he \\'as t ra nsfe n'ed to th e South W ales Borde rers. Seven
month s later he joined t he Corps of 2\I ilita ry Accountants, an d when th is Corps
ceased to exist, at th e end of 1925, he
join ed the R oyal Army P ay Corps.
After s ervin g fo r five yea rs in E g ypt h e
re turn ed home, an d was posted to \\1001\\'ich , bein g discha rged on 25 F ebru ary,
J93 1 , with nearly 14 years ' se rvice.

THE

Lieut-Col. E . E. B . Brnno, who died ill

Lo ndo n on 12 th Novell1b~ r , 1932, a t th e
age of 67, received his co mmi ssion in th e
R oya l M un st er F usi'li ers in Novem ber ,
188 7. H e tran sferred in 1898 to th e Arm ~'
Pay Depa rtm ent \\'ith t he ra nk of P ay master, ;:: n d was p romoted Li eut. -Colon el
Oll 3rd J anua ry , 1914. H e ser ved through out the W a r , a nd re t ired on 2nd Novembe r,
1922.

Colonel Jo hn Jo hn son T uck died a t Bos

combe on 4th Februa ry, 1933 , at th e age
of 86. H e received his .fi rst com mission on
12th Feb rua ry, 1870, a nd eig ht years la ter
t ra nsferred to th e A rm y Pay Depa rtm ent .
H e was pr omoted Sta ff Paymaster in
November, 1881, an d ten years lat er
beca me C hi ef P ay master. H e retired from
th e Corps on 7th Ap ri l , 189 7.

J OU RNA L

R a lph N ich olson R awstron died on 6th

December, I932 , at W eymouth, aged 72
y ea rs.
The deceased en listed on 24th Jun e,
188 I, a nd eig ht yea rs la ter tr a n sf~ rred t o
t he Corps o f Mi lita ry S taff Cler ks .
O n th e fo rmatio n of the A rm y Pay Corp s
in 1893, R awstrol1 \ras a utoma tica lly' tra ns[erred (No. 167). A fter se rvirlg a t h om e h e
\\'as posted to Egypt, \\'he re he rem ain ed
fo r nearly six years, bei ng fi nally discha rg ed w ith t he ra nk of S .Q.M.S . on 23rcl
Ju ne , 1909 , after 28 y ears' service.

Obituary

CORPS

*
16

R OYAL

ARMY

PAY

A fter an extended tour of service a t that

sta ti on he re t urn~d to E ng la nd in 1930 ,
a nd was sta tioned a t W ool wich, and fulally
a~ Deptford, where it was fea red he was in
ill health for some little tim e, althoug h h e
was th e last person to ad mit th e fact .

CORPS

J OURNAL

" F" Battery , R.H.A. prov:ded the gun

whilst the firin g par ty was frOlll
th e 3rd Battalion, Coldstrea m G ua rds.
Th ere were many fl ora l tributes,
including th e follo wing : Th e Ol d COlllra des A ssociation; Colonel an d Mrs. H.
Duesbury ; Lieutenant a nd Mrs. Fry.er;
Offic ers , Record and P ay Offi ce , Deptford ;
Th~ S taff , R ecord a nd P ay Office, Deptford; Officers and S taff, Command Pay
Office, Eastern Comma nd ; Det . R .A. P .C.,
W oolwich ; Officers a n d S taff , R ecord and
P ay Office, H ounslow; Office rs a nd Staff ,
R ecord a nd P ay Offi ce , Sh rewsbury;
Offi cers and S taff, R ecord a nd P ay Office,
W oking; O fficers and Staff, R ecord and
Pay Offi ce , Woolwich; W a r Depa rtment
Consta bula ry, Deptford; S.S. M . an d M rs.
Gardner ; S .Q.M .S . and Mrs . Valentin e ;
S. Q .M .S . and Mrs . Mitchell; Mr. an d M rs.
Do wns ; The R oyal Mi litary L odge, Canterbury , N o . I449 , E.C.
ca rri ag~ ,

Always o f a retirin g disposi tion he will

nevertheless be sadly missed by th ose \\'ho
were only too pleased to enj oy h is friend shi p, a nd th e Cor ps has lost a valua ble
Wa ran t Officer, from the ra pidly cl\rin dling
IJa nd of p r ~ - wa r soldiers .
T he buri al took place \\'ith full m il itary
hon ours a t Brom pton Cemet ery, S .\V., on
23 rd F ebruary .
All th e offi ce rs a nd
milita ry staff of the Del tford offi ce a tte nded, togeth er with representati ves of the
civilian staff . There were also ma ny re presenta tives from oth er offi ces ill the vicini ty ,
ilJcluding Lt .-Col. H . Genge-A ndrews,
Lt. -Col. F. Binns, M. B.E., a nd Li eu t. C .
W . Connor .

(Obituary co n til11 l cd

As reco rd ed elsewher e in thi s is ue, Staff

Sergean t Major A. F . Alli x died a t Millba nk H ospital , on J8th Febru ary.
Th e deceased Wa rran t Officer , \\'ho was
a na ti ve of J ersey , enlist ed in th e R .F.A.
in Novem ber, 190 1, a nd jo: ned the P ay
Offi ce a t North amp ton on pmbation for the
Army P ay Cor ps in Jun e, 1903.
H e was subseq uently tra nsferred to Wa rley in May , 1905, on t he centra liza tion of
P av Offices an d th e crea tion of R ecord
Offices, \\'hi ch \ras the first m ove in th e
ultima te in tr-od ucti on of th e fi xed cen tre
syst em, r nd th e a malgam a t ion of R ecord
a nd P ay Offi ces , whi ch took effect in 19 22 .
Some of ou r old er readers \r ill remember
t he deceased as on e of th e ba nd of A. P .C.
c"clists at W a rley \\' ho st rove unsnccessfully to find th e fl at distri cts of Essex.
A fter se r vice ill H a milto n a nd Nottin g him, t he la te W .O. p roceeded on hi s fi rst
tour ab road t o Sierra Leon e in 191 8, \\'hen
' t he Coas t" \Vas not quite th e hea lthy
station it beca me in la ter yea rs, and on
'-eturn to thi s country he \\'as posted t o
H oun slow.
On bein g se lected for p ro motio n t o
W .O .I. he was transferred to Ca nterhury,
in F eb ruary , 19.23, a nd remain ed th ere
until he j)Toceeded t o Tientsin in I 926.

King Edward Memorial Serv ice Parade , W inchester, 1910,

Det aohm ent Army P ay Corps.

I?ea.r S~ clio lL Of fO il I'S :_

i3.taff Sorgt. L esli e H im is , Sel'gl. Tun aly, Staff Sergt. T . narlo\\, . Sergt. Fisher.
"ron t Sec t Io n :_

S.Q .M, S. F . Cenr,

ergt. FLut iga n, Sergt. Rober ts . S.Q,M.S. J , n eckett.

S.S.M. Barradell.
Ma jor C. V . I~ n e k e.

'17

0 1/

page 15.)

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY CORPS

JOURNAL

Q;

Aldershot Command

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-~

18

...... .....

COMMAND PAY OFFICE , ALDERSHOT,

lThe photograph whi ch a.ppea red in the Inst. iss ue
ulI J er thi ~ head ill g wa s in se rted uy lond pernll sslOn
of Messrs. Will. May & Co. , A ldersho t, a lld It I S
I'egl'etted that this fact was not stated a t the time
of pub lication.-Th e Editor .]
Our wintcr spo rts programm e co nLinu es 011 its
way unp'erturbed by the elem ~lltsand 'flu' epidemi c.
' Ne Ilave ente red two pa n's In Lhil In te r Un lt
Golf FOLlrsomes. Major B edna ll a nd C'1pLa in Milling
fou nr! the R oyal Wal'Wi ck 's " B" (h'caps 6 'lnd 8 1
too steady for Lhem and lost 3 and 2, but Lt.Col.
Roge rs and Ca ptain Ingp en a re sti ll ill a nu wc
hope they will keep ou r fla g fl) ing.
Departures.-Lt. Col. J. Sawers fo r East!'> 11I
Co mmand , S~t. E. '1'. '1'aylor fol' H ong K ong.
Arrivals,-l\hjol' C. N. B d Il Hli ,. NI. C. , from
E aste rll. Comm and: S .S.M. S . J. ,r. Flux from
Egypt ,
.
Prom.otion,- L / Sgt. L aw on VJ be Sgk, 14 / 1/ 33.
Birth.-To Sgt. and Mrs. Ran som . a dau ghLe r
(Rosema ry) on 6 / 12l 32.
Sergeants' Mess Notes ,- Th e childre n '" Chri sLma s
partv v;as held on t he 3rd J an uary in the R.E.
Th eat re. A I)ou t 200 guests sa t do w'n to te-a. aft", r
whi ch Lhe chil dren 's presen ts were kll1d ly dl stl'l'
buted by I\1rs. Mack enzi e (not fOl'getLin g Lhe a sist
an ca or' Father C hri~t.m a~). Th e rem a inder of th e
evening wa s devoted Lo c hilrlr~n'" ganws .. Th e
proceedings were en li g htened by so me- del l ~ht,ful
mu sic prov id ed by om" 0\\'11 orchpst\'ll , on~ l sL lll g of
Sergts. May and L a wson and L / Sgt. Thoma . W e
" re hopIn g to hea l' more of these tal ented nlll , ici:1,ns.
V'l e werp e~ p ecjallv pleasrd to we lco me il1l10llg [~S
ou r geni a l
o.l on p.l C01l11l1:1,n cbn t. Co lone l J . (.
.\rm st rong . C. 13 .. G. M.G .. and 1\1'I-~. AI'm. trong.
Th e memh el's of t he Sergeant ' Mess staged a
,bn e in t he t l1entre thE' same ni l!hL, whi ch \l'as
"Ltend erl bv 300 guests. in cludin g Col. W . S. Mac
kenzie , O.B.E .. and MJ'~. Mackenzie, and other
officers and thei r wiv es .
Tt Wag mn ch I'egretted t hat, o\l' in g Lo illn e$s,
S.S.M. Gran t was not able to be pres nt at either
of th ese fun ction s. havin g taken t hE' utmost pm '.
ti c~ 1 inte l'e< t in the arra ngem ents.
Thp ,' ffo "ts of th e rctil' in g Mc.sg Presid ent
(S ,Q..M.S, W al tl'l's) and the ente.,.tn inm ent Comm it.
toe (Sg ts. O'Collnor, Coope r. Ferg u s~on and Mal"
shall) were rew~ l'd ed hv t he unrloubte~1 success
of t he dan ce. Th e M .C: was , as usual. Sgt. Fer.
g\1~so n , who is effic ient a nd lIn ~ il'in (! in thJ ~ iob.
Thanks are a.Jso due to the la.d ies who ' k in d ly
ass isted th e Committee. in the prep'aration of the

ref res hm ents, the Fe lix Ba nt! fol' Lhe exce ll ent m usi :
provid ed . a.nd to Sgts . L a ngha m a nt! Broadbent
for th ei r va lian t endeavollrs to keep 11~ Wit h the
demand fo r liquid l'efJ'eshm ell t ,
Alto(!c t.he r an excellellt affa ir . good IIl11 sic. good
co mpany. good liquor a nd ref res hments: \l'hat more
co u Id be des ired "
Football,-IL is sa id that " occasioll a lwa\'s fi,," <
th e nl<1n," a nd thus in srite of the dlolefu l air of
our I" st notes we are stil ca rrying o n :l nd Reve ra l
budding "Alex Ja ckson s', have conle forwa rd to
help u . L / Sgts. G I'a nt, 'l';lI'gett, Thoma ' and
Oower. membe rs o f OUI' PI'E'SP llt Cost111g Cou rse ,
have all a' si ted and we aTe grate ful for tll eir help.
R ecell Lly S / Sgt. P a rr a nd Cp!. n apple of the Wok
ing Offi ce have a lso h elped u out wh ell \\'e have
I,een extra ha.rd pushed, and they ha ve render ed
valu ahle se l'v ice . Again . in s pite of t he diffi culties
wc ha \.(' expCl'ienced th is ''la80n, we ha ve obtalOed
six leagu e points , which is our hes t yet In, any o ne
seaso n a nd we st.ill have three mOl 'e matches t o
plav (said h e, he in g most optimi ti c ! ! I).
.,(I though we so often finished up on the losing
side we ha ve had ~o m e good games and , co nSId e r
ing t hp stl'ength o f Lhe opposition . we have had it
good sensoll
Our team is nothi ng if not ver-atile a nd ma~1'y
have pl ayer! in fOll:' 01' five dlfferenL po. ltl ons. ': hl~ ~
a few have bee n kied in a ll except f'o al-th l ~ IS
not ah,ays an adva.ntage as iIl nstra t.ed-when
L ; Sgt Gra.nt, our centre forwa rd ($OmcLlme goa lke,' per ). forgoL his pa r t icular job of t.he moment
a nrl jumppd lip QV!'.I' t he head . of the ot.her players
;J nrl pun ched " bl'l llt a nt goal (01' It ',"ould ha" e
he~ n ha,d not, t he l'e f. heen cl ose at. ha nd) .
Vi~it to Chatham,-At th e tim e o f go ing to
pl'e~s
\VC'
<l l' ("
a.n'anai ng " hom e" :lnd " ~, \\' 3~1 "
matches VerSl" th e Chnthnm Offi cps a nd \\'e a r p
lookin g forw a rd to both occasions wit h mu c'1
pleasure,
..
RiHe Section .- 'lne p rese nt pOSIt IOn o f Lhe cl n h
in thE' Ha m pshire L eague is very ,a ti . fa ctory . ~TE'
a.I't! now third from the Lop in the- league ta bl e.
Oll l' rn e ml1er~ have kep't. up n very good le<tgll l'
a':era"e of 96.5 thl'o l1~h ollt the prpse nt season, a nd
a re v~ ry keen to raise the ind iv idua l ave rage t o
ovpr 97 .A spoo n was offp rerl Lo mel11hel's who Ilfld not
oht ai nerl it sco rE' of over 92. Thi s wa s \1'0 11 Iw
S .Q. M.S . Cook with a. score of 99 ilftP l' :1, t ied
shoot w it h L ISgL. O'Connor. Al so a spoo n \l'a,
oive n for t he me mbers who had al' 1tve-rage of
l ~ss than 87 ; Lhi s \\'a . won by Mr. Dnnn with a
sco re of 91.

19

T HE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

Friendly ma.tches were fix ed agalO t Woolwi ch,

whose scores are not yet to ha nd. Th e sco res mad e
by our tea ms were:C. P.O. (Aldershot) " A " T eam-573.
c.r .o. (A lder shot) " B " T ea m-557 .
A Sh oo Linll Sh ield has b een obta in ed ih y the
SpOIts Club '(or comp etition by the m embers, bu t
as this (;ompet,ition is yet in it~ infan cy, t he pro g ress wi ll be repOlted in the next issu e.
An in t~r- offi ce Tri angul a r M atc h wa , fired on the
16/ 2/ 33.
Impres t a nd R ailwa ys-566 ; Costing Bra nch
-562 : Officers AlIces. a nd Cen.-551.
The co ndition s were:-8 to fire, 6 t o co unt.
W e have to congratu lale Sgt. Mal'. hall on ma k 109 the high e t possihle score of 100 in a L eague
match againRt Bournemouth . also S.Q.M S. Coo!{
on making 98 in a fri endl y match against Wo olwi ch
" B" .
Cnptain Millin g h as taken over the duti es b f
Capta in of the Rifl e T eam . with Mr. Ca nn on as
V ice Captain , and Mr. Salisbury Hon. Sec.
Our Hon. Sec. w ou ld be pleased to he,H' fro m
other Command or Regim ental P a y Offices who
have Rifl e Clubs, with a view to fri endly matches
being arranged.
WOKING ,
From a n pws poin t of view t he past quarter has
not prov id ed a great deal of materia l on whi ch 1.0
work. Numprous cas ualt ies du e to the recent in Au enza ep idemi c ha ve somewhat cm'tailed our activi t ies; neverth eless, during the month of Janu a ry
we h eld foul' wh istd riv e, a nd da nces on ~uccess i vc
Fridav s. and although t he attendan cp was om ewhat'small e r than on previou occas ions (du e t o
sickn ess a nd the fact tha.t our good fri end s of th e
2,nd Batta lion Royal Warwickshire R eg im ent . were
pnioying a ,,ellea m ed 28 days fur longh) prov ed very
joll.,- affai l's .
Marriag es .-Heartiest conj1:ra.tul ation~ to Sergeant
S. F . Pnnter. who recently .i oi ned us from Egvpt. 011
I,he occilsion of his mani age, whi ch took place at
W . t lev. Bnry St. Edmunris on 7 /1/ 1933.
Promot ion . -To COI-poral Phillips we accord th"
,, ~ u a l .alu tation on hi s promotion to that I'ank with
eff pr.t, from 2 /1/1933.
Children's Christmas Party.- On the 20th D ecemh er the combin ed pHorts of the mili tarY and civili a n
sta ff produ ced what mU 8t surel y have heen the bpst
O\'er in children's parties. It is diffi cult to say
who pnj eved it most-the kidd ies 01' the "g rown 1I I)
ones ." Even tho ~p of th e sta ff who were norma ll v
hur~ti ng wiLh indignation were, fo r once in a wav.
hUI's ting with enth nsiasm and j1:ood-fell owshi p. Th e
kiddi es reve ll ed in it , and a li ttle b.oy confid entiall Y
assured' me a few days aftE'rwal'ds that it was well
worth th e three doses of castor oil whi ch foll owed.
He sa id th at even Charlev' s fath er could have
made a meal of it . Charley ' s fath er , by th e way.
sin ce lea\' ing Us a nd by virtue of hi s new dign ity ,
i~ pel'haps morp restr ainpd at t a ble th e'e days.
Th e Rel'ge:l-nts ' M'ls~ had b een tastefull y deco l'alPd
for t he occasion ~ lid proviilpd a mpl. soace for the
eating of the party of 120. whiel, includ ed th o
Officer- in-Charge. th e R eq;il1" ,,"La l P~vma " te r, a nd
oth er offi cers a nd their fam il; e<;. Th e Chl'istma s
I" pe was sut:h as to draw excla ma tion s of delillht
F"om t he mo ~ t. so phi stica t ed of mo(\ ern v oun gsters.
During tea t h e partv was wa ited uI)on b y lJ'Tla ll)
members of t he staff attirpd as "n ip.ni e<;." Their
entry was the r.Ause of mu ch mel'l-im pnt and. as they
were fnrther disguised by th e addition of fan cy

CORPS

J OU R AL

--------------------------

no es n,n d spectacles, the ind ividual id enti Lies gave

ri se Lo mu ch speculatiou. In ma ny insta nces the
di sg ui se I\'as a n undoubted impruvement. One can
not ver y well ment ion lH\meS in this conn ection.
buL not\\'ithsta nding a very careful selec t,ion for
Lhe..~e on( 'rou duties. o ur nipJ.li es I'a ised no slumber ill g IJass ion s ill t he breasts of the mfl le guests. Afte r
tea , eBc h ch il d received a gift fl'om 'F,\ther Chri tma i;~ a " gme nLcd I)y fruit. nuts a nd sw eets.
E ach
l'ecel"OO a toy tl'lImpet also , "lid th e ban d of the
Royn,l Warwi ckshire R eg im ent , whi ch di .coursed
en joyab le mu sic; throughou t , at on ce foun d itseH
lip against a massed baud which e ventu all y proved
to Le its und oi ng . Games fo ll owed , a nd the t irel:l
out, but r eplete. yo un gsters wended thei l' way hom ewards at 7.30 p.m . At 8 p.m. a sta ff dance fo l
lo\\'ed. Th e com pany was a ugme nted by frie nd s
from the Royn,1 W a rwi ckshire R pgim ent all d elsewhere, a nd a most enjova ble eve nin g fo ll owed. At
1 a. m. \\'e called it ;] day.. But what a day! Th e
fairy which a do l' lI cd t h ~ Xm as t" ee mn s,L surely
have spread h er wa nd , over us alld imbu ed us with
he r tnlditional s pirit. T wond er why we d on't do
th ese Lhing~ more of te n '/
W .H.K.
Sports Club ,-During th e month of F ebruary
t his club has been rcconstitutpd , a nd with a 100
pel' cent. membership \\'e a rc look ing for'ward to
rea l good times in the near fu t ure. Th e following
offic inl s have been appoin led for the v~l l'iou s games ,
etc. : Sec retary:-Sgt. T . A. W . B ogg is.
Cricket : -Mr. J oh nso n a nd Sergpant Thom a~ .
Shooting : -Miss T. Mpdc:tlf.
T ennis :-S / Rer geant w . C. P. E lam .
Footb~ll and indoor games :- MI'. P . J. John
son.
Th e S"cl'etary of each hra nch wi ll be ve ry p leased
to heal' from OUI' ~o ll eag u es in e ther (,ffices, if th ey
ca re to wri te for fixtures in r egard to th e variou s
~ oorts mentioned above. We can aSSlll'e one and
all tll[.t a jolly time I\' ill be accordedl th em if tJh ey
ca re t,o visit us .
Shooting.-Thi s pastime cont inues to flouri sh , a n:l
,." it,h practica ll y pvery member of the Sports Club
1I 0W ta king a n act ive inlerest t he usua l weekly shoo t
is pl'o\'illg a very enioyahlp affa ir . Th e I'ecentl y
in stitutell " ladd er " co mpetit ion is ca using members
to look to th eir la uI'els. Unfortun:ltely our las t
post.a l shoot with Canterbury office ha s agai n proved
a win for 0\1l' coll eagu es . but we promisEl them th a t
we w ill do m uch Letter when the n ext fi xture takes
pla ce.
S ergeants' Mess .-Activities in this d il'ection have
heen confin ed to th e usual whist.-drive~ and dances,
togeth er with fam ily socia l$ which have been en
ioyed by all co ncorn ed. On Ma rch 1st we a re play in~ th e Serl(eants' Mess of thfl 2nd Bn. Roy a l ~T ar
wick sh irc R eg impnt at footba ll a nd t hey are entertaining us in the e vening with a, ga mes toUl'l1ament.
More of this in the next is< ue of the " J o urn al."
Woking Celebrities <1>.-We have with us in th E'
nelso,., of 111'1'. F. E . Bav ly a very o lrl member of
t,he Co rps. His old R egi men ta l umber was 553 .
nnrl he was dischargpd td pensio n on 15 / 3 / J911 in
t he rank of Staff Sergeant. H e wishes to be r emembel' d to a ny of hi s olcl. ,com rncl es who may see
Lhese n otes. and hopes to rene w acqua intan ce with
thpm :It the forth com ing dinnl'r.
, 'lVe w" re deeplv so rry to h eal' o f the sa d def,th of
S .S .M . ~\lI i x , anel ex l end our dee p-eat symoathy to
his widow .
F.E.G .
20

THE

ROYAL

ARlVIY

PAY

CORPS

J OURNAL

Eastern Command
COMMAND PAY OFFICE,
80, PALL MALL , S.W,1 ,
GI,ri ,tnlas has come a.nd gO I"; but I\'e have noLh
in g to report in conn ection with t he u ua l fest ivi ties a t t,his seaso n, as \\'e a re not in a positi on Lo
hold :so('ial fun ction . iu thi. office.
Before we a ll we nt awa.v for th e holiday OUl'
~ocin l Club I\'a s visited hy' burglars, I\'ho, ha "in "
Illade fI. haul of cicrHretteS; etc., departed a my;'
terious ly as t hey had come.
' 'lVe ha ll [, e glad to welco me all,Y member of t he
Corps who are co mIng to L Olld on 1'01' Lhe Olel
Com l'ades Asso ciation Dinn el' in April. a nd sha ll
be pleased to g ive them full II se of OUI' Socia l
Clnb pre mi ses durin g t heir visit .
It is with mu ch r pg ret that we heal'd of t.he
s udd en end of Staff Ser gea nt Majo r Allix in the
l\[i ll b,lIlk Hos pita l.
.
.The officE' was r e prese nted a t th e fun eral bv
Ll e uLena ntCo lonel H . . Genge -Andl'ew s ,.nd S tAff
Ser geant Ma lor R . Brll1d lev.
At t he elld of Decemb er 'Captain C. N. B ednall
M. ' .. ,.io in ed t he office fo r tempor a ry du ty . 'H ~
was wILh u s for ahou t a 1110n t h. dming which t im e
he receIv ed hIS promotIon a nd th en. left to join th
Co mm and P ay Office at Ald ershot.
.
Cap La in L. E. .lames ha left us for Malta . and
II~ hiS sten d we welcome Capta in R .n . SlllvLh ( fr om
S,ngapore) who has taken ove r Costi ng Duties. It
IS 1'11 mOllred. ho we\'el'. that Captain Smylh is shortl v
to I.ea\'e us agalD.
.
LI e ut .-Colonel H . R . ~i. Daw sOIl h"'5 go ne to the
Lonrl,o n P ay Offi ce . and hi s pla cp ha s been ta.ke~l
hy L leuL . Colonel J . SawP I'. who join ed 0 11 the 27L h
Fphruary f"om Aldersh ot.
Ser,!eant V. Rn <h ha s ioin ed u a ftpr dutv at t l",
Roy< r r chn lcn l Schoo l. Chepstow. nnd Rel'e'lnt 'VY .
K. nuxt.on h as a l't' lved from ~I oo l w i c h . Th e- lattpl'
thl'uW S a "w icked " da d; a lld coll eds ma ny a "coa l"
.. ask Knte?
.
Sergeant E . A. Wilson an d erl!eant R . WOI' lev
have l e f~ us on l)I'oceed in g t.o H ong K ong and
Shftnrrhal , res pecti'elv .
Staff Sergea nt, MaiOl' A . C. pa l'me r has bePIJ
pf)st~d to t h e office ~ nd io in here on 10lh lI.fa rch
on hi S retul'n from Maul'iLills.
BARNET.
Departures.-M a jor C . .T. K . Rill h~s left OIl
nost I n~ to S in~apo l'e anel f'akps with him nllr ve ry
best. Wishes for a happy tilll e in hi s new s Lflti on ..
C!lristtnas P a rtY,- Co loll PI E. J. Ca rtel'. Offi cl'r
In Charge, aga in gave a ve l'v sllccess ful Xm as Party
fOI' the sta ff and t h pir fa mi l i p~ o n 22nd DecPl1lhpl:.
19'2. After tea Fat her Ch ristmas arri ved co m plet.r
WI t h sack of prespnts. Games fo r the chi ldre n mlld "
t he t ll11cl Ay. and eVerYone voted t ha.t. t he festivp
s e a~o n had begun well .
Social Events .- M" nv vel'v pn io"" ble fll ncti on~
:'av~ h"en heir! in the fl.el'gean tq' Mp. s since Lh e
'egl ll ll lllg of ~T i nt ~ r. and OUI' 1\.", Ypar's Dan ce
was honol'red hy t he ,w ~ .p ncn ..,r Vi sco llnt P lum eI'
( ~on of t he late F ield M arshal) 31lcl of all th e
officers station ed h ere.
VOl'tnightlv whi st chi ",," " nr! dall ces a re now he lel.
~port. -Th illgs in thi~ di" nrtion ,"'e natura ll y \' er y
qlll et ~ll S t now. hilt OUI' Cr ic ket Se Jrctal'Y is bu sy
a.l'l'a ng lng fi xture fo ri th e om in g seaso n and we ar'~
, 21

lool< in g forwa rd t.o meeting old fri ellris , "nd makIn g new. apart from the e njuv me nt of th nob le
ga me. T ea m sec retori e3 need - mak e no pr o" isiulI
fo r eX IJe nses o n ca blegl'lllll;; to fl ll ybod.v in co nn ec
t 'OIl WIth o ur play. We have no bOl\' lel's who in du lge ill leg , bo dy , 01' e \' en wi ~ket theories! I Th e
ga me's the thing.
CANTERBURY,
Rifle Section.- Th e acti vit ies of th is, eetioll of the
Spo rts Club co nLinu e, a nd recentl y we ha ve noti I'd
a we lco me incrca. e in meml,e rs' fI,'erage scorp ' . Th e
IIighest sco l'es to date ha ve hee u made by Mr.
Am o~ 99 fin d P tp . Soper 98. There are seve ra l 011
th!, 97 mllrk. Major Nel so n has kind lv offered a
pl'lze Lo t he fir_t membc.' who succeed ' in sco rin g
a " po~ s ih l e." M at~ h es have been fired agn in st th n
Offices at, \'lVok lng. ~To o l w l. c h . Edlllburl!h . H oun slow . a lso lhe Cambridgeshire R egt.. alld Depot.. ') Iw
13l1ff s a nd I\' have e n,loyed th ... ~e e \Pllts. Flpoon ~
have heen WO II by Mr. Reynard. ]\[1'. Am os (t wice)
" ' It h L : Sgt. L ythgoe, Colonel P ay ntel' a nd SgL.
Plunk et. a nd S.R.M. Wil so n as l'unn prs up . Th e
X!" ns h;; ncli eap s hoot was wo n by L i Sgt. Lvthrroe
I\' lth P te. Sopel' and Mr. R eynn l'd . 2nd and 3rd.
re. pecti vely .
\;V~ al'c comm encing the l a~L of th e ~ea s on ' s fi, Lllreg and t he qn estion of a orps MiniatuI'p Rifl e
Club L e~l g u p ha s b ell brought fOl'w al'Cl. Onlv a
few replI es hav e been received by the RiA ~ (,lllh
Sec re.tar.v on thi ~ s~lb.ipct . but lt i. hoped Lhat
~ llffi c l ent. 'u ppOl't WIll be fort hcoming 1,0 j ll stify
t h e startIng of suc h a. L eagul'. Of Lhe matche.
fil'ed to date we have won 15 and 10, t 14.
Football.-The foll ow ing t{'am turned out 0 11 15Lh
F ~ bl'ufl.ry fOl' a game a.ga in st t l1P Sgts . M e~s D pnot.
The Bllff~ : -Mr ~ Amos: L / Sgt. Bnl'l1.>haw. S.O.M.S.
Scott: ~ .S. M . Wi lson . Captai n M a l p a s~. P te. Sooel':
Fll!t. PlunkPt.t, L f Sgt. L ythl!oe, Sgt, hantlel'. Mr .
Will s , ~nd L j Sgt. Bal'lin g. W e we re unfortunate to
10. p t he toss o n this occasion and were ca lIpd upon
to facp 11 very ~Lrong wind whi h ol'e\'a iled a ll
t hl'ough t he fil:St half ' of th e ,!;a me. The opposing
~e n t re fO l'\\'arcl had \'ery hard luck in not sco ring
on many occa, lon s a nd MT'. Amos bL'opght off onp
pal'ticlll a l'iv fine ~a v o when all seemed lost. , Vn
managed fO hol d out to half t im e and had vi. ion"
of a goa l or t,\\' o with the I!al p behind us I' nt, it
farled a WH.v after 5 minutes plav in th e second half
hefo re w~ conld get going. Th e (Tame I'o, ul' pd in
n, clr~\\' 0-0 \\'hich ought to e nSUl'e a I'pp ]nv ill t.hp
""al' fnt. ul' . Tn a rldi~i on to t h V" le a Jr'1l ly menhoned \\'e wel'e p lavlng und el' a fu rther handicap
which rI -se r ves n briof notp. OUI' ollpolle nts kindl v
Rupo lied 11 ' \\' it,h t he neces'a l' v kit alld-well It
\\'on lc1 f1 0t ha \'{' heen to tho;,' ad"antaae to supplv
li(ood AtLi ng hoots 1 ~Te did not po:: ess enourrh
pairs of ~o c k s to fill them .
\' PT')' Inl'ge all~ndnn('e
C' n1oyed the fun .
Indoor Games, - A slIcc-e rll l whi st (Jr'i" p \\' aR held
On 1(1th Febru ary in the Bnff Sel'aeant, ' M es~ und e"
I ho a us!) ices of Olll' Sports Clu bo Thrre were Lell
lnbl "'l::. find Lhp P l'i 7.e-w inn el'S were 'L a di es :-lst MI' . O' n onnell : ~11" lI fI . F,llioLt.
Gell t :- 1."f M'lior Elkl'v, 21ld 11'. BrMt.
Wp were j!lad to hp so wpll ~ lIp oo l'tp d h \' t.h ~
nmr 1". Pt thi s. o ur fil' st. pffol't,. as it ,":1 5 altp'ld ecl
hv Col. PaVllt<lr M~iol' and Mrs. Np lso n . MAiol'
E ll er y, Captain a nd Mrs. Bate a nd Ca ptain Mal-

THE

ROY AL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

--~-----------------get paid for g il' ing the S.S.M . a " write:up," a nd

that we are quite co nsciou of the enol'1mty of o u,
el'l'ol' in repo rtIng Sergeant X s score III the last
cri cket. match 'IS 2 instead of 3.
Depart;Jres.- Among the mixetl bag. "I' local hap p,ening', we hav e a l' eg l' etf~ 1 duty III 1I0tll1 g th ~
deparlure o f " popu lar N.C .O. In the p.el'so n 01
Sergeant H.F:D. Webster. who has beell lI1va lJ ded
froTll the servl c" . A Ithnugh there IS rea-son to hopc'
that Sergea.nt W ellster " di sa bi l it~, is not permall ent it is neve rth eless. WIth an ex press lon of peofou;ld sy:npathy and reg ret t)1'lt we record hi departure in tiuch unexpected cIrcumstances. As Olle
of onr most consiste ntl.v good tennis players and

pas~. S.S.M. Wi l on performed ~he duties of M. C.

r'nd a word of pr" ise is due to the ladl es "' whose
ha nds the ca~e l; ing arran gements were.
.
Billiards and Snooker hnlldl caps took place III
,la lll1ary and proved ,t fine investment for L /Sgt.
Barnsha.\\' who wo n I'oth eve nt ', the runners- up
heing ;'1'];-. W ell ingtoll and Mr. Dobson. In games
"gainst the members of the Buffs Sergeants' Mess
we beat them at snookel' a ll d darts . At bi ll iard s
the gilmes wel'c le -el at 3 each but, on the aggre
gate sc ore the advantage went to ou,' opponents .
Gen eral ' Not es,--The O.C.A . dinner draws nearel'
ilnd is hein'T 8<'l.aerl y looked fo)'\\'<t)'(1 to by those in
ten ding to <> put in an appea rance thele . Eight
111 cm bel'S of the de~achment hope t<> make. the Jour'Hl ,V a nd spend the cu. tomary enjoyab le'evenin g with
old f,ien:ls. In such a f!; elld ly atmosphere we ought
to be in order ill co ng,'atulating S.S.M. Wilson Oil
his promotion to '~I.O . J. an d Pte . Sop,er who has
successfu lly passed through hi, probationary period
ancl i, now one of us.

CHATHAM (ROYAL ENGINEERS),

Moves.-The proposed move oJ' Captain S.l\. Hi ll

to Shrewsburv as reported in the b st issue of the
" .ToII,'md " did not tal< e place-for which- the Social
Club gave many thanks: neith er did the move of
Co rpl. \,;. Po()le to ,' hanghai - for which, a lso, he
gave many thanks. Corpl. Poole was, how ever.
transferred to the Army Reserve on 27th January.
Rath er a pity. as he was a most promi sin g
youngs t,pr; bu't all the circum stances consid ered,
and without wishing 10 exp re;s an opin ion. it i
very t1ifli cult to see that he could have done otherwise than put in hi s appli cation. vV e wish him
all the IJest of luck in, the future and trust he will
take up the busi ness where his fath er left off and
with enterprise make a thorough success of it, keeping in touch with his fri e nds in the Corps t hrough
the medium o[ the "Journal. "
..' oining.-We tal<e this oppo ,'tunity of welcoming
P te. C, F. Cal,ley of the. R.A .M .C., who joined here
nn prolJaLion on 14th F ebrua r~' .
CHATHAM (ROYAL SIGNALS).

Fortif'ied in our eudeavour to get the cO l'l'ect

at.lllosp here for Spring Notes. by a large measnre
or autos uggestion . a warm lire and extra clothing ,
\\'e now bend to the task of try ing to fashion the
n'11al ~ pare ' and pros,tic se ri es of bappeni.ngs at,
alld amund, the office into th e eagerly-awa ited,
brea,t,h lllssly-read literary event which eve~'y corres pondent ig POPUhlrly credited with be lieving hi ..
own outpo ur ings to be.
Such is the fram e of mind indu ced hy a well meant inv itation to readers at th is station to give
their representati ves sll ch suggestions and critici;ms as they may think nece ar y and co ndu ci ve
t<l the continu ed p'ro. perity of the "Joul'llal. " Jt
'" to he feared frolll t,he g"nerally devastating trend
of the sugg estion s a nd criti cisms received that the
",'Ltter was not takf'n as geriou sly 01' as impel' ona llv as was intended , the "epli es being more in the
Itature of ingeniou . if impracticable, suggestions
for the disposal of OUI' cont,;huti o n other than
' endin g it to the Editor. 1 imi l:trly. we are not
rlll it " su re of thp degree o[ hon ey conta in ed in the
remu,'k of one '''iLde l' that ours wa ' the funnie st
~tl1 ff he had seen. in print.
Weaker men than us would be tempted to dip
thei r pen deep lv iuto tho vitriol a nd use the powel'
of the "JoUl'nal" to impl'es th e fa ct that it is not.
edited on a space to rank ratio, that we do not

eAI'"'I'Il"A

c.~""''''' s

""-0 CH","-"'''''''

co'""~s

ll"ar "tt<-e)

honorary sec retary of the tennis ection , his lo ss

\I ill be felt in the spol'Lin g "s \\'ell as the personal
tiClIse.

With hi s retircme nt on rcaching the nge limit,

Major R. Cleland . M. C., severs a lengthyattachlII ent \I' ith this office and end s a very a 'l Ive and
, " ccessf ul c;t ree r whi('h emb r'aces a COu pl e of \I',U '''.
To spea k in the language of <:r icket-a rorm of
re\: "eution Ht which M ajo r Clel,,"d exce ls WIth "
proficien y and cuuning born of long ex per,en ce-he has had a ve r,v fine in',lings lasting from Jalluarv
30th, 189;>-lI'hell he jo in ed th, 27'th Inn iski lli ngs,
in which regiment Ollr pres nt Colonel Com 22

T HE

nOYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

Yesterday, I saw a Quartermaster Sergeant. one of

our leadin~ ho~,ti c ll J turalists, running along th e passage, gettmg II1to training no doubt fo r the digging season , 01' per haps ior the hock ey team.
Our Chri stmas Tea was held on D ecember 30th.
1932, and was such a n outstanding success that
Father CllI; stmas has pl'Orn ised lo come again next
,Yea,I'. By way of an aperit if. an "Advertisement
Guessing Com p etition" wa s ltnanged, and at 4.30
p.m. 117 people sat down to one of Staff Sergeant
Brown 's super teas. Th en follow ed an entertain ment by L / ~ergt . F. Astles which ca nsecl both the
children and adu lts great amnsement. Th e COlljuror produced balloons and fl'Uit-but no white
mi c<ll: a nd finally. Fath er C hri ~lmas ani\' ed ~L!'d
brought each chIld 111 the room ' a prt' ent, the ells
t ribution of wh ich cau sed endl e's exc it ement.. Th e
gl'eat thrill foJ' the adults was a " Lu cky Dip" at
whi ch tht> olel favo urites again tUl'lled up trumps.
'111e thanks of all ilre due to S.S.M. E. O. Coopel'
a nd hi s comm ittee .fo1' all their work which produ ced s uch a splendId Chnstmas T ea.
"Ve we lcome Li eutenant J. H. Clowes Th e
M idd ld ex Reg ime nt, who ha been po,ted 0;1 probation anel Sergeant C. F. Wra ight, post.ed from th e
R oya l Dockyard. It is interesting to note that hi
Crandfalher. No. 100 QUf1l'tel'UJaster Sergeallt N.
" ira ight. was se r\'ing at Houn slow with the Armv
Pa~'
OI'p,S when Major E. G. Bu r riel ge (then
se l'geant) started hi s fi" st loll\' of duty ill this office
ill Jun e, 1898.
'
L / Sgt. N. CaLm' ham was marri ed at E a ling on
18 12/33. Co ngratulations and he t wi hes from the
detachm.nt,
It i with deep regret thaL wc hearel o[ the de."th
of Staff Sergt. Major AlI ix . Several of the sta ff
rem ember him wh ell servi ng in th is office, and
ot,hers who are here lIOW served with him elsewhere.
R.S.M. E. O. Cooper represellted the detachment ~t
t he fu neral.
RiHe Shooting.-Since th e last issue of the
"Jollrnal" we car. not c1nim :ui v vict.ories ill our
Posta l hoots wiLh other offices. but tnke this
opportun ity. howe ver . 01 thanking our opponent s
fol' the mat ches.
Th e o: Jiy s n ece~st's we CIIII r('col'd a,'e amongst
oUl'selles. Th e Monthly Handi cnp
ompetitiolls
for th e nl onth" o i Novembe,' and D ~ce mbel' were
won hy 1\11-. J. P earce llnd S.Q.M.S. F. W. Turn er .
J' espectil'~ l v.
Spoons ha\'e been awarded.
A spec ia l prize was given for the be t, eight
lal'geL~ of t wel ve and IVa . won by Mr. E. H . J.
Dray.
]';1'0 matcht,s ha ve taken pl ~r" hetween l\f il it.ary
a nd Ci viliar. taff of th e office, both of whi ch were
won by th e Civili ans.
\e al'e no\\' the proud po's SSOI' of tll'O B. .1\ .
No. 12a riAe. These rifle s hrIVe undoubted ly enaiJ l ~ d us to impl'Ove Our scol'es. but we still n e~r1
a great dea l of pJ'act i c~ before we ca n hope tl'
win ma tches <lgltinst other offiCi! .
Hock ey.-~illce the la t i sue of the " J oul'l1al"
we ha ve played nin p games. Th e first was against
t he Corp' team. minus. of CO ll,'se. the Hounslow
pla.vers. on t,he -,\ ~hfo l 'd gro und and re u lted ill a
draw, 110 go:.! . being ~"ored. "Vc-. lost the nex t two
fixtlll'eK. hut sin ce th", 17th Dece miJel'. 1932. we hal'p
1I0t los t a match and we are hoping to ca rJ~' the
winnill)?; flag to the end of th e ,eason. Out' opponents co n~i st chi e.Av of the local civ il ian club and
we tl';\ve l llS far
Slough. B urnham and Sta i n c~
in our h unt fol' scalps. One of the a.ttractiolls of

m,w tiant W'LS then serving as a subal tel'lluntil January 30th, 19&3, and If,ni heel' wiLh a
ve r y env iab le co re. On hi s form , Major Clelalld
secrn ed quite eq ual t.o carrying hi s .blLt a lld will ,
wc hopp-. long enjoy his present hea lLh and vigour.
Of his interest in side anel outside the' office lI'e
lJave n, a ny memori es. and apart from mi ssing hi
very usefu l and w ill ing se rvi ces ill a ll onr sportin g
I'ctivit i,es we have a perennia l reminder in the fOl'lll
o f his gift of a plal]ue to b e ompeted fo r amon g
ou,' bowls teams.
From the officp point of view we r eco,'d the ind,,Ilitable, if lightly subtl e. sentim ent that the office
will not be the same without him.
Allothel' fairly old . tager in t el'll! S o[ se r vice in
this offi-::e. has left us for better or fOl' \1'0 " e in
t he pel',;oll o f L / Sergeant W. Tu lI och transferred
LO Exeter on Janllary 3rd. Sergea nt'1'l1l1och joined
thi~ office a.& a prohationel' and \.akes a good dea l
of interest in footi:l all , Chopin , win 1 ss a lld the>
offic i,, 1 pri ce of dlipping on repaym ent .. Our fo otIlall team has been strengthened cons ldera hl y bv
I, is departu e.
.
Arrival s ,-~re have nlposure in we lcoming Maiol'
t ;L L idstont> in re l;e f o f M ajor Cleland , and express
the hope that hi " rep ut~tion at bi ll iflrd ~ ,tuglll'S we ll
for o'Ul' howls team when (and if I) th e Will'mer
weathel' a.ppeal's. In other re pe ts we I,av e to
aS$u,'e him of a favoura, ~)le pre a ud it and give him
the tIP that all the val'lou~ spor\. - sub-committees
have inquiring eyes on him.
Yet another probationer has started on the palh
of knowledge in the Signals office-P rivate L. Binb
of the Royal ~Ianvi c k 'h ire R egim ent to whom W f'
~xtencl th e usua l . wi, hes. warn ing aml a.rlvic.e, a
well as a plaoe III the detachm pnt football team.
Promotions.-We have grp!lt pleas llre ,in offering
the warmest . congratu lation;- to OUl' Regi menta l
Paymaster, L Ieut. -Colonel J . C. Anclel',on. on his
T.!"omotion to that, rank, wh ich comes vel'y fittingl y.
ha,"d on the heels of NII'. Ne\'i ll e. Chamberla in' s
sp ,;ng offen ive. \\'hen every little help. !
To Private C. Moclder we a l 0 offe r the usua l
sa.lut,,,tion i n,ci cl pntal t.o a ~ u cce$sf u l tr rmina t ion of
his probation. wiLh the ad di t iona I wish t hat he may
" do his .tuff " in o ur for th:o minO' footbal l fixtlll'e.
with W oo lwich and Alder hot.
eo
Sport s , -Tntel'e~t has I een main ly ce ntred in th e
fortun es of our detachment football tpam which
i f not co nspi cuou sl.v success ful. are 1I0t, nevpr t he:
I 3~, altogether without hon<!llr. Of ou,' remaining
lixl ures we look forward w1th the utm ost anticipat ion t.o our v isits to ' ,Voolwich on f' ebruHry 24th ,
Alrlershot on March 24Lh and t,h e visit of the latte r
to us on March 3rJ.
Our w i n~ miJJg and physical training n.ctiv ities
have been so mewhat, curtail ed o f late owing to th"
pl'.lv:1l e n ~e of the ill An enza epi lerni c. from which
we hav had a seve re visitation . Severa l of th"
mil ita.I'.1' sta.fi have ex periencpd the deli ghts ( 1) of
a sOJou~'n In thp R oya l Nava l Hospit~ l whil e
others, IJ1cludlllg many of the civilian sta ff. ~la\'o
suffered in iesser degl:ce.
E.W .L .

HOUNSLOW.

,-,.,7 are look ing fo, 'ward to thp sprin g and the
lVa ml cr weather \\' hen we ~an le,we off those extra
lI'aistco;.tts, and get down to body lin e IJow ling in
a "nest.
Th e ga rdenin O' n ,thus i ~st Iwvp ah p" dv paid
t heir respects t~ th? sta bl e of the cav"h'v, and
consignm ents of "A .l. Fertili se l'" [l,re arriving da il y
much to the de light of ma Il'y sLrange sparrows .

as

23

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

our a way progra mm e is t.he fac t that t he chan& illg

r00 U1 on Lh ese occasions is usually th e local IIlJl.
Ls thi ~ JU 5t a co in cidence I wonder?
\V e ha ve been unfoL'luna te in )o:,illg a promis illg
pla.vcr, L / Sg L. F, Watsoll . wh o had th e misfortun e
to fmctu rc a n ank le whil sl playing nl. BUl1Ih ;lnl.
11e I; a t present In t he Roy:tl I-Ierbert Hos pital ,
\\'oolw ich, :llld w e \V i h him a "peedy recoy el'y.
L"st t hi s unfortunate ha ppeni ng hould elet er any
on e \\'h o IS t hmklllg of sta rt in g a hockey side or

/-IOUNSL.OW

PAY

CORPS

THE

JOU RNAL

Played 19 : WOn 9 dr:twn 2; los t 8.

Goals for~28.
Goa ls again s t-21.
Warrant Offi~ers an~ Sergilants.-Am ol!g th e
":J ll ny olltstanciIn g fun ct Ion s orgalll ed IJ1 thI S gal' I'Ison dU l'ln g t he "Festive Sea!lon '" prid of pla ~ e
was a ccord ed to Oll l' "Grand 'hri stl11n s Dance"
\I' hi ~ h we held on Decem ber 23rd . W e we~'e
specia ll y pleased to welco me our R eg irn ell l nl Pay
mast pr and Mrs . Cock burn, Li eut. Col. a nd Mrs.

PERSONALITIES

No 10.

.'

,
"

j'
! tI

"

I, f\\\, /.t...It,h.

JOYS
OF BE./N6 BORNe. ON THE. I'1I?f{RI/lGE:. /{J..I..OVVFlNCE Rol...l...,
Ovfl.

:DECIDES

CHAMPION MOVER., HFlV/N6

ON (.~ uflR.TEI?S

TI?STED 7He

OF /'115 OVYN .

tiLkill g . lIp hOl:key . let me hast en to say I.ha t uch

a n aCCid ent IS eX Lrl"n Iy r;l re ill th e ga me.
W e owe our re ~? nt successes to t he excell ell t.
Leam s piriL wh i:h prevails. Th He is no lack of
ellthu,ias m. Th e J ilfl culty in e l ~ c ting a team is
II Ot wh om to play, uut whom Lo 1e<lve out. W "
I"we a strong fIx Lure list for ncxt ea so n but if.
as we hop e, oLh r offices within a reasonab le di st ance. wi ll miSt:: . a Hockey team , we shall be on ly
t oo pleased to give t hem a date. (Saturd avs ouly) .
R eou lts to date are :.

Ch.lrlton. and oth er oHi ce rs a ll d t heir wi'es. Th e

",h ol eh:' a lted endeavour iJf aUt co upl'ecl with "
sp lendid programme of mu sic uy th e Nimuu s Dan ce
Olc hes t!'" . greatly contributed to Lh e su cess of
th e evening .
\'V e have held t wo whi s t driv e, and dan ces in ce
('lir i"tlll~ ' , and fol' both entertainlll ents we ha ve
received prai (. and t.hank s in th e Gal'l'i >o ll a ll I
Rurround in g neighbourh ood
Departure.-Co rporal B . C. Horton hf!.s been
poste,l to Woo lwich fol' a tour o[ duty .

24

ROYAL

ARMY

P AY

CORPS

J OURNAL

--------------------------

mu t ual a l'l'a nge ments, saved us practica lly all la bour

ancl ga ve us in add ition a weLl decorated . warm ed
a nd con grnia l ha ll with t he use of a h;uldy but i.ncon3pl CUOUS ba r.
'fh o a ttendance of representativ e oA ice rs fr0111
H Qun slow and London Uffi ces was greatl y app l'eCln te d, " hearty welcome was also extend ed to th e
offi ce rs of I,he Roya l Engineer s, the E ~sex J eg inl ent, and R. A.O .C. wh o al -o a Lt.ended . TllP vur i\lc1
mess dl,' sses. g reat ly :tcld ed LO th e colour a nd gaiety
o f t.he fUll ctlOn .
Tt did not r equ ire t he u se of im agination t o see
ho ,I' well ever yo ne present enjoyed them selves.
A I t hou ~ h our guest s fl'om m ore di st ant pa rts were
ohlIged to leave be fo re t he cessa ti on of t he
hil arit y, m ost of t hQ e present would have \\' elcom ed
" fll rthpr exte ns ion e,'en beyo nd 2 a.m .
.
'Ve . lid not en quir(' for' ",hat pm' pose co loured
s p)t II gh t.s nre tl ed for T.A. training but we did
kno w how th ev are a pp li ed for tw ilight waltz es.
P erha!) h ere I hf!.cl bette r let twilight remai n a
not all wives h ad th eir hu sbands i.n th ese events,
w it.h Cl good band , hap py ll tToundi!l7 ' and a. lIi ce
partner, well 'auc1 ace fortun a ju\-a t .
Th e more solid refreshment
were capa bly
a lTangec1 b y our S.S.M. a nd a w orth v as istant of
th e civili a n sta ff . Their id ea. of wha't a sandwi ch
should look like sorely t emp ted most a pp.etites. it
was t.oo unfortun ate t hat th eir a ppeara nce was 0
soon to be r uthl es. ly a nd drasticall y destroyedt hev s impl y melted.
'
W e are co nfid ent of holdin g a simil ar functi on
agalll n ext ,v ea l'. and although it ma~' be ra ther
plema ture. T would lIke t o tak e a dvanta ge o f thi
OPP'l I,t ll!lity o f px:.ell d in g ~ h e'lIty welcom e to all
of OUI' coll eagues 111 other Offices who can possibJ y'
a t tend .
.
Sport.- As OUI' acti vities are entirely confiner!
to cri cket OUI: op inio n of leg th eori e mli st be held
ov er un t il such til'll e~ as our 'demon bowler' can
dl'l1lon strat,p, and we are abl e to deyelop our own
' leg trou bles '
Moves. - ergt. r. ..-\. 1'05 left u on Pl11hal'ka tioll
for ha ngha i on 3rd J an ua.rv . It is with r eO' l'et that
we I'eco rd hi s rlepa r tu re as' du rin g hi s tayO wiLh u ~
al W nrley he h a ' m'oyed to bc a renl worke r ,111<1
a'l " cq ui sit ion to t.he D ela chm ent. As out' offi cia l
u l1ll) il'e he wi ll b e m oo t mi ssed b,' o m' vi ito rs for
cr icl't mntch e . \V ii w ish him' luck in hi n ew
~ t.,t.t ion a nd ho pe t ha.t t hey will fi nd pl enty of
scope fOI' hi ~ ;thili tv to 'dQ things.'
:\ h a rty welcom e is ex t ended tQ P te . L. ,\ .
l\folTPll 011 hi tra nsfer to the R.A .P .C .. and CO I"I g tatu lat.e h im 011 t.h ~ wi sdom of hi s choi ce of [L

WARLEY.
Xmas Festivities. Happenings in the Hamlet of
Warley.-And it came to p,t s ~. h a t th e inh a bj tant~
of the ham let of W a rley did arise and find t he
s~a s o n of Wint.er well upon th em nll d t hey of the
Sheke l SCrIb es , kn own to th eir fellows as the "Pay
Corps ," did sa y a mong ~ t th em Eelves " Y ea veri ly !
Surely we wlil he ld !I l' ~a s t ."
They th erefore ne"J conn cil a mon gst th em. elves
and appointed certain of th eir Ehkl's to 'get t o bir,.'
. A feast was duly an-anged for th e younge,r genera tIOn and was called" A Christma ' Do for th e Kid s."
Truly much la bour was c;t\l sed hy th e prep a ration for th is feast . All E lder . whr, being a ba chelor
kn ew a ll a bout children, was sent in search of gift,
a nd oth er form s of la rgesse wi t h which t o deligh t
th ese ch ildren. Other E lders did look around for
th at w ith wh ich to beautify the place a ppointed .
\ Vlth ga rlands and oth er of th at in customarv
use by the People for thi s pnrp ose did th ev arrall g'e
a, t emple for the feast.
.
The Scr ibes, th eir Chi ef.; a nd Eld e rs t he,i r wives
't nd chil~l'en di d forgat her together f; ... l.h e feas t .
Y ea vel'lly! It ca nsed grea t deli ght "h ell th o~e
who forgathered did find th em selves with ot her
nam es du ly ascribed to th em upon pi eces of parch m ElIl t . There was he of Scotch pudding desc<ln t
know n as " McDuff" searching for hi s unkn own
affllllty call ed "M;rs. McDuff" ; J eck ell looking for
'L Hyd e (not acqUlred 111 th e. chase) a.lso on e "Ro m.eo
looki ng for a .Tuliet , and so on .
Th e Great Chi ef of t he Sbekel Scribes did fi lld
hims~ l f called Rom eo, but was not ob (,I'ved en chanting Juli et with s weet mu sic.
.1'he .~ Qunger gen1era tion did adorn themselves
wlt,h well'" and won.derful garments. those who did
S O,~lO:;t ;successfull y did acquire addit,;on a1 largesse.
Ihe vIa.nds at the fea st were m any , such as to
delIght you ng and old. P I'es(l'llts were d istri\wt ed
to the chil dr n , the efforts of t he bachelor E lder
in acqu iring t hese met w ith full appreciation.
A st l'anf!;el', notA of t~e Scri bes .. did (perfor m
marvels WIth a grave n Im age and deJiCThted th e
0
ch Ildren with entel-tainm ent .
MU C!l !nerry was made by vnri oll s upl'isin gs a nd
(lO'~n Sltt m g~ up~>n ~ e<1t. s to th e strnins of music.
he l~ .also ~ e ntlOncd thnt t hey of th e Chi e fs 'did
p~rtl clp :tte LII . these I ~Rrising s and downsiLtin gs. bu t
el1d no t ncqUlre add,tlOnal la.rgesse for th eir ski ll.
Th e feast did end with t he distribution of sweet
meats and fruit from far off land s. V eri ly pocket ti
of many of th e children did she\\' ~ lI ~ pi cio u s bu lges .
p e J'h ~ps occasIOned by th e fact th a t after t he fpa st
ce l'laln fruit~ and other de licacies had been left
un chaperoneri.
Th ey depal'ted from th ence to th eir OWI1 hom es.
laden and h appy.
Dance.-Qn t he 6th J anua J'V we h eld a most Oll joyable and succes. ful dan ce.' Thi is th e second
to be held by this D etachm ent and it is hoped
that it will becom e an annual event. Our first .
l a~ t ye ~l', was rather 1110re pretentiou s and was heid
pl'lmanly as some sort of return to th e oth er Units
of this Garrison for the num erou s invitati ons that
they have extended to u s f!.t vari o u ~ Lim es (.0 th eir
functions.
As a Unit we are num erica.ll y so small th at anv
'tttempt at entertainm ent n eces~ ita te '0 11 h a nd s oil
deck' fol' Msistance. This yeal', howpver. we wer e
very fo rtun ate in being in vited to use Wle Drill Hnll
of one of the local T.!\. . U nits, thi s, {vith certain

caJ'ee l' .

S ta ff Serge allt L. 'N . Mills ha ~ been promo lecl

lo
(S.Q.M .S. ) with eff ect fr om 19't h .Ta nu a ry , 1933.
L.W .M.
WOOLWICH.
An other v ea l' h as pa ' sed bringin g) U " Lo I he
. eco nd anniv el' J ry of th e birth 'of t he B. A.P .C .
" J ollrnal ." a nd ~s it gro'ys older ever,vhodv must
agr ' e t hat a long [pIt wan t h as been upp li cd.
Football.-1'h e present seaso n h as so far b e~ n
very success ful in s nite of injuri es w hi ~ h h,w e
kept som e of oLlr k a Jin g pia vel''; out of t hc gamf' .
e.rgt _ Knigh t a ll d Co rpo rnl
.Q..11'.8. Sheph erd.
Hat,t, Bre nota ble al ,~ entee . h!lt wc hope to see
th em :n hal'l1es" aga in be fore th c close of th e
season.

w.o.n.

25

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

"Vc a re stil l. however, n powe r to be r~c.koned

\I-ith as is proved by the JJetach rn ent's posItIon In
th~ L eagllc TnblE' and t he r ':01'0 of matches ShOW~1
below.
Equ itnt ion Rection- - Won 6-3.
7Mh Field B atterv- Lo"t, 1-6.
4t h (T) Bty. R .A.-WOll tl-2 .
6th (T) Ht" . RA.-'Won 2- 0.
R.E.RA. - Drew 2--2.
R A .l\L C. -Won 2-0.
211d (T) Bty . R.A.-\V on 2-1.
RA.S.C. (A) - Lost 0-4 .
M .C. of S. (RI - Won 4-1.
5th (T) Btv. R.A .-Won 2-1.
M.C. of S. '(.1\ I-Won 8-4 . ,
3rd (T) B tv. RA .- Won ;)-2.
16t (T) Bt,v. R.A .-Won 3-0.
62nd (F) Bty RA.-Drew 4-4.
R~col'd to dale :-Wo n 10 . .l ost 2. drnwn 2.
On 5th ,]nnuary la "t, \1'0} .visited C hathn1l1 and nn
inte r~st in!! gamp res ulted m a WIn for ,Vool wlch
. .
.
Iw 2-0.
. F'ootb,dl wa~ followed by a Soc"'.l E" e nlll~ gIven
ill n st" le that ensllred 11 most enJoyable LIme.
The 'retu rn mat~h took phce at Wo ohvlch .oil
241!J !7 pb I'll arv. but ow ing to bad weathe r-n. bl!]
7. ~ rl was blowin/l: th~ou"hollt-( ',e gar;te termmatcd
aftcr h~lf an hOll!' each way . vVoolwl ch then tead
inp: 3 - 0 . .
. I
The 'pam tllPn '\llJourned to the mort> .con{!enu
sl11'r'Jundin gs of t.h" "Slar" where ,\11'. Harry
Downs (litte S.O .M.S .. R.A.P.C . ) did I~i ~ best to
l1'"k e everyone forget the advHse conchtwns outside.
Children 's Xmas Party.-This happy an nual pven t
took pl '.ce on Friday. 13th J,,"uary: and in s~ i '.e
of th", foreb odings of the superstItIOu s regardmg
thp da." and date, proved an unQualifi ed Sl1cce~s.
Th e gUp.sts were recpived bv lh p R')g imental Pavmaster. Co l. R. W. M"cfie. ~l1d Mrs . Ft W. vVi ebkin . Durin /l: tea the band of the Royal Artill tlrv
phved a ppropriate n;n sic. includillg "T.he Chi ldren ' Ovelture. " wh Ich was twell receIved.
At
5 p .m. the hall was darkened and an. a,dmira ble cinem:tto<rrapil afforded Ilnboundpcl del'/;:ht, :tnd I~?t a
few grown liPS d p.~lved en.l 0ympnt f!'Om. TI1P
Hunter and his Dog" and the funny antIcs of
Chn-li e C harlin .
. .
Th e rnost imp ortant evellt was the V'ti.t ~f F~th e r
Chri tm", who arrived hv WlIY of the ch . mney rot
6 p.m. and t h e ex r,.~s,;io n o f sa t, i ~fac tion on the
f ac~ of each li tt le. one
on leturn .ng wIth ~t gIft
left no cl 0" ht as tQ t he s tl c~ess of the gathennp:.
A short dance until 8 p.m ., hrought a happy clay
to a cln,_e .
Death ,-'We "eg ret to record lil e cleath , 011 1st
Dece m\)pr, 1932, of the wife of Se rgt. H,. W. Newel!.
Arrivals:

Cnl. Horton. B. C . . from Houn slow. 5/ 12/ 1932.

Pte. Cathrev . A. X. D .. re ioin ed colours from
Armv R o,e rYl? , 29 / 12 /1 932.
S.Q M.~i: L aill g, J .. f!'Om Eg.v pt. 11 /2/ 1933.
1Sr.t. Payne. A. frorn EJ!Y1~t. 11 12{l 9'3.
Sgt. Denharn. G . ,T. . f, o n. Malla. 2/ 3 / 19-'>3.
Departur6S :

,'gt. Vlraight. C, F .. to Il olll1, low. 5,' 12/ 1932.

Flgt. Brick, W. R (' .. (0 l\1nuritius. 22 / 12/ 1932
S/l:t. BuxtOll . W . K. . to C. P.E.r:., 3 / 1 /1933.
'.S.M. :!!'enl oll, .LT.. Lv V,/jll che, te r. 1 / 2,/193~ .
Cl'1. Alrbdge, R \N., to Sha ll g hai , 9 /2 / 1933.

HC.L.

THE

PAY CORPS JOURNAL

Perth Notes (conlill'// ed

.
Dan ces and whist drives a re a monthly eyent( I.n
the double sense!) and we do ~pt eve.-y pOSSIble b.t
of pl easure from these gnthenngs .
..
The So cial Comm ittee mak e a pel-r.ect co mb111atlon :
no detail is ove rl ooked , a nd. nothIng lS too mu ch
trouble. Perth Detachm ent IS extrem ely fortunate
in this re pect, a nd I stress the fact for the pm"
pose of ensuri ng that appreCIatIO n of th e CommIttee
shnulcl lI Ot he all owed t.o wane.
.
It isn't often Santa ClaLlS wi ll work In harn ess or
sha re his post wit.1l anyollle. but Jack III the Bo x
(Sgt. Sp'encer) and Santa IS.Q.M.S . Spoon er) u~der
the "uidancc of a cheery M.C. (Sgt. Paul) combIned
to g'ive th e kiddies and adu lts a rIotous even .ng on
n eoomber 23rrl. on the occasion of the Annual
C hildren ' s Party.
.
Apnar"ntly there is alll'1\'/5 a new. depa rture In
<ocinl endeavour lo repo rt. Our latest ls--:-Doml110PR I
~Te ente rtained a team ill the R ec reatlon-riut III
.Jallu:1I'v 'lI1d m ade a dl'aw of it. A r ptu"" ma,tch.
was play ed at the 'Gle:ncoe' (Ba,r: not G len) a w.ee.k
latel'. wl1ere th e ])"opnetor (nn ex-Corps man) ~nvp.
liS a generolls welcome sad ly det1'1m en\.a l to dom.mo (,
co nce ll t .'atl Oll . An:vwa:v . we were dlll:v massac lerl.
Th e ~r-ason's big even in ~ is fix ed for Ma~'ch 3,-cl.
at the York Hou se Hotel. and all energetIc Committee are lea ving no stone ulltunI edl to ensure"
most s ucpe '~ f111 evpn illg.
.
In no pl'ev iou s issue. has .m ellt.~n bp en made of
some remarkable nestmg "ltes dIscove red In the
yicinity and approaches o[ the offi~e . Perth abound s
in bird (feathered') bfe. and thIS year seve ral of
the D etachment are to coll ect da.ta , and \\'e hope
latoll' to chroni cle wme inte" esting item s co ncerrlln g
our 'tP.mporary attachment.s for rations and 'lccom modatio:1.'
Last year a wren fumil" were successfu ll y hHtch ed
h alf'-wa'v down a loosp. 'n iece of. pipin g "om-e four
fee t in length by two in ches in r" ampter, wInch w,~,
lea nin g aga i~ st th e wire S l."T O llllcl.n ~ th e. tenl11s
court. Desplte daIl y scrutl111es of CllrJOUS VIsItors.
the plucky paront birds l'cfLl pd to Iw oa111 ckecl . a nd
eventuallv hatch ed their hrood.
Two swallows
were a lso a source of great in te rr ~t, for several
months . Th eir nest. hu il t on a Closs beam. III t Ill'
R ecreation Hut, necess itated a window beIng left
permanentl" open to alloll' of the ceMeless fly~n/l: 11.
and 011t. It so happen ed that th e roof of tl:e hut
was whitewashed at this time . " nd whethel: It was
in appreciation o,f this, or of th!! in tene. t d,sp'la~-ecl
hv the staff. I do not know. but the fa ct remalll S
lh at II ft,e r t he fi" st farnily 'e; rew ann H,ew ' these
ama7. in '! birds surpri sed and del .ghted -eve ryh ody . by
p!'Odllcinp: a 5econd clutch of eggs Hncl "eanng
a nother fnmi ly.
A ftPI' bein g ordered on a nd off k1.1most. every
t.oop hip that ha s cleal'ed Southarnol,on rhll'ln g the
la st two sea sons. S .Q.M.S. F~llow s ha~ ~t l as~ succeeded in terminnting hiS mn e. yeitl's ~S SO~ l atlO"
lVil h th e P e rth office. T don ' t. . up'pose he' ll feel
quite sure about it, t h ough. until he' s sa fe and sound
in Malta'
Sincp the last iS3 0e of the " Jonrnal " 11'(, havp
a l 0 said " <rood -hye" to Co lo nel C. H,. M Rcdo"" Id.
C.M.G. , \V1~o he" relinqui shed h IS post .of Offi cer
i /c R eco rd 'lnd Pay Office to go to weJl -earn-en l '~
tiremrnl . Hi s ,ucce'sol. Co lollel C. H. M. McCa l.IUlll is lete of th e Hip:hland Li{!ht Illfl1ntr:v. '1 regll11rllt which h"s hap py a ,sopiation s fO!' man:v o~ li S
who sen'rel in E/l:yp t in the ' troublous tWPI1tl(!S. '
W e hope he will enjoy hi s sojourn at P el-th.
. ,
McSPORRAN.
/1'0/11

page 29).

ROYAL ARMY

PAY

CORPS J OURNAL

--~----------------------

London District

Northern Ireland District

LONDON (REGENTS PARK BARRACKS).

W e do not so mehow fee l that our social acti"itie.

during the past quarter have been su~h .as to leave
any very favo ura bl e =presslve footprlnls III the
sands of time.
'VIle wou ld not, however, that the new year, and
the new volum e of the " Jounta]" sho uld be mark ed
by a lament for the sound of a voice that is stilt ,
1I0r that th e N.1. D. should l'emam ent.rely ullw eHt,
ullhonoured and un sung ; so here goesChief among s portin g EWents wa,s a spi rited en co unter with a detach mell t of r<L1Chng flu germs. It
was decided after mature consid eration that de
fe11'ive measures s hould not includ e a daily gargling
(" gugg lin g" is better for cr<;>ss worc! s) parade, lest
the sight shou ld arouse 5 UtipI CIOn ~ (quIte unfound ed)
of a poteen still co nce"led on the premises (alld.
though we <11wily~ welcome visitor we have no
faci li t ies for dealing wit,h crowds) . Despite this
h:ll1dicap we a re g lad lo reco rd that our oppon el1ts,
after a few ' isola ted ' successes had to I'e tire dis.
co mforted .
Extel'l1al even ts have been Ol'el hadowed by the
unfol'lunate railway strike. Though this has happil ~'
1,0t threatened our lines ('curves ' would perhaps be
more appr'opriate) of lea ve comm unication s, it has
cast a gloom whi ch evel1 discussion 011 body-Iille
bowlillg have been un nble entirely to di spel.
The Mini Ler to the interior has arranged for ou.
next bi-willterly dinner Lo take place on February
22nd .. We are hOp'ing for a full mu ter, as a sing le
abstaIner-we meaJl absentee of course-would re duce our effective trength by 7.17 per cent. W e
s hall aftcl'\vards pI'oc-eed, ill t he tim e honoured
manlier. to the loca l Mu ic H a ll, prepared to> elljo. '
-or stoi call y elldure-w hat mil .V be pre"ented for
Our ed ifi cation .
In the course of our Xmas fe Li "ities we joined iJ'
the Sma ll - Unit~ Xrna part y. Thou<rh the units
were smal l. the mu tn of ~':na l\ peopfe was large,
thvugh not so la rge we trust as was their en joy ment of the enterta inm ent. This in cln ded a Cin ema
how and conclud ed with the li stribution of pre~el1ts fro!11 an illulIlinated tree Ly the ind efatiga bl e
Father Xm as, who fo r tunately found time to pay a
flying visit, and who. as u. unl , timed his arrival
most opportun ely.
Very littl e un e:t.i ne s has been ey in ced hy mem bers at the news that the authorities contemp late
establi shing Zoo lo;;ica l Garden s near Belfa. t.

T wo very s u cces~f ul dan : es ha ve ueen rOll by th e

Sp'orts Clu b, the first on 25th Novemuer last and
tir e second 011 27th J a nu ary, III H.egeuLs Purk Barracks. T he troops ~ining ha JJ, which has u very
good parquet !lOOI', a sma ll stage "nd amp le anle
rooms, W,tS transformed 111 to, '1 very fine d an~e hall
by mean s of a lot of bunting, extra lIghts. etc.,
an d much hard work uy the Con.m lttee and vo luntary hell.e.s. On each occas lol~ a very enJoyabl;evening was spent. Mr. F. A. Gear acted as M. U.
for the fir t dance anu puL a rare kick into things,
to say nothing of obliging a guest who had th e
misfo l1;une to l11.slay a back-stud' Spot tl'1nce
prizes were won by L / Sergt. Finn from Aldershot
a nd his partnel. UWll1g .to the. unfort unate Illll e~s
of Mr. Gear, L / SergL. l-1a ile oflicla ted ?n th e second
occasion and fi lled th e breach, adrmr-ably. Spot
prizes w~re won by Capta.in Haggard and Mrs .
Say"r . It is hoped to co ntnlO e these efforts. The
wI:ite r wou id lik e to take this opportullity of rpco rd iug the "ffice's appreciati on of the work put ill uy
:11 I co nce.rned.
Shr"w3bury are not :llo ne in aC'llliring a ping Eong
tullle; we h ave secured one and we are so rry that
the Sh,.ew~bury Office is too distallt \,0 take us on,
hom e and away.
It is und erstood that we are losing Captain Hag gard sh'l rtly and as this 1\ ill happen i...efore a nother
issue of the " Journal." we wish him gooduye and
goo.! lu c k, with th e piou s hope that he won't kn ock
lip fifty agai nst 11 . when we n. eet R'lrn et nE/x t
season.
S.S.M. Ca rljie luts joined us f"om Winchester,
and in welcoming him we hope he will filld t,hi s
O,fice as co ngenial as was apparently hi s last.
Before th ese notes a ppear Lo. -Colone l Dawson .
f1 'om Ea ~te1'l1 Comma.nd , will have j oin ed us and
w e offer him a hearty welcome.
A proposa l to run a CI-id' et L eagl.l e of the London
"lid Di stri ct Offi ces has been rece.ved fmm Easter n
(,:oll1.nand , find it is boped that such a compelition
call be arranged and so put that. exi,m bit 01
in te "cst into the fixtmes that co mp etili on always
b"illgs.
DEPTFORD,

Jt is with sin cer", regret, that W P ha\'(' to report

the death of S .S.M. A. IT. Alti x Oil 18tl, February
last. The deceased \;l,iarrant Officer, who wa.s i n
his forty-ninth year. paBser! away after a ShO It
illn ~ss at Quc en A I ~xa ll di 'a:s 1l'li li tary Hospit,al, Mill hank. A ll the Co rps wilt fee l the 10 s of , .S.l\ L
Allix who WllS crenemil v lik ed and ,('spected.
lcul'th er reference t; this sa'd ("vent i mad e elRewh e re
in this issue.
.
S. Q. M.S. C. V. E . Rooker. M. I"!.. ha s co me ba c k
f"o'n that 1'lIm place (Jamaica.) a nd is now in th C'
sc"t of th e mighty. He is on p"obat,ion for th('
",,"k of S.S.M.
0111' booking and pellsiollS 'ec tion of 3 clerks have
98 years combined military a nd civilian sen- ice ill
the Corps hetween th em. Ca n any office beat this"
(~e youngsters heal' many :Illusions to the 1st Battahon, whell a pparenUy , old. e rs were soldiers. T
qll ote :he 1st Battalion.)

Deptford Notes (colllilllfed /mlJl CO/1I1l111 a I/ e).

COllgmtu latiollS to L / i:3ergt. H. j \ YP .-Y 0 11. lI,~
a.Ti val of a 011. !\ nothE'r e.IJ hI yo 'nem bel' of the
orp.' perhaps.
W. GEEJ A Y.
T remcmbeI', 1 rem ember.
The bloke that- did our pay.
A mart young fell ow me- Iad was he,
The name be~all with J .
r rememb el', I remember .
When fir. t I ord er ed soap.
\;I,lou ld the Ce ntrHl wear it ,
r scarce ly da red to hope.
And I remember. I remembe.,
That soap issues ca me to stay.
Rut sortillg out the .--- - . luff,
i\>fak es J reil l a jay,
STREBORA.

(Colltillued at toot 0/ 'II Cx/. colwl/1/1.)

27

THE

ROYAL ARMY

PAY

CORPS J OURNAL

--~----------------------

Northern Command
REG I MENTAL PAY OFFICE, YORK.
Our l ater- Office Soccer match a nd our Children's
Xm as P a rty a re th e t\\' o ~alLl Iteln s upo~ whi ch
S _Q_M.S.
we have to re port on thjls UCCaS10ll.
Spiel's is again on t he war .path, a nd alT<Lngem ents
a l'e being ma de for our thll'd dance of t he season,
to be held a ll t hE; 0rd of :Mm'ch in the Depot W est
Y orkshire R egim ent. D rill H a: ;. Stra nge l~o w he
\\ ill persist in ~rr :lTIglll g these [unctIO ns on l' ndays .
H owever . more abo ut th IS evenL l1L <L late r date.
Mo. t ,of us <l!' / now 100kJl)g forwa lid to th e
cri~ket season, ,LIld \\'0 .we hop in g to recelve more
lalent before it actua lly beg lll s. We . par t.lcul a d y
want a fast bow ler La 'explOlt Lbe. Jeog ' t heory .
So meone sa id recall CotLa m , bu t I thtn k even Lar wood wou ld be safer. Capt. E vers is expec te~ t o
return to us s11011,1y, a nd sh ould be III excell ent 'form
after enj oyill g t he bracing Catterlck a ll' du rm g
the wUlter.
Arriv als.- on (K enn eth E d ":1 I'd,) to Sgt. a nd
:Mrs. P ease on 12/ 12/ 32.
,
Da ughter (J ea n ) to ,gt_ alld lVIIS. W cbber on

Z2 / 1/33.

D e p artu res .-~ la j o r G . Lidstone to Chatham (R.

, ignals) 1/ 2/ 33.
Mr. Sykes, retired, 11 / 2/ 33.
Soccer.- I u Ylew of the d ifficu lty experienced ill
fi nd in g opposition worthy o f our own cl ass, our
soccer co nm ll tt"e deC Ided to orga lll e a n m ter office
IlIatc h. It ha d been hoped to pers uade a ll t he
office rs to play, but vari ous good reason ' deprived
th em of t he undoubted pleaw l'e. Il owe\'er , ~\' e
m[lnage cl to find twenty-two will ing hands . o f \\' ho nl
twelve claim ed to be goalkeeper s, SI X centre for wards,
an.d fOllr oUlsid e ri ghls. but, 011 a rri vfl l o f t he eventful day we kicked off w it h Leam s co mposed as fo llows: -=Seclio , ~ 2.- S.Q.M.S. Wilson; ... gt. H erbert, A. X .
U ~h e r : Gpl. Hi chard so n, Sgt. P a hley . P te . Atk lll ;
]([1'. D\\' yel', Mr. Sa lto n, gt. :::; o u ~hgate, Sgt. W elch,
S.Q. LS. F l'isby .
Til e R csi.- Cpl. Woan; gt. Pease, Mr . M artin:
Sgt_ Back weU, Mr. H olmes, 11 1'. Aspin all : Mr . Isl! p,
P te. Monks, Sgt. Tappend en , Mr . R affenden , M r.
Mill er .
Play ~t.a.rted at fl, te ll'lfi c pace, a nd t he footba ll
\\'as of a su rp ri sin gly go od qUfl, h ty. Th e. R est s~on
opened lheir accoun t t h rOl1g h ;t well pi a ed d!'! ve
from t he kn ee by Asp ina ll , a lld shortly a fterwards
we nt fUIt,her ah ead as t he resul t o f a n effort uy
P ease which left Wil so n he.lpless. H e flun g him self
at t he ha ll in a despa irin g efi ort . I,u t it eluded him
fl,nd t hrough s hee r pen-ersi ty entered Lhe . other
come I' o f th e net. Dwycr w a~ then CO li plCUOUS
w ith a fi ne run a nd f ea rl e~s l .v forced him sel[ t hroug h
all op pos ition. a nd afler fin d in" h is way betwel'n
an opp onent's legs, eas ily s id e sLepped t he goa l k eeper , a nd with a I'asping left foot shot. up rooted
t he corner fl ag . E vent ually o Ll thg~.te cored for
Section 2 a fter some goo d oral \\'ork by P ashl ey,
a nd the in terval a ni ved wit h t he score 2--1 in
favo ur of T he Re I.. P lay was aga in. li vely a fte r
the resumpt ion. second wind s bein g very much in
ev id ence, anrl th e pace w;\s killin g-so wa t he ill'ide right of Th e R~st who ca nsed som e limpin g
n,mon g !'a nk ~ senior to himself. This levelled up
th e potenti al scorin g powe r o f bo th t eams, and the

Sergeant spect ator put a way hi~ Yellow P eril and

raj pencil In di sgust, no on e had been killed ,~fte r
all, only s li g htly injured. Th e bes t goal of th e
matc h was t hen witnessed as Lh e result of a bril li a nt shot by Martin , W'[lO h ith erto had sbo wn a bility
to beat opponen t after opp oll ent, on ly to find illlll '
se lf fac in g t he wrong goal nlOu t h. After thI S Sect ion 2 setlmed to denve lllsplratlOn from th e support
accord eJ by the spectn,tol-s, chiefly ~ntel1d e d for
Dwyer. It was not surpr ising, therefore, when 1l 1ay
t urned in favour of SectIOn <I , a nd resulted Il1 tour
q ui ck "oals fo r th em . from South gat a (two) W elcn
;wc! P~s hley . W ele l1 had prev iously been off th e
fi eld, ind isposed, a nd on sa untenn g back hom e .vla
t he pl ayi ng a rea discovered . much to hl ~ surpl'lse.
that t he ba ll was wlthlll stl'lkm g distan ce, and from
olll y a few' yard s out caught Mr. M.ill er napping
wi th a well directeJ sho t t ha t fl ed thro\l~h hI S legs.
Mo re mi s fortune foll owed Goalkeeper Mlll er for th e
la t goal looked a simple thing, bu t alas , he had
not re 'koned with the ex tra la rge cap on hi s head ,
for as th e ball was slith ering over th e mud , so M.r,
M iJl er ' s cap ~ l itb e red over h is eyes, just at th e
cru cia l mom ent. And t here ended OUI' very even t ful Soccer match with Section 2 w orthy winn ers by
five goals Lo tbree_
Eve l'Yo ne p} ayed spl endid ly and ev en those. who
ha d never kicked a ba ll before proved fil1lsh ed
a n istes at th e ga me-in fact they were fini shed
a fter abo ut a qua lter of a n houl'. S.Q.M .S. Wilson
in goal was m a~nifi cent. dragg in g hI S feet out of
t he mud in spnghtly fashi on, whil st Pte. Monks
was und oubtedl y th e cooles t pl ayer on t he fi eld .
Office Xmas PartY.-This ev ent was h eld at St.
Ma ry's H a ll , Ma r ygate on the 21st D e ember. A
la rge co mp,LllY of 'a~u l ts and children a ttend ed th e
tea durillg whi ch th e orch estra .of th e Bl'Itls h\
L egion p' la yed a ppropri at e mu sic. Th e t ea was
followed 'by co mmuni~y singing, to .whi ch the .childre n gave a hearty vO Ice a nd ~ w eet mterpretat.lOn of
a num be r of so ngs, nursery rh ymes a nd C hn stm '~ s
carols. Mr. George Blake gave a clever enter tam ment Qf legerdemai n. Th en fo ll?wed , :the . mo st
popula r item. at least from th e children s pomt of
view the di stri but ion of Chri stm as presents by
Fath'er Chri stmas .
E ach year th e committee
a rra nges a new way of brin gin g F ath er C I1L'i ~ tma s
to t he hall. In fo rm er years he has arrived by
~ l e i g h , down th e chim ney , and once by airs hip.
L <Ls t yea r , a t te nd ed ~y hi s fa iries, he permitted th e
hil d ren to ente r bls magic cave, wh ere all hI S
pl'ese nts fof' good children were stored. On thi s
occasioll he a rri ve d by th e Good 'Ship Yo-Yo .'
:wchoring off t he IMerry Chns'tm as Lighthou, e .
whose bea ms 'e ndin g forth the "Merry Ghl-i stmas"
O' l'eetin .., east a nd west to all man -kind , served a ~
~ remi~d c r of t he warm th , light and g low of t hr
C hri stl1l a~ season.
All look pa rt in a dip ill th e bran tub , whi ch
gave pleasant sl1l'pri ses for t ll{' children , and th e
usual am usin g n ove l ti e~ for ad ults_ Dancing fol lo wed un t il midni ght , when th e Nati onal Anth elll
brought th e pa rty to a close. Credit and thank s
a l'e du e Lo th e commi ttee for th eir effor ts to pro vid e t htl vari ous item s r equired to m ainta in iuteres t
a nd enj oy ment over a. period of nearly eight hours.
Colonel C. F . K enn edy , Officer in Charge, ~nfantry
Record and P ay Offi ce. thanked th e commIttee for
the arrangements made for such an enjoyable time.

:8

THE

ROYAL ARMY

PAY

CORPS J OURNAL

Scottish Command
COMMAND PAY OFFICE , EDINBURGH.
Arrival.-A welcom e is exte nded to Majo l' W .
Speuce, wh o IS rejOlnlll g t ill S sta tIOn a.ftel' a tour
of duty in t he Fa r E ast .
Promotlon .-Coll g ratu lati ons to Se l'g t. A . L.
8ro\\' 11 011 promotIon t o t hat ra llk 011 9tll F ebru a ry
1933.
'
Marr ied Quarte rs ROII.- Se rg t . D. H . Cri ch tall
was pl a..:ed on th e M.Q. Roll on ~th December,
1932.
Shooti ng.-Th e Mini a ture riH e club is iu full
Wlll g, an d alt houg h the at tenda nce at t he wee kl y
shoots !las d\\'llldl ed of la te, it is s tili a popul a'r
fOl' m 01 rec rea tloll and man.v enj oyaule evenin g '
h av~ btlen p en t_ It IS ~ l eas il! ~ to record a great
Im plovement III mem bers co r e~ sin ce t he openin g
o f t he senson _
Sin ee th e last issue monthly poons have bee n
won by S.Q.M. S. Stennlllg, Se rgt. Cri cilton and
Sel'gt. Bro wn.
The fo ll owin g are res ul ts of fi xtures \\' ith oth er
offi ces to dat~ .
v. Hounslow " A "-won by 52.
v. Canterbury " A "-lost by 32.
v. Hounslo w " A" --won by 66.
v. Wakin g " A " - woe by 4.
v. Woking " B" -lost by 67.
\'. W oking " A " -\\'on by 35.
v. W okiug " B " lost by 21.
v H oun slow " A " -won by 26.
\' . Houn s low " B" -won by 54.
v. Ca nter bury " A " -Iost by 37.
v. Canterbury " B " -Iost by ] 6.
As thi s is our first seaso n th e I'es ults a re dislin cLl \'
encol1l'ag ing .
.'
HockeY.-The seaso ll up t.o th e prese nt h<1.s nolo
been too go od here, not only has t he weath er bee n
r8s pOll slb le for qui te a numb er of good fi xt ures being
cancelled but our old bogey " Sh ortage of Play ers"
has 11lnd er ed our ~l'o g ress a lot .
W e :nn. ho wev i r, show a fair ca rd . viz., pl aye d
8 : won 2, dra wn 2. a nd lost 4.
LE ITH .
Chr ist mas PartY.-The a nnua l Chilclt'e n 's Chri stmas P a rty was held in t he Club Hoom on F rid ay.
23rd Decemb cr. About eighty me mbers, t heir wi ves
nnd chllth:el! attended t hp fest.ive bO'll'd a nd pa r took
of fa re s Ultabl.~ to th e season. 'i<Vo l'l'i ed mother had
a n anxIou s tIme reg ula ting t he cap ac i ~y of their off s pl'ln ~, and th t: a n 'iva l of F atr, er
:lll'i slnH's wa '
the slgnrd that som ething wa s " foo t. E ac h child
W"S lh ereupon t he I'ecipi ent of a lu, nd som e prese nt,
from th e IllnmilH1ted Xm as tree. On a vote of
~hnnk s hein g- accorded to Santa 'm\l (Tam Simp .,on ) t he res ponse was II proal'l ous. T he fun had
1I 0 W comm el.lced.
Th e grow n-ups were also enj oy in g
t hem el \le~ Imm en ely (wond erful how a rlockw ork
n~?to l' : or so me oth er sll ch toy. a lso a,l1U SeS Fa t her).
Gam es \\ere th en lIlclul ged In a nd t he fun was g rea t
- t,hank s to t lw M .C.'s wh o did t heir t uff perfectl Y
"ne! kept t hiugs going in such a manmel' th a t ou;
a nlHl a l event excell ed t hat of last yeaI'. On th e
mU Sica l ,Programm e we had a co upl e of songs from
~I" \V elr (If you've ever heard qa ru so hoear ~Ieir
. nd .ee th e dIffer ence ). Mrs. H ol1!ngsw orth \\'as a n
.1J,le accompa ni st .
VI/e were again unfOI' lun a Le in no t havin g 0111'
pI'Cs ld ent, CoJone.1 Watkin s, C.B.E. , and the Hegi -

meuta l P .,ym as tel',. L t. -Colonel K eJI ). pl'esent with

1I ~ . both otfi cers beIn g. on JpHve. "Ve had, howe\'er.
t !le con ' pa ny of Ma.J or and Mrs. l-Iolhll gs worth ,
Captalll a nd lI.Jrs. Wdh a ms, a nd Ca pt.a in all I lIll-s.
Bla ~ l{\v ell .
Th c eve nin g wa s. cnthu -ias ti cally (VQted, a bi g
Sll ccess a nd t ile pa rty bmk e up a roun d 8 o' clock.
'W eary " lid . t.1lpd children. depa rted hu ggin g t hen'
gIfts and wls hm g every day was hr ist.mas D:,y.
Obituary.- l ol'ln er m embe rs of th e sta ff of thi
office w i~ . be sorry t o lea l'iJ. of tb e deat h. o[ Mr'.
Th omas htzpatrl ck. which occurred sudden ly on the
m o rlUn ~ of tlw 9th December , 1932_ H e appeared to
he III hI S. lI sua l sL:t.te of hea lth 00. leaving the offic~
t he pre~ l o u s cvenm g, but dI ed 111 !ns sleep from
heart fadure at t he age of 62 years. Th e in te rm ent
took pl ace at Ballk foot, P er th . on th e 13th D ece m ber.
After se rv in g wi.th t he.. Black Watch fo r tweutytwC? .years, Mr. Fl tzpatl'l ck join ed the o ffi ce as a
CIvilian employee on 11th lovember , 1915, and was
a mU Jhresp ec ted member of th e sta ff. Al ways very
energetIc, a nd l'a rejy absen t from hi s p ost, hi s ud den denll se ca me as a great s hoc k to hi s oll eag ues.
Crlc ket .- It i ~ a nt icipated t hat a cri cke t team
wdl .'tga lll fun cti on dlll'l ng t he fo rt hco ming season.
n ot"lth s t a n chn ~ th ata uum be r of t he more p l'O l1I iuem ~l e nl J, e r~ ot p ren ous elevens have cl eJ,larte.d for
othel st~ tl on s . A project to ru n a co nlb med tea m
along WIth t he .R.k S.C. has fa ll en th roug h, a nd it
IS hop ed _that It will be pOSS Ible to raise n, tea m.
co mposeCl of memb ers of the sta frs of th e Comm nnd
and R eg im en ta l Offi ces, to ca rry thl'o ugh t.he flxt Ul'('3
to be a rran ged. I a. doubt a fe w o f t he elect-ed
~Vlll . be merely malon g up t.h 0 nUlll be r, but the
Illnmu g of . a ~o n! b ll1 ed team , ma de up rl'o nl the
mor e profi cIent. ot t wo or n l0 1'e Olp . . i not to
be comm end ed In t he sport mg life of the ' \rmy if
It can pOSS Ibly be a\o id ed .
PERTH.
E ve n t o t he most bl a e' tr;) veil er there mu t
.tl".ay: be t he. -excitement o f departure a nd t hrill of
"1'I'1\'.a l, especI.all y wh en th e dest ination is onc not
pI'e\' lous ly vls ltect
o m ~ snch Lh ou ght3 we re passmg throug h .my mllld wh d t rece nt ly wa itin g [or t he'
Lo nd o~l t ra m t o meet an d a ct aoS gu id e to ou r
la t~ _t postll1 g.'
P erth was. manLl ed ill whi te. and snow wa
ti ll
ste"dd.~ fa lhng when Se rgt. Kirby stepp~d fro ll l
the tlmn . a nd, a fte r prejlll1ln al'Y greeting l'u ef ull y
dema nd ed .' 'H ow long does thi .~ las t ?" th ~ ge3tUl"c
ncco nlp:mylll g t he r emark .l eav in g no douh t t hat
he refelTed to our Ilorlh el'll wea th er !
H av i.llg as" uI:ed him th at t hi s \\'a t.h e first re; ti
fa ll of snow th.l s wll1t er, r went on t.o describe lhe
perfect attractions of hi s new Sta tio n d llrill U' Llw
oth e!' sea OilS, a nd by t he t im e, I had g ui ded his \le r so n m to th e care of t he C. Q. M.S .. D pot. Th e B ne:,
Watc h , I fe lt s ure Our latest a rri':a l had rega ined hi
us ual optImIsm.
. As a ma tte r of fa ct. th is wint er has bee l! fa irlv
kll: d , and npa rt from a sha re in t he uni ver al ' fltl
epIdem IC, our. sta ff have been kept busy bo lh offi cmllyand oCla lI y . As th e latter activity is a Ll that
m.a tters to a :Stati.o n I'epo l't~r.' 1'JI a tt elnp t to d El\~
CI.dw th e V() l'l OllS iU!l CWOnS 111 a. ge nera l way in th e
01del' t hell' popul a1'lty m ents.
Perth Notes (contil'lu ed on page 26) .

29

THE

ROYAL ARlvIY PAY

CORPS J UU RNAL

Southern Command
COMMAND PAY OFFICE , SALISBURY .
Moves.-S.Q.M.S . . Thu.rsby' has left. us for
Jamaiea, comp let e with iltlmly,. and If the sunny
sho res do not 1I1ake young P-eter 1111.0 "9, better mall
Lh"1I I ..m "G unga-din " then 1')1 eat all t.he straIght
hananas his daddy likes to br in g back.
SergL. TriblJle, (Ju r indelntig:tbl e O.C.A. Rep rese ntati vll. has gone to Hong K ong . . H p nea rly
didn't go , ueca u e Centt-" I had Olmtted LO place th e
impress ion of the office stamp' on IllS wan'ant to
So uth amrton. That meant a hU1'ned fllghli back to
the offi ee before the train C<l me in , but Trib. is fit:
he has had plenty of exercise 1'unning round the
office co llecting ubscript ions. However, he returned
to (,he siation in time. muttering someth 1l1g about
'o ld. franking st'lmps, Rnd murder. " Trill. " had
the job of whipping up enthusiasm a nd appetites
for 'eve"ythin g conn ected wilh th e O.C.A. and
'.Tourna! " t ha t ca me a long. Hut he has hand ed
over a good ly l'ecoI'd an d ha~ the satisfa.ction of
know in g that he ha. the groll nd work o[ the average
insu ranp.e ca nva - 'e r J11 h,s mllld. ready for wh~n
"civvy street" beckons. Mrs . Tribble. ,.ccompa ni e3
him. Voie uncLer ta nd lhat les ponstlJ,ltt.es accnJe
abroad (congratulations to Sergt. and Mrs. BessenLJ
:0 don ' t mtlet your troub les half-way . Trib, " g"
east, voung man , go ea t.'
S.Q:M.S. Warner is join ing us late in this trooping sea 'o n, [HId we cun t ell him right now that
Salisbury is a 11ice plac , and that if h-E' knows of
a better office, we shou ld like to hear o[ it with a
view to transfer.
Sergt. Hartman , who recently d istinguished himse l[ in H.ccountill g circles, ha go ne to the intfn'mediate resting place of all good so ldiers- civil life.
Th e b e~t of lu ck to Se rgt. Hart,man who. we h ope,
will get on so well th .. t be[011e long 11e will be ap pl y.
illg to the O.C.A. [01- emp'loyeea.
Other' moves. to and from Sali ~ lll1ry P I ~\1I1 are:S.Q.M.S. Manning to Gibraltar , S.Q.M.S. Ga rretl.
to Si ngapore, relieved by S.Q.M.S. Stee1e from
Singapore, and Sergt. Watts [ro'Tl London to Bul
forJ.
Cheenl) evel-ybody in their lI e w station s, and "
word of wa.rning to Sergt. Waits . A fter London.
Dulford may seem a li ttle quiet so do please be ca reful of the traffic.
O.C.A.-Will a.1I concerned plea'e note that the
loca l representative is now S.Q.M.S. Littler , wh o
inv ites \.h e attention of [d l the M-em l el'S, in and
a.round SalisbUl-y, to ,L labour s:tvin g device he Ita s
in vented and recommend, . i.c .. the prompt paym ell t
of ,, 11 su hsc ri ptions, payments for d ia.ies , Joum"l s
,H.d so on. to ~ave tho"e re,dl y unnecessary r e mind ers. and to pna.hle him to mak e as caJ"i y a
.;eLtlemellt as possible with H eadquarte r;;.
Silver Wedding .-Hearty congratulation s
to
S.S.M. ,H.d Mrs. Davv on the celebration of their
:;ilver wedd ing on the '7lh Decemhel'. 1932.
General.-We have no . po.ting Il ews for th i.ol
number bllt hop~ to h ~ say ing ;;omething abC! uL
lellnis ill the next numher. sev-E' ral potential Rhllle
Cup Ch <lmpions .having a lready chose n their r ~c
(luets for the 'easo n. But a few informal Whi .l
Dri ve cum Dances ha ve heen held ill the town , Ilnrl
t.hese have oertain.!y I oon appreciated by the o fl-i ce
t.."f[ and fri end s.
Their reco mm endation li es in th~
fact that so many have asked for a "second helping "
I

THE

ROYAL

ARMY -FAY CORPS J OURNAL

-------------------

a nd the omm ittee he.aded by S.S.M. Elam ha ve

\'hcir work cut out 1"01' the retl,aind er of the indo01'
elltertainment season .
A litll e late to talk about Xma..s whi ch, li ke my
lat week 's pay has "bin and gom , " but. havi.ng
"turii e,d t he presa a lld li . tened to the wire les: giving
hints on what to huy [01' presents, 1 IHLV e co mpiled
lily own li t for 193::; and offer it a~ a guide to other
readers. Next yea,' I shall give.To A ll 'ection Offi cers-A statement of what I
like in my Annua l Report.
To !\I I the Subordinate Staff-The oppo rtunity
of prepari ng their own Annual Reportsthe se would-, of coun;e, he subj ect to cen
so ria l rights.
To the Man who has i)e.ell auroad once and
who talk s of it more than oll ce p'~ r day-A n
autographed copy of "The Soldi er's Farewell. "
To lhe man who pl a~ ters his memos with LatinA copy of All owance l'tegu latioll s ill Y irl ci h, and a bundle o[ c la im s in Gaelic.
To the Army Mannequ in-A ten per cent. com
m iss ion on a ll H .1l81 sa les .
To the Sergt. on the M .Q.R who is on tl, e
Lodging Li st-A clue to tlte benefit of
being 011 the I~I.A.R.
To he who talk s shop at the }\nllua l Dinn erNO DINNER.
,\nd so , as H C' nrv Hall sa.vs, " H el'e 's to the
lIext t ime."
.
BERT.
EXETER ,
Th e itl'ms of in lerest that ha \'0 orcmTPd iJ e.-e dUI"
ill g the past throo month.~ a re very few.
Cong ":] t l1l ations a re extend ed to S.S.NI. K nevelt
011 his promotion to W.O. l. Vole wi. h him every
sne,'ess in th e futu re.
Pt,e. ~~. Owen has passed his probatioll for trans fer to the Co rp's. We are sure he wi ll do well.
L / Sgt. W. Tu ll oc h join ed here for duty on 5th
J anuary from Chatham (R Signa ls). We must a lso
co ng ratu late him on th e bi rth of a daughter 011
January 10th la_ t .
WARWICK.
Arrivals.-\tVe exte nd Cl hearty welcome lo
S.Q.M.S . J. K ell er (on probatio n for WarraJlt Officer
Class ]) a Jl d L j Sgt. C. J. Monnhan. both from
Egypt.
Sport.- 'l'he ,;ports slection of th is offi ce is hegin
': ill g to "wnkpl' from its deep win ter sleep .. Tt \~' ill
he recog ni sed hy :lny who ha ve ser ved a t th IS ..tatlOn
tl",t litt.le ca n he done during the wlI1oo r . oW ing . to
the mili tarv per.ollnel having to fi nd H("commodatlOn
ol'e r a scatter ed a rea h cause of Lhe Hcute hou sin g
prohlem. H owever this RlIInme, we are hoping to
mnke up fOI' our wint,er's rest . Our bowling green
anrl tennis cou rt hH\"e been enlarged , matches are
h ing " rranged and \\"e tnl l.we shall be ab le lo> re pOlt mo re s u("r e~. than we d .d last year.
General.- I n th e last i. sue of th tl "Journ" l" we
reported the "tl Gcess of our 'Crossworrl ' pnthu siast.
"nel now we h,we to "epo)"t our 'Wireless Fan.' H e
proceeel R round t he officf' coll ecting a ny old sp"re
gadgets, etc., <tn(l hui lds circui ts of hi s own. H is
latest producti on is known as the 'Pay master
Three, ' which is n oted for se lectivity. Accord in g to

tests mac!e by the designe r, station after station

come rollmg m-and out again-all round th e dia l.
The local statIOn IS cut out by m ovin~ t11e condenser ha lf a degree .. No aerial or eart h IS required,
and. as the set fun~tlOns equally well without hi h
ten~lOn sup!?ly , It IS most eco nom ical in use. 1!f.e
deSigner claims th a t even with the lou d speaker at
full volu me there IS no f<ear of waking hjs other
lou.d sp'ea ~ e r-:-the baby. Th e coml?lete I<it of parts
~wlth w l~,lch IS supplied g.ratis a n rmp.rov~d 'Ready
eckone. ,) can ,be obtamed from the D esigner,
P .M.3. , St. J ohn s, WarWick. P lease mention this
paper.
WINCHESTER.
On 26.th J a nuary a farewell dinner was held in
Dum per 5 Restaurant, on the departure of S.S.M.
W. E. Carb le. RA.P.C. , fO l' duty in the office of
the Reglmenta.l Paymast er, London.

After the usua l toa~ts, an enjoyable progl"amme

was gIven by CaptalJl K elly, Messrs. Moul ton
L yons Mi lden , Mainwaring, and, last but not least:
La nce Sel'gt.. J ohnson.
Th e committee, to whom than ks for provid in g
sueh a n enjoyab le evening we re tendered. were
Mr. E . G. Long, Mr. C. P. Rabg ood. and La nce
Sel"gt. J ohn son.
We :1:11 we.1 com e S.S.M. J. Fenlon on his posting
from Woolwlch, a nd trust hi s stay will be a- pl ea. ant
one.
On r best wishes for sr.eedy recovery are extended
to Mrs. Godf,:ey , the Wife of our R egt!. Paymaster,
a[te!' hel' a~cldent of a few weeks ago. Also to
Sergt. J . Ca ' ~l, who was operated on duri.n.g J anuary
and has agalfl been admitted to the Mil.t<ll)' Hospita,l , Co lchester, wh ilst on 28 days' sick leave.
A member of our sta ff is an xiou Iy awaiting the
promotion to the ran k of Co rporal. due on 25th
February. Has this a nything to do witll the rumou r
?,b(;lUt ::,wedd ing b~lIs ?" ~o doubt a pinch of
g lll g'eI wou ld spur h.m ou, a,nd' a "hearth' rug"
m ake a ~Ultau l e present.
ALF.

Th e chail' w~s. ta ken by CO.lonel J .P.G. Cr03uie,

D.~.O ., ,officel m Charge RIfl e Record and Pay
Offi ce. Those .presen t tncllld ed Lieut. . (',01. S. A .
Godfre.y ,Captam G. W. Butler, Captain E. R. Kelly
(:W:,,:r wlck), the St",ff of t he office. and' also several
c. vt!wn [nends of the guest of honour.

Western Command
COMMAND PAY OFFICE, CHESTER.
..Captain H. A . A. Rowell, M.B .E., R.A.P.C., dui
JOllled lit, Chester for du ty on the 16th J anua l-!
1933.
.
,
J>

and at a con vivial gathering he received our be~t

WIshes and congratul ations. C,el. BindJey was promoted to that rank from, 29 j1/ .5?], and by the time
these notes are III prin t ;I'e hope L / Sgt. Sowerby
w.l! . be serge,mt. Sgt. Kersha,w takes the matrimopI~1 plunge on 28th Februa l)" we wish him every
happlOes;; for the future. TOl those who have been
in th is of1!ce it .may be of il1terest to know that Mr.
Me s~e nt 18 r etlI"1n g 011 31st March after being in
reco rds for so me twenty yea.rs. \tVe hope to welcome
Sgt. Cnwenl from Singapore in t he nemo future and
trust he will enjoy his st a,y he re. Cpl. H ewid embarked on J:tnu~ry 3rd [or Singapore, and by now
h e WIU be geltlTlg well seaso ned.
The weather has been mu eh better here than in
otl.ler parts of th e countl-y, iu faet, the sun has been
sh.JIlllg qU\t~ a lot for Lan(!ash ire, a point that
Sou,therne rs III the office a,re not allowed to forget.
L~t s hope the summer wi ll be t he same instead of
ram.
'SHREWSBURY .
Posting.-\tVe a~e pleased to welcome Ca,ptain R
H. Sayer, D.C.l\IL, from Egypt, who joined this
offtce ou the 21st December
Promotion-90ngratulations to Sergeant. A. P.
Hatlston c on h. s atta iDing that rank.
Social.-A party [01' the moth ers and childl-en
\I-as g . ve". by th e Social . Clu b on Jann a l)' 6th. This
took the lol'm of it VIS It to one of the local Picture
R ouses, foll owed by a tea a nrl the usual party
ga,mes. The event was a g reat success.
Adrema Operators (Stop Press News).She was only an Aelrema Operator but
she made a good im pressioll.
Office Representative.-As I anticipate posting to
anotl!er office before .the next notes are due, I am
ha nd .ng ovel' t he d.u tl es of Offtce Representative to
Stlrgea ut R. W arn.l ln gton, who, I a m s ure, wi ll fill
t h e post WIth credIt.
D. MeF.

Congratula,tions are exten ded to Sergeant R .

Doggrell, R.A.P.C. , on his promotion to t bat ran k
on the 9th February.
, The Headqua,rters, Western Command , Ch ri stmas
. 11:ee and Tea took f lace as usual in the Town RaIl
the Offic() staff anc their fami lies being present i~
good numbers.
A mo st~ en joyabl.e even.i ng :was spent, L ady
~everell IpIIclly maklllg the cl , t n bution of presents
f. om the Chn stmas Tree to all the ch ildren. T hose
m e m~ers C!f the Co rp~ who may have attended this
fun ctIon III prevIOus years will remember this
a.n nu al even t with g l'eat pleasure.
PRESTON.
Social . Club , -The J il1iard, handicap resulted in
an ~I ! -m dltary final'between S.Q.M.S. Gambri ll and
FUSIlier Lee, the former winning after an 6X~iting
game; we congr:ttulate both OIl their fine performance. T~anks to some m embers of the club it
was possl.ble to present. prizes in add it ion to' the
cue -th:tt 1S held by the, winn el' for t he ensui ng year.
wlI1g Lo .the 'Bu' only a sma ll party o f abo ut 20
mad e tbe tnp to LI verpool on 4th February for the
~verton v. Arsena.l match , b ut t hose who went en i~yecl a fine g:tme, and spent a pl easant evening in
" verpool al.d retu rn ed home about m idnight. The
Annu al Da,nce IS to be helrl on 10th March at the
~egent Ball Room~, and OUCE: more we are antic ipatlllg a succes ful show.
Office News,-Mention mu t bc made of th e illn ess
?f <?aptain O'Drisco l1 , who has bel'n a victim of t he
~u foll owed by other compli cations, but we are
p eased to say th'lt h e is on th e I'oad to recovery
an~ we hope to have him back in the lI ear future
S.::l.M. Roward received hi s Wan'aut from 28 / 6/32,

31

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

CORPS

JOURNAL

Commands Abroad
EGYPT.

The t rooping season is a lmost over a gain and th e

offices Me becomlllg m.ore settled after the changes
in staff and th e extra. work ontalled I1l th e d espat ch
and r eceipt of a ccoun ts .
Departures.-T he following have embark ed for
~m e ~

S,Q,j\I[,S. L aing, S.Q.]\IL S. Dove, S.Q.M.S. arford and S j Sgt. P ayne.

.
.
S.Q,M.S. La in!) is for di scharge a nd we WIsh h1lTI
all t he best in hI S retiremen t. S.Q.M.S . Dove ' yas
employed qn costin g , du tieS! at M oascar, but dunng
hi s visits t o Abbass la ma de lumself vel)' popular.
S,Q,M.. S. Ba rford and wife wel'e splendid. comedy
tnl'lls and will he missed from local entert aJnments.
S j Sgt. F ayne's arrival in thi s Command was r eported in our last issue. DUrlng th e Troopmg
Sea.son l 1931 /32, h e accompa nied hI s . wife. hom e on
her bei ng invalid ed but as she was found fit th ey
r eturned to Egyp.t. Unfortun at ely his daughter
Jun e has now been in valid ed and S j Sgt. P ayne a nd
family a ccompa ny her h ome, L j Sgt. Gilllam accom
panied hi s sick wife hom e.
,
Arrivals. W e welcome Ca pta lLl a nd Mrs. Rooney
to th e Comm and : a lso Mrs, Mi tchell wh o arrived at
a n unfortunate mom ent , her hu sband. S,Q,M.S.
Mi tchell , being in hospita l with Dip th eri ~. ,How evee, good friends saw to her welfare u]ltIl hIS dl ~
cha rge. W e a lso welcome S ,Q.M.S, P enme, who IS
sta tloll ecl at 1\1'oasca l', S el' ge'~n t P ea1'ce, Sergeant
Hud son and Cp\. W oan, May th eir t our be a.
pleasant <>ne.
Death.-We exteod sympa thy to Sergeant and
1\Ilrs. Oullom in th e loss of t heir son John, who was
born on 26 th Janu ary an d died t he same day . We
also symputhi se with Mr. Stewa rd , who h as been empl oyed at, th e Command Offi ce for ma ny years, in
the loss of hi s wife.
Moves.- A brea k in t he monoto ny of ex ist ence in
Egypt is welcome. a nd none more welcome th an a
mo ve on t em po ra ry duty l o a noth er di stri ct , th e
only dl'aw back we are informed being th e cost of
living in th e Suda n where beer is '21/. a bottle.
Th ese moves a re made necessa ry by th e tra ns fer of
units to P alestille and th e Suda n from IndI a, and
du rin g t.he qu a rter u nd er review :Sta ff Sergeant Mason visited t he Suda,n and
Cyprus; Sergea nt Folley a nd Sergeant J ones,
W.A.. visite.d P alestin e; S,Q,M.S. ",7helan and
Sergeant K elso v isi ted th e Sud a n ; Sergeant ViIl cent alld Ser~ea nt P a rdy v isited Moascal'.
Se,gea nt Folley had a il interestin g ex peri ence in
spendmg H ogman ay with t he Sea forth Hi l?h land er s
in P a,l estine a nd can now say " whu. ky' like :l
Highl an,l gent leman .
Social.- Mis II~ H ardin g.. a daugh ter of Cap tain a nd Mrs. H nrd in g. R .A.P, C .. was ma rri ed at
Haifa P alestine on 9t h Febru a ry to Mr , Vin cent
of Imp-erial Airways , Th e Det achm en t wish th em
a happy life in c10llble hnrn es ..
.The f. ngagement of Mi ss H a rt Cox, da ughter of
L HllI t.-COI. a nd fr s, E. W. H a rt Cox , t o Mr.
G iles of t he Cairo City P olice, ha ' heen a nn ounced
in the local press.
RiHe Club .-Except for th e Xm as a nd N ew Year
week- end s two shoots weekly have bee n held , including ev ery altem ate SUllday on the open range, .
where th e inter ,office Trophy shoot was helel on

Decem ber 4th , 1932. Generally speaking . th e conID.' tions ha ve been good, a lth ough a co ld wUld an.d
r ain ha ve disturbed us on t wo o ccas wn s" th e fOlmer raising the sand and makIllg VISIbIlIty poor,
whilst l.he ra in comp'elled us to cancel the shoot.
Th e in te r offi ce Trophy s hoot resu lt ed m a runaway Vi 'JtOl'Y for th e R eg im ental Offi ce m each prac tice whi ch adds six pomts t o theu' T roph y sco res.
Th e'top scorer s were S.S.M. T em)?le (47) , S j Sergt.
Dow (44) , L /Sergt. Pountney' (44) -all lteg unen tal
- whil st Captain J a rdin e S/ Ser gt. H opt l'ough and
Sergt. L ane tied with 43 each, tlte last n amed
bein g top scorer for the Comm and OAlce., In
fu t ure it is hoped th at t hree Troph y shoots ~v JlI be
held a nnu al ly, each shoot t-o count t wo POlll tS to
t he winning office, in ~ te ad of the eXI lIll g. eco no -,
mical arra ngement of one shoot coun tm g SIX
points,
. .
R
'
A novelty shoo t on the MIl1l atu l'e
ange \I as
held la,te in November , our thank s for th e a na n~e.
mf' ll ts beillg du e
L /Sergt. Chelhn g: wo rth W 0
spent t he precedin g week in fi XIng up II1nnm era ble
"armollred cars, mounted and ch smounted tl'OO P ~ ;
mac hine gunn ers, snipers, bh~'ps a,~c1 ae ropl anes"
and a rrang in g t~ e scenery , fh e troops, e~c . ,
were set 111 motIon by num erous s~rm g.-pulhngs,
a nd t he shoot ended by L ! Sergt .l,helhn gswort h
wi nning the pool by on e point from L j Sergt . AJlan.
Th e winners of t he open ran ge S poo ns presented
b y th e Comma nd P a ym aster fOl' the mon t hs of
November and December wer e S.S.M . T empl e and
Sergt. Monks, and t he lat ter mu st be congrat ul at ed
for compiling a sco re of 52 out of a p,o slb le 60
under th e worst condition s we bave expen enced this
season. AlTangements wer e ma de for th e J ann a ry
spoon- the last of those presented by tl]e~ Command P aymagter- l o be compet ed [or on th e open
range on th e 5th Febru ary, bnt 111 the earl y morn in g of th.at day w~ had one of those \'are do~yn .
pours whI ch 1I1undated th e ran ge and mad e filing
Impracti cable. Our end eavours to hold th e shoot
on the following Sunday on the open. r ange .,~ere
also fru strated on accoun t o f th e E gypt13 n Art Ill ery
calTying out pl'aCti ce,. i;lnd we. had to resort to th e
Mini ature R an ge. \;VI Lh h ancll ';up ~ .. evI ed to d'Lt e,
the competition produ ced some 1I1terest1l1g scores,
S,S,l1'[' Temple t akin g th e spoon by a margll1 oE
3 points from S.Q.M .S. Syme .. Li eut. Colonel E.
W. Grant, baving kindly sup'ph ~ d th e club WI t h a
furth er stock of spoons, we an(.lClpate mall Y mOr e
enj oyable, Sunday morn ings " o ut on th e blue."
The Se-r geahts' Mess monthly spoons , com pe tcd
for ,o n th e miniature ran ge. h ave add ed 1:.'0 th e pla te
of th e folJ o\\'in.g memb ers :-S.S.M T emple, S j sel:gt.
Do w, Sergt . MOllks (2). Sergt, CU.ll om a nd L j Sel g t,
Wri ght. Th e last named made ~I S first appearance
on t he mini a ture r a nge ea rl y III J anu ary and at
hi s ini t ia.l attempt a t a spoon .sh oot secu red one of
th e mement oes. Our y mp,Ltllles mu st be ex pressed
to S. Q,M,S. Asher a nd S j SergL. H optr ough. who
seem to ta ke it in t urn to be. rlln \,el's -u p , T hey
have not even had th p. satisfaction o f draw ll1 g th e
to p.scorer's name in the " blind " . sweep ta ke. but
thl.- has by no means di ~co u)'age d th em , and spoons
will no dou bt com e t heIr way 111 du e cour e,
Field training has kept units hu sy durin g the
cool w ea th e~ , a lJd in co nsequ ell ce, o n'!' on ly ma tch
dU I'ing I th e past th~ee month~ was a gaIn st the

lo

32

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

PAY

debar him from dosing th"l players with Wrigley 's

and Cha r:
S.S.M. Temple kepp th e ha lves goin g a nd being
away from circula r me,mOl'anda a nd Office Instru c
tion s gets a kick out j) f ma kin g the for wa rds get
into training for (,he all11ual trek to Polygon,
The speec\y forw ard s include S j Sgt. Hoptrough ,
Sgts. Wiles, Jon e~ , Po untney, A, N. Other , C.
Later, etc., a nd their runnin g a bilitr is certainly
not impaired br, Olll' train er 's di et 0 " M cE\vans"
and " BulwlLlk' Two gam es have been played
again t the R .A.M. C. and owin g to our forw ards '
superi orit y (perhaps) the S. LO. got busy a nd
vaccin ated t he wh ole da rn ed lot.
However, th e game is t he t hin g a nd there is
every reaso n to beli eve th at our fri endl y l'i\'alry
0 11 t he ~o ccer fi eld will cont inue t<> th e end of the
present sea on,
The In ter ' <\l ing games ha ve bee n ca nce ll ed for
this 'eason owin g to t her e being insuffi cient pl ayers.
so our Troph y Co mmi ttee a re arran gin g a sel'ies of
in<.l oo1' games in li eu.
RE.
Billiards.- In my last aJticl e I wa s hoping to
enab le th e Editor to t ell th e world how we ' WOIl
t' cup.' W ell- we did not. N o, the 1st Bn. , The
King 's Own R oyal R egim ent beat us, In th eir
t eam fi g ures Cp\. Skeltoll, a runn er up in t he Al'Tn y
Billiards Champi onship at H ome. I t \V a said
a fterwa rd s t hat it was wpll worth bein g beaten i{
only to wa t ch t he deli ghtful exhibition of billi ara s
di spl ayerl by thi s N. C.O, H owever , we were not
di sgraced and it may be an item of in tere t to ex memb ers of th e Detach ment to note t hat once again
\\'e reached a fin a l but . .. It eems to be a habit
wi t h our t eam s. In the E~yp ti an State R a ilways
Insti tute comp eti tion we were bea len by th e 7th
Li ght Ba ttel'Y. ltoyal A r t ill el,)" a fter It, cl ose fini h.
Th o Sergeant ' Mess Billiard s Lea gue is in fu ll
swing, and so far we ha ve lost t\ 0 matohe , drawn
one, tw .] \\'on th e remaind er. H owe ver . as each
t Eklom so far llas lost two matches th e position is
very in terestin g. No I It is not th e usual walk
over for t_he R.A ,P .C. which It has been in pre vious Years, It is th e general opini on t ha t next
yea r we sh,dJ ha ve a mn ch more settled team. and
be in a posit ion to keep up t he na me o f th e Corps
in the Billi a rd world. W e! have commenced a com peti t ion a mongst th e member s of the Deta chm ent.
l'erh ap it is not generall y kn ow n , bu t th e ma jority
of mani ed members ar e accomm odated in hired
fl ats , (Very un comfortable) , Th e id ea i fol' th e
occupa,nl oE one block o f tl ats to pla~' t he
others in t um , Th e Billiards Committ ee. in a very
thoughtfu l frame of mind . h,we chosen Tu esday
~, nd Sa turd .,y nights fOl' t hese ga mes to be played
off, '~' edn es da y morning is us'uaJly a heLKlay. W e
had a very bri ght ex hibition ol snook er a nd h illi a.rd s a few weeks ago wh en we e nte r ta in ed t he
Officers of th e detachm en t. Al thoug h we do so
well in the S. M.B.L. a nd t he v,~doll s co mpe titi O{1s,
we were' een off ' by our Officers.
E . A . '~ .
Sergeants ' Mess.-The smokin g co ncert held on
t he 10th Decembe r t o hid farewell t o th e homegoin g draf t and we lco min g th p in co min g drnf t. was
a n undouh ted success. On N ew Y ea r's E\e. t he
on ly da nce hel ] in th e Ga rl'i so n \Va t.h at pro
vided by our mess a nd on t hi s occasion t,he fun ~
t ion was held in th e Adlll t School Abbass ia , the
space provid ed in 0 \11' own mess being in snfficient
t o accommodate the hul('e tlUmher ,th'a'!. i t wa s
anti cipated would atte nd thi s fun ction,
From

Sergeants' Mess o f the 1st King's Own Royal R egimen t, which was held on their mini ature range in
the evening. Artifi ci,d lighting up-set, our teamor at least, we offer t hat as t he reason for our low
scores-for some of our consistently good s hot~
i!Liled to secure over 80. The King 's Own proved
too good for us, two of their m emh er~ sec uring
~4's, which is a creditable score wihh open sights.
Rifle Clu bs at hom e m:Ly wond er' why no chalJenge$ hav e r eac hed th em from Cairo, a nd we a re
anxious to make it cl ear th a t , as we use service
rifl es with open sig hts we cann ot expect to a tta in
results whi ch wo uld compar e fa vonrably with th e
S<:01'e8 secured wit h B.S.A. rifl es fi tted with a pert ure sights. H owever. negot ia ti ons ,U'e in progres$
!Ol' t he Im ronatlOn of r Ifl es of that pat tem , and
I[ successful It IS hoped t hat t he home clu bs will
heal' from us in t he near 'fu t ure. Wh ethel' we
,s hall continue to oper at e (hlljng the summ er is
d ependellt on t he enthu iasm of th e members but
in the event o f OUl' clo?in g down durin g th e ~var11l
weath er th ese m ay be our last notes before Xm as,
~M

CORPS JOURNAL

&J . B . ~

Tennis.-The fi rst fixtur e of the ioter o ffi ce mat ch

~" as played on 25th
oVAmu er, 1932, a nd r esulted
Itl a n easy vIctory fo r th e Oomm ,wd P ay Offi nG
by seven $ets to two, the Comma nd wiimin g 9B
fra.mes IInd t he R egim ental 67.
In th e ?6Cond fix ture played on J anu a ry 12th.
1933" th e R egim ental P ay Office t ook the ho.nours;
W!IUltng by th e narrow ma rg in of fi ve sels to four,
LIeut. -Colonel Grant and Captain E adi e proved
a stl'on r combi nation 'for thoe Rlegirn elltal\ and
mana gec to win all t hree set s.
Tota.l number of games played 169 (Ser gt . Wiles
be.rl,efit ! ! !) , R egim ental won 89, Comm a lld BD.
Ih" t,eam s wer e represen ted by :Regimental :-Lt. . Col. E . W, Gra nt, O,B.E. , a,nd
Cap.t. 'V , . Eadi'e, M.C, ; S / Sergt. Dow and
Sergt: WJles ; Sergt. P ountn cy a nd Sergt.
Benl1ln g.
Command :-Cap t. S. F . Ba n-att, M.C., and
S,eJ'ge~_nt ,L a ne; S.Q.M S. MorrI S and Serg t.
Ed e; \; a pt . 0 , P. J. Rooney a nd Sergt . Bar ker.
Th e fin a l fi xtnre o f th e in ter.\offi ce matches will
b e pl ayed in th e nea r future and s hou ld provide
a keen co ntes t.
R .D.
Football.- Th ose who follow st<1ti sti cs wil,l be
pleased to study r es ults first. Pl ayed 12 ; drawn 3,
won 4, lost 5.
Sin ce onr las t notes, Captain R ooney ha' joined
us and it is evident tha t th e scouts from Ald ershot
Town have not done th eir duty 1'01.' t heir foo tba ll
Ia!H, H OIVC V61', it is their loss a nd Olll' ga in, Cap .
tam ;Roo lLey has soon adapted him self t o th e ~ ' lo ca l
condltlvl\ S" a nd besid es bein g a keen ent hu siast of
footba ll , he has . hown us t hat he is " willin g" at
t en 111 , i\nd a ll indoor games ,
Commcncmg WIth the vang ua rd (shades o f Will
FOl~lk es). Captain BalTa tt has " perform ed th\l
dnt.le8." of c.usto<.li all! ill several gam es a ndl \has
m ~terIal.ly assi t ed in OUI' " runnin g flu sh," bnt, as
cricket IS hi S fOIte, th(' sph ere is rather t oo la rge
t o handle.
Of t,he rear division, Selgt . Pa l'ely's ki ck re sembles t hat o[ th e E gyp t,ia n domestic animal-th e
J11u le. Aflpa l'ently hi s servi ce in t hi s country has
en a bled hIm to study thi <tnim al's anti cs. Hi s
p::LI:tner , more often th a,n not , Sgt. Evans, is all
ov el' t.h e fi eld but hi s electri c onthu sias m does no t

33

THE

ROyAL

ARMY ' PAY CORPS J OURNAL

endeavollred W get a p'eep behind the scenes to
see 'how it was all done.'
By .thi s time it will be a ppreciated tha.t all uf
the kidJie~ were at th e fever pltc.h of eXCItement,
nnd wh en, as t he next item on tb e programme,
:Father Christmas appeared, a trem en,lous cheer
W6'nt :Ip. Th e toys prov ided by that benevolent
p arent were ny;, t on ly tastefully but also tactfuUy
chosen a nd fr om th e look of JOY regI st ered Oil
each ~hild ' s face. F a th er Christmas (Sergeant
Stock) mus t have reaiised th;,t his was tru ly a
,
p l~"san t t ask.
Mr. Thomas (of th e L.A . Sta ff ) th en gave the
p ar ty of . his bes t in th e form of coon so ngs, and
lat er aSS Ist ed S ISg c. R. Robe rts 111 t he arrangeJll Pnt of ga mes {or th e children.
.
So ia)' as th e kidc1l es were con cerJl!'d , th eIr evenin g t erminated with th e di stribution of bags of
fruit . SW'let s . and nut~, and th er eafter I,he parents
took th e floor in th e inform a l dance provided uy
th e Committee.
Th e Ihank s of the a eta hm ent are heal-tily
accord ed to t he Xm as Tree Committee, n a.mely,
Ca pt ain P . C. Harding, S.Q.M.S.' s Glodbeh ear,
Ma tth dws and Douse and S j SgLs. J . Roberts and
H optrough for theil' ()on certecl e fforts in making
the function such a grell,t success.
R.E.R.
HONG KONG.
For scm e consid erabl e tim e prior to wri ting these
not es t he th c ughts uppermost in uur minds have
been "of th e fes-tivities as ocia ted with Christm as
and the New Y ear. This peri od is pal-ticula rl y pronounced a nd rrolonged in Hon g Kong on account
of the enthU Siasm for Hogm a nay evin ced by the
la,rge number of E?cots 111 th e Colony, a nd abo as
a s l~o rt t im e later we h ave th e equ al, if not greater,
e nthu s i a~ m of t,he Chinese for " Sun Lin" (Chinese
Ne w Y ear) celebrated with ga la dress, an in ces
sant, b O:'nbardment of "Crackers," A N D n,noth er
tw o days: holid ay for all. Moreover thi s second
(Lun" r) N ew Y ear 's Da,y enallles tho se of wea k
wi ll to ren ew r esolu tion s so nobly m ad e and
already broken. Thus we p"ss to our first. item
of news, namllly:_
.
.
Christmaa party and Dance.- The ChtldreQ 3
P a rty was gi ven on th e afternoon of Frid ay, 23rd
D ecember a nd tb e D etachm ent's Christm as Dance
on th e e~enin" of th e same d" y . both festiv it ies
havin g th e Ga rrison L ecture H all (old. R.E.
Th"atre ) as th eir venue. By a rrangemen t WIth the
R oya l Engin eer s t he ch il dren wer e prOVIded WIth
si rleshows , su ch a a slide, roundabout, Aunt S.ally ,
etc., in addit.ion to the u sual tree and decoratIOn s.
The comm encem ent of th e pa rty was SIgn a ll ed by
th e so unding of a gon g, wh en t he doo,r of A ll adin ' s
Cave was thro wn. open w allow t hose present to
enter the t ea. room. th e t a b les o f whi ch h a d been
tast efullv d eco rlJ.t en lt nd co vered with all the good
thin gs ,vhich bot h children a nd grown-ups enjoy.
Jud ging by th e ha ppy smIl es seen , th e t ea portIOn
of the progr a mm a met with gen era l approval.
Imm ed ia t ely a fter t ea, th e se v el~ teen children received pr esents from F ather Chl'lstmas wh o camft
down th e chimn ey in hpproved sty le and pent
a v erv unh a ppy fi ve J1linu te~ ,:"hen hi s mask
sli pped . Th anks to some pr'Omptmg from behmd
th e scelles, th e remaind er of hi s duti es w ere carri ed through witho ut further mish a p. Mrs. Wimberley . with her usua l t houghtfuln ess, also gave
each. of th e lad ies a sma ll presen t .
A ventri loquist amu sed the children, who were
ltomew hat dubions as t o whether hi~ don could

9 p.m. till 1.30 a .m . the floor wa s continuously

crowded. It is estimated that between 350 and
400: per sons were present, and, as midnight
approached ftll were ea gerly awaiting the arri~a.l
of the New Y ear. Miss 1933 (portrayed by MIss
Dunst er of the 12th Lancers) , after the gong had
soun ded th e las t stroke of 12, bU I' t througb a
stru cturil t astefu ll y covered in the Corps Colours,
and wished a ll as,,~rnb l ed a happy a nd prosperous
N e w Y ear. All gather ed into one huge circle and
in th e appropriate...... mann er rendered 'Au ld lang
syne,' after whi ch dancing con t inued unti l 1.30 a.m.
when t his very successful undertaklog was cc n
elud ed. On t he 12th Janu ary a fl y ing bi lli a rd s
h a ndicap wa.s h eld and no less than 40 members
of t he detachm ent competed. S.Q.M .S. Asher as
th e winn er took th e first prize ~ nd Serg t.. Monk s
t{)ok the ,runners 'Up prize. The s uccess of this in novation prompted the Comm it,tee to furth er th e
idea of fun ctions confined t.o I,h e det achm ent, a nd
as a result a Ga mes Tournam ent was beld on the
17th January. t l';e 'compet ing sides being I" The
Offi cers and W a rrant Offi cers v . Th e R es t." No
less than 106 entJ1 eS for gam es were received from
the former and 82 from th e latter , ;tnd since lon e
of t he conditions of the presentation by th e Committee of a 'cup' ? was th " t it should be filled by
th e winners, it was only na tural t hat the O. 's and
W .O.'s heat ' th e res t' by 55 ~am es to 49. In taking over th e 'cup ' Colonel H . G. Riley , who h ad
pl'eviously t ak en p~r t in almost every' g am e after
a few w'e ll cbbse n word s, t ook unto him self th e
pleasure of filling the cup and , like hi s skill at
tabl e> tenni s. he had ce rta inly b a d previous experience .
On th e 31 st J a.nu ary a snoo ker lI yin g h andi c~ p
was staged and th e finalists found it necessary W
pl ay off on the fo ll owing day . Thi s handicap ~as
won by S.S.M. G. A. Baroes and Sergt. Rank lo .
wh o heat Sergts. ' Vest cott and Jordan by t he b est
of three gam es.
A success ful ",hi t drive was held on the 4th
F ebru ary ," a ndfol' th e nex t issue th e commi t tee
ho p ~ to be able to report furth er successes,.
.
R.E.R.
Children's party.- Th is engerly look ed for fun ctio:] is r erh a ps th e most popular during th e year.
Owing to th e necessity of fittin g in with local cjr cum&tances, th e tree a nd treat, was . for 1932, held
on th e 3rd J a nu 31'Y a nd well over 200 sat do wn to
a delectable t ea . On ce aga in , tha nks to th e ladi es
wh o seem ed t o tack le th e Job SI() readily, th e
t a bles wer e tMite full y decorated with flowers a lld
the Corps colours. a nn afler thl' feast was over
came th e reckonin g wh en it was found t ha t th ere
was almost enough "tast ies " w provide for anoth er
200.
Ten was follfo wed by a vi sit to th e N ew Ga rd en
Cin ema. wh ere, 'than'ks_ td t he good offi ces of
S.Q.M.S. G-od behenr, a special PIogln.nl me was provid.'d. U pon th eir r eturn , th e c- hi ldren (bo t h sma ll
and t all. youn g and old) enget'l:v aw aited th e ventril oquial t urn prov id ed hy Lt. Co l. Hart- Cox.
ass isLecl by 'Angelin a .' and on e mu st admit th at
th e Corps vent ri loCJui. t excell ed him self, so mu ch
so th a t more th nn one of t he n ~ \V co m ers to th e
sta ti on was heard to rema rk "C ripes ! he'? a blink ing st ar tum ! "~an undoubted truth.
A nu mber o-f co njuring t ricl<s, provid ed by Sergt.
F lood, R.A. , not only amu sed th e kiddies for th e
n ext half -holll' but in addition h ad most of th,.m
gu ess ing, so mu ch so that ' on e g rown-up child

34

THE

ROYAL ARMY

really speak , after which th e youngst ers provided

th e entE:rtainm ent, r ecita ti ons being rend ered upon
many subj ect s, varying from Ships to Ora nges.
It w"s th en deCId ed t o all )w ~h e kiddi es to
amu se th emselves and a g ~:n e ra l ru ~ h was ma de
towa l'ds the slid e, th e p a rents qui etly retir ing be hind th e sce nes to quench th e thirsts which usually
a ri SE: 0 11 th ese occas ions. Th e pl'oceeclings termi.na,t ed a t a bout 6.45 p.m. , th e Kowl oon con tingent
r eturnin g hom (; by w~tlla walla.
As th e d" nce wa tim ed fm' 9 )).m. , th e clea nin g
o f t he hall had to be ca lTi ed out a t th e double.
a nd mu ch to t be sa ti sfaction of the Com mitt<>e,
everyth in g was shi p-shape soon after 8 p.m. , w hen
th ere was a general rush for tax is, blu es bei ng
donn ed il~ qui ck tim e. A nyon e e ntering th e ha ll ,
\\'ho had n ot been present a t Lhe re mova l p'rocellcl
in gs, mu t h" ve been stru ck wi t h th e excell ent
appeam nce wh ich it presented .
Durin g th e eve nin g . so.m e 150 gu ests danced t o
t he stra ins of Mi ckey 's 1I.1elody Makers, a nd 1 a. m.
a rri ved mu ch to ? soon . ,An !'xcell ent supper was
erved "nt a bout 11 p.m ., th e Ot her R a nk s of th e
D etachm en t bein g k ept busy ~el' vin g L ane, Cra wford 's dain ties tlJ ~, very satisfi,ed ga therin g. Th e
. uccess of th e d ance can bes t be judged by t he
fact t h;,t th e la st dance fOUl1d s om e 60 couples
still on t he fi oo r. and , in cid enta ll y, wa nt in g mOle.
Al together a day to be I'emem bered a nd a ho w
well up to the stand ard set by th e R.A.P. C. \I'!Jose
an\lu al dan ce is luok ed fo rwa rd to by qui te a. I" rge
s ection of th e ga \'1'i.~ on.
Cricket.- As has already been mentioned . t he
D cta chnJ('nt entered a team in the S mall Uni ts'
Leag ue, but un fo rt unately wi t hout much success.
Some en joyab le ga mes I", ve, however, been pl ayed,
a n ri, as will be seen from t he followin g resul ts
we did IIOt di sgrace ourselves :,
'
v It . Signa ls-Lost.
R.A .P .C. 107 a.ll out.
R. Signals 119 fOl' 4. (S.Q.M.S. Matth e"-s
54) .
v. R A.O . .- Lo t .
R.A .P .C. 83 all out.
R.A .O. C. 117 f0\' 3. (S.Q.M.S. Matth ews
33) .
v. RE .'s-Lost. RA .P .C. 44 a ll out. R.E.
125 fO l' 7. (S.Q.M .S. Oldfi eld 4 for 20).
v . R.A.S.C.-Won.
R.A .P .C. 76 all out.
R. A.S.C. 64 a ll out. (S.Q.M.S. l\1a tth ws
6 for 20).
v. R.A.M. C.- Lost.
R.A.P .C. 95 a.ll out.
R.A.M. C. 140 all out. (Serg t. Pl'eslin 39) .
v. R.A .O. C.-Drew.
R.A .P. C. 116 for 9.
RA.O.C. 191 for 5. (Sergt. Preslin 41).
v. R. SignaIK-Lost. RA.P.C . 130 for 8. R.
Signals 147 for 7.
(S.Q.M.S. Matthews

66) .

A very enj,oyabl e inter-offi ce ga,me was also

player! . wh en the Offi ce/rs /tnd W a rrant Officers
showed I,he Sergeants th e way thing Slhould be
~on e . Th e Officer s a ll d W.O.' s declared at 133 for
o (S.Q.M.S. Matth e'w s 72. retired) . and got rid of
th ? Scrgea!lts fol' 50, S.9.'lI1.S. O1?field ta kin g 4
fOI 18. WIth the excep tIon of MaJol' Gedge who
"ffis on leave in th e Philippin e I slanrl s, the ~vbol !1
o c~ staff t mn ed out for thi s gn me. " nd th e en,.
~1lt S l n.sm ShOWll was S.0 ~reat t ha t in t he next
I e,a gue game .we prevaIl ed upon Colon el "\ATimber. e.~ and Captam I,!'ard to " don h art1(~s " once again.
o n .1e l'emaInlll g n:" tures ha.ve been ju d iciou l'y held
. vel un hI the arl'l val of tb " Nell n'lia." as it is
'lll1lJOUl'ed that th er e is som e "new blood " Qn board.

PAY

CORPS JOURNAL

Tennis.-Th e on ly item of interest too be recorded

und er thi s heading is the Final of th e " L a ng Cup,"
whI Ch. too k pl ace soon a fter th e "Notes and News "
fOI' th e C hri s tm a~ num ber had been des pa tched .
The fin alis t s were S.Q.M.S. Oldfield (-30 ) and
~,ea n t Pledger (Scratch) , the form er wi nning

, 6- l.

S.Q .M.S .. Oldfi eld is to be con g ra tu la ted on his

perform a nce, s in c,' for th e g reat er portion of th e
seaoo l1 he ha d bee u OUt of action t hrou gh a 1lfS
111Jury.
I n addi t ion, th e us ual Am eri a n To urn am ent Cor
t he rest of th e Detachm ent a nd t heir Famili es was
played, t he pri zes [01' t his bein g ve l'y kin dly give n
by Majo r a llrl _ l rs. Gedge. Th e win ners we're -.Mrs.
l\l;tlth e\\, ' nnd S.Q.1VLS. W a rm a n, wi th M rs. Cha pnell a nd S.Q. ]lL S. Matthe,ws as runners-u p.
At th e conclus ion of pl a..v . Mr s. Gedge p lltl' ented
t he winn ers wi t h th eir prizes. S.Q .M.S . Oldfie ld
received t he us ua l rep lica of t he " Lang Cu p." a nd
Ser gea nt PI ~dger a small silv er cup a~ runn er- up .

Birth.-We congm tulate Sergea n t E. C. Spa rk ,

whose da ughter was born on t he 28th Decenlber
1932.
'
. Hiking i~ Hong Kong.-In sp it e of NQ. 7 Typhoon
Signa l haV\u~ . been boist ed and the consequent un~e}:t~lJ1ty re g~l'dlJ1g weathl3r cOJ'!ditions, Captain
Wl lh am s cILl'rlE:d on WIth a rrang1l1g th e firs t hike
follow in g th e h!'at of t he umm er . to tak" place on
30th Octo be!" and bis optimism wa s justifi ed . for,
on th e !l1\OrnIng of that da t e the sig na l "'as lowered.
Stal~t1l1 g from Ko wloon F eny b.v . bu , we a.rrived
at Kat Tak Whr6 th e Royal A il' F orce is sta tioned
in 25 minutes . and th en p roceeded up t.he Military
Roa d to Cu ~tOI11 S P ass . Th e fil'st mtl e o f th e route
was thro u ~!l ma. rk et gardens wh ere the effluvia
were a nythlll g bu t att.a r of rose, but, \\' e t hen
]'eached !l10re pl ea~a nt ul'loollndin gs, wooded coun t ry
on on~ ~ Id e, a nd nn th e ot her a brook . wit h Chin ese
boys IJ1 It up w t he kn ees doin g the washin g. Later ,
\',~e passed t hrou g h . rQu g h moorl a nd. with hill s on
eIt her Side In t,h e dI sta nce, on whi ch co uld be seen
th e uStl al Chlll ese graves! p laced t heI'e, in accord.
an~e WI t h .tlt e Chln e' e helt ef t hat the inm a te hould
ha ve a fa ll' scene to look out up,on a.s he i th ere
(or a long t Ime. At the end of t hi s vall ey we

THE

ROYAL

ARMY

:,were informed that we had reached the old British

, boundary of the New Territories and to support
this ,,,we presently passed an old machine gun "pillbox .
Leaving the Military Road on our right w e
turned left here for the v illage Tseng L an Shu , passing through rice fi elds on the way and after reaching
the top of the divide made a rapid descent down a
series of Chinese steps-worn .smooth by the f~t
of countless Chinese cooli es and grasscutters
throughout the centuries to the village of Wo Mei
Ts ' uen at the north east corner of Hebe H aven.
From there we turned so uth east along the shores
of POlt Shelter towards Ta i Po Tsai.
By now the party ,~as feeling in need of tiffin
as the time was 12.30 p.m. , and at 1 o'clock a
halt was called at the foot of Razor Hill where we
rested for a n hoUl' and a half.
The route as planned now lay along the peninsula" and round the far side of R ,azor Hill to Junk
Bay, hut fortifi ed by th e rest and food , one stalwart suggested climbing th e hill a nd descending
tbe other side. In approximately 1,000 yards we
ascended 1,000 feet and' we who were there agreed
tha,t it was SOME climb, W e were well rewarded ,
however, by the view from the tjop wbere, to tbe
north ('ould be seen Hebe Haven and Port Shelter
dotted with islands , and the mountain. across the
Chinese border, to the East Sugar Loaf Hill and
Junk Bay and to the south a lovely panomma of
the island of Hong K\ong, the harbour and tbe huge
expanse Qf the Ko wloon peninsul a,
H aving rested on the top, we made our w.ay
down the hill side to the path through t,he moorland already meutioned, a nd followed tbis path backto K ai 'Iak where . after a shjort wait, we wore
able to get a bus baok to Kowloon , arriving at
about 6 p .m.
Ovcr Telcgraph Pass, 13th Novembe?', 1932. A small party organised and led again by Captain Williams met in Kowloon ahout 9.15 a.m.
whence we comm enced our day's joul'l1ey by taking
bus to Yaumati; unfortun alely on arrival there it
was foOund we had gone astray and we landed at
Mong Kok with half an hour's wait for the next
Yaumati bus-we spent our enforced soj ourn smelling the smell s one. can- a nd does-smell there and
loading ourselves with oranges, costing about Id .
for ten. However, we were all safely ensconced
in the right bus about 10.15 a.m. and commenced
our twenty five mil e journey to Un Long , a large
village and market a short distance beyond Castle
Pea-k. The journey along the coastal road is always
interestin g a-nd in parts truly magnificent. especially when nearing Castle P eak where Capsimun
Pa. s, can be seen with the island of Lan Tao in the
dist,ance on its ri ght. ThE', weather, which up to
then harl looked nnything but promising . suddenly
brigh.tened an d later in the day was really brilliant.
Leavln g the bus at Un Long we walked about a
mile up a motor road, whi ch would make most
English roa ds look green with envy, until we came
to the walled vill age of K am Tin an excellent
specimen of its kind , though it rather reminded
one of n cul-de-sac in Londfon's sl ums., Th e gates
of this village are of cmiou sly twisted and knotted
iron bars bi considerable antiquity and are specially
interesting .
'
Though the lease of the New Territories began
on 1st July, 1898, th ey were not t aken over until
the following April. Soma resi stance was met witb ,
chiefly at this village of Kam Tin, near the Shum

PAY

CORPS JOURNAL

Chum River, where the Tang Clan who set,tled

there about 1,000 years a~o, had built in th is fertile plain fiv e walled citles (vi llages) which are
inhabited by their descendents to th is day.
I n quell ing this disturbance it was found necessa,ry lo blow up these gates and they were taken
to Britain and installe.d on his property by a
Government officia l who retired so me years later.
TwentY-!1ix years afterwards the Chinese petitiJoned
the Governor, Sir R. E. Stubbs. for their return
and in May. 1925, the gates were r estored t o their
ori&inal position.
1< rom here our actual hike ,oomm enced , over
Telegraph Pass. a nd a rea lly beautiful walk it was
of approximately seven mi les, lead ing over three
hills a nd rejoining the coastal road a l'o ut 14 miles
from starting pointr-Un Long. The chi ef occupa
tion of the peasn.nts we passed appeared to be
grass cutting, which provid es '.hem with bedding,
fuel and bu iJ ding material-binding the mud bricks
for th eir hovels. Th ey seem a happy, carefree
crowd; we passed many of th em, eithe,r cutting the
grass ~Ipon Ithe hil l sides or ca r"ryin g ~t down
across j,heir shoulders-two large bundles, one on
either end of a bamboo pole, On our descent of
the last hi ll, which J.ed down to the road we came
UP.01l a noth er party of these including
omB' quite

~J~ doing their share, Captain, Wilh ams, IfJ a Splr1t of adventure, cal'l'ied a bundle
some distance down hilL he seemed particularly
quahfied [or the work! Of co urse we noti ced that
in his philanthropy he assisted th~ weakest o[ the
party-or rather be carried the smaJlest child's
load-whi ch incidentally was the small est load I
However, all good times mu st end somewhere and
we were once again safely ensconced in the bus

s.:m all cI.li ldren

39

THE

ROYAL

ARlVIv PAY CORPS

for our homeward journey about 4.30 p.m. after a

really pleasant day.
Tai-Mo-S han. 1Hh Decemb e?-, 1932,- Taking a
bus fl'om Star Ferry, Kow;.oo n, we proceeded to
Monk Kok Fe~ry .where we, caught the Castile
Peak bus. In tlll~ we drove past Lai -chi-kok
Priso n to the beautiful coast road leadillg to Castle
Peak. We left Gm Dnnker s Bay on our left and
after going throug~ Pineapnle Valley and passing
the entra nce to Shmg Mun Valley, we arnved at
our stal'tmg pOInt for the conqu est of 'rai-mo shan
Le" Ts un Wan Village_
'
Tai -mo s han is the highest of the mountains of
the New Territory. being 3,141 feet high, The first
part of the ascent lies in a very picturesq ue valley
studded wi.th boulders and sm3\ I fi r trees and
gives no indi cation of the collar work nec~ssary
a t a later stage,
This track leads up to the village of Chun Lung
(1,000 feet), and then you have th e choice of two
ways, onc due North leading to a long ridge bearil:g East to the summit, a nd the other due East
zlgzaggmg up to a more direct track. Vl e chose
the latter and after a few fa lse starts, got up to
the 1,500 fe-et level and the direct track to the
top . This is where. the mounta in gets a little
respect; up to thiS tllUe there bad been no strain
a~ all, but now a series of sharp bou~ der stre-wn
1'1 es began and seemed to go on without end
for
no sooner ha d you reached the top of one 'than
another appeared- worse than those already negotiated ,
'
Th e top, however, seemed t,o be getting nearer
and after a final struggle was reac.hed at 1.30 p.m.
Although there was brillI ant snnshllle the wind was
bitterly cold, so a sheltered spot on the lee sid e
wag chosen where we could have tiffin and a mu ch
needed rest.
. The summit commands the most wonderful views
m ~evera l directions, to the north west lay the
P lam of K am TI.n, wluch we crossed a for tnight
ago to rea~ h TeI.egl'aph Pass, this shows a vast
extent of nce fi elds a nd is said to contain no less
tl:an five mon asteries I To the north east the P at
S,m Range, Tolo Harbour and the " Hunchbacks."
1? the south east the Dragons Back R ange, with
Llon Rock an d Kowloon Peak clearly outlined. and
to t.be south west K apsimun Pass, Lan Tau Island
. (twlce the size of Hong Kong) and the "Brothers."
Th e de cen t was negotiated com fortably in a bout
2 hours when the bus took us back to Hong Kong
F erry by 6.0 p'.m .
T.he Corps was honoured by the attendance of
Major H. R ShilEngton, Royal Army Ordnance
Corps, on thiS walk.
On the way up the mounta in, a rU stling in some
~:)U s h es '\'as heard, and was put down to warl,dermg PlO'S, t hough rather far from a village tbe
n.ext morning 's paper contained a notice that a
tiger had been seen on the slopes of Tai-mo-shan.
Hon g Kong-Hebe Hav en. 18th Decem ber,
1932-0n Sunday, December 18th we carried out
our ,last bike in Captain Willi a~ 's company-he
lea-ves us ?1l 21 t February-that to Heb e Haven ,
the charmmg Bay at the most northerly point of
that lovely stretch of protected water known as
Port Sh elter .
The route chosen was. through a long glen to
the left of the track taken 9n the R azor Hill trip.

JOURNAL

F avoured by calm and warm weatber punctua11

bty 9b15us r-~'Kour

party . of five left Ko:vloon Fer~
ow)oon City, the ouly main route to
01

~he ksever<l41 !lasses ~nd tracks over the Dragon's

ac

mouuta ms facmg the harbour.

Lea ving the city behind , the road stretches for

Pe~~ I\ ~~6t et bYh,a track just behind Kow loon
.
,. '
ee , w. ICl1 ,topped a brow ha ving the
afid lance of fortlfiQa,tilon against smugglers in
ays. ~t the top of th l ~ track is Customs
SS a nd thiS comm a nd a view of Port Shelt
to
tIe
orth and the I sland of Hong Kon one\h
Sou.th . On the I'oad \\"e met a small c~nvoy
natIve women
(grasscutters)
returnin
wi Oh
bund les of grass carried on bamboo poles~
t
As they rested. before we reached them it '
fo ~~~d oPI Pdortbu1l1ty to test th", loads they c~~,:Sy
1
ere la
een a good de-al of
t
cerning the wei ~ht of each lo~d Sconl roversy con tr' d I' t
.
0 1ere each one
Tile b~IS S reng~l to .the amusement of the women
. l~ Iggest. welght IS generally 60 lbs ., a nd thi~
Is,ledu ced very even ly according to the nge.
Through the glen we descenden by a to
I
gradually for quite two mi les
11
s I nYdPat 1
fores try a d
l'
we ene ose by
pleasant 'a~ d ~~~t laM~~; otrt~S~ ri!l~I~~sre~dered it
but the gleIlJ would no doubt g iv ' fi er~ dry,
Qf water fa.lls after heavy rain . I a ne di splay

pt

To the: north east could be seen R

.
(~,320 feet) which we had traversed 01I aazor
\!I ill
clllnb.
prevIOus

Hr

Reaching the valley we passed tl11'ough th

il of
Chung and visiter! Lhe Ch in e 'e T:mvp le
fleb e. A ter a f Ul,t her short walk we anived at
tl e e H aven , where we ha d made plans to cross
le water to a secluded spot for a swim. Un fortUI1::<t,ely! after several attempts to bargain with ::l.
fa~lvi fl she rmal~ , W}lO wanted an exhorbitant farc
0 1 t I~ short tup, It was decided to walk a littLe
furthel on and have lun ch before r eturning .
" On . the r,etul'1l jOUlney . at the top of the first
!Ise '\oe \V.ele g lad to have a rest and drink for it
~aCh.tE'dlOUS clImb and a stony path for two mil es
,cl
mese refre hment hut stands at the to
bere
Ch dinese tea-ad . lib
l ' h IS
.r fanree
to t h we had
.;
. , WUC
,e naW.ve an no doubt also to us Tl t
certaInly has a peculiar taste and'
ul' d
le .ea
cont'
.
'
wo
reqUIre
. m.uous consumptIOn for au European to
'
'tClated ItS. Al avouI', to us it was like hot \Vatel~~f~~~
ure WIt 1 straw,
fit,' Ve a rrived ~L t Hong Kong a.t 6 p.m. , tired, yet

ifg~

MALAYA"

It was with cousid erable amusement th a t the

Malta notes, a ppeaI'illg in the Cl1ristmas number
of the CorES "Journal," were read. "Buttons"
appears ~o have a "bee in bis bowlet," because
after ~lnVl11g served fi ve years abroad, the trooper
on a,rrlval at Malt3\ is full np'. He states tha,t tbose
servI,ng east of Suez a,re in a favoured position regat;dmg. passages .home; which fact he 'con iders
~sn t fall' . when It IS remembered that we have
Just completed three years in one of those delightful pla.ces! P erhaps it would suAice to mention
that three of our number, already overdue for home
ha~e been put back to the last trooper, leavin '
bel a early m AprIl, and that they are not in th~
lea;st perturbed, a~ th ey should arrive home during

37

THE

ROYAL

AR MY -P AY CORPS JOURNAL

THE

ROYAL

AR MY

a ry litt.1.e speech. and aga in expressed hi s complete

sati sfaction with the effOlts of th e committee.
Billiards.-The Garrison Mess Lea gu e Team
whi ch ii su al1y cont a ins at least ~hree RA .P. C. 01
six p layers, a re doin g fa irly well in t he leagu e.
having won Lh.ree of th e foul' ma t ,1hes playeu .
S.Q.M. S. NCiwe b~ and Sg ts. Cook, Doh erty a nd
Row ley, a ll Elay a very u sefu l gam e.
Tennis.-vve haye now a Co urt of our own a nti
p lay will begin in ea rnest as soon as th e we~th er
settles . Our usua l entry has bee n made to t he
Comm and L eag ue, and we have g reat hop es o f
fini shing fnrther up t he table, i f not at t he top
t hi s ye,lr.
.
,

Command Paymast er' s Quartef1',

AJ exandra Ba rracks , Singapore.
the modErately warm weather, w hich in itself is
no sma ll cons id eration after hav ing served more
than t.hree veal'S in a stat,iop wbere cl im atic CO il
d it ions remain practi.call y t h e same all t he. year
roun d. and a re at t Imes far fro m deli ghtfuL I
wou ld however lik e to remin (l tho e m embers of
the C~rps antici patin g a tour of duty in t hi s. ~ e
higbt ful pl ace, t hat a lth (:lU gh ,~' e a re .co nnected wl t h
hom e by the Du tch au' mall , wh lch t a kes only
eleven days, we are not in the ha ppy .positi on of
being able to enjoy a 'spo t of leave' 111 En g la;n d
during our to ur of duty a \1l'oad . A? a confrer
so a ~ tl y rem arked " H ere YO U a re, a nd here you
stay' ; a t least for three years, " lil desp erandum."
Th e t~nnis match versus RA.F .. I'efen ed to in
our p're\' ious uo tes resulted in a v ictory for us
b y t\VO m atches to ~ne. It w.as a, pati,i cu ~ arly good
wi n in view of the fa ct that 111 the decldlDg mat ch
o~r O.P ., partner ed by Capt. Smyt h, wer~ ~et 'a ll '
and losing 5--1 in th e third set ; but pul.ll1g t h em
selves together t hey eventuall.y won th e set 7-5.
In t he emi: fin al we met the R.E. to wh om . we
went down fighting , losing by t \VO ma t ches to on.e,
OUI' victors eventu all y wlllllln g th e champtOn shl.p
f ro m t he RA.M .C. Unfortuna t ely, the C. P . an d
.Capt. Smyth were not able .to reprodu ce t he form
' wh ich won th e m a.t ch aga lDst the Ol. A .F ., but
' T1f~ly' pa rtner?ad ' by S.QI M .Sgt. Brti.ault Idone
t heir stllff' as u ua!.
On the} 26th Feb l'ua lJ' we will have sa id 'nu
revo ir ' to our C.P., Li eut .-Colonel W . D . N. R oboth a m, who is . proceedin ~ to E ng; ano on postin g
h ome. W e wl sh both h Im and M rs. Robotham a
happy stay in pastmes new, at t he saI'?-e t im e extending a \~el co m ~ Lo OUl' new C. P ., M~Jol' C. J . .K .
Hill and bl S famti y, tru ~tlll g t hat t hen' stay Wlth
u s' wiIi l'eave ha ppy memor ies. S.Q. M. Sgt . E. E.
Steele. D .C.M. , M .M .. a nd Sergeants F. Cr aven
a t:id E. A. Wri gh t (Shin er) hope to go hom e OLl

t he H .'t'. ' L a n cas~l ire,' leaving on 01' about the

3rd April next, Iln d we wish t hem t he be t o f
luck an d a hap,py t im e at t hell' new st;\tlons.
S.Q.M.Sg t . G. Garret t , Sgt. L . E. You ng and Co rp1.
E. VV. H ew itt a rri ve Oil th e 31'd Febru ary , and we
exte nd t hem a most cordi al welcome a nd t l'll t that
t heir three years h e>re wiJl be al,\ t h at they wish .
We will do our best to see th at I t 1 n.nyway.
E NOB.
MALTA.
An erstw h ile Fleet St reet gia n t once la id it do wn
~h at it wasn 't " ne,.vs" if a dog bit a m ~ n , but th at
It was If a man bIt a dog . W ell, d Ul'ln g, th e last
three months here, I h ave not heard of even a dog
biting a man , so it is obvious t hat th at di ctum
cou ldn ' t have been intended to apply to am ateur
joul'lla-lists . Still, on e mn st w:i te ab~ llt so mething ,
so if the record of th e SpOl'tll1g actlVltl es of thIS
Detachm ent arOllses littJ:e interes t elsewh el'e, I can
only' sa.y that W El> always en.deavour. to a void gi,: ing
unin.t erest ing deta ils assocla ted WI t h t he van ous
SPOl'ts . &l1 ch as complet e battlll g aud bo whn.g ~ g u~'es
in D etachm ent Gn ck et matches . (Yes, I t 15 111 tended as a hi nt, M r . E ditor ),
Christmas Party,- T he k iddi es had the ir usual
treat. l hey looked forwur.d to it w ith maintain ed
eagerness, and were not dl a p po ll~ted I.l1 a ny \\ay.
This was a tribu te to t he Oo mm lttee who had to
kee p up t o t he stand al'd set i n previous yea rs.. Sgt .
T hornton again officiated as Santa Cla ns, a nd ' di d
t he li on's share of t he work generall y. Th e. oth e!'
m em ber$ of t he com m it tee, of 00 UI'Se , "p ull ed t heir
weig ht." but Sgt. T horn ton has beco me quite an
exper t in t he a rL of sa.ti s f.ving th e cr itical tastes
of t he chi ldre n. Th e C.P. , CoJon e>i G, A. C.
Orm sby- J ohn son , O. B.E. , M .C. , made hi s cllstom -

3'8

. Cricket. -A I ~ hou gh n ot yet tarted, I m Ust m en tIOn tha t we lll tend t o play a n umber of m atc h ~s
as a Detachment R. A .P.C. side duri ng t ile season.
Last yea r, our resources <vere deplet ed ow in g t o
lea ve. hut we s ha h not su ffer so mu ch in t hat
resf ect t hi s year. Captain J a mes, re(;ently ltlTived.
wi! help us con sid emb ly , fo r we would iHlve been
withou t a wi cket -keeper ill hi s <lobse nce, lt l thou ~h
som ebod.v wou ld have "kept wicket."
Th er e IS,
ho weyer , a co ns idemble d iff t>t'en ce betwee n Lhe two
.
as most cri(:ket eI'S a re aw are !
ArriVals and Departures.-Cap tain L. E. J ames
M.C. , al'l'ived on 15th F eb rua ry in relie f of Cap ta in
R . C. ne V . As kin , M.C., who expect s to leave 011
8t h ~Ial'c h . W e sha ll ind eed be very sorry to lose
the latter for many reasons. but we are fOI,t unate
t o have a n offi cer in hi s j )lace wh o wi ll fill t he,
breach ' 0 \vell. as Captain a mes wi ll do if prev ious
ser vice wi t h him is a 'reliable guide.
Sgt. Norm an a l'l'ived on 16t h D ecem ber and is
now ni ce ly sett led down .. H e relieved Sgt . 'D enh am
who l eft p'er S.S. Baradlll e Oil 23'!'d F ebru a ry, a nd
who ha.s been posted to Woolwich .
S.Q J ltLS. Fe l!owes disembarked from H .T . " Lun.
casl.lire" on 16th F ebruary . a nd is in process of
takll1~ stock of rus domicile for t he !lext fi ve y ears.
~e Wish th e new a rriva ls a n enjova ble and hea lt hy
tim e during their tour .
," BUTTO TS."
MAURITIUS.
~.S.M . H , P . Penny and Sergeant W. Bri ck
~rnved here from Chath am a nd Woo lwich res pect .
Ively on 31st Janua ry , and a fter on e day in wh i ~h
to hand over our d uties Sergeant E. O. Band and
myself left MauI'itius fo r South Afl'ica on 2nd
F ebl'ltary .
.
Tn 1I:ccordance with th eil' usual custo m t he Durhan TLl ght Tn fa nt !y welco med th e 'hom e- goin g draft
t o Natal, on a rnval a t Durban. presentin g us . as
t hey always do , with fre e passes for th e tra m ways
a nd th eatres. No matter what BI'itish soldi er passes
throu gh thltt City, he (01' his) is immediately made
af home by the~e splendid peo ple-if he is tl'avell in g
a on e.. he is housed . fed , a nd genel'ally ca t ered for ,
a nd II he :tGco mpanies IL d l'aft is ente rtn incd as we
were.

?a.

pe Town ~epI'esen ta tives. of t he Im peria l

Ex~ t
d l: SpI \'l CE. As oClatlOn met. t he s lup, und th e whole
1'0 aft (fa mJ!l ps lllcluded) were ta ken by cha r.a - baIH'
d uml th e P eninsu la throug h ~ce ll ery th a t defi es
~SC\ lptlon , a d Ista nce of a hout 100 miles .' On th e
wily
,' t d we W ~ I'e [.J 1'OV I'd ec1 WI'1.1l a menI a nd were ill I .p t o ba th e at Cape Town' s pet l'esort . bu t we
un ked at t he cold-66, We rod e from mid. d ~y

39

PAY

CORPS J OURNAL

to b p. m., ulld, in th e evening, we had a show at

a Cin ema-a trea t a fter what we had in V acoas.
It. is di Hlcult t o e:q~re s s our grati t ude to these
spl mId gentlemen of Durban a nd Ca pe Town, who
uover forget th eir comrades from th e old country .
A . C. FARMER, S.S.M,
SHANGHAI.
A m () ~t chee l'y ;u!d co n vivia l Chri stm as was cele b r,lted in t he Garrison f::lergeants' Mess, t he Bligu d ier and a ll officers of the staff v isited t he m ess
at mi d- day: di n ner was served a t 1.30 p .m . an d
a ll the mem bel'S di rl justice t o a most excellent repast.
A Ch "i,LlIlas part.v wa~ give l, to t he ~hi ldre n of
Wle Garrison nnder th.e organi S<l.t ion of S.S.M .
Statha m, who aga in very ab ly played th e part of
Santa Cla us. N um erous forms o-f entertainm ent
we re p rovi ded for t he chiri dren in cl uding " 'l'alkies"
" " d a " M i"i atm e Hhn te." In co nn ection wi toh t he
e n te rt~ i n m e n t S.S.M. Statham ran g up t he Mas ter
at A rms of one o f th e cr ui sers in port, and as ked
him wh cther he co uld loan him som e "Olo w n ~ cos tum es ." T he f ~~ t-er at Arm s r eplied th at he l egriltted bein g un able to supplv t he costum e , but
he had a n a mple supp ly of clown s.
Sport .- Th e local F il'e B r igade staff chaIJ enged
t he ~rgea n ts ' Mess to a footha ll ma tch , and a
most enjoyable game end ed in favo ur of th e
F ire Briga de by 2 goals to nul. T he ,feature of
t he m atch was t h.1t as t he lo cals ('ouldl)' t scor e,
two o f t he, mes team obliged with mosG a elightful
goals-for t he Brigad e, we can onl y a ~s um e t J1 a t
t he delinqu ents had been "squa red " by! a "bite"
at t he bo t,We supp'lied by th e Brigade. Ser geants
Bo wn (o ne of t he goal scorers) . De,'eau , N a ,h and
Wil li ams played ior th e Mess.
,
Ca ptain l\'I ackenzie has been select ed to p iay
for Shanghai in th e I n Ler-port Badm inton Match
ve rsns Ti elltsin, a nd a ~ he is proceed ing t,o Tientsin we hope that he will be selected to play for
Tie:ltsin a ga inst Shangh a i next year.
Moves.- Capta in B rnyden ar ri ved l ,pre on the
17th J a nuary from ;Hong K ong. Capta in Macken Zle depa rts for Tl en ts lll on th e 21st J anua ry ,
Ser g~'J,n ts W i lJi a,\ll ~ a nd Bown ar e dua to follow on
th e 28th . The fo ll owin l? are du cl t o embark for
hom e Pet' HT. " Nenrnlia' on th.) 18th F ebru a ry:S.S.M. Stath am
(Shrewsbu ry ) ,
S j Sgt. W est
(E ast ern Comm,tnd) . Sergea nt F oley (Warley) ,
Se r O'~a nt N ewton (Honn slow) . Sergeants Devea u
and" E y noil (Woolwi ch) a nd Sergeant Ca rver
(Y ork) .
JAMAICA.
A G r~ n d Tavn,] ltnd Mili tar:v' Ta ttoo was h eld at
Up P !l.rk Camp from 16t h t o 2bt F ebruary, when
a ma.gnifi cen t specta cl e was wit n e~sed by many
thou and s. in cluding His E XGeJ lency th e Governor.
RA.P. C. p er onn el u ndertook nil cash and
accoun t in g duti es, a nd were pal-tly re ~p o n sib.l e for
organi sing and rUllni ng t he ground staff. The fo llowin g letter W,lS recei \le~ by t he Command P ay mast er : " I ltm dil.ect ed by th e O. C. T I'Oops t o' say how
mu ch he a ppreciates al.l the ha rd wor k wh ich you
a nd yo ur sta ff put in on work for the T itttoo.
Th e co-operation Oll t he part of all y our pel"~o l Ul e l wa s admira ble.
Th e w ork \entailec1 was
hoa v - and it, sa.ys it lot fOI' t he esp,rit de corps
of YOll r u nit that th e work vou all nut ill hlou ld
r _ceive t he un iversa l ad mira.t ioJ] of all c011ce l'll ed."
1'

THE. ROYA~ ~MY. PAY

CORPS

J OURNAL

'THE

ROYAL

ARMY

La.ter when fas hion decreed that lady's hatpins

should be longer and became a positive menace to
the community man retaliated by waxing the ends
of his moustache, 0 t hat between the two, to any
ord in ary person trying to boa.rd a 'bus or tram, it
was li ke gettin g through ,1 barbed wIre entanglement, for it wa.s Dot unu sual in the ru sh to get
the waxed end of a moustache in one eye a ndl the
other eye p'erilou ly near tit dangerous end of a
hat,pin_
As time went on and the ladies discarded their
hatpins in favour of the pull on type of ilid, man
eems to have let his moustache run to seed, with
the result we saw what was commonly call ed the
"lVah'us"-p'opu l al~sed 'by Captain Bairnsfather's
character, Ole Bill." To the soldier, however_ th is
was not an ideal moustache, to him it was known
as a "firster," that is. jt had the first drink out of
every pint, and he naturally r esented the intrusion_

PAV_: CQRl?S JOURNAL

CLOTHES- AND THE MAN,

I am Private M cTavish, on my comrades I lavish

The latest and most charming mode ,
The newspaper fellows have expanded their bellows.
and 11a.ve written of me in th.eir odes;
Beho ld you now see here t he latest in head-gear"
Shirt neck, un ique product of hygiene.
And a tunic so l'OOJI1Y, th ere's DO fear 'twill stew me
on manoem' res, so that's all serene_
Observe, modom , my trousers, go aU round the
houses
And sWI leave some room for poor me,
They are generous and Aowing , they leave room
for my growing,
That:s a.nother hygieuic decree_
I 110 longer go nutty putting V's in my puttee,
Nor do tapes a ny [onger go begging,
My mll~cJes h,we p'lay in a hygienic \\ ay ..
That 's elltirely dne to my legging_
My eq uipment's more modern and now when it' s
so dd en
J can scarce feel its weigh t on my back,
It In ore closely fits, I can t~~ke it to bits
its now packages, 'stead of a. pack:
Though the whole t l'ting 's unique, do I look lik e a
. freak.
Now be honest and teU me quite trulv,
Do I look li ke a sill y, a huntsman or gn idi'e,
Do th e new duds look smad. or unruly?
The Critic 's RepIY- A Reporter.

lJeTErlTIOM

1 .

\Ve've reported you fully and bummed you up bully,

To our public w("ve made you a stunt,
In the papers we sold 'em, with the news that we
told 'e m
YO;ll' phot<?s they've seen back a nd front_
But our work IS our bread, all d the pen rules the
head,
So that though we have been very newsy.
When those co lu mns were done, prompted. may be,
by sun_
Or may be, because we were boozy_

ALcOWANC&; ,

PAYMA:lTfR:" ... DVA HC

POPULAR

MISCOI'IC~PTlONS.

hail' was to the effect that the moss that grew on

the 'top ~nd the back- of the face should! be call ed
hail', and that which found Its way thr0l!gh ,t~
front and sid es of the face was dlm1Pt:d WhI kel s
dividing this up into three c:1~egortes {I} t~at whIch
rew on the under lip and ch m-bearel; (11) that on
rhe sides of the bce--sideboa.rds, and (Ut) that on
the upper lip-moustache.
_
In due course the beard began to disappear, _the
th ree main corrttibutory fa cto rs to the change beJO~~
first the realisation of the owner t hat h e looked d?
i.ho~gh he h ad swaJ:o wed a h~r~e and left t l:e ta.il
h;wgll1g outside, second the"uncom~,h menta l Y use
hy schoolboys of the word beaver _ {so you see
this is by no means a recent appell atIOn}, a-nd the
third-you said it-the rawI' .
.
For some years howevpr. man clung te~a.clOusly
to his moustacl"~ and sideboards, tha.t IS meta'
p'horica lly speak ing, :but tlltlmately JI1a.ny. co.,:;- .
)romised bv abandonlllg the mou s(.ache 01 SI e
l10al'ds. while others as a rep rt al abandoned ho~e
and a ll else in favour of tlw moustache, and ho\ Thoro was the heavy cavalry vOl''1ety-a perfect
'~"~Jy-ki ll er"-the i n~piration of that well known
b~ll ;ld "r lik e him for his w hiskers,,", and. abou~
the on ly th in g t he old se rgeallt - majOI fOlgot 1
ab use,

MOUSTACHES.
[n view of the announcement that appeared in
many of the London dailies recently, to the effec~
that "moustaches are ltk ely to be more popular
than ever in the Army," it wou.1d, perhaps,. not he
inopportune to survey the results of attempts In
th e past to cu(tivate this form of [aclal decor.atlOn .
The origin of the moustache. or mustache, 15 not
very d il'ficult to trace, n,lthough theril are probabl;~
many people who will say "It never. had an ongl11,
and this conclusion it mu~t be admltted IS strongly
supported by the many unsuccessful attempt.s to
raIse even the accep'ted "eleven -aSJde'.' vanety.
In any cas~ there is no doubt that t~ I S form of
phY"iognoml~1 emb~lb shmen.t was. exceedlingly
popular, partLCul::trly 1I1 th~_ ~rmy,. l:l~ht down to
1914 when they started enHlstmg CIVIlIanS 1I1 such
a bareiated Inanne.r_
At one time the difficulty was to defin e exactly
where Lhe mou~tache commenced and wheI1e It
terminated hut n,t that hystel;cal- orTy, bistorical,
nev er-to- b~ forgotten meeting of the Ancient
Society of Scisso r and Ra7.ol- ~an l pul::ttors, a bomshell was thrown on the public ot the day and n,
decis'ion of world-wide impo l'tance was taken_ Th at
d ecision , 'arrived at after mu ch tearing of ski n an d

40

Retired General,

By heck and by gad, sir, you Iloo k downright bad,

Sil',

Then we had, and it is still with. us, the "toothbrusli" type. QlI.ite an improvement in it~ way,
but in mall Y case too much like the part worn
article.
Again we have that funny little des ign knownl as
the "Cbarlie Chaplin_" T1Iis is sli gbtly different
from thc aforementioned "eleve n-as icle" type with
ItS members spread widely apart, inasmuch as the
members are more closely as~emb l e d 01' packed
whtle the number aside is left to the discretion of
the ind_ividual. A I"lIgger pl a~er, [or instance, to
show ,h I. preference a nd interest in that pn rti cnlal'
sp~rt might eu lt ivate -up to fifteen aside, a ltho ugh
thI S method of arriving at the appropri,tte size of
a moustGche is decidedly handicappi ng shou ld one 's
pr('ference illchn e to so lo.
So you see there are quite a variety of ty les to
choose from, but as it i ollly to be expected, sooner
0 .. later someone will come a lona with a cubist
arrangement and LII~n we . hall be" nhl square,
" BARRY. "

Thank Heaven a navy we've got,

You look more li ke a sailor, a tinker or tailor,:
L ike I> so ldier? Most certainly not I
YOln eap is [\ stum er, your trousers a bloomer
And the leggings ideal for farm ing.
Your shi rt co_lJ ,~r su its hiking , your tunic, perhaps
bIkmg_
To SUlll up, yo u look - - - ! ! ! charming _
The Ladies,

In days now gone by, a fin e sight [or the eye.

When you sw~tggere d in scarl et and gold.
On parade yo u insp ired , civvy's day dream you fired
-With a vision both dash ing and bold.
But now when we see you. we all quite agree you
Have gone down in stock, right to ,gravy,
And our heart beat with joy, not for you , Oh no,
Boy,
But fo!' the Royal Air Force, and Navy.
BE RT.

41

THE
THE ROYAL ARMY

ROYAL ARM"\'

PAY CORPS JOURNAL

PAY CORPS JOURNAL

LETTER TO THE EDITOR.

SOLUTIONS OF BRIDGE PROBLEMS.

(see page 15) .

PHILATELY.
Dea r Sir,
I kn ow that a keen interest exjsts among many
of our mem bers on the subject of Phil at ely but so
far th e. " J ourn a l" has fai led to attmct a c~mbin ed
effort a nd I for one would like to see th e formation
of a club 011 the. purpo ~e of exchanging one's dupli
cates and acqUlrlllg fresh st amps at a low cost.
T~,e object~on s to l'lUlni,ng a.n exchange club a re
partly th e tlJne and trouhl e mvolved a nd pal'tly
the eXp'e n s ,~ 111 . po s~age: as regards :- ( 1) I will,
for the time be mg, In a ugurate. aod \'Un ,a club if I
kno w that at least twelve m embers \n ll take an
active part, and (Z ) as the id~ a is the exchange of
dupll cates these could be sent at owner's ri sk by
ordinary post.
;'\- sma ll entl'ance fee. say of 2/, wou ld g ive suf.
ficlent funds to sta rt With a lld s ubsequ ent success
would depend largely on individua l mterest.
May .r ask that anyone who will cnoperate in t hs
form atIOn of an exchange club will s~lld Ji,e a card
cl o Th e Editors, a nd if there are su'ffi cient to wa r
rant the experiment a circu lar as rega,rc1s rul es etc.
'
,
will be prepared a nd iss ued.
Yoms faithfull y,
J . F, B ellm.an , Capt.
To Th e Editors,
R.A.P.C. J ournaL

Contract Problem.
In p utting down th~ cards for this
probl~m, Y, from the bidding, may be
credited with holding S.KQJ xxx a nd C. K.
A should take the first trick with the
Ace of Spades, and play three rounds of
trum ps and three of Diam onds. Next he
leads a sma ll spade which he hopes will be
t aken by Y.
'.
Then unless Y leads a Club (which g ives
A the best possible chance of making both
his Queen and Dummy ' s Ace) a Spade or
Diamond must be led, wl1ich dummy can
trump while A d iscards a Club .
Double Dummy Problem.
(The underlined card takes' the trick and
the card below the lin e is led ,)
Z
A
Y
B
H 4
H. 5
H. S
H.6
S. Al
H .K
H .A
H 7
D 3
S. K
S.4
C.2*
C 5
C. 7
C.S
C' 3
C. 6
C. g
C. IO
C 4
..:.2
S.K
D 7
D.J
D. S
S. 6
D.I O

11

Unconventional glim pses of famous peopl e a,nd

pungent comm ents 'on th e publi c school system are
contain ed in "A H eadm ast er R ememb ers" (Goll ancz,
8s. 6d.) , the entcrtaining remi.ni s cen ~es of Mr. Guy
K endall. headm aster of Universit.y CoJlege School,
H ampst aad,

s:s

II

Delighted Recognition.
Dental Officer (sollo 'lIoce): "Aha !-the chap who does our
allowances! THIS IS A PLEASURE!"
COPY OF A LETTER FROM AN EXILE
THANKING A FRIEND FOR THE PRESENT
OF A CASE OF WHISKEY.
D ear Ed.,
How extremely kind of you to send that case
whiskey for Chlistmas . I have never tasted such
marvellous whi skey in my life. I have never tasted
such man'ellous whi sk ey and I keep on tasting it.
The whi shky wesky you have send for me Chri stmas
ism m~u' vel ous , I keep tashing it and how kind of
yo~ to ~end thish, wondrous wh ishky for Xmu sh ,
which I keep tashll1~ . R eal y reall;f lt~ mosh mosh
of you to keep send ll1 g me thi S WIS wlksey m cases
whi ch I keep tashlllg fo\' Xmush l\nd tashll1g h, S
hick dock dlCkoery dock , That kind whi shy ole
man hoe extl'ash ex stromel)' m a rv elou ~ to Lash on
Xmush you great fri end that than you 010 for ext
extrext,ra. El"x trem whwh sishy- inainnm a. in a casg case
yo u -,-,-,xxx kisemus & Xmu (7 / 8.
Y-H/ "!o ole OP-A {-H-,\'H-k
.
Chee l'ioo004 ig,

Oh! the gladness of

Oh! the sadness of
But the gladness of
of her sadness
Are nothing to her

WOMAN.
her gladness wh"n she's glad.
her sadness when she's sad.
her gladnesfi and the sn-dness
b adness wh en she's bad.

AN EPITAPH.
" Here li es Lu cy Jon es
Who had children five ,
Three being dead a.nd two still ali ve.
The dead ones said th ey would much rather
Di e with molh er than live with; father."
A Scot sman was ~t.-o llin g a.long the quay one d~y,
wh en his dog stopped beside a basketful of hve
lobsters. In stantAy one of th e lo\l,s ters snapped I~S
claws on the do"' s tai l, and the surpflsed collie
dashed off down the street yelping with pain. .
'l1,e fi shmonger for a mom ent was speechl~ss with
illdi~nation, then tUl'mng to hiS prospective cus;
t amer he b (~w l ed: " Mon , mon , wh ustle to yeI' dog ,
Whu st le to yer dog ,"
" Hoots , mon," returned the oth er, complacently,
" whu stle to your lob ster!"

" Is it true, 'M iss E lderl eigh, that you are going
to be mH~'\'ied soon?"
"WelL no, it iSIl 't. But T am very grateful for
the r umour. "

42

* If B trumps th e ,first Spade, Z overtrumps and the play I S : Z

A
B
~
S.Q
D 7
D.J

D.S

C5
C. 6
D ..,

C.7
C.g

S.K

Oll e of hi s stori es concerns the appoint.ment of

DJ'. Raahdall to the deanery of Carli s1e :
It was during the middle part of th e war when
Lloyd George was necessarily dele<1ating m inor ci vil
matters to subordin ates.
0
Th e. Archbi shop of Canterb ury call ed at 10,
!?owlUng Street, and was received by a fl ap per ~ it
tmg on t he t ab le s winging her legs, " What can
I do fo r you ?',' she asked. Th E!! Archbish op l'ather
brusqu ely replied that he had come to ta,lk about
the vaCfl.nt deanery of Carlisle by a ppointment.
"Oh, yes, [''li e got t hat m ; tte'r in ha ml" she
said . Ilnd proceeded to giv e the Prim e Mil;ister's
Views.
'
H e tell s a story of t he Bodleian libraloia n at
Oxford , E. B, N icholson:
H e had a ';lad squint, and there was a sto ry ~ur .
rent about hlln , how he an.d Spooner sudden lyt ,m et
at the COl'llar by St. Ma ry 's and collided with one
~,n oth e r, :'My d eal' sir," said the lib rarian testi ly,
'; ,hy don t you look where you' re goilig?"
.My dear Sl\' ,',' ~eto rted Spooner. with his rather
deli ~el'ate ~ nun c l a tlOn , " why don ' t you go where
you re. lookmg?"

D. IO

C. 2
C 3
C4

Jl~dge: " AI'S you gu ilty 01' not guil ty?"

In sh D~ ~end ant: 'Not guilt,y Your Honour. "
~udge: Ha~,e 'you ever b.een a rrested before ?"
. ,efend !tnt : ~ 0 , sir; th iS was the first time I
eve l sto l e anythmg."
,

::i'~lhat ~\'ofession is your boy goi ng to select ?"

l ~oll1g to ed ucate him to be a lawyer"

, r

~~~ Ib tIe hrmcr" " H e's n atur~ll y argumentati've

1.1'01 bit on, gettm , mlx~d up Wi t h. ouh er p eople's
hi s Jti~!', "an he might Just as well get paid fo\'

!';red \~~S b.ein g , sent to a boardi ng. school.

Now
sa id hiS father, "when yo u write. don ' t
sehrl me pa,ges and pages desc rib ing a ll the pupi ls
ere they come from, and what class t hey are in'
ecause I really shall not ha.ve time to read it a ll .':
. Al few week s bter Ins f ather rece ived the follow.
~'f..I.:~t~;: "Deal' Father,-S,O,S .. L,S.D., R.S .V.P,

. Th ere was som e jealousy in t he circus, and the

gIant and t.h e dwad wel'e not on the best of ter ms
w~ ?n t he li ttle man complained of indisposition .
Throat tl'Ouble, I t hink" he said
. "Nonsense." spa rred the' gian t . "A maD of our
ln ch es c?uldn't tell whether h e' d got tonsiliti; or
housema id 's knee."

43

THE ROYAL ARMY P AY CORPS J OURNAL

PR~M. OTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS.
To be Warrant Officer Class I and appO inted S.S.M .
765730D S.Q.M.S." A. L. H . Wilson, 11/ 6/ 32.

NE W Y E A~ G ~EE TI NGS.
Th e .,following letter was received by
Brigadier Musson from Sir Herbert Creedy ,
K .C .B ., K.C .V .O ., Permanent UuderSecreta ry of State for War .
War Office,
3 1 - 1 2 -3 2 .
My Dea r Musson,
My best \I'ish es to you and the Corps
for a very happy New Yea r!
The fact that the Public Accounts
Committee had no occasi on to mention the
War Office at all in their report is a sil ent
tribute to the work of the Corps , and r am
personally most g rateful for all the hel p it
has g iven to the Accounting Officer.
Yours sincerely,
Herbert Creedy .
Seasonable g reetings were exch a nged
\I'ith our Allied Corps-The Royal Canadian Army Pay Corps and South African
Administrative Pa y and Clerical Corps.

7657277
7657466
7042265

S. Q.M.S. A. T. Kn evett, 31/8/32.

S.Q .M.S. R W . H. H oward, 28 /6/ 32.
S.Q.M.S. J . J. Fenlon, 31 /8/ 32.

To be Warrant
S.Q . M.S.

7657b33
7658061

Officer Class

II

and

appointed

S/ Sgt. R J ackson, 13 / 1 j33.

S/ Sg t. L . W. Mills, 19/ 1/ 33.

To be Sergeant .

4384235
5823443
13150
7874860
7877984
4118788
7733410

L / Sgt.
L / Sgt.
L / Sgt.
L / Sgt.
L / Sg t.
L / Sg t .
L / Sgt.
s~34 ?66 L / Sgt.
1417941 L / Sg t.

P . M. Mill er , 3/ 9/32.
W . E. St a ff, 15 / 11 / 32.
W. A. Carver, 1/9/ 32.
J. Stevenson., 24 / 11 /32.
L . A. N ewso n, 14 / 12/ 32.
D. La wso n. 14 / 1/33.
J . Ro~s, 25 / 10/ 32.
A. P. H ailsto ne, 20 / 1/ 33.
R. DoggrelI, 9/ 2/33.

To be Lance Sergeant.

1066956

Corpl. A. N . D. Cathrey, 10/ 1/ 33.

To be Corporal.

6139301
403731
4122237
1066231
6341291
106695G
5333380
2319517
1058464
7260489
5180236

INSURANCE .

Th e <tttenti on of our r ead ers is invited to the

ann oun cement of Messrs. G. M. R eynell & Co.,
L td ., Insurance Broke rs, whi ch as usual appear s in
our ad ve l,t isement co l umn~ . It may not be genel"
ally know n t ha t thi s firm is directed by Major Maitland R eynel i, late RA .S .C., who on retiri ng made
a special t udy of Life a nd Accident Ass ura nce as
applied to Army Officers.
.
Wh en con ulted he first askti a few qu estions, and
considers t he offi cer'~ position . H e t hen has th e
knack of makin g the most in tricate Li f~ Assurance
problems a ppeal' perfectl y simpl e.
Already many officer s have sou g ht his advi ce,
whi ch has at t he sa me t im e redu cEld t he Life Assura nce item of t heir fa mil y budget a nd al so in cre<tsed
the securi ty offered by it. Majo r Maitland R eynell
i~ th e ori&ilH1to L
' of a most cunnul g Educa tional
policy, whI ch in event of a father 's death gives
t he chil,I a personaf. income from its cradle up to
school days. Th e schoo l bills '.l r'l ~ove " D n . th o
proceeds of the policy bein g paid to the father or
his executors if he IS dead, in Gonveujent uni ts .
Thus a. child can never become a drain on a widow's
r esources [or main tena nce or on its parents for
education.
Let ll S say it is never too late t o seek ad vi ce
even if poli cies h.ave been running for many years.
As ad vice cost s nothing it is surely wise to obta.in
it and the reader win find that Ma jor Maitland
'R eyn ell 's fertile brain seldom fai,:s to produ ce ~om e
sa~ in g or liuprovement.

P te. H . W . Rapple, 23/ 11/ 32.

P te. N . M. Simpson, 3/ 12/32.
P te. G. N. P alm er, 27 / 11 / 32.
Pt~. A. E. Clal'k e, 9111 / 32.
P te. A. V. Phillips, 2/ 1/33.
Pte. A. N . D. Cathrey, 10/ 1/33.
Pte. G. H . Dav ies, 12/ 1/33.
l'te. A. A. R
ewberry, 12/ 1/33.
Pte. R - W : A-ldrid ge; 29 / 1l 33.'
P te . H . A. F. Richa rd on, 29 / 1/33.
~te. ,T. Bindley, 29 / 1/ 33.

Probationers finally transferred.

E. Owen , 7/ 6/ 32 (E xet er) .

H . P ocklin g ton , 16 /5/32 (Cha.th am)
F . J. LOWI')', 16/ 5/ 32 (Hounslow).
W . .J. McQuade, 14 / 6/32 (Woal
wich) .
.
Brm. L. A. Morrell . 31 / 5/32 (Wa rl ey) .
Sig. P. L. Ga utiel', 19/5/ 32 ('Y ool wich).
Pte. L . R. Spooner. 7;.7/ 32 (Woolwich).
P te. R A. Stewa l't, 19 /5/ 32 (Egy pt) .
P te. C. F. Atkin . 3/ 8/ 32 :Y ork R).
P te. R F. Soper . 9/ 8/32 (Ca.nterbury).
Pte. C. G . Mockl er, 16/ 5/32 (Chatham ).

52850 Pte.
P te.
543551 Tpr.
2319542 Si g.

479 9 '~62

6814542
2318449
3907641
3709224
7881059
7882828
5568167

Probationer s joined.

786823 Gm'. P. S. P alm er , 10/ 1/ 33 (Wool wich).

3851996 Pte. E. Lewi s, 14 / 2/33 (Woolwich).
7258831 Pte. C. F. CatI ey , 14 / 2/33 (Chatham).
DISCHARGES.

7733685 Sgt . G. G. H oldaway , 31/ 12/32.

7733657 Sgt. F . E. Hartman, 10/1 /33.
TRANSFER TO ARMY RESERVE

7583730 Cp!. W . P oole, 2/ 1/33.

REJOINED COLOURS FROM ARMY RESERVE .

1066956 P Le. A. N . D . Cathl'ey, 29 /12/32.

MARRIAGES .

Cpl. T. H. AldersOll , 26 /11 / 32.

773 ~558 S / gt. W . K. Cole, 12/ 11 / 32.
513899 L / Sgt. W . Gil es. 26 / 12 /32.
7657962 Sgt. S. F. Punter, 7/ 1 /33 .
7,734\l10 Sgt. C. D. W atts. 31 / 12/32.
4799362 Pte. H. Pockli ng ton , 13/ 5/32.

62-83714
" Ah , Senori ta, to night I will'stand beneath your
window an d sing you a sweet ~e;renad e," breath ed
the a rdent wooer .
"Do, a nd r wi ll drop you a flo we r,"said th e
adol'ed one. sweet ly.
" In love?" h e asked eage rly.
" N o, in a. pot!" replied t he dam sel firm ly.

DEATH.

7657231

44

S.S .M. A. F. All ix, 18 / 2/33.