Obituaries Lt (Hon Capt) Gordon Smith Grossart Gordon Smith Grossart was born in 1923 in a Glasgow tenement. He won a scholarship to Allan Glen’s Private School where he won the engineering prize which inspired him, aged 16, to go to Glasgow University. In just two and a half years he gained a BSc in Electrical Engineering, graduating in 1943 aged 18. At University he joined the Senior Training Corps and he became part of the Royal Engineer Company; at the end of his service in the STC Gordon qualified for two certificates, A & B, which meant when he was called up, he was classed as a Potential Officer. He also undertook fire-watching duties (in case of enemy invasion) as a member of The Home Guard. Upon graduating, Gordon presented himself for Primary Training at Brancepeth in County Durham, with the Durham Light Infantry. In July he was dispatched to Wrotham in Kent where he was taught to drive in Bedford 15cwt trucks. He did not have to take a civil driving test after this and was still driving up until the beginning of 2020 having never had any reportable accidents in all of that time. Gordon’s training continued with a general engineering course at Loughborough and then at Foremark Hall near Repton in Derbyshire to start training to be an officer on the 47th Course at the Officer Cadet Training Unit for the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers. REME had only been formed the previous year from elements of the Ordnance Corps, the Service Corps and the Royal Engineers to bring together all the mechanical and electrical engineering disciplines. The course included a lot of ‘square bashing’, but Gordon also learned about Army organisation, map reading, field exercises, and instructing. Gordon was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on 12 November 1943; his training continued at Loughborough College and in April 1944, at 8 Central Workshop REME at Chilwell, near Nottingham to learn about motor transport and tracked vehicles. Towards the end of May 1944 everything was gearing up for D-Day and Gordon found himself in Cambridgeshire where he ran a small workshop, a Light Aid Detachment, which was situated on the Letchworth bypass. There they had scores of Bren Carriers lined up on the verges on both sides of the road waiting to be driven to Tilbury Docks for shipping across the Channel after the engines had been waterproofed to protect them when they landed on the beaches. In July, Gordon went to the Military College of Science to learn about Anti-Aircraft Guns and Equipment on the 39th AA EME’s course, which included lectures on the theory behind various pieces of fire control equipment, from searchlights and sound locators to the new predictors - these were really the forerunner of computers, which in conjunction with rangefinders, or later with Radar, enabled the guns to track enemy aircraft. After that he went to a vehicle training unit based in Mitcham, South London and the final part of Gordon’s training took place at the REME Depot at Arborfield in Berkshire. Here he spent six weeks learning how to organise and administer a workshop, coordination of the various trades, planning and provision of stores etc. He was now fully trained to take over the maintenance of anti-aircraft equipment operated by the Royal Artillery in the field. Gordon’s first posting was to 10 Anti-Aircraft Regt Workshop based in Doncaster which he joined immediately after Christmas 1944. After a couple of days he went to join a Light Aid Detachment at Louth in Lincolnshire, a top priority job to assist the Royal Artillery of AA Command to install 12 new gun sites, one every mile along the coast in order to defend Manchester from attack by buzz bombs. Each site had to have four 3.7in AA guns installed together with their associated Fire Control Equipment. Fortunately for Gordon there were no buzz bombs during the three months it took to complete the full installation. After two weeks home leave, Gordon travelled to Nottingham where his embarkation draft was being assembled. He was issued with khaki drill uniforms there ready for service in a warmer climate. He had no official word about where he was going but inspired guessing led him to buy an Italian dictionary, which he studied on the ship on the way. On Monday 26 March 1945 he left for Nottingham Waterloo Road Station in full service marching order, ie. carrying nearly everything in backpacks, plus respirators, water
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bottles, and small arms. As an Officer he was allowed, in addition, a trunk with his dress uniforms and other clothes, as well as a camp kit consisting of a bed roll, a safari bed, blankets, washstand and canvas basin and bucket. He still had most of this equipment in his attic until he donated all his camp kit, alongside all his technical literature, to the REME Museum before he died. On 10 April 1945, Gordon’s ship sailed into Naples Bay and he undertook censoring mail from the troops, practicing firing his revolver and visiting Pompeii! He was promoted to Captain in November 1945 and for the next four years he was moved around Italy and Austria, repairing trucks and tanks from a variety of mobile workshops. Gordon’s last posting in Italy came in March 1947 when he went to the Headquarters of CMF at Padova as a Staff Captain in the REME Directorate. He was to be responsible for workshop organisation, allotment of work and labour, provision of stores and equipment throughout the CMF. At this time, REME, which had had only a temporary cap badge since its formation in 1942, was given a new one, so the Colonel decided that it was the right time to hold a celebratory dinner (which Gordon had a hand in organising) to commemorate the ‘coming of age’ so to speak. It was held in the Danielli Hotel banqueting hall in Venice by St Mark’s Square; the hotel was one of two where Officers could stay when on leave - for the princely sum of one shilling (5p) per night! Finally Gordon’s demob number came up and he was posted back to the UK in June 1947 for discharge from the Army. He travelled by train to Calais and then on to Woking where he was processed and had to hand in his kit and be fitted out with civilian clothes. He was allowed to keep some kit, like his camp kit and some battledress and boots, and, of course, some of his uniform was his anyway as Officers had to buy their own. The ‘civvies’ consisted of a suit, shirt and tie, an overcoat, shoes and a hat which did him quite well for several years. Technically he was then on 83 days leave on full pay and with a gratuity, which was about £80. Having left the Army, Gordon successfully applied to join the Regular Army Reserve of Officers (RARO) and was finally released from this obligation in 1965. Gordon married Betty, a fellow member of a vocal group at his local church in Glasgow in 1952 and eventually settled in Abingdon, Oxfordshire, after securing a job with the Vacuum Group and then The Rutherford Laboratory at Harwell. He remained there until retiring in 1988. Gordon was always thoroughly involved with the local church, where he undertook a large number of duties. He visited the REME Museum at Arborfield and also twice visited Lyneham where he was excited to see the displays and exhibits, especially when he and his grandson, Andrew, were given a personal guided tour by the REME Association Hub Manager, Stuart Cowen. Gordon had lived alone since losing his wife in 1996, and coped admirably with everything, including cooking which he had rarely done before. He towed his caravan to Scotland on a number of occasions and was very at home with computers; the internet allowed him to keep in touch with his family and friends, do his shopping and research his family tree. Gordon died five weeks short of his 97th birthday and leaves three daughters, six grandchildren and a great-grandson he was lucky enough to hold, despite the restrictions brought about by COVID19.
Brig (Retd) Tom Paine Scribe: Major General Malcolm Wood CBE (late RLC) Brigadier Tom Paine died on 15 December 2020, aged 66, after a prolonged battle with cancer. Always known as Tom, he was actually born Andrew Philip Paine in May 1954. He was educated at the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe and it was suggested by fellow pupil Mike Oldnall’s (Colonel late REME) father, then a serving REME Major, that if Tom was interested in the Army and engineering he should join REME! Tom completed his Engineering Degree at Pembroke College, Cambridge and this was where I first met him. He was commissioned into REME in 1973 prior to
