Interest Piece
Curious REME Job “One of the most alien cultures a REME guy could experience” – How Robin Ford, a retired ASM who served the Corps from 1951 to 1970, remembers how, despite intentionally not joining the Navy, he still ended up all at sea as a REME Corporal. Dedicated to Brenda Ford; his clerk, scribe and inspiration of 63 years.
A
s an ex Corps member (retired ASM), I recently purchased a copy of “From the Archives” by Mike Sibbons. He included stories and anecdotes of great interest and made me reflect on a rather unusual posting I had during my service (19511970). It was not only unusual for me, but also for any V + P Electrician (as was) of those days. Whilst I am one who believes our youth and young soldiers are as good today (and sometimes better) than they were in my younger days in the REME, I wonder how current generation would have tackled the posting I am about to describe. In 1959, I was coming to the end of a three year tour in Singapore and anxiously waiting for the ‘lottery’ letter of my next posting. The Singapore posting at LAD 3 BOD RAOC had probably been the best posting in my service. The chief clerk at the “kremlin” informed me one day that I am to be posted back to the UK and to a workshop at Chislehurst, then part of Kent. I constantly heard “you lucky so and so”; even the Padre said it was known as ‘love in a cottage’ country. Having just got married in the garrison chapel, I thought this was great! However, it didn’t last, as another “lottery ticket” was delivered; the bad news was that this cancelled the former and telling me that I was now being posted to a RASC unit. The good news was, or so I thought, was that this job was in Portsmouth. Really good news as I was born in Portsmouth and all my family resides there. I couldn’t believe my luck again – somebody up there likes me! May I digress, troop shipping was phasing out and air trooping Supplying Unit on St Kilda with usual assortment of stores/spares and a new diesel generator
Oct 1958. Beached on St Kilda delivering radar spares (St Kilda scanned the North Sea/Atlantic during the Cold War)
was coming in, so my wife and I felt lucky to be able to experience a plane fight. However, after staying in chartered hotels in Karachi, Calcutta and Basra, we were not sorry to arrive in the UK after four days of traveling. And so to Portsmouth and my new posting. On completion of my disembarkation leave, I was instructed to report to my new unit based at Southsea Castle on the Common. How strange, I thought the last bloke to switch the lights off there was Henry VIII. This was the castle where I had spent many a play day in my youth. Although clearly wearing two stripes, I was greeted by a surly RASC clerk who glared at me with “yeah, what do you want”? He turned out to be a disgruntled young London stock broker doing resentful national service. I will skip my equally belligerent but satisfying response and gave my rank and my name. With a rather more respected attitude, he asked me how long I had been on disembarkation leave. When I told him, he said “well the good news is you’ve got an extra ten days as your boat won’t be back from Stanraer till then as it is on a run to St Kilda! “Boat! Boat! What boat?” “Oh! You’re with RASC water borne transport. The transport is a 1000 ton Tank Landing Craft of which there are seven. Your boat is LCT 4097. This is only the land based headquarters for only us twelve ‘lucky ones’.” I was to find out what ‘lucky’ really meant! With my young wife settled in the bosom of my family
Before submitting an article you are requested to read the guidelines on the inside front cover 37
