Click on the thumbnail pictures for a larger image
So now we had two Battalions of Grenadiers in London, the first at Wellington Barracks, and the Second Battalion at Chelsea. We were the only Guards Battalions in London at that time and so as a consequence had plenty of Public Duties to attend to. The 2nd Battalion mounted its first Public Duty on December 30th 1952 the first since 1939. Queen Mary died on March 24th 1953 while in her sleep so that was two Royal deaths that had occurred within a very short time. Both the First and Second Battalions provided detachments for the Funeral Procession, street lining, Guard of Honour and pallbearer party for Queen Mary. We were also to prepare for the Coronation, which was due to take place on the second June 1953. The next important event on the calendar was for both the First and Second Battalions of Grenadiers to be presented with new colours in the gardens of Buckingham Palace which was quite a memorable occasion. After the inspection the old colours of the First and Second Battalions carried by 2Lts MKB Colvin, RA Lindsay, BC Beaumont Nesbitt and MCG Jeffreys were trooped. The Battalions marched off very smartly to the strains of Auld Lang Syne. The Queen congratulated both Commanding Officers (Lt Col's PW Marsham MBE and C Earle DSO OBE) and RSM'S (LE Burrell and AG Everett on the standard achieved. I have a leaflet that was given to our Commanding Officer who in turn let me have it. This coloured leaflet was only issued to a privileged few and had been signed by the Queen. It contained the text of her speech spoken at the Presentation of the Colours on the day 7th May 1953.
When the Battalion had settled down after moving back to England I talked my brother Rodney into joining the Grenadiers. I had informed the Colonel of my brother's intention to join the regiment and he said that he would like to see him before he finally made his mind up to enlist. A suitable time was arranged and I then escorted my Brother to see the Commanding Officer of the Battalion in his rooms at Chelsea Barracks. The Colonel at that time was Lt Col Charles Earle DSO OBE. The Colonel had taken charge of the 2nd Battalion in Germany as our Commanding Officer having been promoted to this rank after leaving the Sandhurst Military Academy. He had been the Adjutant at the Academy since 1947/51 and had joined us for the remainder of our posting in BAOR, (British Army of the Rhine).
After I had introduced my brother the Colonel informed Rodney of his expectations when enlisting in the regiment. He was told that because of his young age he would have to enter the regiment as a Boy then after a suitable period of time he would commence his service as a Guardsman. Soon after this interview Rodney enlisted in the Regiment at the age of sixteen years as a boy entrant into the 2nd Battalion in the corps of drums. His regimental number was 22545696 and he then began his mandatory period of service in the “Drums ". Then when Rodney had reached seventeen and a half years of age he started what was known as his “Mans service ". Rodney was put into the Tailors shop as an apprentice tailor and undertook many training courses to further his abilities in his new trade. Tailoring had been Rodney's job in civilian life before he had joined the army and so he had some knowledge of the trade when he joined the army. Rodney was eventually to complete a period of twenty-six years in the 2nd Battalion finishing his service as a Full Sergeant Master Tailor.
For the next few months whilst stationed at Chelsea my duties as the Colonels Orderly and Public Duties kept me quite busy. Orderly duty entailed looking after the Colonels welfare and making sure his equipment was up to standard and his rooms at the Officers Mess were clean and tidy. One of the hardest duties was cleaning his “Sam Brown uniform" after he had been sitting on his horse all day. The polish on his highly polished knee length boots used to crack off with the sweat from the horse. It was quite a task to get the polish to adhere to the surface of the boots after the salt from the sweat had penetrated the leather. Despite these chores however I still had time to leave the barracks usually on a Wednesday afternoon to purchase items needed to fulfil my obligations as an Orderly. One of the reasons that I chose to go out on Wednesday was because I had been given tickets by Vera Lynn to attend her recordings at the three Star Studios' in Paddington London.
Vera used to sing regularly every Wednesday at the Studios accompanied by Stanley Black and his Orchestra to record for Radio Luxembourg.
Vera Lynn came to fame before the War but in 1940 was known as The Forces Sweetheart. I mentioned Vera in the early part of my memoirs when she sang for the troops, so I now had the opportunity to meet her. Her theme song was “We’ll meet Again" As I was in a position to get off duty at that time I would go with the Colonels driver to see her perform. At the commencement of the show a large placard would be displayed with the words of the songs written in large letters for every one to see. The compare would then say, “In front of a packed audience of Service men and woman from all over the world Vera Lynn sings". This was perhaps an exaggeration as we appeared to be the only Service Personnel there but it was good to be away from the barracks anyway. As we left the show we would be handed a large bunch of tickets for the next week’s performance. I really should have kept some of those as a souvenir of my visit but unfortunately never did. We were asked to give them to our mates so that they could also attend these broadcasts but a lot of them were not able to take advantage of the offer as duties kept them in barracks. Vera Lynn was eventually made a Dame of the British Empire for her services to the entertainment industry.
At the edge of the Barrack Square in Chelsea there was a public telephone adjacent to the cookhouse. Girls from outside the barracks used to call on this telephone when they wanted to make dates with the Guardsmen. They had obviously used this number a few times and had obviously scored a partner for the night. When I was walking by the phone one day it rang and when I answered it a young nurse told me that she had got some tickets from the Nuffield Centre and wanted an escort to take her to a musical show. Ah" Ah “I thought a cheap night out so I readily accepted this date which was to accompany her to the Musical “Call Me Madam ' showing at the London Coliseum at that time. We met and had a really a good night out and Ethel Merman took thirteen curtain calls for one of her songs during that performance. The show was a great success for every one concerned and the complimentary tickets of course were a great bonus. I obviously failed to make another date with this lady, as I cannot remember meeting her again. Perhaps I never made her expectations so that may have been the explanation for it. On another occasion when I was walking past the same telephone it again rang so I quickly ran to answer it not really knowing what to expect. Once again it was another young lady seeking an escort to another musical show in the City so after talking for a while we arranged to meet at a designated place in Charing Cross. Later when I had actually arrived at that meeting place I noticed a Woman standing there and as she looked a bit forbidding so I pretended not to see her. So I carried on walking and went the other way so she could be standing there still. On another occasion I arranged to meet a nurse from one of the local hospitals and we went out for an evening's entertainment at the Nuffield Centre. After the show I took her back to her quarters at the nurses home where she lived whilst working at the hospital. She led me round to the rear of the building to say good-night and when she took three bricks out from the bushes so that she could stand on them I realized that I was not the first Guardsmen she had entertained in this way. Nothing untoward happened of course and after a while I then made my way back to Chelsea barracks and so to bed for a couple of hours. Next morning it was back to the usual drills and duties and never ending kit cleaning.
In the winter of those days our kit used to get dirty more quickly owing to the fog getting into the very old buildings at Chelsea barracks. The brass chinstraps and belt buckles were always needing to been shone up.
Pictured is the live bear that this ceremonial cap was made from before the use of synthetic material became mandatory. Whilst performing the duties as Orderly to the Commanding Officer I, along with the Colonels driver and another officer were trained as crew for his big Yacht a “Gaff Rigged Ketch called Linty." pictured here in full sail.
This was a big yacht with seven large sails, a thousand square feet of sail and was forty-three feet long and weighed twenty-three tons. We were members of the Royal Yacht Squadron and trained every Wednesday afternoon and most weekends in the Solent Southampton water. We slept on the yacht at the Royal Yacht Squadron Base and practiced during the day until we were proficient in all aspects of sailing and boat work. Whilst we were sleeping on the yacht I noticed that the Queen Mary was tied up at the wharf so I took a photo of it. I also photographed the Queen Mary, pictured,
Before it sailed off the next day on its voyage to places unknown. We were at the Royal Yacht Squadron base during the Queens review of the fleet The Commanding Officers uncle was the Vice Admiral of the Aircraft Carrier Eagle so we were all invited aboard to see this huge vessel. We were shown around the aircraft carrier by a petty officer and then dined on board with him eating in a place called the Admirals Pantry. My memories of that particular time were of the stability of the carrier. It did not appear to be moving at all. I suppose that was because it was so large that one really did not get the impression of being on the sea at all. It may have been quite different though when one was well out to sea and perhaps would have been more aware of the surroundings.
Whilst we were being entertained by the Petty Officer the Commanding Officer was being entertained by the Admiral in much more lush surroundings. We did not get to have a cup of tea with the Queen and the Duke of course as the Admiral of the Fleet was on board the H.M.S Vanguard entertaining them. However I was thankful to have been given this marvellous opportunity to be allowed to take part in this historic occasion anyway. After the review was over we were taken back to our yacht and we then left for our home base to prepare the yacht for our trip abroad. After a lot more sea training on the yacht the time soon came for us to provision up and then we sailed off on a month’s trip leaving Southampton in the August of 1953. Pictured is some of the crew with Colonel Charles Earle at the helm. I am not pictured of course as I was hanging on to the bowsprit taking the pictures.
We took our thirty days annual leave with the promise that we could have it later. During a storm in the English Channel we lost our staysail, but the yacht handled very well without this and we were all ok. The CO's driver was pretty sea sick though as he had to see to the engine and pump the bilges when the yacht started to take water down below. Fortunately I was occupied topside in the fresh air and was busy handling the sails etc so I was not sick at all.
Whilst sailing down the English coast on our way to France we stopped off at a small port in Cornwall, I think it was called Polperro. The Commanding officer then went to see a friend of his, " Lieutenant General Sir Frederick " Boy" Browning" Commander of the 1st Airborne Corps during the War. Sir Frederick was the husband of Daphne DE Maurerer the writer and it would have been quite something to have met them both but unfortunately I never had the opportunity. I had read a lot about this man and he seemed to have had an interesting career by all accounts. When the CO returned to the yacht we then left crossing the English Channel and sailed towards the French coast. The next three weeks were spent tacking across the Channel. ‘Tacking a term used when bringing the yacht momentarily into the wind so as to go on the opposite tack to gain benefit from the wind. It took us quite some effort to do this but by the time we reached Cap Vincente on the Spanish Coast and returned to Conquarno Finistere we were quite fit and adept at performing this manoeuvre.
We were fortunate in that we were able to spend some free time in several of the French Ports and were thus able to take a few photographs. Of course the time flew by and we would have to return to the yacht to sail off into the sunset making our way back towards England. During the journey we called at a few interesting French Ports namely: Isle De Muttons, (Island of sheep) Isle De Guerre (Island of war) and Quim pere on the Brittany Coast. We had a bit of a problem however after we had filled up the ships engine fuel tanks at one of the French Ports and the attendants had given us the wrong fuel. As a consequence of this the CO's driver who was responsible for looking after the yacht's engine's had to get rid of the suspect fuel called ( Gus oil ), this name was given by the CO. The driver spent a lot of time below and as a consequence was very seasick. Fortunately for me I could not help him in this job otherwise I might have been sick also but I had to steer the yacht at that time as the weather was a bit rough. The Commanding Officer had other important duties to attend to and was also otherwise engaged. The voyage was not all traumas though and we had some very interesting experiences as well.
One incident I remember that happened whilst I was on very early morning steerage duty on the yacht. It was just getting light and we had the White Ensign furled which was the normal procedure at dawn and dusk. This was an old navy tradition handed down through the ages when standards were lowered at last light and raised at first light the next day. All Royal Navy and members of the Royal Yacht Squadron fly the White Ensign and the Colonel was one of the privileged few. Very early that morning I saw a French Liner approaching my Port side and so I quickly awoke the Colonel and informed him that this was a large Liner approaching us on our Port Bow. The Colonel said to me “watch the fun now, go and hoist the White Ensign ", so I hastened to comply with his directive. As soon as the ensign unfurled it and flapped in the breeze the French Liner came alive, sirens sounded, all their flags were run up in salute. There seemed to be a lot of noise and activity coming from the decks of the ship. This was because we were in French territorial waters and French ships had to pay their respects and salute the White Ensign of the Royal Yacht Squadron, so I had got a lot of them out of bed early it seems.
The CO's driver and I went ashore at a place called Conquerno Finisterre and enjoyed looking around the French town and tasting the delicious French bread and butter. Whilst we were still on shore in Conquerno the Colonel who was still on board raised the “Blue Peter “to the mast head. At that time we did not know what that particular flag was meant to portray but soon found out when we got back to the ship. It was the signal “Ship ready to sail waiting crew ", so we were told off for being late back. We stopped off at quite a few nice French ports on our sailing expedition flying the yellow flag as we entered port. This was the quarantine flag and had to be flown by all ships entering port and no one was allowed to go ashore until customs had come out to the ship and cleared the crew for entry. Whilst we were sailing back on our way to England from the Continent we were delayed in an area about two miles from the French coast because of dense fog. After spending the night anchored about two miles from the coast, the Colonel heard some French fishing boats nearby and called out to them. He spoke perfect French and so was able to tell them what he wanted. The skipper of one of the French fishing boats told the Colonel to follow at the rear of the fishing fleet. We did so at a much reduced rate of knots in the fog, as apparently there were lots of uncharted rocks in that area. We were soon at anchor at the designated spot and awaited customs clearance before we could leave the yacht. After the preliminaries were taken care of we went ashore and attended to our chores taking on water, refuelling etc. Later we resumed our journey making our way back towards the English Coast. By the time we arrived back in England we were really proficient sailors and could handle the yacht like professionals.
One incident that occurred that stood out in my memory whilst we were on the cruise happened after we had sailed into Torbay Harbour for the night. We hove to about half a mile out in the harbour as the tide was out at our time of arrival. When the Colonel had completed the Customs and Quarantine arrangements the Colonel's driver and I were told that we could have the evening off to go to a dance in Torquay. This was another small sea port town situated about twelve miles away around the bay. The Colonel said that he would leave the painter (wooden boat) tied up at the pier as we had two of those boats on board. This would allow us to get back on board at night as we were about a half a mile from shore. We had a good night at the dance even though I was not a dancer and had difficulty trying to negotiate the other people on the dance floor. During the evening we entertained two young ladies. At the end of the night's festivities we walked the two girls to their homes afterwards and missed the last bus into Torbay as a consequence. So nothing daunting despite the lateness of the hour we set off to walk the twelve miles back to Torbay. When we got back the boat was not there, and it was by this time about three am next morning. My mate said “what are we going to do now I cannot swim and we have to get back on board, so I said that I would try to find the Yacht. I took off all of my clothes and swam off in the general direction where I thought that it would be. After about an hour although it seemed more I located the yacht and climbed aboard up a rope which was hanging over the side. I was completely naked and hoped that no one would see me; I then gently lowered the boat down to the sea level. Quietly climbing aboard I rowed off to the place where I had left my mate hoping no one would see me in all my glory. I located him, clothed myself over my wet body and we then rowed back to the ship climbed aboard and went to our beds situated in the Lounge. When the Colonel came through for his breakfast that morning, he realized that he had forgotten to leave the boat tied up at the jetty. On hearing our story and the trouble we had to get back on board, he really thought that it was a story worth telling. So for weeks afterwards the story of the naked batman and his episode with the boat went around the Officers Mess. So it would appear that I had made quite an impression with everyone at that time.
Life settled down again after that very memorable episode in my life and so we returned to our normal duties. I had quite a busy time whilst I was stationed at Chelsea in London and took part in lots of public duties during the short period of time that the battalion served in England. One of my favourite duties was as the senior corporal on the Tower of London Guard.
This historical complex was first started by William the 1st after the battle of Hastings in 1066 and was built within the walls of the Roman City of Londinium (AD 43) King William granted London its charter and made it the capital. The Tower of London complex has been added to over the centuries and now covers a much larger area (about 16 acres). The White Tower which is the only original building of the Norman period remaining was the first section to be built and was completed later by William Rufus and is one of the oldest keeps in Western Europe. Henry III and other Kings added to the castle over the centuries adding thirteen Towers, some of which included the: Lion Tower, Byward Tower, Middle Tower and many more. London had a terrible bloody history and the book “Prisoners in the Tower “by Olwen Hedley makes good reading as it describes the tragic history of the Tower very well.
Tower of London Guard was only a small guard with one Officer and twenty-two other ranks. We went on duty at eleven thirty in the morning and were ferried to the tower in three ton vehicles from Chelsea Barracks. I was detailed to perform spur guard quite often as this was one of the duties of corporal, to post the sentries and patrol the designated area. I enjoyed performing this duty as it gave me the opportunity to converse with the "Beefeaters." This was the name given to the men who formed the Yeomen of the Guard. I learned a lot of the Tower history from these people who were retired old soldiers. One Yeoman told me the story of how the six ravens came to be at the Tower. There were six of these Ravens and they have been kept at the Tower since the Tower was built not the same ones of course but a continuing succession of replacement birds. This breed of bird lives to the ripe old age of about twenty five years it seems which surprised me as I thought they lived for about seven or eight years at the most. Their wings were clipped to stop them breeding as they only breed in flight. When one bird dies another is brought in from Scotland, Wales, or the west of England to replace the dead bird. Legend has it that should the ravens depart, “The Tower and the Kingdom will fall” hence the clipping of their wings. Whilst on Tower Guard I would be asked from time to time to sign autographs and be photographed and of course being very shy and modest I would agree to perform this chore. This was a far cry from my youth when I would blush to the roots of my hair if someone had looked at me. So being in the Guards must have done something special with me to get over that incident in my life. They probably asked me because I was so tall and handsome but I often wonder where the photos ended up.
One night whilst I was on duty at the front gate of the Tower (these gates were locked at night) and the Residents had to have a password to get back in to the Tower. On this particular night one of the residents had forgotten the password that was changed at regular intervals so; I would not let him in until the Duty Officer had cleared him. I remember the Middle Tower Gate key well; it was huge and had been welded in the middle as at sometime it had snapped in half.
Quite a large proportion of the local residents who have lived in London for many years did not realize that the Tower had always contained resident animals. In the very early days there were elephants, leopards, and polar bears. Then lions and other types of animals were added to the collection over a period of time. It was said that James II used to use the bears for bear bating in the Royal Menagerie within the confines of the Tower. It must have been quite a large and busy area in those days. One of the Towers was called the “Lion Tower" obviously because a lot of lions had been kept there. King Henry the 3rd first started this Menagerie in 1216, so some of the animals are fairly old eh. The Menagerie was finally closed in 1834, and the animals were taken to Regents Park and so the London Zoo as we know it today was started from that time.
One memory I recall while I was on Main Guard Tower of London and this happened about 1 am one in the morning. I was corporal of the guard and had posted the three Sentries on their respective points at twelve midnight. The Duty Officer was due to go on his rounds of the sentries at about 1.45 am. So I did my tour of the sentry points before that time to make sure that were all alert. I think that number one post was opposite the Bloody Tower, number two was the Byward Tower, near the gate of Spur Guard and number three was near where the two Princes were found. The story of the " Princes in the Tower " related to the Duke of Clarence (who was the brother of King Edward the fourth) he was suspected of having drowned the two sons of King Edward IV the Duke of York and Edward the fifth. The Tudor's tried to blame Richard III but research has since proven this to be wrong. Anyway on with the story, I looked for the number one sentry, and could not find him, the second one was not there either, and so it went on no sentry at number three posts. By this time I was pretty worried but as I continued to look around I heard a noise and saw all my sentries dozing under the wall of Raleigh's Walk, their rifles propped up against the wall. They were petrified when I caught them, so after dressing them down (told them off) I warned them of the consequences had they been caught by the Duty Officer, they would have been severely dealt with. They pleaded with me not to report them and promised not to be so stupid in the future so after considering the issue I let them off with a warning.
One of the interesting historical events that still takes place at the Tower of London at 2155 hrs every night is the " Ceremony of the Keys ".
This is one of the important public ceremonies that have been going on for over 700 years. It is based on securing the Tower at night by the Chief Yeoman Warder and his escort of four members of the guard plus a guardsman with a lantern. They encounter the Main tower guard under the Bloody Tower. After having challenged them the sentry shouts," Who comes there " the reply," the Keys" "the Sentry" replies Who's Keys" the Warder" replies "Queen Elizabeth's Keys", the sentry then say's" pass the keys and is well. They continue to the inner court where the complete tower guard is turned out and the guard “presents arms ". The yeoman warder then doffs his Tudor bonnet and calls “God preserve Queen Elizabeth", and all the guard say amen, and the Warder and escort pass. The last post is sounded around tower green at exactly ten o'clock. The keys are then lefts in charge of the resident governor to be picked up on the following morning.
For the next few months we were kept busy with lots of practice drills in preparation for the Coronation, most of which were performed in the grounds of Chelsea Barracks. The walls of the old buildings in the Barracks resounded with the sounds of the massed bands of the Brigade of Guards. The skirl of the bagpipes and the colourful uniforms lent a really historical atmosphere to the rather drab buildings. The following pictures give the reader some idea of the activities that were going on at that time.
1953 was a memorable year and everything of any consequence seemed to happen during that period in time. In fact it was on the very morning of the Coronation that we were informed that Edmund Hillary who was a New Zealand Beekeeper by trade had conquered Everest. Colonel, Sir John Hunt was Leader of the Everest Team, and the guide" Sherpa Tensing Norkay” and Sir Edmund Hillary as he was later to become were the two successful climbers. A medal was struck for the Coronation Ceremony but only a few people were ever issued with one as there was only a limited number sent to each Battalion of the Regiments involved. I did not get a medal unfortunately as they were only given to certain people who had performed more onerous duties at that time.
I took part in the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth whilst I was Orderly to the Colonel. I remember at that time I had to strap his hand up with his sword in it, and he had to sit on a horse for many hours. The previous week he had fallen through the skylight in his yacht, and had to have fourteen stitches in his hand. He had to be on parade for many hours on that day at the Coronation and was worn out when it was all over. He would not go sick as he said that his duties came first and he did not want to miss this important occasion anyway. There were 8000 marchers from all over the British Commonwealth marching in the procession that day. Despite all of these problems however everything went off really well.
The First Battalion Grenadiers had a marching party commanded by Major WGS Tozer, the remainder of the Battalion were lining the streets. The Second Battalion Grenadiers also found a marching party and also lined the streets in the Mall under the command of Major the Hon GNC Wigram. Whilst in the Knightsbridge barracks waiting for the Colonel I took lots of photos of Bengal Lancers, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and lots of African regiments. Most of these came to the barracks to prepare for the Coronation of Her Majesty. It kept pouring with rain through most of the proceedings but the people were not in the least worried though and put up with the inconvenience of it all. Despite all of these problems however everything went off really well. They all seemed to enjoy the pomp and circumstance going on around them and hardly noticed the rain at all.
As the State Coach came down the Mall there was another cloudburst and the rain came pouring down even harder than before The Royal coach had water all over the floor but this did not stop this historic event proceeding. I could hear the cheering from my position at the top window in Wellington Barracks. I had chosen this spot as soon as I had attended to my duties for the Colonel, and stayed there taking photo's of the day's proceedings. Apparently private business people drove some of the coaches in the procession, as there were not enough drivers to take all of the dignitaries to the Cathedral. The heavy rain had filled some of the floors of the coaches as the water could not get away quick enough, so it must have been quite uncomfortable for the people sitting in them. The Guardsmen lining the route had to contend with the heavy rain, which had made their bearskin caps very heavy and difficult to stay in place. However they were proud to be associated with such an important event as this and put up with the inconvenience.
Randolph Turpin won back the world middleweight boxing title from Charles Humez of France on June the 9th 1953 at the White City in London. On the 27th June 1953 Winston Churchill had a severe stroke which left him paralysed on his left side and he lost his ability to speak. Blackpool with Stanley Mathews in the side won the FA Cup by beating Bolton Wanderers at Wembley Stadium. The Queen was there also and presented the cup to the Blackpool Captain Harry Johnston. Her Majesty had a continuous round of engagements for this the Coronation Year and must have been worn out by the time the year came to an end. On the 27th July 1953 the war ended in Korea and there was peace once again. Then a battle of a different kind was won when on the 19th August England won the fifth and final test and wrested the ashes from Australia after a period of twenty years. Denis Compton hit a boundary, which gave England the win. Len Hutton and Bill Edrich were another two well-known members of that team. I think Lindsay Hackett was the Australian Captain at that time and the team was presented to the Queen at Lords on day.
There were many other duties that we had to perform whilst we were stationed at Chelsea Barracks. These included “Trooping of the Colour, Tower of London Guard, Clarence House, Bank of England Piquet etc. During my service with the Grenadiers I managed to take quite a few photos of my army service, as photography was one of my interests in those days. My brother Rodney used to do piquet duty at the Bank of England whilst we were stationed in London. Rodney told me that he fused all the power in the Bank one night that he was on duty. He apparently had plugged in a radio that he had taken into the building which had conflicted with the banks electrical system. This incident caused a lot of problems with the security system and the security officer was not too happy with Rod. Rodney was in the Corps of Drums and Bank Piquet was traditionally done by them. That duty has now been discontinued unfortunately so another well known tradition has now passed into obscurity.
One interesting incident I remember that took place whilst I was on Public Duties on St James Palace. I was Senior Corporal in the Battalion having just come back from Germany and had not done any Public Duties on the Palaces. It was just my luck to be detailed for an "Escort to the Colour' duty on the St James Palace Guard.
KING HENRY V111 started St James Palace in 1509 after he acquired the land from the Hospital of St James, hence the name “St James ". The Senior Corporal took charge of the guard duty and everyone worked with him on this duty. This duty entailed meeting the Officer of the Guard at the Officers Mess after we had completed forty-eight hours on Guard Duty. Before we formed up for the Guard dismount I asked the Duty Officer what my duties consisted of. I told the officer that I had not had the opportunity to perform this duty before as I had only recently just returned to England from overseas service in BAOR. The Officer stated that I would report to the Officers Mess and form up with my escort outside and wait for him to join us. I would be leading and he would get behind me followed by the other corporal behind him in line. I would then march off to the parade, which would already be formed up in Friars Court in front of the Palace. I would then left wheel and form up on the left of the Company Sergeant Major and from then on would work under his direction. So we marched off and I continued into “Friars Court" wondering when the Officer would say left wheel. Then I heard a tremendous bellow from the Sergeant Major" who shouted “you dozy Corporal place yourself in open arrest." I then halted did a smart turn round and found myself on my own about ten yards from my escort. I marched back to the place where I should have been, and took my place next to the company sergeant major and wondered when it would be a good time to change my underwear. I carried on with the guard dismount parade now under the guidance of the RSM and every thing returned to normal. There were lots of spectators around and I heard people say," poor man wonder what will happen to him now". When we got back to Chelsea barracks I was told by the sergeant major to attend Adjutants memoranda the next morning. I attended the Adjutants Parade the next morning and was referred to the Commanding Officers memoranda at 1100 hrs the same day. After marching in at a furious rate on memoranda I was asked if I had anything to say. When I attempted to speak I was told by the Sergeant Major to shut up. This Colonel however who was taking the place of the usual Commanding Officer who was on leave at that time allowed me to speak as it was a considered a serious charge. I explained to the Colonel that I had just returned to England from an overseas posting and had found that I was the Senior Corporal in the Battalion. As part of my Public Duties commitment I found that I had been detailed for the Escort to the Colour on St James Palace Guard. I told the Colonel that I had asked the officer what my duties consisted of and was told that I would pick up him up at the officer's mess. Being the Senior Corporal I would lead the group, the Officer would be in the middle, and the junior corporal behind the Officer. I was told that I would march out to Friars court left wheel on to the Company Sergeant Major, order arms and stand at ease. After this would then work with the rest of the guard dismount. I did as was explained to me then marched out expecting the Officer to give me the order to left wheel on to the Company Sergeant Major. After I had explained this to the Colonel he said that he realized how the mistake had occurred. He then went on to say that the onus was on me as the senior corporal to act on my own and not expect orders to be given by the officer. He continued, saying that I had an excellent record and the Commanding Officer thought very highly of me as his batman and had only good things to say about me. With this in mind his punishment was quite light and I was to attend evening orders seven nights." so I really got off on what could have been a more serious charge. Very soon after this episode and all of the Public duties and other commitments behind us early in the March of 1954 we sailed to Egypt in the Empire Hallidale, pictured.
Continued. Egypt.
Site Index.