大象传媒

When the war began, I was working as a senior reporter at the head office in Stourbridge of the County Express, and had acquired a detailed knowledge of the area.18th April 1940 I was called up for Army service, and because of my physical condition - I had been previously labelled "a weed" by a doctor. I was graded B, so I arrived at the RAMC depot, Boyce Barracks, Crookham in Hampshire. I found myself in a barrack room with about 20 fellows, mainly young Welshmen. I had brought with me 1 book, a copy of Hamlet, and in my mind I had the lines "The world is out of joint,O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right".
I found that 4 of the lads in the barrack room could not read or write and one of them could hardly speak English. This lad was within a few days found coughing up blood in the ablution block, and it was obvious that he was an advanced stage of TB, and my social conscience was aroused, that a doctor had allowed him to be recruited. Either side of my bed were 2 Welsh lads, one of whom used to cry at night for his wife and the other one Bryn Jones, who had been a potboy at a pub in Tredeger, seemed unable to communicate with any family. I took on the job of writing letters to his mother who could not read and took them to the local minister to read to her. She was amazed at the length and content of these letters. Having been a professional journalist, I had written a real letter, telling her his experiences. She wondered who on earth he was in contact with. I was extremely touched when a few weeks later, just as I was about to get into bed, a message came from the guardhouse to say that 2 men had arrived, and wanted to see me. So I got dressed again, and went to the fence, to find 2 young men who had cycled from Guildford over 30 miles to thank me for looking after Bryn. The last I heard of him was that he was in hospital after working in the cookhouse, and had dipped both hands in a bucket of caustic soda, thinking it was water.
After doing square bashing for about 3 weeks, I was put into the company office to employ my typing skills. After a few more weeks at the depot I was posted to the staff of the Army School of Hygiene at Keogh Barracks, Mytchett. One of the top medical establishments, where courses were held to instruct other ranks from Army units in water supplies and sanitation in the field, and courses for officers who were likely to serve in tropical parts. For about 2 1/2 years I was employed as clerk in the Quartermaster's office, in the General office, and dealing with th ecompany's pay.
Among the privates on the staff were professional young men with whom I made friends. This establishment was the apple of the war office's eye, and the Commandant Colonel Bruce Allnutt, was determined to make life pleasant for those who attended the courses.
A supply of body lice was required for testing on DDT, and I and a few of the small group of friends volunteered to hatch out the eggs and feed the nymphs on our bodies. We were presented with small boxes of body lice eggs covered with a fine gauze, and these were attached to our arms until the eggs had hatched, and the nymphs fed through the gauze for sustenance for our bodies.
It was a party piece of mine when I was invited out to enquire of my host whether they would like to see my lice. Eventually the experiment was abandoned when it was found that the gauze was not sufficiently fine and during the night a swarm of the lice had escaped into the bed of my parisitoligist friend.
Another interesting voluntary job with which I was involved was to participate in two films illustrating aspects of RAMC. About a dozen volunteers were required to take part in a demonstration of the operation of a mobile bath unit in the field. This involved stripping off and lining up to await ones turn to demonstrate having a shower bath under a tripod. Two professional actors were engaged to bring a humerous tone to the film, but they were not required to take a bath, but merely to scratch themselves indicating they had scabies. A well set up corporal who had been a professional footballer was selected to show how one efficently wash oneself,alas this burly scotsman was quite unable to approach the bath without exposing his manhood and in despair the filmmaker in charge scanned the queue of naked bodies shivering in the cold for a more suitable candidate for the bath. To my surprise he pointed to me, who probably had the frailest body and I duly demonstarted how to approach the bath and wash myself thoroughly without exposing myself. Some months later I was told by a civilian friend that she had seen me when the film was shown in the local cinema in Farnborough. I had another part in an army film which was to illustrate antimalarial measures. The large frenchham pond near Farnborough had been drained as it would have served as a guide to German bombers to Aldershot and Farnborough airfields and the area had taken on the apperance of a desert. We were sent Kahki uniforms but unfortunately they were all one size - to fit the largest guardsman- being of a very small frame I was obviously swamped by the uniform. We were requested to run around this sand issuing tablets and using 'antimalarial' sprays. As I wore spectacles I was asked to take them off. Being shortsighted however I found myself running around without a clue as to where I was heading, combined with the overlarge uniform I must have looked like a real scarecrow.

Story told by Harry Jack Haden.

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