大象传媒

The next incident was a bit more serious, still to do with signalling and still when I was stationed at Chigwell.

Colonel Lucy said "A battalion of Grenadier Guards at Victoria Barracks in Windsor which no signallers at all and no signals instructor. I have been requested to provide them with an instructor. I selected you because I know you got top marks on the instructors' course to Catterick. According to your records your 5'9" tall, you won't look too out of place amongst Guardsmen. How quickly can you get down there?"
I said, "Sir, I'll certainly go as long as it's temporary you know how long it take to train men from scratch, it will be a couple of months before I have them trained."
"That's OK. we'll treat it as temporary, but your transferred to the Grenadier Guards, when will you be able to start?" he said.
I said "Sir, it's Friday at the moment. I'll make my way down there by train on Sunday. I'll be ready to start work on Monday morning".
He says, "That's good, I'll notify them."
So on the following Sunday I got a lift to the railway station took the train, the underground, then the ordinary train to Windsor. When I got to Windsor I found where the Barracks was and got there with my kit. Went through the main gate and spoke to the Provost Sergeant.

I said, "My name is Dickson I have been posted to you as a signals instructor. Would you mind showing me where to go?"
He didn't seem terribly pleased, he must have known I was coming because he called over one of the Privates from the guardroom and said, "There's an empty bed for this man," and he mentioned which barrack room. "Take this man up and show him where his bed is."

Sunday afternoon I was taken up to a barrack room and there was an empty bed. I unpacked and put my stuff away there were quite a few soldiers about the barrack room, it was a large room. I shouted up to them, "Hello Boys,"
No one answered me. It seems very strange to me that there was I a stranger from a different regiment and all my rig was different cap colour, different arm band, different stripe colours and no one came down to talk to me or ask me what I was doing there.

However, I got unpacked and got some of my papers out and started preparing a few notes for my first lecture the next day. Then I noticed getting on in the afternoon they all started leaving the barrack room. I thought it must be tea-time, none of them had mentioned to me that it might be tea-time so I sort of followed on I behind and it did take me to the dining room where they served me with a meal without any questions and back to the barrack room and to bed that evening. Even going to bed the man in the next bed to me when he was going to bed, I was getting into bed I said goodnight to him and he never answered me, I thought the whole damn thing a bit strange.

However, next morning just as reveille I was about to blow I swung my legs out of the bed and noticed there was someone standing at the foot of my bed close to the foot of my bed, it was the Regimental Sergeant Major fully dressed complete with Sam Brown belt. As I put my foot on the ground he shouted in a loud loud voice, "Get out of bed you F****n Irish Bastard,"

I was extremely annoyed, I was already getting out of bed when he started shouting. I said "I'm sorry Sergeant Major as a Christian man I don't particularly like your language, particularly when the things you say aren't true, I'm not Irish I'm British born and bred. If I wrote to my Father and told him what you just said about me he would probably come over here and teach you a lesson," in fact my father had died a few years earlier.

After breakfast I had to make inquiries and had difficulty getting answers to find out where the signals section usually met and so forth. Eventually I found a hall were some of the people I was supposed to teach were gathered. I introduced myself. There were about 20 private soldiers a corporal, a sergeant and 3 young Grenadier officers, second Lieutenants in my class for instruction.

Even though I say it myself I had been doing a lot of signal instruction in the Rifles and I gave them a nice opening lecture about infantry signals explained all the type of instruments we used about land lines, telephones, flags for the Morse Code and lamps we used to send signals, heliographs and so forth. Then I put the whole of the Morse Code up on the blackboard in chalk and suggested to them that they all copied into books which they all had, strangely enough.

I said to the Sergeant "I have been asked to come here as a signals instructor and I would like to know what equipment we have to train with, there must be some signals equipment in your camp somewhere and I would like you if possible to show me round the equipment so that I know weather we have sufficient for the Course I am giving or if I need to order new stuff.
I would like to do that as soon as possible and might I suggested to you, Sergeant, now that the men have copied the Morse Code into their books and it's getting near lunch time that you give them the afternoon off with instructions to go to the barrack room and try and memorise as much Morse Code as they can and we can check on it tomorrow, in the meantime Sergeant if you could show me after lunch over your signals store so that I can check on the equipment we have it would help,"
This was agreed and I went back to the barrack room. After lunch went with the Sergeant to check the stocks and so forth. The following morning Tuesday as I wakened as reveille was starting to blow the RSM was again at the foot of my bed and repeated exactly what he had said on Monday morning, "Get out of that bed you F****n Irish Bastard," so during the day the only people who ever spoke to me where the people I was training in the signals squad, they would ask me questions.

The rest of the day in the barrack room no one spoke to me; that went on all week it was annoying, even when I went to the NAAFI no one sat beside me or talked to me, I had a feeling I was being boycotted and I had a feeling it must have been arranged they must have been told to do it.

This went on up until Saturday morning, he was still at the foot of my bed with his foul language but I had the day off and had no duties that day so mid-morning I got a pass out for a day, walked out of camp made my way into Windsor and had a look round the town, the castle from the outside and noticed a advert in a shop window about a film in Slough which is the next little town. The film looked as if it might be interesting so I caught a bus, it was only a short distance into Slough I found a cheap restaurant had beans on toast which was the cheapest dish, I had to be very careful because strangely enough that was my first week in the army when I didn't receive any pay no one had made any arrangements to pay me.

After a meagre lunch I went to the cinema, after the cinema had a walk around Slough, then caught a bus back to Windsor. I smoked in those days and went upstairs in a double-decker bus and had a cigarette. When I got into Windsor I down to the platform so as I wouldn't miss the bus stop, which was very close to the barracks.
When I was on the platform down stairs waiting to get off the bus I noticed that in the down stairs part of the bus there was a young officer and he was one of the Second Lieutenants I was teaching signals, he was actually an Earl, I can't remember his title but he was an Earl of something. When he saw me he rushed up to me on the platform and started talking thanking me for the interesting lectures I had been giving during the week and asking me a lot of questions about signalling. When the bus stopped he stepped off with me and walked with me towards the gates of the camp, which were close. We walked through the barrack gates and just as we passed through the gates someone suddenly grabbed me by both shoulders from behind, I was very light in those days, less than 11 stone and flung me into the open guard room where I landed face down on the floor. I looked over my shoulder immediately. It was the Provo Sergeant, I said, "Sergeant I don't know what this is all about. I haven't done anything wrong."
"Oh you have, you are on a charge, I could lock you up for what you have done,"
I said "Sergeant you had better tell me what this charge is,"
"Associating with an officer, I can lock you up for that, its not allowed, but in the circumstances I'll put you under open arrest, you're not allowed out of this camp until Monday morning when you face that charge."
I was confined to camp over the weekend, not a bit pleased or happy. Monday morning, first and only time I was on charge in the British Army I was marched in front of my new Company Commander. The Provost Sergeant read the charge out. The Captain who Has trying me asked if I had anything to say, I said "Yes Sir, I'm afraid I have something to say, I don't quite understand the charge because in the regiment I come from a rifle regiment the officers go out of their way to speak to the men under them. They go out of their way to get to know their men as much as possible because after all its their men will be fighting with them when the time comes, myself personally if I was outside the camp and my Colonel saw me he would stop me and talk to me, so if it's a rule in the Grenadier Guards that an officer must not speak to a man or a man speak to an officer I can tell you that I was not with that officer that day I was upstairs on a bus coming back from Slough. When I came down to get off the bus the officer was down stairs on the bus and saw me. He was one of the young officers who was part of my class I had been teaching signals to all week. He came up to thank me for the lectures I had been giving and to ask me questions about signalling and he walked back to camp simply talking about signalling. This continued until I entered through the gates and was physically molested by the Provost Sergeant," I said, "there is something strange has happened in this camp since I arrived Sir, someone. I think I know who has arranged for me to be boycotted, no one in the barrack room and I have been there a week has yet spoken to me or asked me one thing about myself, no one talks to me when I go to the canteen the only people in this barracks who have talked to me are the people who I am teaching signals to during the week, otherwise I have been treated like a dogsbody. To make matters worse from the first day I arrived, I arrived on Sunday and on Monday morning when I awoke the Regimental Sergeant Major was at the foot of my bed, shouting at the top of his voice get out of that bed you F****n Irish Bastard," I said, "that has continued all week long, every morning exactly the same rude words, so quite honestly, Sir, I volunteered to come here as a signals instructor because my Colonel invited me to, to help you people out because you had no signallers and no instructors, I have done my best but it looks to me as though you don't really want me here."
The Company Commander then said something to the other officers in the room and said "Case dismissed, is there anything further?"
I said, "Yes there is Sir, I said as well as being a Lance Corporal I am also a potential officer, that's what the little
white tags on my shoulder are for and to be on a charge could mess up my whole army career, I actually have passed all the tests to get a commission and have been offered a commission in the Corp of Signals which up until now I have refused because I want an infantry commission. My Colonel when he invited me to come here temporarily asked me to keep in touch with him and let him know how I was getting on so I am going to phone my Colonel today, it would be rather rude Sir but if you let me phone from your office you'll hear what I have to say, if not I'll leave the camp to the first public phone and phone him."

"Oh" he says you can phone him from here,"
I said, "Well phone Hainault 3030 and ask for Colonel Lucy my Commanding Officer."
So he phoned and I heard him say, "I have one of your Lance Corporals in my office the one who came as a signals instructor and he asked me to phone you鈥� and Colonel Lucy must have asked to speak to me so he came on and said, "Alex what's the matter?"

I said, "Look Sir I have had a most unfortunate week I have been treated like a dogs body from the day and hour I arrived and I have obviously been boycotted, no one in the barrack room for the whole week has spoken to me and the RSM has been at the foot of my bed every morning from the Monday morning which was my first morning until Saturday morning shouting at the top of his voice get out of that bed you F****n Irish Bastard and Sir today I have just been on a charge, associating with an officer because I happened to be on the same bus with one of the young officers who was on my signals course, he saw me getting off the bus and walked alongside me thanking me for the lectures I had given and asking me questions about signalling. As I walked through the gate of the camp the Provo Sergeant came from behind took me by both shoulders and flung me face downwards into the guard room and threatened to lock me up but eventually put me on open arrest until this morning when I am up on this charge, the charge has now been cleared but Sir I am not a bit happy with the way things are."

"Oh" he says, "have you any idea what it is all about?鈥�
I said, "Well Sir the only thing I think it is, and I am reasonably certain in my own mind is that the RSM is annoyed that a Lance Corporal in an Irish Regiment has been sent to him as an instructor when all his instructors are at least Sergeants."

"Oh well we can't have that," said Colonel Lucy, you have to remember that Colonel Lucy was from Dublin himself so he wouldn't have liked that. "We can't have that," he said "Put me back to that officer."

I don't know what the conversation was but the officer's face got very red and when he put the phone down he said, "Corporal Dickson, I'm very sorry about what has happened, but Colonel Lucy says you have to return to his unit immediately, pack your kit and not to worry about buses or trains he'll arrange transport today to collect you."
I said, "Well thank you Sir I am sorry to have been such a bother but I don't really think that it was my fault. I hope you will be able to get another suitable signals instructor perhaps the RSM would like to do it see if he could instruct them, good-bye Sir,"
I saluted and walked out. I was returned to my camp in Chigwell that day.

Strangely enough just a few years ago I was on a touring holiday in Scotland. I saw a large party of men and I knew from the ties they were wearing that they were ex-Grenadier Guards. I introduced myself, they were all youngish men who had obviously been in the Guards since the last war. They were there with their wives from an association in the Nottingham area we became friendly over the next week. I told them this story. They weren't a bit surprised, as RSMs always like to act like they were God Almighty.

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