大象传媒

THE OUTBREAK OF WAR

When war broke out in 1939 I remembered what Professor Oliphant (Birmingham University) had suggested that when war broke out I should go to see him, so I spoke to his secretary the next day and she said that I should go to a meeting the next morning. On arrival I learned that the prof., was having a meeting for graduates in the Science Department. I went along to the room she told me and took my turn to go into the meeting. When I had sat down in front of four members of staff of the Science Department, Professor Oliphant spoke up and said 鈥淚 know what we should decide about Mr. Reynolds; he should be put in group P鈥�. He did not tell me what that meant but gave me a card that he signed for me to take up to the next floor room, to the Vice Chancellor who was chairman of another group of University staff. He signed the card I had brought from the previous group and told me all was well and I should wait until I was called up; in the mean time I should carry on with my work in the Teaching Department, unless I was wanted sooner.

I heard nothing when term began so I did that. I could not go back to live in Charterhouse where I had been in previous years because the Army had taken over. I found a room in the YMCA near Birmingham city centre, but I wasn鈥檛 happy there because I had trouble each evening with a man who came to my room every evening and stayed even if I had settled down in bed. He was very queer and I was doubtful about his motives so after the end of the first week I decided to go back home to Coventry. A friend who had been a boarder at Bablake School, Coventry at the same time as myself was happy to take me back and forth in his car as he was doing the same course as myself. When we did some teaching for about a month later on, I had to go by bus from Birmingham to Halesowen in the Black Country. When they had a Rugger match with a team of older young men I was asked to play as hooker for the school team.

A week before Christmas I was called up to be a dispenser in the RAMC. I went to the Labour Exchange that had issued the notice and told them I had no knowledge of that. The man I was talking to said 鈥淏ut you have a degree in physics.鈥� I replied 鈥淚n physics not physic.鈥� He said 鈥淪ome one must have made a mistake. I鈥檒l cancel this and you鈥檒l get another in the New Year.鈥� When I received it I was told to report to a place in Birmingham. I enlisted on 18th January 1940 at Birmingham. From there I was taken with others to Reading to join a Territorial Company RAMC. I think that group was better taught and smarter than many I met later from the Regular Army.

The next day we were not allowed out of the house where we lived because we hadn鈥檛 got Army uniforms; we had those, and also rifles, next day. A local barber also arrived. He was very annoyed because some of us had had our hair cut the day before we came and he did not think we were ready for another one. However we soon settled down. Two of us who had been training to teach were called upon to organise some exercises each morning after breakfast.

Two days after settling down and being fitted with a uniform and other necessary equipment the Colonel sent for me. He asked me why I was in his company. I explained about my volunteering at the beginning of the War, but he could not understand why I was in that particular work when I had a degree in physics, and explained that he could recommend me for some work that I would find more in my line, but it would have to be in the RAMC 鈥� he could not alter my being in Medical Corps. One of his recommendations was to train as a radiographer and I agreed to that.

On the third day the general sent for me. He wanted to know what I would like to do in the RAMC. He explained that he could not recommend me for any other branch of the Army but he thought I should do better than stay in this unit. He mentioned radiography and what it would involve. I said that I could cope with the electricity but I had no real knowledge of anthropology and the human body. He said that did not matter because I could go on a course if I would be willing; so I agreed.

At the end of March 1940 I went to London to train at the RAMC Headquarters at Millbank. I was there until August. Then I was sent to Leeds to join a General Hospital, which was waiting to be sent to work overseas. I was there for several months until we moved to Lincoln where we occupied part of a hospital next door to an R.A.F. aerodrome from which 鈥榩lanes left in the evenings for Germany to return early next morning. I was fortunate to be able to be invited fairly often to the home of a young lady I knew in the Christian Union when I was at university. Her parents asked Joan, (whom I married after the War) to stay with them for a few days after the second blitz over Coventry.

About three days before Christmas we packed our bags and went by train to Peebles. We were in huts near a small Army hospital where I managed to get work in the one ward for troops in the area who suffered from broken bones and other none contagious complaints. I wanted to learn something about ward work because I needed that to be promoted as a radiographer. The Sister in charge of the ward had very poor feelings for men who worked in military hospitals. On the first morning she gave me a job sweeping the floor and while I was about half way she came and gave me another job and when I was doing that she did it again, so I spoke to her. I suggested that if she gave me a list of things to be done for the morning and similarly at the beginning for the afternoon I would be able to do the work more easily. Oh dear! I had said the wrong thing! However I managed to get her to try it. She was not too pleased but she did it in future.

This was not the only bust up I had with her. I learned that nurses and sisters in the regular army expected to give their orders to men other than doctors without any 鈥榩lease鈥� or 鈥榯hank you鈥�. Later on the Matron reported me to the sergeant major. When he spoke to me and asked what the trouble was I explained what I had done and said. He gave me some advice not to argue with a Sister or a Matron but just say 鈥淵es Ma鈥檃m.鈥� or 鈥淣o Ma鈥檃m鈥�. The senior doctor was standing behind him laughing. Neither of then attempted to tell me off or punish me; the SM merely said, 鈥淥ff you go and don鈥檛 forget what I told you.鈥�

Twice, once with Cliff Jones, I managed to go to Edinburgh by bus when I had a day off. It was an interesting walk around 鈥� along Princes Street and to see the Scott Monument, to Dublin Street and to the Melville Monument. We climbed up to High Street and Castle Street, past the Outlook Tower to Edinburgh Castle. It was also a chance to see so many shops and I was able to buy a good book. Another good outing was with nearly the whole of the unit. We were due for a 10 mile trek. I was very keen to go on that but I realised that if I let the matron know she would stop me going, so I told her about it in a rather sad voice as if I was not keen to go. Her response was 鈥淥f course you must go.鈥� We went through Peebles in a direction south of Craize Hill and came back toward Lyne and into Peebles along the Tweed. Some of them gave up 2 or 3 miles from camp.

The next week the route was not so demanding as far as distance, but it meant crossing the river first by the bridge near the town but coming back to camp on the other side. Near the camp it was necessary to wade through the fast running stream which was about waist high. Unless the troops could hold to the entrance from the tunnel the stream was passing through, they were bound to get wet. When I asked the matron very cheerfully, she responded as I thought she would and said 鈥淣o you cannot; you had your time out last week; you can鈥檛 expect to go out enjoying yourself every week, you have work to do鈥�. So all was well as far as I was concerned.
As winter came on we found there were difficulties. First we woke up one morning to find the one door to get out was frozen up. When the night sergeant arrived with his orderly he could not open the door to bring us hot water and some tea and they had first to melt the thickly iced up doorway. When things began to thaw we had to move our beds to miss the water that was dripping down in different places in the room. Fortunately the snow and cold weather did not last very long. In the New Year rumours about our moving began to spread through the camp. We had new kit; and the rumour was that we were going to Finland. That was squashed because the Russians had gone there. Then the rumour was that we should be going to Iceland. It was true that troops were going there but we did not go. Later we had some thing definite to consider; we were measured for and provided with kit for the tropics, but not for using in Scotland. Soon afterwards we went home on a week鈥檚 leave. We were definitely going abroad but we were not told where. We had home leave before we went.
Whilst I was home in Coventry Joan and I were engaged. It was rather funny. We had been out together one morning and met a friend and his wife, who had been a friend of Joan鈥檚 at secondary school. They said that they had heard that we were engaged and we told them that was not so. I nearly laughed because we were going out to some woods on the edge of Coventry and Kenilworth in the afternoon. When we were there I had thought to ask her to marry me. Joan agreed, as I thought she would.

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