大象传媒

I don鈥檛 know whether this of much use to anyone, but I thought a list of ephemera that my mother seems to have kept, and which are now in the possession of my son, might be of some small interest. They are:
1. A certificate of discharge issued to my father on 8 August 1945 recording that he had been employed for three years and eight months as as 鈥�2nd Cl. Examr and Mechanic Examr I.O. Dilutee鈥�. I don鈥檛 know what is meant by Dilutee but doubtless someone does. He was discharged at his own request and with permission, and the document is signed by W H Hodgson, Asst Administrative Officer, Armaments Inspection Department.
2. A Certificate of Proficiency issued by the 7th Staffs Home Guard and dated 8 Feb. 1944 showing that my father had gained proficiency badges in a variety of subjects including Rifle, 36 M Grenade, Sten, Signalling, and Map Reading. I cannot quite read the signature of the examiner, but it may be Major J G Crowe, and the C O was J Bagshaw.
3. A thin paper Christmas 鈥榗ard鈥� sent from Germany at Christmas 1945 by my uncle, Arthur, who was serving with the Occupying Force. He was killed some time later in an accident.
4. A thin card 鈥楥hristmas card鈥� with a legend on the front flap: 鈥楤RITISH TROOPS IN AUSTRIA CHRISTMAS 1945鈥�. The inside recto is printed 鈥楢LAMEIN 1942 鈥� AUSTRIA 1945 / With all good wishes / From鈥� and it is signed Fred. The sender was Fred Valentine, my father鈥檚 boyhood friend. On the reverse of the front flap he has added his details: 鈥�1528590 L/Cpl W.F. Valentine. 105 Provost Company. C.M. Police. C.M.F.鈥� This makes sense: he was a bobby in later life so I suppose he was in the Military Police during the war.
5. A postcard-size piece of thin paper printed on one side with a dramatic picture of a convoy battling against the swell and the legend ARRIVED SAFELY 鈥� THANKS TO BRITISH CONVOYS. The legend is also printed on the back in twelve languages (which do not include German or Italian). Presumably this slip was packed with goods that had arrived by convoy and were being distributed.
6. A 29-page (16-folio) printed booklet in nice condition, 鈥楻ules and Regulations of the Royal Ordnance Factories. Ninth Edition. 1937鈥� together with an inserted supplement addressed to Industrial Employees serving under the Chief Inspector of Armanents鈥�, modifying the Rules in some some small particulars, including subsistence allowances for overnight absences and details of annual leave entitlement. This supplement was printed in May 1939, which suggests some level of forward planning.
7. A typical red soft-cover notebook containing my father鈥檚 pencilled writing and drawings, being the notes of the training sessions he attended. (See also below.) The last third of the notebook contains cribbage scores, the games usually involving three players, R, F, and S. (S was my father and the cribbage scores are in his writing.) Towards the end, in someone else鈥檚 writing, are some slightly risqu茅 lines of doggerel addressed to my father and including the comment that 鈥淭he only thing we cannot stand鈥� is 鈥渉is awful stinking pipe鈥�. So he must have been a pipe smoker even at that age.
8. A hard-cover exercise book in which all the notes from the soft-cover book are written out extremely neatly in ink. The notes are dated on most days between 29 May and 25 August 1941, which suggests a continuous course rather than occasional release. I did not know before, but on the inside cover he gives his address as 36 St Michaels Avenue, Leicester. He must have been staying there between being called up in Northampton and being posted to Uttoxeter.
9. A copy of Athsocia, the Monthly Journal of the Armaments Inspection Department and C.I.A. Athletic and Social Club, Vol. 23, no. 1, January 1945, which my father obviously kept because he is seen with other members of 鈥淯鈥� in a photograph printed alongside the report of a celebration of the third anniversary of 鈥淯鈥�, in the presence of Mr C W Butson, D I Gauges. As my father specialised in gauges and was stationed in Uttoxeter, I suspect 鈥淯鈥� is thinly disguised code for Uttoxeter. 鈥淎 guest artist, Pte Wright, of 大象传媒 fame, [鈥 gave a most remarkable and expert performance of bird imitations and for an encore whistled 鈥業n a Monastery Garden鈥� with great effect.鈥� I don鈥檛 know who Mr Wright was, but it sounds as though he performed in the style of Ronnie Ronalde, an entertainer I remember from wireless request programmes in the 1950s.
10. (Not from my mother.) A wall map on cotton-backed paper. The sheet measures 37 inches high by 30 inches wide, the map panel itself is 26 inches high by 27 inches wide. It is entitled Great Britain, and shows the area bounded by 50 degrees north to 56 degrees north, and 8 degrees west to 2 degrees east. It is the Second Edition, Army/Air Style, Sheet 2, based on a 1933 map but printed in 1942. The main interest seems to be in the prominent representation of the railway lines (dark blue), but main roads (in red) are also shown. Blue pencil lines have been drawn on the map off the coast in the North Sea and Irish Sea, and some of the lines form oblong boxes representing areas of sea, some 50 miles long and five miles wide. One of these areas, off the north coast of Norfolk, is marked in blue pencil with the words 鈥楩iring S. of line鈥�. Some of the blue pencil lines have been roughly scribbled out. The map came into the possession of my father-in-law, Bertie Sykes, who served in the R.A.F. as ground crew. My wife knows that he used it to wrap something up 鈥� it is quite badly creased 鈥� and it was always assumed that he found it, perhaps in a waste bin, and used it because it was a big sturdy piece of paper. Since Bertie was a scavenger and never wasted anything, it would be in character. Whether the blue pencil lines have any serious importance in wartime terms, we have no idea, but the proliferation of railway lines connecting everywhere to everywhere and all the small places in between, is such as to make you weep.

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