´óÏó´«Ã½

Memories of an Officer’s Batman Part Two — An Officer’s Batman with the Beds & Herts Regiment

Part Two of an oral history interview with Mr. Joseph Denton conducted by Jenny Ford on behalf of Bedford Museum.

“ Well there was Attleborough and Attlebridge. This was more a less or big country house where we where and this was an Officer’s Training Camp so they sent me there looking after three Officers. There was, as you come out of the big grounds there was two or three houses there, I suppose they were for the workers in them days and there was these three Officers, their wives used to come down at the weekend you know and stay there. I’d got Captain Robinson, he was an English cricketer and Captain Baker, he was a real Christian man he was. He used to leave his bible out and his cheques and wallet and I used to have to put them away. And make all the beds in the morning. The other one I can’t remember what his name was, a young Scottish chap. They were lovely Officers really, yes, only young chaps. I mean in a way I suppose I was lucky in a way, wasn’t I? And so I just did, I put my heart and soul into the job, type of thing you know. They appreciated it, they were good, they would give you a little bit of money a week, a few shillings in them days.

I had to ‘Sam Brown’ (a fancy belt) and get all the clothes ready for them, make the beds in the morning, all that sort of things. They were nice really. Then after, another chap he got wounded in Africa he had and I pal’ed up with him, that was quite nice really and that. Anyway I got a War Office Posting. I had to go to Renton near Dumbarton in Scotland, near Loch Lomond and look after a Colonel, Colonel Young.

They didn’t like that, they didn’t want to lose me. I could hear them in the dining room talking to one another, ‘Oh, he’s got to go’ and all the rest of it, they didn’t want me to go. It was nice really, a good Christian man he was. Anyway I went up there and the Barracks were a Paper Mills in ordinary peace time. Quite nice it was really. Lovely people up there, I met some nice people. I used to go to Chapel on a Sunday night, I was always in the Chapel on Sunday nights and I met up with quite a few nice friends there. Chapels used to be full on Sunday nights in them days they did - they aren’t today are they? They was them day, they were lovely people really, yes. They’d go off to different Regiments you see when they were trained. I mean they had a bar there at night you know because they drink. And I used to have to two nights a week go and help serve the Officer’s dinner you see.

The Colonel, he had a little flat outside the Barracks so of course I didn’t do any training, I didn’t do any training up there. I had to get up in a morning, I used to go there in his flat. I was sleeping in the Barracks myself but I could just walk in and out. I used to go up there light the fire in the mornings and then I walked to the village to the little Post Office, the little shop and fetched his paper for him. And then make the tea for him and such like and get all his clothes laid out for him, and all ready and sort of thing for when he’d got to go on Parade and all that sort of thing. I know I used to go and have my breakfast in the Officer’s Mess. I wasn’t there long, only about 18 months I think I was with him.

Dumbarton was a little bus journey away. I used to go. Sometimes the wife (Mrs. Young) used to come occasionally. Because they had got a place down Bedford river and the boy, they’d got one son, he’d got one son, I don’t know which school whether it was the Modern School or the High School, I should think most probably the High School but I don’t know. When I used to come home on leave, I used to come in to St.Pancras Station and you’d have to change at Kettering to come into Bedford and that sort of thing. He used to send a case, I used to bring a case and take it down to his wife’s.

My normal day when I’d got him all fixed up and everything you see. If she (Mrs. Young) come up there she’d say, well of course in them days you could get sausages, you could get things off the ration you see in them days, so if she used to stop there, she used to cook her own so they must have used that for their own, sort of thing. So they used to send me up there to do a bit of shopping in the day time, she used to say, ‘Denton, go up there and get some sausage.’ Sometimes she used to send me to Dumbarton on the bus, them gals there, some of them gals there used to go to Church where I went, they wouldn’t take no fare. ‘Oh, go on.’ I used to go to Dumbarton sometimes. There was a Flower Shop up in the village, she’d send me up there sometimes in the day and she’d say, ‘Get me some flowers, Denton.’ So of course I had to come back with a bunch of flowers. I always remember this particular day, we’d got a Padre there, he was there and he said, ‘What have got now, Denton?’ ‘I’ve got the lady some flowers, Sir.’ Oh, he’d pull my leg you see, they were nice really.

Some of the other men were Batmen looking after other Officers you see. The real staff there, there was a Dental man and a Medical man and all them other sorts of things. There was a funny thing there, they’d got their own Batman but very often if they’d got a special occasion they’d come to Denton, ‘Will you do the ‘Sam Brown’ for me?’ They’d give me a bit of money for doing it, all the rest of it. Sam Brown what they called a ‘Sam brown’, a fancy belt thing they used to wear. I know the Dental man, he got married so he wanted his done so he come to me to see if I would do his belt for him and all the rest of it.

Up there I’d generally got something to do, as I say you’d got the Officer’s dinner and then occasionally they want me to go serving in the Bar and them sort of things. Near where we where there was a Church canteen and if I’d got an hour or two off I’d go up there, I’d get a bar of chocolate and I’d bring it home to my son Robert. Occasionally I used to go a little bit further where I used to go to the Chapel, one or two there. I went to Minister’s house once and had a bit of food there, it was quite good. There was a Methodist Minister close to where we where and he and him daughter lived there and I used to go there sometimes

I went one time to Loch Lomond and we went there and we had a boat, one or two of the Corporals, another Corporal there, we had a boat, there were three or four of us and went out on the Loch. That was nice really, when the better weather come, that was nice really, yes.

Then of course the end of the war come you see so I was de-mobbed and I had to go back to the Works, Stewartby Works and that. De-mobbed more or less you see because really and truly they were thinking about building so I got de-mobbed. I think he (Colonel Young) would have liked me to have stopped on, well I know he would, he would have done. Of course in them days before we went in the Army they got so they weren’t building houses of course and we had to stack bricks ready for when the war ended. There used to be millions of bricks stacked. Then when we were called back there and I used to have to go on night shift to load lorries up ready for taking to all the different parts of the country in them days, to get things started again. I stopped there until I went on the big Burner. I was burning bricks and things like that in the finish. We’d got the biggest kiln, I was on was the biggest, three million bricks that used to hold, three Burners at a time.

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.