Description
Object description
Four files of official correspondence, minutes of meetings, and memoranda relating to the activities of the Army Bureau of Current Affairs (ABCA) during his career as an Education Officer with the Army Education Corps (AEC) in the Middle East, July 1943 - April 1945, including: his service as Staff Captain, ABCA, GHQ, November 1943 - March 1944; GSO3, 3 Corps, March - June 1944; GSO2, 56th Division, June - December 1944; GSO2, 5 Corps, December 1944 - April 1945; and commenting on the conduct of the ABCA scheme; the education of soldiers serving in the Middle East; the production of ABCA pamphlets; frustration amongst the troops and their reactions to ABCA; questions of postwar reconstruction; programmes of ABCA lectures; 5 Corps Education Scheme, February - March 1945; and schemes for Army Education postwar. Together with a ts memoir (24pp, plus a resume of his Army career) with details of enlisting as a Gunner in 235th Battery, 89th Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) Regiment, Royal Artillery (RA) (TA) in November 1938 in Margate, Kent, with reasons for his enlisting, his embodiment in August 1939, guard duty and digging trenches during the 'phoney war', moving to Wolverhampton (October 1939), poor living conditions leading to men coming down with hypothermia, relocation to a gun site outside Coventry (January 1940), promotion to Lance Bombardier, posting back to Kent at a site overlooking Sheerness, promotion to Bombardier, his family leaving Margate following the Dunkirk evacuation, 235th Battery moving to Burrow Head, Wigtownshire, Scotland, for two weeks training, German air raids over Kent, posting to Sutton-on-Hone near Dartford (August 1940), guarding the bombed out airfield at Biggin Hill, Surrey (September 1940), promotion to Lance Sergeant working with the Quartermaster at Regimental HQ of the 89th HAA Regiment at Sittingbourne, preparations for overseas deployment, embarking in HMS CITY OF CANTERBURY (December 1940), poor food and conditions, details of the convoy via Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Durban South Africa, arriving at Suez and moving to Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt), RHQ 89th HAA Regt based with 205th Battery in Suez, hearing of the loss of men from 234th Battery in Crete, the organisation of 89th HAA Regiment in Suez and his duties as a Quartermaster Sergeant, applying for a transfer to the Army Education Corps (January 1942), based in Heliopolis, but posting to QM at 311th HAA Battery in Alexandria until a place became available, joining the AEC and promotion to WOII. The memoir ends with an appendix listing the letters sent home to his parents with brief details of where he was and the contents (2pp).
Content description
Four files of official correspondence, minutes of meetings, and memoranda relating to the activities of the Army Bureau of Current Affairs (ABCA) during his career as an Education Officer with the Army Education Corps (AEC) in the Middle East, July 1943 - April 1945, including: his service as Staff Captain, ABCA, GHQ, November 1943 - March 1944; GSO3, 3 Corps, March - June 1944; GSO2, 56th Division, June - December 1944; GSO2, 5 Corps, December 1944 - April 1945; and commenting on the conduct of the ABCA scheme; the education of soldiers serving in the Middle East; the production of ABCA pamphlets; frustration amongst the troops and their reactions to ABCA; questions of postwar reconstruction; programmes of ABCA lectures; 5 Corps Education Scheme, February - March 1945; and schemes for Army Education postwar. Together with a ts memoir (24pp, plus a resume of his Army career) with details of enlisting as a Gunner in 235th Battery, 89th Heavy Anti-Aircraft (HAA) Regiment, Royal Artillery (RA) (TA) in November 1938 in Margate, Kent, with reasons for his enlisting, his embodiment in August 1939, guard duty and digging trenches during the 'phoney war', moving to Wolverhampton (October 1939), poor living conditions leading to men coming down with hypothermia, relocation to a gun site outside Coventry (January 1940), promotion to Lance Bombardier, posting back to Kent at a site overlooking Sheerness, promotion to Bombardier, his family leaving Margate following the Dunkirk evacuation, 235th Battery moving to Burrow Head, Wigtownshire, Scotland, for two weeks training, German air raids over Kent, posting to Sutton-on-Hone near Dartford (August 1940), guarding the bombed out airfield at Biggin Hill, Surrey (September 1940), promotion to Lance Sergeant working with the Quartermaster at Regimental HQ of the 89th HAA Regiment at Sittingbourne, preparations for overseas deployment, embarking in HMS CITY OF CANTERBURY (December 1940), poor food and conditions, details of the convoy via Freetown, Sierra Leone, and Durban South Africa, arriving at Suez and moving to Tel-el-Kebir, Egypt), RHQ 89th HAA Regt based with 205th Battery in Suez, hearing of the loss of men from 234th Battery in Crete, the organisation of 89th HAA Regiment in Suez and his duties as a Quartermaster Sergeant, applying for a transfer to the Army Education Corps (January 1942), based in Heliopolis, but posting to QM at 311th HAA Battery in Alexandria until a place became available, joining the AEC and promotion to WOII. The memoir ends with an appendix listing the letters sent home to his parents with brief details of where he was and the contents (2pp).
History note
Cataloguer SNR
History note
Catalogue date 1998-09-21