Description
Object description
His interesting ts memoir illustrated with photographs (96pp, written 1990 - 2004), recording his service as an NCO with the Royal Marines (November 1942 - 1952), notably living in Plaistow and Wapping (1924 – 1942), including the Blitz on London; enlisting aged seventeen in Trafalgar Square, London (March 1942); being called up (November 1942); his initial training (no dates); embarkation overseas from Liverpool in the ATHLONE CASTLE with a Marine Battalion as part of the Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation (MNBDO) to Colombo, Ceylon via Cape Town, South Africa; recovering from appendicitis in the Naval Hospital, Colombo and on a tea plantation in the highlands of Ceylon (no dates); training in Poona, India (no dates); jungle training at Belgaum, India (no dates); returning by troopship to the UK (no dates); Commando training in Scotland (no dates); active service with B Troop, No 46 Commando Royal Marines (1st Commando Brigade) in North West Europe (1944 – 1945), crossing the Rhine (March 1945), the Weser, Aller and Elbe and visiting Belsen concentration camp; No 42 Commando Royal Marines, Hong Kong (1946 - ?1948), dealing with smugglers, Japanese prisoners of war and the Chinese Nationalist Army, and Malta (no dates, ?1948 - ?1949); re-joining the Royal Marines, training at Portsmouth and serving on an unnamed cruiser (no dates); training at the Non Commissioned Officers School, Plymouth (no dates); and active service with No 42 Commando RM in Malaya (1950 – 1952), patrolling the jungle for Communist 'bandits' and resettling Chinese squatters near Ipoh. He also served with the Canadian Army (1953 - 1956), training at Chilliwack and on Vancouver Island as an NCO with the Royal Canadian Engineers (1953), serving with the 2nd Canadian Field Squadron in Korea building roads and installations (c. 1953 - 1955) and as a cook at Chilliwack, and training as a paratrooper at Parachute School in Calgary, Alberta (no dates), and the US Army (1957 - ?1960), training in San Francisco and Fort Bragg, North Carolina (no dates) and serving with the 82nd US Airborne Division in Augsburg, Germany (1957 – ?1960) and Beirut, the Lebanon (1958); and commenting on the conditions, equipment, his off-duty entertainment and leaves in Singapore, Tokyo and the USA, German atrocities, relations with the German population, his experiences of combat, booby traps, suffering from malaria, the use of Iban trackers, killing Communist 'bandits', and parachute training.
Content description
His interesting ts memoir illustrated with photographs (96pp, written 1990 - 2004), recording his service as an NCO with the Royal Marines (November 1942 - 1952), notably living in Plaistow and Wapping (1924 – 1942), including the Blitz on London; enlisting aged seventeen in Trafalgar Square, London (March 1942); being called up (November 1942); his initial training (no dates); embarkation overseas from Liverpool in the ATHLONE CASTLE with a Marine Battalion as part of the Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisation (MNBDO) to Colombo, Ceylon via Cape Town, South Africa; recovering from appendicitis in the Naval Hospital, Colombo and on a tea plantation in the highlands of Ceylon (no dates); training in Poona, India (no dates); jungle training at Belgaum, India (no dates); returning by troopship to the UK (no dates); Commando training in Scotland (no dates); active service with B Troop, No 46 Commando Royal Marines (1st Commando Brigade) in North West Europe (1944 – 1945), crossing the Rhine (March 1945), the Weser, Aller and Elbe and visiting Belsen concentration camp; No 42 Commando Royal Marines, Hong Kong (1946 - ?1948), dealing with smugglers, Japanese prisoners of war and the Chinese Nationalist Army, and Malta (no dates, ?1948 - ?1949); re-joining the Royal Marines, training at Portsmouth and serving on an unnamed cruiser (no dates); training at the Non Commissioned Officers School, Plymouth (no dates); and active service with No 42 Commando RM in Malaya (1950 – 1952), patrolling the jungle for Communist 'bandits' and resettling Chinese squatters near Ipoh. He also served with the Canadian Army (1953 - 1956), training at Chilliwack and on Vancouver Island as an NCO with the Royal Canadian Engineers (1953), serving with the 2nd Canadian Field Squadron in Korea building roads and installations (c. 1953 - 1955) and as a cook at Chilliwack, and training as a paratrooper at Parachute School in Calgary, Alberta (no dates), and the US Army (1957 - ?1960), training in San Francisco and Fort Bragg, North Carolina (no dates) and serving with the 82nd US Airborne Division in Augsburg, Germany (1957 – ?1960) and Beirut, the Lebanon (1958); and commenting on the conditions, equipment, his off-duty entertainment and leaves in Singapore, Tokyo and the USA, German atrocities, relations with the German population, his experiences of combat, booby traps, suffering from malaria, the use of Iban trackers, killing Communist 'bandits', and parachute training.
Physical description
Private Papers of J S Poole
History note
Cataloguer SJO