Description
Object description
Short ts memoir (21pp), giving details of his childhood (born 1923), growing up in London, schooling in Richmond and Chiswick, winning a Junior Foundation Scholarship to St. Paul's School, in the autumn of 1939 the School evacuating to the Mansion at Easthampstead Park in Berkshire, near Bracknell, joining the LDV, Home Guard, winning a place at Magdalene College Cambridge but deferring as he was due to be called up (December 1941), being called up (July 1942), joining the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI), training in Bodmin, posting to the 55th Training Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) at Farnborough, learning to drive lorries, tanks and Bren gun carriers, a War Office Selection Board (WOSB), reporting to the RAC Pre–OCTU (Officer Cadet Training Unit) at Blackdown Camp near Aldershot (January 1943), posting to The Royal Military College at Sandhurst (100 OCTU RAC), commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the RAC (September 1943), joining the 49th Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) (35th Tank Brigade, part of General Percy Hobart's 79th Armoured Division), in a camp in the grounds of Lowther Castle near Penrith, equipped with Grant tanks with a special Canal Defence Light (CDL) turret (an arc lamp), 49th RTR joining 1st Tank Brigade at Hawes, Yorkshire (April 1944), tank ranges at Linney Head near Tenby in south Wales (June 1944), CDL Brigade sailing on LSTs to Mulberry harbour at Arromanches, his tank crew being posted to 'C' Squadron, 44th RTR (4th Armoured Brigade) at Uden near Nijmegen, Holland, looting, getting a Firefly Sherman tank, moving around Holland to counter German advances, Christmas celebrations (1944), going on a gunnery course and being made Regimental Gunnery Officer, returning and joining 79th Armoured Division and being equipped with DD Tanks for the assault on the river Rhine (March 1945), firing on German patrols at Mehr, having to destroy his tank when it was bogged down, joining 'B' Squadron to act as recce officer, being wounded by shell splinters at Hammilkeln, evacuation to Botley's Park, Chertsey, Surrey, where he spent VE Day, posting to Catterick, joining the Army Kinematograph Corps, posting to Bulford camp in the Salisbury Plain & Dorset District, released on 24th January 1946, starting at Magdalene College, with details of his studying law, rowing, and his post war legal career in London and Wolverhampton, ending as Coroner for Wolverhampton (1990 – 1993).
Content description
Short ts memoir (21pp), giving details of his childhood (born 1923), growing up in London, schooling in Richmond and Chiswick, winning a Junior Foundation Scholarship to St. Paul's School, in the autumn of 1939 the School evacuating to the Mansion at Easthampstead Park in Berkshire, near Bracknell, joining the LDV, Home Guard, winning a place at Magdalene College Cambridge but deferring as he was due to be called up (December 1941), being called up (July 1942), joining the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI), training in Bodmin, posting to the 55th Training Regiment Royal Armoured Corps (RAC) at Farnborough, learning to drive lorries, tanks and Bren gun carriers, a War Office Selection Board (WOSB), reporting to the RAC Pre–OCTU (Officer Cadet Training Unit) at Blackdown Camp near Aldershot (January 1943), posting to The Royal Military College at Sandhurst (100 OCTU RAC), commissioned as a 2nd Lieutenant in the RAC (September 1943), joining the 49th Royal Tank Regiment (RTR) (35th Tank Brigade, part of General Percy Hobart's 79th Armoured Division), in a camp in the grounds of Lowther Castle near Penrith, equipped with Grant tanks with a special Canal Defence Light (CDL) turret (an arc lamp), 49th RTR joining 1st Tank Brigade at Hawes, Yorkshire (April 1944), tank ranges at Linney Head near Tenby in south Wales (June 1944), CDL Brigade sailing on LSTs to Mulberry harbour at Arromanches, his tank crew being posted to 'C' Squadron, 44th RTR (4th Armoured Brigade) at Uden near Nijmegen, Holland, looting, getting a Firefly Sherman tank, moving around Holland to counter German advances, Christmas celebrations (1944), going on a gunnery course and being made Regimental Gunnery Officer, returning and joining 79th Armoured Division and being equipped with DD Tanks for the assault on the river Rhine (March 1945), firing on German patrols at Mehr, having to destroy his tank when it was bogged down, joining 'B' Squadron to act as recce officer, being wounded by shell splinters at Hammilkeln, evacuation to Botley's Park, Chertsey, Surrey, where he spent VE Day, posting to Catterick, joining the Army Kinematograph Corps, posting to Bulford camp in the Salisbury Plain & Dorset District, released on 24th January 1946, starting at Magdalene College, with details of his studying law, rowing, and his post war legal career in London and Wolverhampton, ending as Coroner for Wolverhampton (1990 – 1993).
History note
Cataloguer SJO