Description
Object description
British NCO cook served with 425 Bty, 107th Regt, <South Notts Hussars> Royal Artillery in GB, Palestine and North Africa, 1939-1942; served as instructor with School of Cookery, Army Catering Corps at Sarafand, Palestine, 1941-1942; commissioned and served as junior catering adviser at Military headquarters, Palestine, 1943; acted as hotel and catering manager during Mena Hotel Conference, 11/1943; served as catering adviser, Headquarters, 1st Div in Italy, 1943-1944; served as area catering adviser attached to Command Supply Depot, Royal Army Service Corps at Tetbury, GB, 1945-1946; served as assistant catering adviser, Headquarters, Southern Command, 1945-1947; served as catering adviser, Headquarters, Scottish Command, 1947 -1949; served as assistant chief instructor with Army Training Centre, ACC at Aldershot, 1949-1951; commanded Far East School of Cookery, Neesoon, Singapore, Malaya, 1951-1952; served as catering adviser, Headquarters, Far East Command, Malaya, 1952-1954; served as second in command of Depot and Training Bn, ACC at Aldershot, 1954-1959; served as chief catering adviser, General Headquarters, Far East Command, 1959-1961; commanded Training Bde, ACC at Aldershot, 1961-1963; served as Director of ACC, 1963-1966; Colonel Commandant of ACC, 1966-1976.
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Farnborough and Battersea, London, 1911-1925: father's career; education. Recollections of attending course in cookery at Westminster Technical Institute, London, 1925-1928: reasons; basic skills of cookery; instructor Richard Byford; attachments to various hotel kitchens and question of dominance of French and Italian chefs; review of 'party' system of division of responsibility amongst chefs in high class kitchens; importance of correct methods in cooking skills. Recollections of period as assistant larder chef at Savoy Hotel, 1928-1929: appointment system on leaving college; kitchen discipline; responsibility for own knives and uniforms purchased during course; daily routine duties including size of stores, cold buffet and illustration of operation of 'party' system in preparation of chicken vol au vent; status as chef; question of competition between chefs. Seasonal nature of work during period as pastry cook at Grand Hotel, Eastbourne, 1929-1931. Period as chef at Highland Hotel, Fort William, 1931-1932.
REEL 2 Period as chef at restaurants at Piccadilly, London and Esher, 1932-1939: pay; ruse to save money on 'fresh' trout. Embodiment as special constable into Police Force on outbreak of war in Brixton, London, 3/9/1939: duties; question of boredom. Application for position of sergeant cook attached to cookhouse of 425 Bty, 107th Regt, <South Notts Hussars> Royal Artillery and initial period at Wragby, 11/1939-1/1940: prior interview with Lieutenant H Clark; medical; reception; quality of food; cancellation of sergeant rank and status as gunner; cookhouse personnel including Sergeant Vic Jones; relationship with 426 Bty; barn cookhouse; problems in improving quality of food including distance to be taken after cooking, unfrozen meat, inappropriate types of ration food issued and difficulty of remaining clean in kitchens; relationship with ORs; opinion of Sergeant Clifford Smedley.
REEL 3 Continues: opinion of Sergeant Clifford Smedley and Major Peter Birkin; vaccination. Journey to Palestine, 1/1940: cooking equipment carried; crossing Channel and France; opinion of Gunner Bill Hutton; voyage aboard HMT Devonshire; guard duties. Recollections of period at Sarafand Camp, 1/1940-2/1940: question of effectiveness of Aldershot oven; use of Soyer stove; daily routine in kitchen including breakfast, effectiveness of defaulters' work, vegetables, necessity of boiling sausages due to lack of refrigeration, meat issued, dinner stew, use of sand in cleaning pans, afternoon meal and method of producing army tea; promotion to sergeant cook with 425 Bty; paramount importance of punctuality in preparing meals; orderly officer's inspection of kitchens.
REEL 4 Period at Hadera Camp, 3/1940-6/1940: cooking facilities and food supplies; promotion to cook sergeant with 425 Bty; sergeants' mess, drinking habits and opinion of various NCOs; lack of involvement of cooks in training exercises; preparation of sandwiches; lack of recreation time for cooks; cooking for Jewish civilian function; question of contact with Arab civilians. Attending Asluj Firing Camp, 5/1940: cooking and waste food disposal problems exacerbated by hot weather; dangers posed by rogue sausages; description of No1 Burner cooker.
REEL 5 Continues: opinion of slow cooking containers and use to keep food hot; problems cooking in open; health consequences of cooking errors. Recollections of period at Mersa Matruh, Egypt, 6/1940-1/1941: prior packing of equipment; train journey; high level Italian air raids; situation; food rations; construction and operation of oil and water combustion ovens; use of bully beef; NAAFI supplies; cause of desert sores; cave dugout; question of extra food; sand flea and camel tick problems; latrines; question of cooks' personal cleanliness; uniform; use of sand to clean dixies; leave in Cairo.
REEL 6 Continues: leave in Cairo; sergeants' mess; question of boredom. Period in Suez Canal area, 1/1941-4/1941: feeding of canal posts; insulating 'hay boxes'; unit's mine spotting and explosion of detected mines; visits to Ismailia; absence of provision for cookhouse personnel during invasion training. Journey to Tobruk, Libya, 4/1941: question of vehicle provisioning; convoy driving discipline; cover provided by sandstorm. Recollections of conditions of service, lifestyle and daily routine at Tobruk, 4/1941-11/1941: effects of sandstorms; situation, 4/1941; assisting in loading ammunition trucks, 4/1941; establishment of main 425 Bty cookhouse at cave and cooking devolved to gun positions; food rations.
REEL 7 Continues: issue of ascorbic acid tablets; breakfast and different methods of preparing bully beef for lunch at main cookhouse; food rations situation at gun positions; daily routine, lack of formal meal times and use of cookhouse cave as rest area; playing gambling game 'shoot'; conversations; stories of regimental characters including Gunner Albert Ellis and Sergeant Vic Jones.
REEL 8 Continues: stories of regimental characters including Sergeant Vic Jones, Gunner Bill Hutton, Captain Charles Bennett and Captain Frederick Porter; Stuka dive bombing raids; German shell fire; question of boredom; question of letter contact with GB; reaction to posting as cookery instructor to Palestine, 11/1941. Period as instructor attached to Middle East School of Cookery, Sarafand Camp, 11/1941-1942: personnel and cooking equipment available; question of School of Cookery at Tobruk, 1941; role and basic syllabus of short cookery courses; daily routine; absence of recipe book; promotion to Warrant Officer Class II on conversion to Emergency Cooking Training Centre on formation of MESC under Army Catering Corps at Genefa, Egypt, ca 6/1942; news of destruction of unit at Knightsbridge, 6/1942; training programme adopted.
REEL 9 Continues: securing more variety in food rations supplied. Recollections of attending Officers' Cadet Training Unit, Accra, 4/1943-6/1943: preparing kit for inspection; nature of training. Period as junior catering advisor at Palestine Military Headquarters, Jerusalem, 6/1943-11/1943. Background to formation and development of Army Catering Corps, 1938-1943: pre-war concern over feeding of troops expressed by Minister of War Leslie Hore-Belisha, 1938; pre-war situation; recruitment of civilian instructors and establishment of School of Cookery, Royal Army Service Corps at Buller Barracks, Aldershot, 1938; establishment of SoC, St Omer Barracks, Aldershot, 1941; formation of ACC under sponsorship of RASC, 3/1941; training structure; question of ACC status of cooks within units. Duties organising accommodation for visitors during Cairo Conference at Mena House Hotel, Egypt, 11/1943: VIPs present; use of additional civilian staff and villas; coping with nocturnal working habits of Churchill. Period as Catering Advisor to Headquarters, 1st Div in Italy, 12/1943-11/1944: obtaining luxury supplies; nature of role liaising with divisional units.
REEL 10 Continues: nature of role liaising with divisional units and question of response of regimental officers; support from senior RASC officer; opinion of US 'K' rations and self heating cans; issue of compo tinned food rations in packs; team of instructors; question of success in improving food; accidental bombing raid by US aircraft. Return as time expired to GB, 11/1944. Leave, 11/1944-1/1945. Period as Area Catering Advisor attached to Command Supply Depot, RASC, Tetbury, ca 1/1945-4/1946: question of increased effectiveness in liaising with static units; story illustrating problem with former civilian foreign nationals recruited into ACC; catering conferences for local commanding officers; Posting as Assistant Command Catering Advisor, Headquarters, Southern Command at Wilton, 1945-1947: role; Schools of Cookery; introduction and role of ACC specialist messing officers in static units; problem with system of deducting rations for messing officers from their units; effects of end of war; question of becoming regular officer in ACC, ca 1946.
REEL 11 Continues: developments in career structure and training available in ACC by 1946-1947; problems caused by National Service system of conscription; background to decision to become regular ACC officers rather than pursue civilian opportunities. Period as Catering Advisor, Headquarters, Scottish Command, 1947-1949: development of network of contacts amongst senior officers; increased flexibility in rations available. Period as Assistant Chief Instructor with Army Training Centre, ACC at Aldershot, 1949-1951: reasons for success of commanding officers courses; types of courses available. Period commanding Far East School of Cooking, ACC at Neesoon, Singapore, Malaysia, 1951-1952: presence of Malayan and Gurkha troops; situation; continued use of No1 Petrol Burner cooking equipment. Period as Command Catering Advisor with Army Headquarters, Malaya, 1952-1954: role; effects of curfew and controls on movement of food; question of threat from insurgents; role; food rations; story of discovery of communist spy serving with ACC supplying mepacrine tablets to Malayan insurgents; opinion of Templer.
REEL 12 Continues: abandoning ship due to fire aboard Empire Windrush in Mediterranean during journey back to GB, 4/1954. Period as Second in Command of Depot and Training Bn, ACC at Aldershot, 1954-1959: role providing basic military training to intakes of national servicemen conscripts; role as President of Courts Martial, Aldershot and influence on opinion of national service system; types of case taken to court martial; effects of shortage of training grounds; opinion of national service; identification of promising recruits for commission; nature of 'bad' recruits; review of progress of ACC, 1943-1959. Period at Chief Catering Advisor, General Headquarters, Far East Command, 1959-1961: emergency posting as Lieutenant Colonel to deal with problems of corruption amongst senior ACC officers in Malaya and Hong Kong; personal selection of replacement officers; holding briefing conference to re-establish standards. Period commanding Training Bde, ACC at Aldershot, 1961-1963: composition of unit; role of Army Apprentice School in offering training to young boys; relationship with senior command; duties at War Office Selection Board Centre at Warminster.
REEL 13 Continues: selection procedure employed at War Office Selection Board Centre and question of influence of social class; problems in organising Officers' Social Club at Aldershot; amusing story of administrative inspection of Army Apprentice College; status as general staff officer; question of efficiency of units inspected; importance of Wives' Clubs. Period as Director of Army Catering Corps at First Avenue House, Hoburn, London, 1963-1966: question of accelerated promotion; role; staff administrative and technical structure; role in monitoring career structure harmonised with civilian industry; new calor gas company field kitchens; installation of modern cooking equipment into static camps; role in securing abandonment of ration scale and introduction of controlled cash payments to individual units; development of concept of 'short war' planning; impact of prior abolition of national service; advantages of introduction of group catering system to assist small units; decision to oppose transfer of responsibility for ACC to Royal Army Ordnance Corps.
REEL 14 Continues: decision to oppose transfer of responsibility for ACC to Royal Army Ordnance Corps and success in securing independent corps status for ACC, 1/1/1965; advantages of independent corps status including direct link to Army Quartermaster General and attending weekly Arms Directors meetings; role in producing and distributing 'Manual of Army Catering Services, Part 2: Recipes, 1965'; failure to secure status as 'Royal' Army Catering Corps; failure to secure major general status for Director of ACC; tours to inspect overseas stations; absence of corruption in ACC; award of CBE, 1965; retirement, 6/1966; advantages of short term service directorships; opinion of disbandment of specialist corps including ACC and formation of Royal Logistic Corps, 4/1993; role as Colonel Commandant of ACC, 1966-1976.