National service

[Harleyman 12]

Too true!..... Basic NS pay was 4s.0d (20p) a day which you might think worked out at 28s.0d a week. Not so! The Army had special tricks up its khaki sleeve. First,you had to pay 3s.6d (17.5 p) National Insurance, which left 24s.6d, ( £1. 22). Then they only paid you to the nearest 5s.0d,(25p) so you drew £1 a week.

 

The remaining 4s.6d went into Credits, a sort of kitty which could be used to reimburse the military if you lost a Centurion tank, or set fire to your BD in a fit of spite. On demob you got what was left. A first stripe brought an extra

6d (2.5p) per day, a second tape rated another 1s.6d (7.5 p) a day. There was extra pay for any who acquired specialist trade qualifications, and there were overseas allowances for anyone posted outside UK. BAOR, in Germany, was classed as a home posting, but travel to the UK for leave was paid for by the Army.

 

To put it into perspective, a civvy in the 1950s thought himself well off if he grossed £10 a week before stoppages. Petrol was 5s.0d (25p) a gallon, for the lucky few with a bike or a car, and a pint of Stones was around 1s.4d (7p). A new-build 3-bed semi was around £2000 & a tram ride to town cost about 1p.

 

When the 18 month term of National Service was increased to 2 years at the start of the Korean War, a NS squaddy got regular pay for the last six months of his service & added beans to his nightly supper of egg & chips in the NAAFI.

 

Hard to believe prices like that.

And the things you had to do to draw army pay

You probably had the pay parade. Our was outdoors in the motor pool park.

A table was set up and a corporal from the Pay Corps and one of our battery

subalterns would seat themselves behind it.

The corporal would bawl out the last three numbers of our army number and the name of the man called up would march up salute, take the money, one step backward march another smart salute, about turn and march off.

This corporal told me once that when the battery were out in the field he had to take the pay of the regulars who had families living in married quarters to their various addresses. He had another Pay Corps clerk go with him as security because a few of the wives were after more than just a pay packet when he knocked on the door and one or two of them were really aggresive.

Hilarious!

[cartav 10]

All true, Jim Austen! (I'm not suggesting you doubt me!) Just looked up the cost of a 1950's bike...(That's NOT something with rotating footrests!) You could get a 1000cc Vincent Black Shadow for £315 plus tax, & that was expensive. Something like a Beesa 350 was £162 plus tax & road tax was £3.15s.0d a year. We'd save up for months to get something! Thank God the Army gave me a bike after they discovered that clerical duty had me considering going over the wire. I was quite keen to do something more active, & I'd been put in an office when it was discovered that a radar operator was surplus to requirements when the nearest 3 Mark 7 set was ten miles away. I hated pen pushing. In fact, they gave me 8 bikes to look after..... Six Matchless G3Ls & two Beesa M20s. The instructor's course at the Army MT School at Bordon was the best two weeks I had in the two years. And with a target figure for petrol consumption of 50mpg, I always had some spare MT70 when the G3Ls were turning in 70mpg. The Battery Sergeant Major became a good friend and a gallon or so on occasion kept me off guard duties!. The winter exercises in BAOR could be a b*****d, though. Swanning up & down a column of thirty odd trucks & guns on a January night was a swine. The Troop sergeant major's were supposed to help out, but their bikes went down with faults which disappeared when the temperature rose. Then some chuff came up with the bright idea that a bike was likely to be the only vehicle on the road after an atomic strike. If it was dug in , of course. That meant digging a pit wherever we stopped for the night. A few more trips with a jerrycan to the BSM's car got some help for that! And being almost under my own steam when something had to be taken somewhere else on a scheme, saw the Battery Quartermaster Sergeant becoming friendly, too. A couple of bottles of beer collected from any shop I passed, made sure that I was at the top of the queue for any kit replacement and my credit kitty remained intact...

 

Yes, the Army taught me to play the system to advantage!

[prioryx 10]

drivers and dispatch trained at Rippon (spelling not right) wireless ops at 7tr ?Richmond nice old world town,always wanted to be a D.R like my brother.All I wanted was a big Motor-bike to play around on ,it took me nearly 18 months to get a change of trade had to lie through my teeth, told the C.O i had a bike in civ street i had never even sat on a bike in my life,but two weeks later i was on loan doing regular dispatch duty, its a good job lots of sand to crash into ,Now the world was my oyster all on my own and only rare would anyone tell me what to do it was a great life for the next 3 yrs:D:D:D

 

Flyer

Wireless ops were trained at Bourlon lines 3TR. i know cos i was that soldier. 1954.

7TR was the basic training regt. It had Vimy lines for NS and Somme for regs. Vimy was the Sandhurst blocks and we poor regs were in the wooden spider blocks.

[Harleyman 12]

All true, Jim Austen! (I'm not suggesting you doubt me!) Just looked up the cost of a 1950's bike...(That's NOT something with rotating footrests!) You could get a 1000cc Vincent Black Shadow for £315 plus tax, & that was expensive. Something like a Beesa 350 was £162 plus tax & road tax was £3.15s.0d a year. We'd save up for months to get something! Thank God the Army gave me a bike after they discovered that clerical duty had me considering going over the wire. I was quite keen to do something more active, & I'd been put in an office when it was discovered that a radar operator was surplus to requirements when the nearest 3 Mark 7 set was ten miles away. I hated pen pushing. In fact, they gave me 8 bikes to look after..... Six Matchless G3Ls & two Beesa M20s. The instructor's course at the Army MT School at Bordon was the best two weeks I had in the two years. And with a target figure for petrol consumption of 50mpg, I always had some spare MT70 when the G3Ls were turning in 70mpg. The Battery Sergeant Major became a good friend and a gallon or so on occasion kept me off guard duties!. The winter exercises in BAOR could be a b*****d, though. Swanning up & down a column of thirty odd trucks & guns on a January night was a swine. The Troop sergeant major's were supposed to help out, but their bikes went down with faults which disappeared when the temperature rose. Then some chuff came up with the bright idea that a bike was likely to be the only vehicle on the road after an atomic strike. If it was dug in , of course. That meant digging a pit wherever we stopped for the night. A few more trips with a jerrycan to the BSM's car got some help for that! And being almost under my own steam when something had to be taken somewhere else on a scheme, saw the Battery Quartermaster Sergeant becoming friendly, too. A couple of bottles of beer collected from any shop I passed, made sure that I was at the top of the queue for any kit replacement and my credit kitty remained intact...

 

Yes, the Army taught me to play the system to advantage!

 

Don't doubt you Cartav. I remember how prices were back then but incomes were averaging around seven quid a week so relatively speaking they weren't that cheap.

Best time I had in the army was in the Battery office. They were short a clerk who had just been posted back to UK and I was on light duty because of a foot injury so they put me in there to help out. No guard duty, no field or jungle exercises and 48 hour passes to Kuala Lumpur every weekend. I was seriously thinking of signing on for an extra year for the better pay and must have mentioned it to the BSM. Anyway I was sent down to Singapore for a 4 week clerks course. There was another gunner from 17 Battery on the course also and the first Saturday night we were there we decided to go into Singapore for a night out. Got smashed on the cheap beer in the Union Jack Club and on leaving the club we each jumped into a tri shaw ( a bicycle with a one passenger side car attached). Had a racing competition through the streets each one of us egging our driver on with promisese of a bigger and better tip if he won.

Anyway we ended up in some back alleys and my mate stopped his tri shaw in front of a bar or a store or something and we paid off the drivers and were walking across to the bar when we were promptly arrested by the Redcaps. We were both in civvies but must have stuck out like sore thumbs to the MPs in that purely Chinese part of the city. Turned out that we were in an off limits to soldiers area. I showed them my military ID but my mate who had forgotten his ID tried to bluff it out claiming he was merchant marine which of course the MPs didn't believe for a second.

Anyway we both spent the weekend in cells at the guardhouse at Nee Soon where the clerks school was and I was sure we would be RTUd. Went up before the major on Monday morning and he gave me 3 days CB and my mate 6 (For lying to the MPs). Finished the course, decided I wouldn't sign on and two months later was on my way home.

[flyer 10]

Flyer

Wireless ops were trained at Bourlon lines 3TR. i know cos i was that soldier. 1954.

7TR was the basic training regt. It had Vimy lines for NS and Somme for regs. Vimy was the Sandhurst blocks and we poor regs were in the wooden spider blocks.

 

O foggy brain it just needs prodding now and then, I now remember 3tr (Richmond)but can't for the life of me recall Bourlon I've still got all my old pics fm 1951 i'll just have to dig them out:confused:

[prioryx 10]

O foggy brain it just needs prodding now and then, I now remember 3tr (Richmond)but can't for the life of me recall Bourlon I've still got all my old pics fm 1951 i'll just have to dig them out:confused:

3TR was in Catterick. There was a camp near Richmond called Gallowgate.

Bourlon lines were on the edge Catterick garrison. I was looking at a map of the camp but can't remember where.If you can remember where the WRAC billets were then Bourlon lines were near them, quite away from camp centre. There was a little chip shop not far from the main gate.

5 TR was driver traing at Ripon.

[prioryx 10]

Flyer

Found it.

http://www.army.mod.uk/linkedfiles/19mechbde/19_css_battalion/posted_in/welfaremap.pdf

 

This is the Catterick map.

Sorry i dont' know how to put in links or quotes.

[prioryx 10]

Maybe I do!

[Texas 10]

I had a look at your map prioryx. Been lots of changes, naturally, since the early 50s. I see Vimy is still in place, across the road to the East is Helles Lines? That used to be Baghdad Lines. Baghdad and Vimy took new intakes of National Servicemen turn about. The Armoured Corps are still in the same position.

[prioryx 10]

No signals there now.

[Texas 10]

I got a confession pryorix, I had a drive thro' Catterick a few years ago and had a look at Vimy and Baghdad Lines. I clearly remember behind the Guardroom at Vimy, a line of tree saplings, now mature trees. The barrack blocks at Vimy are now like little blocks of three or four, and I suspect the same at Baghdad (Helles). The little church has gone, just up the road, but I think the big NAFFI club is still there. I drove around awhile but I'm damned if I could find 2TR. There seemed to be lots of 'chica' soldiers around, gave me the creeps really. I even had a look at what used to be the transit camp at Pocklington,(near York), it's now a small Industrial Estate.

[prioryx 10]

I was there some years ago for the reunion and before that with the TA. The guardroom at Bourlon had kids playing on the front, in my day that was sacred ground.

I went down to Somme lines or I should say where they used to be as spider huts. The Somme cafe building was there but everything else had been modernised.

We used to have NAFFI break in there when in basic training.

Never go back is a true saying.