Two Postscripts & Cpl Parsons
Bob Bland
Two postscripts to the articles by Clarence Young & Steve Thorpe, from the Open Door Dated June 2016.
Reading with interest of Clarence Young remembering the extreme cold that he endured in training, presumably sometime in the 1940s, and the one bucket of coal to heat the Nissen hut. Well I joined the RASC in November 1953, and recall that ten years later nothing had changed We still had the one heater in the centre of the barrack room, supplied by one bucket of coal, that was totally useless to heat the whole room. So that by morning ones shaving brush would be frozen stiff. Followed by trying to shave in very cold water.
Then again reading Steve Thorpes saga, brought back memories of the same Sgt. Parsons. Although I only knew him as Cpl. Parsons in charge of our intake 364 at No 3 Training Battalion, Farnborough during Dec. 53 to Feb 54. Yes a gigantic man to say the least, standing as I recall at 7ft. & ¼ inches. He was always keen to accentuate that extra ¼ inch. One thing I always think of when he comes to mind, is the time he came into to billet with his size 15 boots and dropped them on the floor. Then said in his quite deep voice, ‘I want them cleaned’, but not actually detailing anyone in particular to do it. So of course there the boots stayed for the whole of the weekend. On arriving back in to billet on Monday morning, his boots naturally still lay where he had droppedthem. But give his due, I do not recall that he made a great fuss over it, or at least that’s the way memories choose to serve me.
Intake 364