2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

C.S.M. Ernest William Fereday
Army Service No. 5334942

ERNEST WILLIAM FEREDAY
28TH MARCH 1916 - 24TH OCTOBER 1995

[LS74-1 & 3] Top row starting from the left: a snapshot taken outside the W.O.'s and Sergeants Mess. Myself sat on the left, next to me is the African Mess Waiter. Behind the bottle is the Company Quartermaster Sergeant and next to him the Clerical Sergeant out of the office.

Top, far right, is Sergeant Hague... a European who was with me, outside what we called a Basha. The huts in which we lived made of reed and bamboo, very dry and comfortable. No glass windows of course, just a shutter which could be opened for ventilation. I had been promoted to Company Sergeant Major at the time and he was one of my sergeants.
Below to the left is a Scotsman, mad as a hatter that chap. There is a story I can tell you about that too. He was C.Q.M.S. - Company Quartermaster Sergeant in charge of feeding and clothing the personal side of the troops.
Bottom right he is featured again with another sergeant and in the background is one of the small Basha's. I had one of them on my own. On the back of the photograph is the name Sergeant Griffiths but not too sure which one the name belongs to...

Top right, elephants having their wash, the chap in charge of the had a scrubbing brush and would take then down to the water and allow them to spray themselves with their trunks. No doubt you would be familiar with seeing this on television but it was new to us it was 1943, 40 years ago. Then Ceylon was regarded as the 'British Jewel in the Crown of the British Empire' or so they said on the newsreels, but they didn't record, of course, THE SMELLS!!

During this period I unfortunately became ill and had to go into hospital was No.1 British General Military Hospital in Colombo. I was there for two months, anxiety neurosis they called it, mental trouble due to over worry concentration and so forth.
However, while I was there, occupational therapy was the thing and I made a wallet in real leather and still have it to this day. I still carry it with me wherever I go. The Regimental Badge (China Dragon) and decoration was done by myself.
Consequently, I was downgraded to B1 which wasn't that serious but it meant that I wasn't in the front line, in other words it cut me from Burma for which I wasn't sorry. It was nice to find a little job somewhere without being in the front line. I am no hero, I don't admitting...

[LS74-7] 3rd row left: is my black counterpart, Sergeant Major. You can see that he had been around a bit with all those medal ribbons. His name was Gerigrio a very good chap. Next to him is a photo of an outside scene of the camp, there are many Bash or bungalows built with reed and coconut palms etc but as you can see there was also a tented area. These men featured there are all ex-wounded or suffering from some complaint and were in the process of returning to East Africa. Far left are three of my companions on the grassy area in front of the beach at Mount Lavinia.

Bottom row left: Two personal servants employed and trained specially and they fought in Burma. The one on the right was responsible for a Japanese Officer. The middle photograph I took of the waves over the rocks where I nearly lost my life. I had been out swimming and got caught in an undertow. A very powerful currant swept my legs from under me and I had to work very hard indeed to reach those rocks. Subsequently, I was smashed up against them and suffered considerable grazes. Nothing serious, but I was very sore for some days. Next, another view of the beach at Mount Lavinia. You can see the railway runs along there.

1st Picture, top left is a view of the Hotel Mount Lavinia itself. This was reserved for officers of all the Services, Navy, Army and Royal Air Force. We chaps didn't get a look in and, of course, the WRENS were there to keep them company!

[LS76-4] Bottom left is a photograph of a Japanese Soldier, he gave me his collar which was adorned with his medal ribbons and badges but kept the wristwatch for him. He was looked after by one of the servants on the previous page.

[LS76-6] The small photograph is of me taken completely unawares by Clerical Sergeant, he spoke my name, I looked up and he snapped me. I was trying to type with reasonable efficiency with two fingers.
Next to that photograph is a picture of a girl in the paddy fields which were near the camp, 8 miles from C.P.O...

On the end is a rather faded, under exposed photograph showing a group of seven Europeans on a drinking session. The interesting point is that the glasses were made out of beer bottles, which we filled halfway with water, then poured some oil, a very small amount, then a red hot iron was inserted into the bottle slowly which heated up the oil. The effect was, the bottle was cracked all the way round evenly, then, by getting the two glasses together, inserting them inside each other and grinding them together, would smooth off the edges, inside and out.

2nd row is of a Destroyer. We were lucky enough to be invited aboard one of these Destroyers to go out on an exercise, and when we went out, we got a great shock because with the simulated active service all guns went into action and when they did, it frightened the life out of us.
All the ducts were covered in plaster type stuff as actual crashing of shells going off would send splinters all over the place. We were sent down to the 'Mad Room' I think they called it 'control room' actually. The lamps were swinging backwards and forwards with the firing of guns and the conditions of the sea and everything else in fact we had got 'active service' conditions and we found it very frightening and though those chaps did a marvellous job on those destroyers, whenever they went into action...

[LS78-6] 2nd row on the end is of a group that came from Leeds, the nurses were in the Queen Alexander Royal Army Nursing Service. A couple of chaps have their arms in plaster. They were all very keen Rugby Players and unfortunately the ground they played on was very hard and very gravelly and as a result there were several broken wrists.
Bottom row, me (Colonal Sergeant Major Fereday, K.A.R.) with hands on hips with Sergeant Grey, R.W.A.F.F. and Private Jerome K.A.R., this was taken Dec 1944 in Madras, India. I was responsible for getting these things sorted out and suggested to the Commanding Officer to get some men, Blacks, into uniform and act as Regimental Crime Police as a security point of view so that they could sort any awkward black patients out. And there were quite a few occasions when this needed to be done.

P 1 :: P 2 :: P 3 :: P 4 :: P 5 :: P 6 :: P 7 :: P 8 :: P 9 :: P 10


 

 

 

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