2nd Battalion Royal Berkshire Regiment

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

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

[LS78-8] Middle bottom row, a European West African Sergeant with a Nursing Sister, I think her name was Bunty.

[LS78-9] Bottom row end photograph is me sitting on, believe it or not, the toilet, with an empty beer bottle in one hand and a large bladed knife in the other which I quite expertly knocked the cap off with. I am wearing my bush hat there, which incidentally I still have. On the back is written - Ernie slightly canned at 18 B.G.H. Madras, India.

One day I was called into the office and my Commanding Officer said 'My boat was in' this meant my time had finished, 12 years in the army and I could go home. "Would I go home or sign on and stay there?" Unfortunately, at that time I was very depressed, (after six years, four of them abroad) I had a very strong desire to get home and finish with the whole thing. My biggest mistake in many ways, I think.
I accepted the 'boat' and therefore travelled home to get discharged from the Regular Army.
It so happened that on arrival, I found two young ladies who were billeted as it were with my foster parents, they were working in a local factory and one of them I was very attracted to. After a few months of courtship we became engaged and thereafter married. We honeymooned in Folkstone, in Sheraton Avenue where close to there, many years before, I was stationed in Shorncliffe 1934-1937.
After several years and two daughters later I went through a period of longing to get back into the army and tried to do so. I don't know if you remember me saying that I was downgraded to B1, well this meant that I would have to go for a medical inspection to see if I was fit enough to go back in due to the medical records it was doubtful. I asked for an x-ray at Wheatley Head Injuries Hospital which then existed, a wartime institution and I went there for this x-ray. I asked the Officer what chance there was of getting back in and he said 50/50.
Unfortunately, I was turned down and I never did get back in although my application had been received, I had my rank back, a registered number allocated to me and posted to the 'Dorsets' but as I was turned down medically that was that. I was still determined to keep in touch with the army and I went to the Territorial Association and made an application to join the Territorials. Although downgraded I was accepted and I joined the 90 AGRA at Shippon, Abingdon. They were called the REME - Royal Electrical Mechanical Engineers. I was given the rank of Staff Sergeant.

[LS80-1] This large photo is of a camp and the TA in its early stages. In the centre of the back row, wearing an open neck shirt and in civilians is Arthur Giles. At the time he lived next door to me at Robsart Place, Cumnor. He was the eldest son and I persuaded him to join but after a few weeks turned it in. Most of these lads are local lads mainly from Abingdon. On the left front row is Sergeant Major REME regular, a TA Officer ex regular, Commanding Officer in civvies in the centre. The one next to him is an Electrical chap in charge of all electricals etc, radio and what have you. He, in fact, owned a record recording shop in George Street, Oxford at the time. The next fellow is the officer in charge of all the supplies for all the group, he was Ordinance Officer and then myself.

The group all in uniform this time. With the exception of one or two, many of these fellows had seen active service in many parts of the world. One outstanding chap and I say that with meaning, in the back row, he was a regular guardsman and he was attached to my TA Unit. He was an enormous size, in fact all his equipment was doubled, it had to be specially stitched together to fit him. The webbed belt around his waist was the equivalent of tow belts normally worn by anyone else. I am sitting on the extreme right, front row...

A group again of our Unit from Shippon. We are shown in the front of a large gun. At that time I knew quite a lot about it but now I have forgotten most of it, even the calibre of the gun. On this occasion I am third from the left on the rear rank.

[LS881 & 2] As was usual with the TA we would have one drill night per week then there would be a week-end attendancies and training schemes or on the rifle range and then once a year we would go to the annual camp for a fortnight. On this occasion we were at Chickerell. Then we went a few miles outside where there was fairly rough country. A demonstration was given by the TA supposedly of their efficiency and ability to recover vehicles that had got into severe trouble.
Top left is a photo which shows a vehicle being pulled back up out of a very steep gulley. In actual fact, it had been pushed down there deliberately and everything had been laid on for all the Brass Hats and all the Top Dogs and all the members of the Units to see this vehicle pulled back out with the then latest equipment! A great deal of trouble was taken, stakes were hammered into the hillside, pulleys passed through and coupled up to a winch on a recovery vehicle on the top of the hill and everything was set to go. Unfortunately, things that were laid down in the book do not always work out in practise. Here again it happened, with a ping ping ping all the stakes were pulled out of the ground and there was just no way that that vehicle could be hauled up by winch. The ground was so soft it would not hold the stakes to allow the pulleys to go through. Eventually, amid a great deal of laughter and cat calls all the troops were mustered and went down and actually pulled that vehicle up by hand. It was just one big laugh.
It could have been pulled out with real practice and knowhow coupled with past experience instead of resorting to the procedure as laid down in a book.
The second picture actually shows the vehicle being manhandled to the top...

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


 

 

 

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