Alan and I go back a long way, in fact he was the L/Cpl i/c the barrack room that I was put into, when I joined No 1 Coy, 2nd Bn at Sennelager, when I came onto �Man`s Service� in August 1949. I went on a Cpl�s Course in the September and by October was a L/Cpl myself. We stayed in the same company both ending up as L/Sgt�s, but this friendship floundered when I got posted to the Guards Depot in 1951 and due to all the comings and goings of us both during the ensuing years we lost touch. As can be seen from the bits and pieces below our friendship has now been well and truly re-established, we even phone each other occasionally! Both getting fed up with writing letters � not me him really � as he is not �Electronic� like what I am.
This is an extract from my first letter to Alan in June 2000.
Here�s a �Blast from the Past� 2nd Battalion, Krefeld 1950/51, shared a room in No 1 Company. I got plastered in the Sergeants Mess, voluntarily rather than be force fed with the stuff. Wouldn�t wait for you to join me to return to our room, you had the only key, and I had scaled the gap at the rear of the block by the time you arrived � hope its becoming clearer! Yes! You got it in one. Brian Brenchley (better known as �Boy� Brenchley). Periodically over the last half century I have often wondered what had become of you. When I have had the old photographs out showing the grandchildren, and the ones from that era appear, it has set me thinking, but I now have the answer.
I got this year�s Grenadier Gazette (2000). There in colour you appear way down yonder along with others from the Battalion at that time. I do remember seeing a mention of your name in last year�s issue but was not sure it was you, if you know what I mean. Anyway having now discovered where you are and obtained your address from Captain Barry Double at RHQ I thought I would pop a line or two in the post to make contact once again after so long. You may not wish to so I won�t at this stage get carried away with a potted history of the intervening years. However, should you wish to reply and start an exchange of letters please let me know and we�ll take it from there.
This is an extract from the reply I received in August 2000.
As you say �Blast from the Past� it is indeed. I too have often wondered what happened after Krefeld, the only old mates I have met from that time are, Frank �Spot� Baker � Support Coy, Ken Day who was Major Johnson�s Batman, and Fred Jacobs from the MT Platoon. . The major was Company Commander of No 4 Coy. We all live in the same State here in Australia, but rarely see each other because of the vast distances we have to travel. It is good to hear from you and sorry for the length of time it has taken me to answer, but I have been up in N.S.W. for a Grenadier Day Weekend.
I left England in 1969 to come to OZ and have not been back since. I met my wife Sheila here, and am now retired and live in Foster, which is a small town in an area called South Gippsland. Yes Brian I would like to exchange letters, but you may have to jog my memory a little as some incidents of our time in Krefeld are a bit dim these days.
The following is a �Potted History� of Alan`s life between 1953 and 1969.
I was demobbed in March 1953 and then joined the Portsmouth Police, staying with them until February 1954. when I rejoined the regiment in March as a L/Sgt. I had heard that the 2nd Bn were off to Egypt, hence my resignation from the Police. I was in Egypt from March 1954 to December that year, when I was posted back to England and to Pirbright as a Platoon Sgt. I was there until 1956 when I rejoined the 2nd Bn at Windsor as a Gold Sgt. From there we went to Lydd, and in 1958 was posted to the Guards Depot as a Supt Sgt. In 1960 I was posted out to Ghana, where I stayed until 1962 when I came back to the UK, and joined the 1st Bn and was in Queens Coy until 1963. Then I rejoined the 2nd Bn as a CQMS and we went to British Guiana. In 1964 I transferred to MPSC at Colchester, because I too had started wearing glasses. I was of course a Prison Officer there, and I was the bloke who got all the Drill type jobs with other units in the area. I left the Army in March 1967 for personal reasons, and for a short period was with the Southampton Harbour Police. I then decided to go to start a new life in Australia and arrived in Melbourne in 1969. |
