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Wadsworth, who succeeded Ayres and, despite a reputation for drollery, was sincere and able. Moss, who in a hundred ways helped us all at H.Q. and looked after our transport problems so thoroughly. Then Pepper. How should we have carried on without our Security Officer, who "protected" us from our enemies within and fleeced us so unmercifully and on so many occasions for the good of the Comforts Fund.

In the last two years of our existence, B.H.Q. became the home of quite a strong permanent staff. In order of time, Timings comes first. What a boon he was when he came to us as A.A. in the early days of 1941. His past experience as a staff officer, his precision and urbanity, combined with a fine sense of the incongruous, lightened the loads on the backs of all officers in command. Throughout 1941 and the greater part of 1942, he was alone at B.H.Q. by day, whilst leaving it to the untender mercies of the amateurs by night.

The serenity of his "home" was disturbed at last by the entry of an Adjutant and a Quartermaster. Hackett, the Q.M., we already knew, and he very ably filled a gap which had been open for some time.

But Crews, the new Adjutant, had a hard job at first to pack in his bulky self comfortably. But he did it eventually and successfully by means of the most optimistic outlook I have ever met,

 

combined with energy and unconquerable goodwill. By the end he had become part and parcel of the battalion.

Then our P.S.I's. The first to arrive was McElhone, who will always be remembered by his stocky figure breezily marching by the side of a platoon, drilling them in the true tradition of the army. Then Thorley and Trumper, both of whom also helped us so much in our efforts to become soldiers.

Nor can we forget Tinsley, whose quiet efficient work helped to make the wheels go round so smoothly.

I should be guilty of the grossest ingratitude if I did not give Miss Morris a special mention. Competent, loyal, and attractive, and with it all so serious a Home Guarder that when it came to forming a ladies' contingent there was only one possible candidate to be put forward as Officer in Charge.

Having brought the opposite sex into the picture, I cannot pass on without a word of praise for the Women's Auxiliary H.G. All they have undertaken has been done with great enthusiasm, and very well done too. Their work on the signalling side is worthy of special note.

Another at H.Q. will perhaps be remembered by most as a cheerful face peering through the serving hatch in the Mess. But his real job is Storeman, and if Jones ever wants a testimonial I know that he has only to apply to our Q.M., whose right-hand man he has been for so long.
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