Jump to content

Anyone got a copy of RE Vocabulary of Stores from early 1950's


Old Git

Recommended Posts

Has anyone got a copy of "Royal Engineers Vocabulary of Stores, Group 4, Section 5, Sub-Section 4" which covers bridging and was published in early 1950's? Not necessarily looking to buy it, just want information from it and maybe a couple of digital photographs of relevant pages?

It's not to be found in NAM: RE Museum / Library; IWM, or Kew. Have a query in with TICRE but thought I'd try here also, just on the off-chance. Anyone at all?

 

Pete

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It is as well to have it & defines the document precisely. A museum library ought to make use of those identifiers, that's how I catalogue my collection as nature intended.

I'm away from home but I did buy direct the Catalogue of RE Stores in the 1990s, mind you it took over a year for them to process the order as my UIN at the time put me at I think Priority 8 which is as low as it can be!

Would these things of interest still have been in service then?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Try the REME Museum. They do have some of these stores books as I saw some while I was there, but I can't remember a bridging one. 

I strongly suggest you request a visit and search yourself and not just ask for help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for that, will certainly give it a try. I guess this is the voice of experience talking... Ever tried getting information out of NAM...like getting blood from a stone. Don't answer the phone and never, ever reply to emails!

2 hours ago, woa2 said:

I strongly suggest you request a visit and search yourself and not just ask for help.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/24/2018 at 11:56 PM, fv1609 said:

It is as well to have it & defines the document precisely. A museum library ought to make use of those identifiers, that's how I catalogue my collection as nature intended.

I'm away from home but I did buy direct the Catalogue of RE Stores in the 1990s, mind you it took over a year for them to process the order as my UIN at the time put me at I think Priority 8 which is as low as it can be!

Would these things of interest still have been in service then?

Just received a note from the Australian National Archives, who do not have a copy either, but they've been able to give me the WO Number for it, WO 6386.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 8/24/2018 at 11:56 PM, fv1609 said:

It is as well to have it & defines the document precisely. A museum library ought to make use of those identifiers, that's how I catalogue my collection as nature intended.

Indeed. As a little bit of inside information/insight, the large percentage of the RAF Museum's AP collection came direct from the MoD reference library. It all arrived in (pretty much) AP number order and took a long time for the whole lot to be listed on a spreadsheet. This is the only reason we are able to find one with just a title or subject. If NAM haven't been able to completely list their lot then WO number is probably a good bet.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Quote

he large percentage of the RAF Museum's AP collection came direct from the MoD reference library

 

Interesting comment this, in as much as I actually rang the MOD main switchboard number this morning and asked if they could put me through to the MOD's Librarian/Archivist. I was asked which Base, to which I replied Whitehall. Only to be told , we have no listing for that. Common Sense tells that the MOD, at Whitehall, should have a reference Library/ Archivist but as there's no mention of this on their website and the receptionist didn't seem to know of one either then how is one supposed to get through to them. I suppose the opacity of 'Open Government' is neither as contradictory, nor surprising, as it sounds! 

Just off now to put "MOD Reference Library" into Google to see what happens...! Failing that does anyone have any contact details for the reference library!

 

EDIT: As suspected it turns up next to nothing, in fact Google returns only one, truncated, page of hits. .....and whilst the last entry on this page looks intriguing I think I shall have to give it a miss as it sounds too much like the typical Russian Hacker Honey-trap.

Edited by Old Git
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Considering the amount of AM/RAF material that made it's way to the RAFM, I wouldn't be surprised to find that budget cuts have taken their toll 🙄

Does the army have a historical branch in the vein of the Air Historical Branch?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just turned up an email address for the Army Historical Branch, thanks for that RAFMT, sometimes it just needs a different set of eyes! I've now fired off an email to thm asking if there is a complete repository of old WO publications and where I can access them. Let's see what happens!

Edited by Old Git
spolling
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll be honest, i didn't get far with the Gurniad article, but all I can do is speak from experience, and it took myself and two colleagues the better part of two years to go through a backlog of around 100 files. And we didn't need to examine each one page by page in case there was sensitive material in there.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...