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Luck and a Lancaster by pilot and author Harry yates DFC very good plus Commando dispatch rider autobiography by Raymond Mitchell another very good read.

 

Thats a great book, especially as I am sitting on my patio overlooking the same Airfield!:cheesy:

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There are another six volumes to go. However, look away now if you don't want to know the ending.

 

The report later became the 1912 Mental Deficiency Bill, which was passed into law in 1913, a date overshadow in the nation's celebration of the Great War. One of the main worries was that in the Boer War British troops had been found physically inferior to their enemy due to 'bad blood.' This was further added to by the Eugenics Movement, a cause taken on board by a Mr Churchill and a certain Herr Hitler, the latter to a more extreme level.

 

The Act allowed for those with an IQ of 70 or less would be taken into certified institutions for the mentally deficient either voluntary or against their will. Three main groups made up the institution's occupants, the idiots, imbeciles and of course the largest group, the feeble-minded. Those that had a vicious propensity for which punishment could not correct and despite having an IQ greater than 70 would also be admitted as moral imbeciles later renamed moral defectives. The relatives of the patients would be required to pay for their upkeep whilst those patients in a county asylums would be classified as pauper lunatics and instead paid for by their local parish. Patients could and would spend their whole lives in such institutions.

 

There might well be a sequel.

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In 1913 the rejection rate for Army recruits per 1,000 was:

 

Defective intelligence 1.42

Other diseases of the nervous system 0.63

Not likely to be an efficient soldier 2.49

 

Quite low figures but as you indicate the most vulnerable would have been locked up.

 

I have the Army Medical Dept Reports for 1884, 1901 & 1913. These are very comprehensive but curiously the returns for the sick in South Africa for 1901 "cannot for the present be prepared" odd as the report was published in 1903.

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Just perusing my latest acquisition of another copy of WO Code No.8457 which is a fairly common book.

 

But what is the point of having so many identical publications? The point is that none of these are identical!

 

Although originally published in 1949 these were still being amended up to 1965. Sometimes just a few lines of amendment were made, sometimes complete sections were issued as replacements or replacements of replacements or sometimes you get an original that has not been amended at all.

 

Apart from changes to the main sections, there were a series of Appendices from A to K. Some of these were amended & sometimes displaced by an entirely different topic. To add to the confusion in 1951 all Appendices were re-designated as Annexes. Then new titles for Appendices were added to chapters of the main text with some of these Appendices acquiring their own Annexes.

 

So a recipe for confusion & the likelihood that many editions of Staff Duties in the Field can be so different or even seem contradictory.

 

DSC09026.JPG

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"We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning

to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later

in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing;

and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress

while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."

 

[h=1]Gaius Petronius Arbiter[/h]210BC

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"We trained hard, but it seemed that every time we were beginning

to form up into teams, we would be reorganized. I was to learn later

in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing;

and a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress

while producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization."

 

Gaius Petronius Arbiter

 

210BC

I remember this from the mid 1970's. I was on the Signal Platoon office wall of HQ Coy 5/8 Kings (V). I could not have quoted it but knew the sentiment, relevant today in all walks of life.
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In 1913 the rejection rate for Army recruits per 1,000 was:

 

Defective intelligence 1.42

Other diseases of the nervous system 0.63

Not likely to be an efficient soldier 2.49

 

Quite low figures but as you indicate the most vulnerable would have been locked up.

 

I have the Army Medical Dept Reports for 1884, 1901 & 1913. These are very comprehensive but curiously the returns for the sick in South Africa for 1901 "cannot for the present be prepared" odd as the report was published in 1903.

 

From the book 'Forgotten Lunatics of the Great War' comes a census of service patients in English and Welsh county and borough asylums (90), on January 1st 1922, there was 4,985. Which seems a remarkably small figure considering the millions that served. It is more than likely that many men suffered at home rather than be admitted to t'sylum

Edited by Whittingham warrior
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I remember this from the mid 1970's. I was on the Signal Platoon office wall of HQ Coy 5/8 Kings (V). I could not have quoted it but knew the sentiment, relevant today in all walks of life.

 

I first saw it plastered over the walls of Main Building, and just about every other MOD Establishment. The other one was the cartoon of the man sobbing whilst Stores said 'I don't care if you can see it on the shelf. The computer says we don't have any'. :D

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Also read Beyond the Front Line by Tony Geraghty. It is a history of Brixmis - UK troops in East Germany in the Cold War. Highly recommended.

 

Just started reading this again, for the umpteenth time. I once had a Range Rover that may have been Ex BRIXMIS, it was at least a Berlin Black. Before you all start, I got the vehicle from a friend who got it via his many years personal and proffesional connections to the SAS.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Civil Service Guide 1878 covers not only the War Department but nearly 200 branches of the Civil Service.

 

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Fascinating reading as this is aimed principally at school leavers to enter the lowest ranks of the Civil Service. Not only was the level of education expected extraordinarily high compared with today but there are examples of exam papers that most of us would find quite challenging. Even the introduction to speeling corectly needs some careful thought.

 

App0416.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

A rare dip into truth based fiction for me....Alone in Berlin by Hans Fallada...story of a couple who lived in Berlin in the first half of WW2 and go round leaving anti nazi propanganda on postcards. Chilling and scary and a reminder that there were a few incredibly brave people in the German population who stood up to the nazis. I wont spoil it but it is characterised by an overwhelming sense of foreboding as to the final outcome! Recommended...

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This turned up a few days ago. A very interesting read if you like that sort of thing. Very sketchy in places but to get 200 years of history squeezed in some important details get lost.

 

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HMSO supplied HM Forces not only with publications but a full range of stationery ancillaries. Something that would have delighted the spirit of Capt Darling no doubt.

 

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The book is in very good condition which is unusual for an ex-library book published nearly 30 years ago. But the library stamp shows that it was only lent out on only one occasion 20 years ago :yawn:

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