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What book are you reading at the moment?


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This was what I bought today. Lots of little curiosities of mixed items you get Pans, bed, enamelled immediately followed by Pans, frying, oval

 

Then you get Holders, tooth-brush with the note that "Trays, toilet-brush, earthen, will be issued in lieu until stock is used up." Bit of a size difference I would have thought.

 

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Studying the printer's imprints reveal that 5,000 of these were published but the first of the amendments 3 months later they started printing amendments each with a quantity of 7,000

 

I notice anything dated 1914-18 & 1939-45 fetches a premium but the history between or before those times seems to be held in little regard because there wasn't a war. But it is all connected in its various ways.

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Perhaps not the most gripping HMSO book I have read recently. :-D

 

Although this was 1962 there is still advice & guidance that today could be heeded by some departments (national & local) & many other organisations.

 

Sometimes we still get asked a question in the negative, which if you answer literally gives quite the wrong impression to what one thinks the questioner was expecting eg Do you believe you are no longer registered? If you answer "No" it means I believe I am registered, yet some may feel moved to answer "No" meaning "No I'm not registered"

 

Then you are asked to tick the Yes / No box. Then on the other side of the paper, presumably designed by someone else, you are asked to put "X" in the No / Yes box :yawn:

 

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Although I suppose they have got laid out better than this sort of thing from 1958, which is none too clear:

 

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Forecast for Overlord by FM Stagg.

 

Odd book I picked up in a second hand bookshop in Morecambe the other week, its the story of the part the weather played before during and after D Day, and the organisation that provided what is one of the most important weather forecasts in history, an interesting read :cool2:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well 35 of these turned up today, just couldn't resist them. From 1949 -1984 (less 1981)

 

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These contain information on publications from all branches of Government including the War Office/MOD. It will also help me further in cracking an additional coding system used in certain HMSO publications from 1926-66. Something that FOI requests to MOD, Cabinet Office & Stationery Office failed to reveal.

 

Incidentally anyone spot what's wrong with this particular edition?

 

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Got a few more now!

 

So have all of them from 1894 to 1984 (other than 1981)

 

Quite a bit of reading ahead!

 

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Clive

 

According to the University of York website these only ran to 1994, so you only need 10 more (and 1981!), and you will have a complete set. I am battling through Noble Frankland et al's Official History of Bomber Command at the moment - 4 volumes and a tad dry for modern tastes, but of course they didnt make a fuss about these things back then!

 

Tim

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Tim thank you for that even if I get those it won't be a complete set because I don't know when they started! The earliest I have found is 1890 & that is a print to order that comes from India.

 

Richard, well I think my first choice might be EMERs their structure & evolution, followed by the structure of the WO Registry system & its impact on Army publications & then yes structure of HMSO publications & how they evolved.

 

Although thinking about it perhaps as you suggest the HMSO might be the one to go for first, seeing as The Stationery Office & the Cabinet Office over several FOI requests seem to have no comprehension of how publications were codified. I think I do know now having scrutinised over 10,000 entries a pattern has emerged, although that kept changing!

 

Hmm I can feel an article coming on but would anyone want to read it :-X

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  • 2 months later...

A couple of new arrivals.

 

This one has very little to do with politics or race, it is a very angry young man's take on the influence of religion of it various kinds & its effect on human misery. Much of the book is based on quotations, that towards the end of the book get confusing to keep wondering if it is the same person being quoted or someone else. Not written by an armchair academic some years after events, this was published as history was being made in 1969. I was the only bidder so not a bad insight for 1p

 

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The other book was only a little more expensive. I already have Volumes I & II but this rarer as it was written for "Superior Commanders" & there weren't so many of them.

 

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I was the only bidder got this for a good price as this was merely for 1935, if it was for 1915 or 1945 it would have cost considerably more. There seems to be a vast appetite for wartime history yet what happens (or not) between wars lays the foundations for understanding how the next one was conducted.

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My back was turned, now looks like I have to fight over who is going to read it!

 

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Excellent book by Geoff Fletcher & James Taylor. Full of information from years of research, most pictures are previously unpublished & mainly of in-service vehicles rather than what you can see walking around a show ground.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Always a cornucopia of articles both historical & contemporary in this issue to 1949

 

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One article of particular interest was the story of Percy a chimpanzee who was on the roll of an Engineer Company of the Gold Coast Regiment in 1911-16. His exploits & jocular escapades cannot be repeated here as in this post-Colonial world would be seen as unacceptable. Although attitudes in the opposite direction can be reported:

 

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Percy, it seems, delighted & at times alarmed all ranks. For an animal to wear a uniform & partake in the full range of mess activities would be regarded by many as unacceptable. But Percy was rescued at the point of starvation clinging to his dead mother who had been shot by a native hunter.

 

In 1916 he was brought to London Zoo where he found the lack of privileges depressing & in 1918 died of pneumonia shortly after an air-raid. He was buried behind the Ape House.

 

I have not yet found it, but apparently there is only one photograph of Percy. It shows him wearing a fez & chewing the tassel whilst holding his pipe between his toes.

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  • 1 month later...

Here is this weeks little haul of RAOS.

 

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Some interesting nuggets, including this 1962 prediction:

 

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The keen observer will notice three have buff covers & one orange. There is a reason for this, anyone want to guess why?

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Well spotted Richard, although you are correct, it is not actually the reason for colour difference which was changed for a specific reason of identification.

 

 

Buff one for wartime, white for peacetime?

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Well spotted although it isn't quite that simple.

 

Volume 1 - Peace

Volume 2 - War

 

These were all buff but in 1962 Volume 2 was restructured having originally comprised 20 individual pamphlets, some were abolished, some amalgamated, some superseded.

 

A new range of 26 pamphlets were introduced that included new topics & incorporated/updated earlier topics. Unfortunately only pamphlet numbers 1, 2 & 3 corresponded to the subject matter of the previous structure. To reduce confusion(!) the new range of pamphlets were coloured orange rather than buff.

 

There was also Volume 3 that comprised at least 37 pamphlets.

 

So those are all Regulations for Army Ordnance Services some were converted to or morphed into Manual of Army Ordnance Services. These assumed even more titles and even Volume 1 Pamphlet 2 was so large it had to be published in 7 separate parts.

 

This has developed a further generation of publications in the form of Materiel Regulations for the Army, but of course those have become transposed or re-conceived into JSPs (Joint Service Publications) & so it goes on :D

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