October 1940

It was fter we moved into our billets in the Kingswood area that the reporting of events, in the unit war diaries, became rather sketchy. The war diary had a minimum of explanation of the training and activities participated in by the unit. To all intents and purposes we were in a static situation similar to life in the barracks. At this time I applied for permission to be transferred to the staff of the battalion orderly room. I had to start as a permanent runner and work by way up from that position. It appeared to me, at the time, that there was absolutely no future being a member of the band. Musicians, whatever stripe, simply did not figure in fighting a war. We went on route marches which got progressively longer; medical parades to renew inoculations; sports afternoons; night and weekend passes when not on duty; leave if you were lucky and above all pub crawls. However, I still had to act as a bugler at the odd time but these occasions were getting less and less frequent. Sgt Edwards was posted to CMHQ and Wally Moore and Herb Helliker took over as the principal clerks in the Orderly Room. The weather during October was quite pleasant, according to the War Diary.