September 1941

Vehicle holiday on 1 September and a wiring party supplied to airfield at Redhill. Exercise Protector commenced 2 September and carried on till 4 September. this required several defensive moves in the Kingswood area to assume better defensive positions. Slight enemy air activity at night in the early part of the month. Unit training as laid down in the sylabii including range firing. Unit held first rehearsals for trooping of the colour which is being held to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the founding of the battalion. I was not on this parade as I had been detailed for the Ab Initio Clerk's Course in London for three months.

I left London as the unit prepared for exercise Bumper, the first large scale army exercise held in the South of England and it was conducted by the famous "Monty." The course in London was held at the Balham and Tooting High School of Commerce. While on this course we were billeted in requisitioned houses on the edge of Clapham Common and each morning we went by underground to Balham Underground Station where the school was located.

I was away from the unit until the 18th of December and during the period I was away in London I qualified as a short handed typist. As I had no opportunity to practice my shorthand when I returned to the unit it was not long before I forgot most of it. The course was a concentrated course and when you are taught under those circumstances you cannot afford not to immediately practice what you have been taught. We were in the Army while we were in London but we attended a school for civilians and while in the school we had to conform to the code of conduct in the school. Our night were spent mostly visiting the local pub, "The Plough" which was a second home to most of us.