Family Soldiers: 1/4th Essex (WW2) & 25 Field Regiment R.A.(Post-War)

Discussion in 'Searching for Someone & Military Genealogy' started by Charley Fortnum, Mar 21, 2015.

  1. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Interesting book I've bought by Sir Francis Tuker:

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    For anybody interested, the entire text is available here:
    The Pattern of War: an INTERACTIVE EXAMINATION

    CHAPTER XII: AN INTRODUCTION TO "ICARIAN GEOGRAPHY" is quite prophetic in its proclamations about the future of airpower and the value of being able to focus the required forces and materiel a critical point at very short notice, not to mention in its prediction of the acceleration of the consumer culture:

    Then there is a tendency to improve durability and strength at the expense of weight. We may alter, as I show below, our ideas about durability--but not about the strength of the lighter materials, That tendency must go on: it will not stop or go back. In this way, we shall get light loads which will be much more valuable, weight for weight, than the loads of the past. Research and invention will be devoted towards reducing bulk while retaining the other qualities. So we shall ultimately not necessarily need the great freight ships of today to carry our light, processed or partly-processed materials about the world. Day-by-day Time is buying more and more of the Commodity of Space. We move things more quickly and we expect to have our demands met more speedily than in the past. This process too must go on. More and more insistent are we that what we need shall come to us at once. And it will, by the fastest possible means-luscious and fresh from the soil or desired and glistening new from the factory. Durability is today still in favour, but there are signs that it is not to be so much in favour in the years before us. Many change their car every year for a new model. The old model goes into the second-hand market which, before the war, was cluttered up with unsaleable and unselling vehicles. In the days before us, these will not be needed except for scrap. A car will be made to look nice and to go well for one or two years. By then experience is surfeited and the eye tired by the thing, and fresh experience and new forms will be needed to renew the jaded appetite. This does not only apply to cars. The brocade gown of the 17th century which passed through succeeding wills from frail form to fair is not now needed; it has no value since the beauty's aesthetic eye soon tires. Many another thing is treated like this and many more things will be treated so. Change but not decay, for decay has no time to set in. Change and obliteration, oblivion. Light, ephemeral things being rushed about the world as fast as craft can take them to be ahead of taste, ahead of the commercial rival.

    Our whole society and all our ways of life are destined to undergo more rapid changes than in past centuries. The lay-out of a city will have to change as the ways of life change. Even dwelling-houses will change in colour almost every decade. Probably only the great public buildings will be durable and so we shall return to the days of our great medieval architects, to the days of Yevele and his brother master masons, when the public building (the cathedral or the guild hail) took all the money and the effort that was to spare, and the ordinary dwelling-house was left as a thing of little account.e brocade gown of the 17th century which passed through succeeding wills from frail form to fair is not now needed; it has no value since the beauty's aesthetic eye soon tires. Many another thing is treated like this and many more things will be treated so. Change but not decay, for decay has no time to set in. Change and obliteration, oblivion. Light, ephemeral things being rushed about the world as fast as craft can take them to be ahead of taste, ahead of the commercial rival.
     
  2. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Found a good close-up of the (I think) NNE side of Castle Hill, showing why you wouldn't want to be scrambling up and down it in the dark. Looks to me to be 70s.

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  3. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Definitely not pre-1944.

    F
     
  4. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    It is that kind of incisive commentary for which we rely on you.

    :D
     
  5. Stuart Avery

    Stuart Avery In my wagon & not a muleteer.

    I'm in stitches. Nothing like good all British sarcasm. Splendid retort.:cool:
     
  6. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    Here to please.

    F
     
  7. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I've been collecting and cross-referencing award citations for 1/4th Essex.

    This Military Medal award one from Djebel Garci stands out vividly:

    Screen Shot 2018-03-04 at 00.06.31.png

    It sounds to me as if he'd already won a medal before he did the dash to the sangar for the grenades.
     
    ozzy16 likes this.
  8. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    In the unlikely event that anybody is following the Malaya component of my research, I'll upload a handy little map I found. 26 and later 25 Field Regiment spent a lot of time patrolling the railway between Gemas and Tampin to guard against sabotage and ambush bandits. This map depicts the Malayan railway infrastructure c.1950. I have read that significant damage was done during the Second World War, but I think that this shows what was operational following post-war repairs.

    16450388000_7d117ab387_o copy.jpg
     
  9. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Spooky - I've been talking about the railway between Gemas and Tampin tonight insofar as it was relevant to the Australian 2/30 Bn's actions in the vicinity in 1942!
     
  10. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    I know very little about that action beyond the fact that there's a lot more about it than about the subsequent post-war fighting in the area; every time I search for specifics online I turn up the same Australian accounts.

    I've been to Malaysia twice, but nowhere near Negri Sembilan. I can't imagine many of them were comfortable with the climate at first, but perhaps the Aussies acclimatised more quickly.
     
    Last edited: Mar 15, 2018
  11. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Further to this, I now have an excellent 1948 map of land usage that shows the exact delineations between the estates:

    Extract:

    Screen Shot 2018-03-25 at 18.11.01.jpg

    Very large file size:
    7783_Malaysia_Malaya_Negri Sembilan 1948_126.72K_East_master.tif

    I'm still very keen to learn something of the organisation/work/staffing of these particular estates, but only the most fleeting references have turned up. A number of former planters have written their memoirs, and movement between companies and properties was frequent, but I have no detail whatsoever on these places beyond extrapolation from the typical plantation template.

    If I could only find out which company owned them, it would open further avenues of research.
     
    Last edited: Mar 25, 2018
  12. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    A surprising little discovery here. General Holme manages to tick both my boxes, having (after a busy war with 2 Essex, among others) served as the adjutant of the 4th Essex in 1947--in which capacity he assisted Colonel Noble in reassembling the territorial battalion by re-enlisting wartime veterans. Soon after he was dispatched to 40th Division in Hong Kong with 26 Gurkha Brigade at the height of the communist threat and then moved across to Malaya in April '50, where they were based in Johor Baru.

    13 reels, much of interest from all over the show.

    Holme, Michael Walter (Oral history) | Imperial War Museums
     
  13. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    From the notes on a 1950 meeting on tactics, I discovered that at that stage there was no new manual on jungle warfare and that M.T.P. 50 was still the standard text.

    Have now got a copy:

    Screen Shot 2018-04-07 at 03.10.40.png
     
  14. idler

    idler GeneralList

    Cheers for the Major Holme tip. If memory serves, he was involved with 2 Essex at Essex Wood/Lingevres so I will have to have a listen to that sometime.
     
  15. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    He's quite a good interviewee--a lot to say and a very wide experience.
     
  16. minden1759

    minden1759 Senior Member

    James.

    I served with General Holme’s son Peter during my time in the Army. He was my Commanding Officer at one point in 7 R ANGLIAN and a really good chap to boot.

    General Holme’s daughter Victoria is married to Field Marshal the Lord Walker, my former Commanding Officer at 1 R ANGLIAN and later CGS and CDS. I take no credit for that - far, far brighter than a mere mortal like me.

    Regards

    Frank
     
  17. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Good to see them retaining the family connection with the regiment. I see General Holme was a Wykehamist, which might explain something about how he comes across.

    I'm sure there must be a thread on 'military families' somewhere around here already.

    Major-General Michael Holme, CBE, MC, former GOC Near East Land Forces,
    died 5 December, 2004. He was aged 86.

    Michael Walter Holme was born 9 May, 1918, the son of Thomas Walter
    Holme and Ruth Sangster Rivington, and was educated at Winchester
    College.

    Career: Directing Staff, Staff College, Camberley, 1952-55; Commander,
    1st Battalion, 3rd East Anglian Regiment, 1960-62; Commander, Land
    Forces, Persian Gulf, 1963-66; Chief of Staff, Western Command,
    1966-67; Divisional Brig., The Queen's Division, 1968-69; General
    Officer Commanding, Near East Land Forces, 1969-72; retired; Deputy
    Colonel, The Royal Anglian Regiment, 1970-77.

    He was awarded the Military Cross in 1945; appointed CBE in 1966.

    Maj-Gen Holme married in 1948, Sarah (Sally) Christian Van Der Gucht,
    by whom he had one son, Peter, and two daughters, Victoria and Judith.

    A Thanksgiving Service takes place at The Royal Military Academy
    Chapel, Sandhurst, Thursday 16 Dec, 2004.
     
  18. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    New bits and pieces cropping up all the time at the moment--seem to be on a good wicket. Have snagged a copy of the standard guide to Hong Kong in the early 50s. The last time I was there personally is a haze, but I see from this that the key elements are still substantially unchanged.

    Published by the Hong Kong Government Public Relations Office, 48pp.

    Samples:

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  19. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    A superior version of the Sept 1944 Officers photograph (see earlier in this thread) has appeared on Twitter.

    The caption is incorrect, but the image is great and much appreciated:

    DZe1wzlWsAAln0b.jpg-large.jpeg
     
  20. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    And now the boxing team photograph taken two days earlier.

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