De-mob location?

Discussion in 'General' started by RemeDesertRat, Mar 7, 2011.

  1. RemeDesertRat

    RemeDesertRat Very Senior Member

    Did service personnel have a choice of where they were de-mobbed?
    Dad was with 8th Army from 1941 onwards and was de-mobbed at Naples, Italy in '46.
    I ask because it would seem unfair that he had to spend his de-mob pay/leave in getting back to the UK.
    I would have thought that he would be returned to the UK and then de-mobbed.
    Thoughts anyone?
     
  2. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Reme Desert Rat

    Pay your own fare back from Italy ?

    Now that is something new, or at least, I for one have never heard of that before.

    We must wait till others have their say but I will be most surprised to hear of a similar set of circumstances.

    Ron
     
  3. Niccar

    Niccar WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Demob Location

    never heard of having to pay your own fare back from Italy as I recall all demob centres were in the UK my own particular one was in Woking were you got a shirt a suit a par of socks shoes a pork pie hat and a raglan overcoat all of which I gave to my brother who wore them out working on the demolition clearing bombed houses in
    London I went to Ginger Marks in Aldgate and had two suits made to measure Navy blue Hopsack and a clrical grey and felt like jack the lad in my new style shmutters

    Niccar
     
  4. Tom Canning

    Tom Canning WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

    Reme et al
    Doesn't sound right to be demobbed in Naples - another chap claimed his father was demobbed from Milan - not so as they were probably "processed" for sending home for de-mob - both Ron and I went through York after coming home from Italy and as Niccar says - he went through Woking....

    I went home from Austria actually and by train from Villach to Udine - Padua - Milan - Geneva - Dijon - Paris - Boulogne and finally Dover - then Barnard Castle and York
    Cheers
     
  5. Pete Keane

    Pete Keane Senior Member

    My grandfather arrived home from Burma and was demobbed at Oxford train station upon arrival, given a travel warrant to Manchester and no 'thanks for the help'!

    Pete
     
  6. Alan Allport

    Alan Allport Senior Member

    Did service personnel have a choice of where they were de-mobbed?
    Dad was with 8th Army from 1941 onwards and was de-mobbed at Naples, Italy in '46.
    I ask because it would seem unfair that he had to spend his de-mob pay/leave in getting back to the UK.
    I would have thought that he would be returned to the UK and then de-mobbed.
    Thoughts anyone?

    Hello,

    Service personnel overseas did indeed have the right to get demobbed in situ rather than back in the UK once their Group Number was up. But to discourage the practice, the government penalized them in a number of ways; they didn't receive the full pay and benefits afforded to most demobbed men, and yes, they had to pay their own way back to Britain if they decided to return.

    Best, Alan
     
  7. Drayton

    Drayton Senior Member

    Did service personnel have a choice of where they were de-mobbed?
    Dad was with 8th Army from 1941 onwards and was de-mobbed at Naples, Italy in '46.
    I ask because it would seem unfair that he had to spend his de-mob pay/leave in getting back to the UK.
    I would have thought that he would be returned to the UK and then de-mobbed.
    Thoughts anyone?

    We clearly have not got the whole story here. It was the accepted legal obligation of the naval, army or air force authorities to return a man (or, very occasionally, a woman) to a base in the UK before implementing demob procedures. Also, if the demob centre was beyond reasonable walking distance of the man's home, a warrant for train or bus fare would be provided.

    In the case of the man in question, I can only suggest one of four things:

    1. There is some misunderstanding within the family, and he was, in fact, brought back to the UK before demob.

    2. For some reason of his own - ? wanting a holiday or had an Italian girlfriend - he made special application to be demobbed in Italy. In that case, he would have been required to sign an acknowledgement that eventual return to the UK would be his own responsibility, he having voluntarily foregone the officially provided means of repatriation.

    3. He had become separated from his unit, and chose to make his own way home, instead of finding the nearest Allied unit, and throwing himself on their mercy. This did occasionally happen around the end of the war or immediately afterwards, but seems unlikely as late as 1946.

    4. He actually went AWOL - perhaps he was threatened with a charge - and made his own way home.
     
  8. Ron Goldstein

    Ron Goldstein WW2 Veteran WW2 Veteran

  9. RemeDesertRat

    RemeDesertRat Very Senior Member

    We clearly have not got the whole story here.


    1. There is some misunderstanding within the family, and he was, in fact, brought back to the UK before demob.



    Quite possible, the reason I asked was I was looking at his 'soldiers release book' and at the back on the 'release leave certificate' it says 'place: Naples C.M.F.'
    The page is also stamped 'HQ 16 Base Workshops, REME' according to Craftsmen of the Army this workshop was indeed at Naples.

    Nothing else (photos, family memories etc) points to him travelling home under his own steam.
     
  10. hoolig

    hoolig Member WW2 Veteran

    I was in Austria, when due for demob, went to York in the Uk, and got a nice whistle, I asked for a Bowler but had to settle for a Trilby.
     
  11. Bradlad

    Bradlad Senior Member

    My paternal grandfather was due for demob in Italy also, however at his due date he was still there so was offered the choice of demob in Italy or being retained at a " volunteer " until appropriate transport was arranged to return him, as he was rather happy over there he chose to remain as a volunteer and was demobbed properly back in the UK, that was late 1946.

    My maternal grandfather spent his service in Japan and although conscripted signed on as a regular in early '46 so wasn't demobbed, just allowed his 3 year enlistment to expire.
     
  12. Tab

    Tab Senior Member

    I was demobed at 10th Battalion base in Scrubs Lane in West London which is now a part of the BBC Complex
     

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