THANK GOD I WASN'T A GUARDSMAN

[Paul S.]

I will admit that I briefly; very, very briefly, entertained the ambition to be a Grenadier Guardsman before sanity prevailed, and I returned to my senses.



I was 8 years old at the time.

[bigduke6]

I've met and know a few ex Guardsmen not all Grenadiers though, one story of a Scotts Guards CSM does tickle me a bit..... A mate of mine (Ex Mob) who was with me in Tilbury looking after some laid up ferries was on about a drill session for some parade when they up in Scotland, for some reason there was no drill instructor so a CSM from the Scots Guards was drilling them........ bear in mind he has probably had a gut full of being called "Chief"

Obviously the guards peak cap was worn so you couldn't see the blokes eyes so when he was in your face it was a case of looking down at the peak and moustache and breathing in the Whiskey fumes...... so on the order of Present arms ...... the bloke next to my mate did so accordingly only to find his bayonet jump of his (L1A1) and hit the deck......

Once the sound of cold steel rattling around on the floor stopped the sound of the CSM grew closer and closer and to my mates astonishment was in the front of him..... my mate was waiting until he heard the blast complete with Whiskey fumes....

CSM: "Have you got a hard on"

Mate: "No Chief"

CSM: "You F*****g Should have standing next to that C**t "

[Lee Enfield]

"...A hereditary knight..." No such thing.
No batmen since at least W.W. II in the CF. Gone in the British Army after W.W. I. Except in the Household Div. Being a batman was highly desired as it got you out of BS 'busy work', you got fed better and promoted faster.

Yes there are, the title is Baronet.

---------- Post added at 06:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:26 PM ----------

"Mystique of the Officers"...FFS...more like the pomposity of the aristocracy. I can't even stand to watch or listen to that kind of rubbish, too many of those in the past that I can remember. They had nothing to show the men. They didn't even do their own kit, batmen were still in vogue. Once we got rid of ours, the officers' dress went straight into the toilet. Sitting on their beds though...unheard of...
....

Circa 1970 a friend of mine enlisted in the British Sister Regiment to his Canadian Regiment after completing joint manouvers in Canada...

He absolutely distains British Officers today....

After watching that...i think i have a glimpse of why...

[Peter Laidler]

Just as per GeeRam...... never seen anything like it in my life. I mean...., whatever were they thinking about even allowing anyone to film such self serving knob heads...... The black cat on the arm flash was 17 Brigade on the East coast of Malaya but they were based over in Borneo for a lot of the time. I would imagine that this was filmed in the mid 60's or so and they were the next to last poms out there, replaced by the KSLI for a couple of years. And then they were gone too. As for wearing those dopey peaked hats in a search and cordon operation. Whatever were they thinking about.

Words fail me. Incidentally, back o the first programme, those rooms that the crunchies were in were called SPIDERS. Made of double skinned wood and quite warm, even in the cold Carlisle winter of 1962/63.

[Gil Boyd]

.....................................with the one coal fire in the centre of the room, surrounded by kit drying after a day on the Brecons, sight seeing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[paulseamus]

Apologies up front but whilst watching both Part 1 and Part 2, all I could think of was this must have been the film that inspired Monty Python.

[David TS]

I spent 40 years working in the City from 1975 to 2016, a fair number of ex Guards officers ended up working in the City, old boys network etc.

They needed the old boys network, because in the real world a surprising number of them are as thick as two short planks

[browningautorifle]

No batmen since at least W.W. II in the CF.

You have to get an education. The QOR here in Victoria had batmen back in the end of the '60s. I know men personally that did the job. I know officers that had them.

"...A hereditary knight..." No such thing.

Yes there are, the title is Baronet

There you go... Split hairs if you will.

[GeeRam]

Just as per GeeRam...... never seen anything like it in my life. I mean...., whatever were they thinking about even allowing anyone to film such self serving knob heads...... The black cat on the arm flash was 17 Brigade on the East coast of Malaya but they were based over in Borneo for a lot of the time. I would imagine that this was filmed in the mid 60's or so and they were the next to last poms out there, replaced by the KSLI for a couple of years. And then they were gone too.

Given my quip as a nod to RSM Britten's oft quoted phrase in the the film They Were Not Divided, a brief cameo in that film was made by the legendary Mick's CSM/RSM Des Lynch MBE, DCM, who was later commissioned in 1961 and then served 3 years in the Commonwealth Brigade at Taiping and Malacca in Malaya between 61-64.

20 years ago, I used to play snooker down the Legion with my father and a friend of his, who was an ex-Irish Guardsman who served at the end of the war with 30 Corps and for some years post WW2, and he didn't think much of the 'legendary' RSM Britten, but reckoned Des Lynch was one of the two best RSM's he ever knew, the other being the legendary RSM John Lord.

[Gil Boyd]

Have to agree about Lordy, he served the Brigade of Guards well before seeing the light and joining The Parachute Regiment. He did however, make an unruly bunch of non square bashers into a unified formation on the drill square anyway.
He was feared by men and officers alike, and as an ex WO1 RSM I can say it is the only post where you can contradict the officer class and pull them up on the side if they too get it wrong, and show them the true skills of soldiering!!
My mentor and a man I had so much time for, who was a crazy as a box of frogs but ALWAYS got the job done was WO1 RSM Nobby Arnold...............a true Parachute Regiment Legend with Lord too beside him IMHO.