*All work and no play….? “………the box jellyfish has killed 67 people in Australia since 1883, the year of the first recorded fatality. Its sting leaves grisly welts on the skin, results in instant pain and can kill within minutes, although most victims survive if help is at hand.”
The Sydney Morning Herald, April 20, 2002

*All work and no play….? Syphilis had nothing to do with either llamas or the Spaniards. It is believed that the virus was known in medieval Europe but about the time of Columbus it underwent a mutation and as a result became much more virulent and widespread. Because this coincided with the discovery of the New World, it was believed that it was a new disease introduced from the Americas.

*Back to Base Soldiers are given an eight-digit regimental number on enlistment. In local documents and orders, the last three digits of this number, i.e. the ’last three’, are included with the name to prevent confusion with those having similar names. In the film ‘Zulu’, which revolved around the exploits of the South Wales Borderers at Rorke’s Drift, there were so many Williams’s in the unit that they were referred to by their last three, even in conversation!

Barrack-room Blues. The Royal Army Ordnance Corps ceased to exist as a separate entity on 4 April, 1993 when it was merged with several others arms to form the Royal Logisticsc Corps. It was widely believed by my contemporaries that members of the Ordnance Corps, by tradition, have the right to be addressed collectively, on parade, as ‘Gentlemen of Ordnance’, a military courtesy that I never experienced in practice and whose origin, if true, is probably lost in History.

Countdown. Warrant Officers (Class 1) in the Ordnance Corps are called ‘Conductors’ and WO11s, ‘Sub-conductors’. This custom, which seems to derive from India, probably dates back to East India Company forces prior to the Mutiny and seems to be peculiar to Ordnance personnel.

Update. A couple of years ago, I made contact, via the Internet, with another conscript, Maurice Cheers, who had also been stationed at 221 Vehicle Battalion, although not during my time. He told me that he and his comrades had all received the General Service Medal (Malaya) while still at Majeedi, together with some chocolates and cigarettes, and he thought that I would also have an entitlement. I wrote to the War Office in London and after having provided details of my service, the aforesaid medal arrived by mail – only 51 years after my discharge! I am indebted to Maurice for the information that enabled me finally to become a recipient of this award. I’m still working on the cigarettes and chocolate!

* Slow Boat to China and Home Sweet Home:

*Lancashire, 9542 gross tonnage, was built in 1914 by Harland & Wolff of Belfast (who also built Titanic), launched in 1917 and survived, mainly as a troopship, until 1966 when she was broken up. Her moment of glory came in 1944 when she landed troops at Juno beach on D-Day.

*Devonshire, 11250 tons, was launched in Glasgow in 1938 and served throughout the war in various roles but mainly as a trooper. She also took part in the D-Day Normandy landings. There may have been something inherently unstable in her design from the beginning. The illustration above shows that she rode very high in the water and this may have effected her stability. In 1951 in the Bay of Biscay, whilst en route for Korea with a full load of troops, a spare piston rod broke loose, causing her to list to 45 degrees, loosing engine power and broaching to. Our episode at Suez might have been a forerunner of this, more serious mishap.

HMS Lancashire

HMS Devonshire

*Home, Sweet Home I believe that the statue of Ferdinand de Lesseps, which once stood at the Mediterranean end of the Canal, fell victim to the Suez War of 1956, and only the plinth remained. It may have been replaced since but I can find no record of the restoration. The Suez Canal was closed to sea traffic for several years during this period and troopships operating between Britain and the Far East were forced to travel around the Cape of Good Hope, accounting for HMT Devonshire’s appearance at Port Louis, Mauritius.

This is a wartime photo of an American Navy bomber over Johore. The JAAF airfield on which 221 Vehicle Bn. was situated is clearly see below the tail and Majeedi Barracks is partly obscured by the tail turret. The full sequence of photos can be found at
http://www.geocities.com/shaharome_my/pb4y.htm

In December, 1994, I returned to Singapore for the first time since my departure and made the pilgrimage back to Majeedi Barracks. The place where it used to be was – quite literally – in the middle of a six-lane highway. I asked the taxi driver, who probably wasn’t even born in 1950, to take me to where he thought our accommodation had stood and he stopped in the middle of a totally unfamiliar residential area. No more winding road, no more rubber plantations and no more barrack blocks!

Tebrau was rather easier to locate as the bridge – the old iron and plank affair that I remember - still straddled the Tebrau River alongside the new structure carrying the highway. but the village had become blurred as an outer suburb of Johore Bahru and there was no sign of the acres of trucks which had once comprised the Vehicle Depot nor even the airfield..

I returned again in December 2006 and had better luck. Majeedi barracks is still intact and still a military installation. For that reason I was unable to stop to take photographs and the following are ‘grabs’ from a video taken from the moving taxi. After much searching, I also found the ‘B’ Coy house – and in the nick of time, apparently. Only six weeks later, when I tried to locate it on Google Earth, I discovered that the whole site had been bulldozed for re-development!

Google Earth view of Majeedi, 2007. The block with the marker was HG block and one above it housed the cookhouse. Note the six-lane highway which has replaced the old Khota Tinggi road.

HQ Block at Majeedi - 2006

The old bridge over the river at Tebrau

HG Block at Majeedi - 2006

Present entrance to Majeedi complex

Google Earth view of present-day Majeedi Barracks complex (Yellow marker is old HG Block)

End-on view of ‘cookhouse’ block, Majeedi Barracks - 2006

New and old bridges at Tebrau