"Bashert" by Conrad Singer            Chapter 14 The British Army

fourteen

The BRITISH ARMY
The British arrived in northern Africa during January ’43 and decreed citizens of their allies could go to England & volunteer for the British or Polish armies. I was put on a convoy and arrived in Glasgow around February ’43.  I found myself whisked off to another internment camp (again) because I was Romanian.
     
    This time it was the Chelsea Oratory School in London that was used as the camp. Recruiting officers visited all internment camps and soon I found I had volunteered for training in the Pioneer Corps of the British army. Initially I was stationed on a training course for Artillery. Many months later, for some reason I’ll never know, I was sent on a 1 year training course for the Signals regiment based near Wakefield.  

   After this course was complete around early ’44 they
decided my English wasn’t good enough to be sent on active duties, so they put me on an Anti-tank course

British Army, 1943, age 30, Signal Training Corps. 
I'm 2nd row, 3rd from right
 near Leeds. By the time this course was nearing completion in was 1945 and the war as over.

Stationed in Trieste, Italian Adriatic, 1946
That's a British warship in the background

Lido de Venice where I was billeted at the best hotel - Hotel Rex. I was on a British Army training course in 1946. You can see I had it tough!
    By sheer luck, mismanagement, call it what you will, I was lucky once again and was never sent to fight by the British Army and, compared to my previous three army experiences, my time in the British Army was like a holiday camp to me.

 

   I was de-mobbed in late ’46 and went to search for a job. At first I searched for work in London.

 

   After no success I went to some friends in Newcastle-upon-Tyne who thought they could find me a job. This was no good, so I tried looking for work in Leeds where I found work a Woollen Mill. This was low paid & tough so I moved to Manchester & found work as a galley boy.

 

    After a few months my friends from Newcastle introduced me to the girl who was to become my wife, so I moved back to Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

 

Photo taken just before I was de-mobbed from the British Army. This is the photo sent on my behalf by my friends in Newcastle to Lilly. My friends had made the introduction.. I think Lilly fell in love with this photo. 

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