THE COVENANTER
“But only as far as the railway Station” “Cpl Edinburgh etc. The recruits did not need
McCammon’t has been accepted for flying much transport except to the ranges which
training in the Air Corps, You will take over were only a mile down the road.
from him as Depot MT Cpl”.
That was it then. All my cunning plan After a few months our ancient three tonner
had done was get me from one posting to was replaced by a Bedford RL ,not new but
another. at least a bit more modern, Rfn Graham got
The Depot trucks were nothing to get excited posted to Kenya and Rfn Bill Brown came
about; a half decent Landrover, a One Ton back from the Bn and joined me in the MT
Morris and an ancient Bedford Three tonner along with a recruit who’d finished training
which was older than me and might even name of Cooper and therefore nicknamed
have seen some war service.It had crash Gary. Bill was a bit of a character. He had
gearbox which needed double de-clutching started as a junior bandsman, become a
and gentle persuasion to get it to go up and Rifleman, Regimental Policeman. MT driver
down the gears; brakes which required five in Bahrein,Oman,Jordan and Kenya which
minutes notice before they would consider was when I knew him and had been up to
working and best of all there was a little the rank of Cpl a couple of times.Should
handle on the dashboard above the gearbox. have been pushing for Serjeant really but
When you wanted to turn left; you leaned he had an unfortunate talent for getting
over pulled this across to the right and this into some odd scrapes. His last and greatest
pulled up a white painted metal arm with a was in Kenya when after a drinking session
red tip to indicate your turn to other traffic, in the NAAFI he and a couple of friends
(of course this was in the days before self thought it would be a real laugh to borrow
cancelling flashing indicators ) but it looked one of the Landrovers and take off on safari.
so much like They only got about fifty or sixty miles away
a railway signal that it always got a laugh. before they ran out of petrol and water (you
Sometimes it stuck in the up position because don’t plan very well when you set out on a
it had been bent so often, then you had to drunken caper )
stop the truck and hit it with something to
knock it back down. While they were residing in the regimental
guardroom awaiting their fate they decided
There was no fuel gauge either but there was they might as well be hung for a sheep as a
a metal stick graduated in gallons that you lamb, so they broke out of the guardroom;
shoved into the tank to see what you had. borrowed another Landrover (this time not
There was one other truck in the garage. forgetting spare fuel and water) and took of
This was a OneTon Ambulance with a in the general direction of Rhodesia. They
canvas body and the Red Cross painted on got a long way this time but when they had
the sides, just like the one seen in the old almost run out of petrol and were near a small
black and white movie “Ice Cold in Alex “ town they rolled into the only filling station
Life at the Depot was fairly easy though. in the place and invited the owner to fill
The training staff got on with training the them up and send the the bill to the British
recruits; either National Service drafts or Army in Nairobi. Naturally the owner was a
regulars and the rest of us on the staff just bit dubious and the police became involved
got on with supporting them. I was not . They spun a tale about having been on an
required to do any duties or guards, there exercise; getting lost and keeping going until
wasn’t even a muster parade for the staff so they found this small place and they just
as long as you kept smart and polished as needed petrol and directions. They nearly
expected and got on with the job nobody got away with it, one policeman seemed to
bothered you. be wearing it but the other took himself of
There should have been two drivers and to the Police Station to check and came back
myself as the MT section but of course there with a squad of Ascaris. The game was up.
was only one driver when I took over, Rfn After the inevitable consequences the other
Jimmy Graham, A Nashie who had been two left the Army and Bill found himself at
kept over after basic training as he held a the depot where he had about ten months
driving licence. This was usually enough to do before he could terminate his service
because there wasn’t much to do There
was a twice daily Post run to Lanark PO at Around the same time another old friend
0900 and1600 hrs and trips to various stores of mine from the Bn turned up. Rfn Terry
depots at Stirling, Maryhill Bks in Glasgow, Macaree. Terry was a London boy who
31
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