T H E C O V E N A N T E R
board, rinsed, then mangled in the next Edinburgh and rent it out, the cost at the
sink - it was pretty time consuming. time was £22,000 which at the time seemed
When the weather was bad, the washing a fortune, the second option was to buy a
had to go up to the attic, which had about car - a new Hillman Minx cost £500 and no
twenty lines and opened windows both tax to pay, if we stayed here for three years.
sides, this meant one had to climb three So we decided on the car, and I have to say
sets of stairs with a basket full of washing, it gave us a lot of pleasure over the next ten
but thankfully it did dry quite well. years.
The central heating system was a John had learnt to drive in Bahrain in
nightmare; John never did get the hang of the desert, but he had to brush up a bit.
it. It was a hot air system fired by coal, the After that he taught me, and we didn’t have
boiler was in the front hall, so dust every any major arguments except I kept stalling
where when cleaning out the ashes. Thanks in second gear, at roads etc. He discussed
be when the Spring came! it with someone in the motor transport
The boxes arrived and our bits and pieces pool, and it turned out with our model
made it more of a home than a duplicate of one should start in first gear, it solved the
all the other quarters in the area. problem, and I passed the test soon after.
The house was in a terrace of eight The car was a boon, no more NAAFI bus
houses with another terrace behind. Facing and I could go into the market in town
our back garden at the end was a block of and shop for fruit and vegetables. The only
twenty flats. problem I had was tuning my ear into the
The wives now formed a larger amount local dialect.
of numbers of the Bn’s official list. The Bn Buxtehude and Verden to Minden, like
had matured in the last nine years and all Yorkshire to London, so I stood at the stalls
ranks were getting marred and the Bn had and listened until I got my tongue round it,
become a really good unit. So the number the same time with the butcher shops, some
of families on strength was close to 300. We of the wives never visited German shops at
also had young marrieds coming over, out- all, their diet restricted to the NAAFI.
with quarters staying in dubious German My friend Milly and her family had
flats, or rooms. They of course did not get arrived from Lanark, I was very pleased to
the overseas allowance, so they existed on see her and the fact she was on the same
the Rifleman’s pay, which although greatly terrace was a bonus.
improved, was hard going. I said in Kenya that we’d have a families
For the first time our pay rise was without club and fortunately, the CO’s wife was on
strings so at last we could clothe ourselves our side so we were given a hut at the back
better. We bought a radio, ‘Keno’ the British of the barracks. No facilities except a WC.
cinema in the town of Minden sold or All water and urns of tea had to come from
rented them to the troops and families so about 200 yards away, and returned after.
we were able to keep in touch via British We had table and chairs and I scrounged
forces network with all that was happening brushes and paint from the quarter master,
in Britain. and about ten of us set-to and painted the
John, as a Company Sergeant Major, was walls. I went to the local market and bought
very busy as the Bn took its role in the area. 40 metres of colourful curtain material. I
I took Ian and Marion by school bus to paid for this but recouped when we were
enrol at the British Army School. Ian was in funds.
ok having already learned to read and write, My trusty sewing machine did its job and
but Marion had to struggle for a few years we had six pairs of curtains which on winter
to get up to scratch. She never liked school nights gave us privacy from the troops, as
and the restrictions it placed upon her. well as brightening up the place.
They went to school daily by bus. We started the club with about 20 wives
Next task was the shopping. A bus went and gradually raised it to 50. We didn’t
three times a week to the NAAFI. There one have room for more, as we found out on a
could obtain all the British food. It was coffee morning when close on a 100 turned
useful, but the bus trip went round all the up plus toddlers.
quarters, so it took almost an hour to reach Profits started building up, we played
the other side of town. And was hot bed of whist, then tombola (bingo) and a raffle so
gossip for all the wives. we were able to buy cups and saucers, and
John and I had a chat about whether an electric kettle, large teapot. All proved
to put a deposit down on a house in their value over the four years. The club ran

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