Service personnel working at the War Office wore civilian clothes. As there were no barracks we lived either at home or in rented rooms and I was allowed to stay with my parents (a cheaper and better option!). The Directorate of Army Legal Services, to which I was attached, dealt with advising units on legal matters and procedures and with prosecuting accused at courts martial in UK and such places as Aden, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Kenya, Libya and Malta. There were other DALS offices handling this work in BAOR and in Singapore for the Far East.

My first job was at Stanmore, Middlesex, as War Crimes Records Custodian plus some tasks relating to courts martial. Staff Sergeant Ed Stevenson and two national servicemen, Tom Strathdee and Tony Cooke, all RASC, were among my colleagues. There were two sections of prosecutors, each with 5 legal officers, one of whom was Major G.L. Weston DSC who, in 1949 in a previous incarnation, had served on the bridge of HMS Amethyst when it ran the gauntlet of fire on the Yangste River in an incident that was the subject of a 1957 British film, “Escape of the Amethyst.” He had a lot of humour about him but then most of the military lawyers did. Stanmore, a sprawling complex of single storey huts, occupied a vast green field site with Oaks, bushes, shrubs, flower beds, rugby, soccer and hockey pitches, athletic tracks and tennis courts. There were loads of attractive civil servants, Roma Booth amongst them, and I thought I could spend 3 years there no bother but was moved in January 1962 to Lansdowne House, Berkeley Square.

My section there, ALS 1, handled administration for all ALS offices, postings and promotions etc, and dealt with the 'other side' of courts martial, granting Legal Aid for military on indictment and arranging their legal representation. The Section head was Lt Col F.G. Bonnella whose deputy was Capt Roy Judge (both ALS) and ORs were Sgt Neville Hinsley, Cpl Trevor Harris and me (all RASC). I met two old friends from Hong Kong, Tony Cross and Pete Whittaker (RAPC). Socialising in the London’s West End was great, dining at the Guinea & The Piggy in Leicester Square, pubbing in Piccadilly, slumming it in the Hippy Hang-Out beside Charing Cross Underground (crusty bread and huge bowl of Minestrone for 5 old pence), coffees and snacks in The Crypt (coffins for tables) in Irving Street between Leicester Square and Charing Cross Road and, off Charing Cross Road, flied lice in House of Chan Chinese Restaurant and shorts in the Bodega Bar next door. My favourite, however, was an Indian restaurant in Bath Street, 100 yards from my parents flat where I got a starter, a good meat curry and rice and two or three pints of ale for about £1.

In 1962 my parents moved to Surrey, near Kingston-upon-Thames, and I was allowed to live with them. The Berrylands Hotel was my local but for socialising I usually went to Kingston which was OK but I missed the handy West End. Name checks from this time: Cpl David Boak RASC, Bobbie Lane (daughter of Harry, owner of the Berrylands Hotel), Rosemary Pink WRAC, Josephine Winfield who worked in Barristers’ Chambers I visited to do with my work, War Minister Mr John Profumo, his fiends Mandy Rice-Davies and Christine Keeler and their friend Soviet Military Attaché in London Colonel Ivanov. In September 1963 I was promoted Sergeant and informed of my next posting which, much to my astonishment, was Hong Kong. Again!

In January 1964 I spent a few days at HQ Army Legal Aid (Civil) UK, King's Buildings, Dean Stanley Street, between Millbank and Smith Square in London SW1, learning the duties of my next job as Sergeant in Charge, Legal Aid Bureau, HQ Land Forces, Hong Kong. As soon as I was given a date for my flight I was replaced in ALS1 so whiled away two weeks in Whitehall, updating War Office Medical Centre records of every general, officer, serviceman and servicewoman on the strength of the War Box. My embarkation leave was 6-22 February and then on 23 February 1964, the RASC Depot‘s transit camp status having been revoked, I reported direct to Stansted Airport for my British United Airways flight to Hong Kong. Well, someone had to do it.