Welcome to the Royal Corps of Signals Association South Staffordshire Branch Events Page
In common with many branches South Staffordshire branch has been plagued by lack of interest and attendance at meetings over the past couple of years. As a consequence the branch committee re-formed on 14th September 2007 in an effort to get the branch moving and with a view to its becoming more active. We formed an interim committee which we hope to ratify as a permanent committee at the AGM to be held on Friday 18th January 2008. The interim chairman is Sam Ellicott, Vee Moore remains as branch secretary and Andy Wigley takes over as Treasurer.
At the branch meeting on 26 October the branch standard was formally handed over by Arthur Thomas (the outgoing standard bearer) to Andy Wigley (the incoming standard bearer.) Arthur, being 84 years of age had reluctantly decided that it was time he retired and felt that the standard was too heavy for him to carry, particularly in windy conditions and it needed a younger, fitter man to do the job. Andy had stepped into the breech admirably and had already taken over Arthur’s duties on a temporary basis until the standard could be formally handed over to him.
On Friday 30th November 2007, on behalf of the branch membership and as a measure of our thanks to Arthur for his years of faithful and unstinting service as branch standard bearer, the chairman presented Arthur with a statuette in the shape of a standard bearer, together with ‘Jimmies’ on either side of the plinth Needless to say Arthur was over the moon with this and said he would treasure it as a lovely memento of his time with the branch and it would have pride of place on his mantelpiece. This is not the end of Arthur’s association with the branch as he was surprised and delighted to accept the nomination as President of the branch so we shall still see a lot of him at our meetings.
Arthur has had an interesting service life Registering for military service at the age of 17½ he was told that he couldn’t be called up for military service because he was in a reserved occupation. His trade was pattern making. He was told the same thing when he went to the army recruiting office in December 1942 when he went to volunteer. He kept trying and again in spring 1943 he was accepted but not in his trade and when asked what his second choice would be he chose the Royal Corps of Signals.
He eventually received his papers and a travel warrant to travel to a signals depot at Prestatyn, North Wales in June 1943. He travelled, as instructed, in Home Guard uniform from his home in Wolverhampton. After spending one night in Prestatyn he left there and travelled via Wolverhampton to Warwick passing the home in Wolverhampton he had left the previous day! After primary training at Budbrook Barracks, Arthur was sent to Catterick to start training as an Operator Keyboard and Line (OK/L). At the end of his training in December 1943 he had a week’s Christmas leave and was posted to 18th Air Formation Signals (A.F.S.) which was being formed at Huddersfield. He was later sent on detachment for experience training on operational duties at Broughton Hall near Preston at H.Q. RAF 9 Group which was an aircrew training command with training airfields scattered around the midlands, north Wales and Lancashire.
Arthur was posted to RAF Bentley Priory near Stanmore, Middlesex, H.Q. Air Defence Great Britain (ADGB) and HQ HEAF, Allied Expeditionary Air Force. This was where he first worked alongside American personnel in the teleprinter centre and was on duty on the night of June 5th/6th in the underground headquarters. During the night an RAF officer had come on duty and his German Shepherd dog had followed him. Arthur was detailed to take the dog home. This was at 0500 hours and as he came up from underground he saw the greatest sight imaginable; the sky was filled with a mass of planes and gliders flying south. D-day had begun.
18th Air Formation Signals moved south to Salisbury Plain and in August moved to the Portsmouth area. Arthur embarked in mid-August in an LST (Landing Ship Tank). It was 1100 hours when they eventually got on board after spending all night in the pouring rain. Loading completed, the ship moved out into Portsmouth water setting sail at 2300 hours in convoy. At 1500 hours the next day the shout went up “Everybody off” and clambering down the spiral staircase they made their way to the open bow doors and ramp. They found themselves high and dry on Juno beach. As they went up the beach 300 wounded were being carried or helped down from a line of ambulances and onto the LST.
The unit stayed in the British zone for 2 days then in convoy moved south via Bayeux, Vire, Domfront and Mayenne to Laval, well in the American zone. After a fortnight here they set off in convoy again and arrived at a village called Le Chesnay on the outskirts of Versailles a day or two after Paris had been liberated. The signals centre vans for teleprinter and switchboard were set up in the grounds of the Trianon Palace hotel, General Eisenhower’s HQ and living quarters. The Signal Centre comprised two Queen Mary type vans back to back holding 22 teleprinters, 11 in each van, and 1 American teletype machine which was always operated by an American serviceman.
In February 1945 some members of the unit were posted to Reims SHAEF Forward but Arthur stayed in Versailles until VE day when they packed up and set off for Germany via Metz, first an overnight stop then on to Frankfurt via Saarbrucken Kaiserslauten where the second overnight stop was in the I.G. Farben buildings. They then left the British zone via Koblenz, Koln and Paderborn and set up an RAF Signals Centre at Detmold airfield. Arthur’s detachment of the 18th Air Formation Signals went from Frankfurt to Berchtesgarten, Hitler’s hideout in Bavaria.
From Detmold the younger men, including Arthur, were ordered back to England via Osnabruck, Ostend and Dover and then by train to Bury, Lancashire. They paraded in the Manchester VE Day parade.
Arthur was sent to Scarborough on an NCOs course and on return to his unit was given 28 days leave and following that in December 1945 he again boarded a troop ship which was en route for the Far East. Disembarking at Port Said in Egypt he then went by train to Quassassin. He was transferred to 17th A.F.S. then on the 4th A.F.S. and travelled to Jerusalem by road, a four day journey across the Sinai desert.
One day Arthur was called out on parade and told to report to company office after the parade was dismissed. This he duly did and was informed by the O.C. Major Little, that a Class B Release form had come in from Arthur’s employers who required him back at the firm because his trade skills were much in demand. Arthur was sent back to Egypt, first to Sidi Bish then Port Said and then by boat to Malta, then Toulon taking the Medoc route across France to Dieppe and then home via York from where he was demobbed in May 1946.
Andy Wigley on the Left, Arthur on the Right
(Please ignore the date printed on the photographs as I don’t think our ‘photographer’ knew how to change it!)
Arthur on the Left, Chairman Sam Ellicott on the Right