In The Canal Zoners magazine we never seem to hear of any of the ACC but wherever
you were in the Zone, the ACC were also there.
My National Service began in 1954 at Aldershot, doing a lot of square bashing. I was then posted to Blandford Forum, Dorset, for our Bill trades, a course that took longer than most others. Having paased out, we were asked if we would like an overseas posting. I said I would, so very soon I and a lot of my new friends found ourselves back at Aldershot. The rumour was we were going to Triest but for some reason it was not to be. The next rumour was for Egypt which turned out to be right.
So off we went, not by ship but by plane. It was the first time I had ever flown. Having landed at Malta for refuelling, we finally landed at Fayid Airport. The next stop was Gebal Maryam or Buller Camp. We started work in the O.R.’s Mess cooking for the multitude. After a few days of this, we were asked if we would like to do our trades BII course. Heaving heard about not volunteering for anything, I was a bit unsure, but decided to go for it.
Having passed that and sewn on my BII badge, I thought that was it and would be posted off, but it was not to be. The next thing was we were asked if we would like to go on an officers mess course. Having got into this cooking business, I again volunteered. I think there was about six of us on this course. This time it was a lot harder. We even had to write out menus in French, but eventually it came to an end and I managed to pass, but some of us did fail.
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Me - in Barman's Dress |
And in Barman's No. 2 Dress |
My home for about a year
The next move was up the road to GHQ Fayid where I was dropped off to report to No. 1 Officers Mess and made welcome by the other cooks. Our tent was about 25 yards away at the back of the Mess. For the first day I just helped a bit and got settled in, but was surprised to have my breakfast brought to me in the tent. It was apparently the custom for the early morning cook after the officers breakfast to bring the others their breakfast in our tent. I soon settled in.
Cooling Off - After lunch
The Mess was for senior officers only which included Colonels, Brigadiers and Generals. There was about twelve of them. Life was very good, no inspections, guard duty or parades. We only wore our cooks whites or civvies and, of course, the food the officers had, we had the same. But fair do’s, the officers did pay themselves for some of the upmarket food such as steak or king prawns, which I used to go down to Fayid village on our bike to buy.
We even had an Egyptian kitchen boy, Mustafa. He kept the kitchen clean, did all the washing up and peeled the potatoes. One day I dropped an egg on the floor but instead of cleaning it up, he got down on his hands and kness and sucked it up!
The officers were very good to us and used to say when they had had a particularly good meal. There was only one fussy colonel who did not like bubbles in his fried egg, so I had to cook it in warm fat.
Evenutally the Army pulled out of the Canal Zone. My next destination was Episcopi in Cyprus, where we had a brand new kitchen overlooking the Mediterranean Sea and only five minutes walk down to the beach. This time our mess was called the Senior Officers Mess, not No. 1 Mess. Here I cooked for some of the visiting top brass like Sir John Harding (who was the Governer of Cyprus at the time) and the War Minister, Anthony Head and also General Sir Charles Keightley who was Commander in Chief Middle East Land Forces.
Well that ends my brief story of my time in the Zone, so who says do not volunteer for anything!
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Trip to the Pyramids
My Day (Monday 25th April 1955)
Today 1 was Duty Cook, I got up at a quarter past four to prepare the breakfast
trays for:
Col Halse (Block 3, Room 4) to be collected by his Batman, Ruda at 05:40 hrs
Lt Col Thorley – collected by Mustafa
Gen. Morrison (Block 4, Room 5) – collected by Ruda
Suggested Meu
(Sunday. 19th April 1955)
LUNCH
