JOINT SERVICES LEAVE & TRAVEL OFFICE 1952-54
As Remembered By Stan Berry
I was 18 in September 1952 and so National Service came about for me. Placed in the RASC I was directed to Blenheim Barracks, Aldershot for two weeks initial training which became four weeks due to an illness and followed by eight weeks further training at Willems Barracks. There I was trained as a clerk and, in the fullness of time, posted to the Canal Zone, sailing on the HMT “Empire Ken” 2nd April 1953 from Southampton and arriving at Port Said on the12th.
After a few days at the RASC School, Moascar, it was a posting to GHQ MELF where I was assigned to the Central Registry Branch later known as the Chief Clerk’s Branch. At Central Registry I was placed in the Stationary Store where I spent approx. a year though with three guard duties a week I didn’t see so much of the store.
Come April 1954, I was sent to this mysterious JSLTO next door to GHQ at Fayid transit camp. I moved in but the camp was even worse than GHQ Group at Namur camp so, without consulting anyone I moved back to GHQ Group.
Now, what was JSLTO? The “Joint Services Leave and Travel Office”, an organisation set up to arrange flights to Cyprus and accommodation there for Service personnel on Leave from the Canal Zone. Housed in two large marquees, the staff at the Canal Zone end consisted of Captain Carew, Royal Warwickshire Regt., 2 i/c Flying Officer Geary and clerks, an RAF corporal, half a dozen or so SAC and LAC’s plus me, the sole Army clerk. The RAF lads referred to me as “their tame Pongo”. A lady rep from WVS and another from NAAFI completed the team. Despite to “joint” title, the Navy never took part.
Flights were operated by Eagle Airways from RAF Fayid to RAF Nicosia where passengers then had the choice of the NAAFI Leave Camp at Golden Sands, Famagusta where most single men went, a place up at Troodos favoured by families and officers or passengers could make their own arrangements on the island. Transport was provided from Fayid Transit Camp to RAF Fayid and from RAF Nicosia to chosen island destination.
Bookings came in either by post or ‘phone and details taken; a bit like working in a present day travel agents shop but without, of course, the benefits of computers and the internet!
On the day of travel, flight manifests had to be typed out onto stencils and then copies (35 or so for each flight) using an ink roller - a bit of a time consuming process. Checking in was carried out as a rather simpler version of what happens at present day airports - luggage was weighed and a standard weight added per person. This information was phoned as soon as possible to RAF Fayid “so the Captain knew how he could trim his tanks”. A waiting area (nowadays passenger lounge”) was provided and then passengers were taken up to RAF by 3 tonner driven by East African or Mauritian Pioneer Corps men.
I found this to be really interesting work and certainly the best bit of my army service. Things were quiet early in the season and F/O Geary suggested that we, the clerks take a weekend over in Cyprus where we could see the workings in detail. So, off we went, but arriving back at RAF Nicosia for the return flight we found them all to be fully booked! The staff at that end, R E’s, weren’t too sympathetic but we got back in dribs and drabs over a week or so. For some reason I was the first to return and then had all the work to do until at last we came up to full strength again.
All this came to an end in October and I was back to the Chief Clerk’s Branch in GHQ. I don’t think they knew what to do with me so I just idled my time away reading through old files starting with proverbial “year dot”. That took me up to transit back to UK by air and a “York” aircraft of Scottish Airways via Malta to Stansted and then on via London by road overnighting in the infamous transit unit at Goodge Street. Then, onto RASC Depot at Bordon for demob arriving home a week early on November 11th 1954.
Golden Sands Leave Camp, Famagusta