Alan Allport's website

Monday, 13th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Most serving soldiers dream about civvy street. Morningside man Alexander Harding was so unhappy with life outside the Army that he pretended to be his brother, Christopher, a deserter, and turned himself in; even a spell in the glasshouse was preferable to continued life in mufti.

This is the strange tale told by today's Daily Mail. In 1941, Harding had been discharged from the RAMC on medical grounds after two years in uniform. He was unable to find a civilian job and attempted several times to reenlist. Last January he 'surrendered' to the Glasgow police on the pretence that he was his brother, and was sentenced at a Catterick court martial to two years' hard labour. But the sentence was quashed when the truth became known. Richmond magistrates, noting that Harding had already been in military detention for three months, sentenced him to a single day in jail. Which meant that he could walk straight out ... to civvy street.

Monday, 6th May, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Emanuel Shinwell, Minister of Fuel and Power, yesterday praised the work of ex-servicemen who have returned to Britain's coal mines, reports the Times. The country began the past winter with an eight million ton deficit in coal stocks - so the achievement of Britain's attenuated mining workforce in producing enough fuel to get her through the coldest months was, Shinwell said, nothing short of a miracle. But he warned audiences in Newcastle and County Durham that another 40,000 men were needed urgently for face working.

Reporter James Lansdale Hodson notes in his diary: "A remark made to me by a dweller on the south coast: 'There are not so many burglaries now the troops have gone.'"

Friday, 12th April, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Lieutenant Commander Rupert Lonsdale, ex-POW and former commander of the submarine HMS Seal, was honorably acquitted by a naval court-martial yesterday after an inquiry into the capture of his vessel by the Germans in May 1940, writes the Times. Lonsdale had been accused of failing to engage enemy aircraft which had attached Seal, and of failing to take steps to ensure the sinking of his submarine when it appeared likely that the Germans would seize her. But Lonsdale's defending officer satisfied the court that under the circumstances - Seal had sunk after hitting a mine in the Kattegat bay and had only been returned to the surface with great difficulty, after which she immediately found herself surrounded by enemy forces - Lonsdale had no choice but to capitulate. "A naval captain was [not] expected to indulge in mock heroics with absolute disregard for the safety of his men," he insisted: "[Lonsdale] had got the idea in his mind that he was going to save the crew, and everything he did revolved around that."

“Wanted! A Home of Our Own”, writes Jean Bird in this week's Modern Woman. “Every woman knows by instinct that a happy family life is impossible without a home of one’s own ...

The experiences of the past few years have made this painfully – and in many cases tragically – clear to the young mothers who as evacuees tried to share kitchens with their hostesses, for the war brides who went to live with their mothers-in-law, for the grandmothers who had to squeeze into a bedroom with their children’s children.

Wednesday, 3rd April, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

According to a 1944 census taken by Army chaplains in Italy, perhaps one in five wives of soldiers who were overseas for at least three years during the war committed adultery, reports the Daily Mail. The Reverend N.R.M. Hawthorn, one of those who organised the survey, said that: "in general, the proportion of troops who had been informed of the infidelity of their wivesranged roughly from six to ten per cent... [and] there were many cases of suspected infidelity. It became very obvious that the main cause of the crashing of most marriages was simply loneliness. Most of the erring wives we found were not young 'war brides' but women who had been married for five to ten years." But Hawthorn does not lay all the blame on the shoulders of the wives themselves. "The pathetic truth is that so many men in the Forces were utterly incapable of writing letters which might possibly maintain emotional contact" with their spouses. " And Hawthorn suggests that many marriages might have been saved had the military authorities provided servicemen overseas with greater opportunities for home leave.

Ex-Gunner David Hay, whose recent court-martial for actions he committed while he thought he was a civilian provoked much national interest, was released from military custody yesterday after serving five days of a seven-day sentence, reports the Daily Herald. Hay may have gotten off relatively lightly, but he complains that his recall and trial has cost him £30 in lost wages.

Tuesday, 2nd April, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

The recent case of Gunner David Hay, charged with assault against a senior officer while he erroneously believed he was a demobilised civilian, was brought up in the House of Commons yesterday, notes the Daily Herald. Hay's experience (which was caused by an administrative muddle) may be unique, but it nonetheless raises a wider question: when is a soldier, sailor, or airman legally a civilian again? Most ex-servicemen enjoy several weeks of demobilisation leave immediately following their discharge from the Forces, but despite the fact that many of them return to civilian work during this period, they are nonetheless still technically members of HM Forces and are still subject to military law - something that can have important repercussions but which they may be unaware of. Indeed, demobbed men may be disquieted to learn that even after their leave is over they are still strictly speaking reservists rather than true civilians, and they can be recalled to the Forces at the whim of the authorities so long as the period of 'national emergency' still exists - only an Order in Council can end this.

The Herald also reports a minor milestone on the road to civil equality: Miss Irene Swash, a Land Army girl, became the first woman to wear slacks in the House of Commons when she and a group of other WLA members attended Parliament yesterday to lobby MPs for better conditions for their colleagues.

Monday, 1st April, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

29-year-old ex-Gunner David Hay, of Kirkwall, was recalled to his regiment and court-martialled last week, reports the Daily Herald. Hay, who has an excellent wartime Army record, receiving a certificate of gallantry for his resue work in enemy minefields, was demobilised in December 1945, but it subsequently transpired that this was due to a clerical error. Believing himself to be a civilian again, Hay returned to his pre-war job as a baker. On January 12 he went to a dance, and while he was there got into an altercation with a captain in the RASC. He was arrested by civilian police but later released by local magistrates. However, once it was discovered that he had still technically been a soldier rather than a civilian when the fight took place, his actions took on a wholly different complexion: what had been a minor offense of disorderly conduct became a serious act of assault against a superior officer. Hay's solicitor objected without success before the court that given that Hay did not understand the context of his actions his behavior should not be judged before a military tribunal. Sentence remains to be promulgated.

Friday, 22nd February, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Samuel Charles Bolsom, a company director living on the Edgware Road, London W, was charged at Marlborough Street magistrates' court yesterday with conspiring to assist a large number of men with bogus medical discharges from the Army, reports the Times. It was alleged that Bolsom approached the men offering them a bottle of 'medicine' which would make them appear to be unfit to serve: "I have got dozens of people out of the Army and have helped hundreds ... you fetch along £150 and consider yourself out." Bolsom's medicine turned out to be a strong emetic, and it is not clear if in fact anyone was ever successful in fooling a medical board with it. Bolsom exacerbated his crime by allegedly trying to bribe the investigating detective with a bundle of bank notes stuffed into his hand. The trial continues.

Monday, 11th February, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

The Times notes that the Home Secretary is preparing a formal statement to the Commons about future action to prevent the unlawful possession of firearms. This has been prompted by concern about the large number of weapons being returned from the European continent by homecoming servicemen, many of which have ended up in the hands of criminals. "There are thought to be a great many more than after the war of 1914-18, and their possession constitutes a serious public danger." 'Souvenir-collecting' has been severely discouraged by the military authorities, but continues regardless.

A letter from 'A Service Mother':

May I quote from a letter just received from Holland? 'We went to see the Airborne Cemetery which is at Oosterbeek about three miles from Arnhem. It was here that the main airborne landings took place. Every child in Oosterbeek has been given two graves to look after, and they have planted tulips on every grave.'

Saturday, 9th February, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

"Experienced customs officials have given up trying to estimate the loss to state revenue caused by air smuggling during the past year," reports John Bull this week. The lowest estimate is believed to be at least £1 million, however. Smuggling is alleged to have become "the smart thing to do" in the RAF, with all ranks from senior officers downwards complicit in the fraud. Aircraft land in Britain from overseas on service airfields with no customs officers on duty, and the contraband is quickly passed along to West End racketeers who have established contacts with RAF aircrew. John Bull notes that the few prosecutions that have taken place have almost exclusively been of junior officers, though men of 'air rank' - Air Commodore and above - are believed to be just as guilty. "Many of the farewell demob parties given by senior officers have been fantastically lavish in liquor brought in by air - with no duty paid. The customs drive against this ramp should be aimed higher."

Wednesday, 6th February, 1946

This is an entry in a year-long project to post-blog the demobilisation experience for British servicemen at the end of the Second World War. See here for an introduction to the project and here for a brief overview of the demobilisation process.

Despite the return of British authority to Hong Kong and other liberated colonial territories in the Far East, law and order in the region remains shaky at best, notes the Times' correspondent. Chinese pirates in armoured junks, equipped with Japanese weapons, are making the East Asian waters unsafe for all but the best defended ships. Last week one pirate vessel boarded the Macao-to-Hong Kong ferry, stormed the wheel-house, imprisoned the almost one hundred passengers in the hold, and robbed them of their clothes and possessions at machine-gun point. Royal Marine Commandos are now reinforcing the understaffed Hong Kong Water Police and the Royal Navy has been drafted in to provide launches, assault craft, and even submarines to locate and destroy pirate strongholds in the notorious Bias Bay area. But the pirates are formidable enemies. Their heavily armed and highly powered junks were constructed under informal Japanese wartime supervision, and their scouts and lookouts are expert at locating the most profitable and vulnerable carges.

The Thunderer also reports on the return to Britain of HMS Formidable, the venerable Illustrious-class aircraft carrier which was launched a month before the outbreak of war and survived the entire conflict (including serious bomb damage on a Malta convoy run and two kamikaze strikes) to take part in the final campaign against the Japanese home islands. She is now back from Australia with 800 demobbing sailors.