Maj Bertie Ambler
MBE MSM died on 28 July 1995. He was captured by the
Japanese during the Fall of Singapore in 1942 while
serving as a bandsman in the East Lancashire Regiment.
Bertie joined the 1st Battalion The Royal Anglian
Regiment as the Paymaster while the Battalion was
serving in Aden and continued to serve with the 1st
Battalion during its tours in Celle, Catterick, Northern
Ireland and Cyprus. He was awarded the MBE and MSM and,
a unique award for an officer, the Clasp to the Long
Service and Good Conduct Medal. Bertie was an excellent
Paymaster, well liked and respected by all who knew him.
More Royal Anglian than most, Bertie liked nothing
better than relaxing while listening to Regimental Bands
and in particular his own records of the Royal Anglian
Bands. He leaves his wife Avril and daughters Jane and
Kathleen. |
5783581 Donald Anderson
died suddenly on 26 June 1995. Don joined the Regiment
on 15 January 1942 and served with the 7th Battalion in
Normandy. He was transferred to the Ox and Bucks Light
Infantry on 27 August 1944 and remained with them until
his discharge in November 1946. We were friends from
schooldays and he will not be forgotten. He leaves his
wife Joyce.
EG Allison |
Desmond
Atkins on 10 July 1995. He served with B
Coy 1st Battalion The Royal Norfolk Regiment in Korea
1951-2 and was batman to Major Adam L Gordon. Although a
Yorkshireman by birth who died in Yorkshire his widow
made certain that his beret with its Britannia badge
were placed on his Union Flag draped coffin for his
funeral. He leaves his wife Irene.
Maj Adam L Gordon |
Lt Col WH Brinkley died on 8th September 1995 after
a long illness.
Bill Brinkley was a cadet in HMS Conway 1929-31 but
green blindness prevented a naval career. Instead, he
entered Sandhurst in 1932 and was commissioned to the
Norfolk Regiment in August 1932, joining the 2nd
Battalion in Devonport prior to 6 years service with the
1st Battalion in India. He served during Northwest
Frontier operations, then in Delhi and Bangalore.
In 1940, when he was Adjutant of the Battalion he moved
to the United Kingdom for the defence of London. After
attending Staff College Camberley he was staff employed
in Lincoln. He rejoined the 1st Battalion in Scotland
and trained for the landing in Normandy 6th June 1944.
He was wounded on a patrol in Normandy and was evacuated
to England. He trained recruits at the Regimental Depot
Norwich. Once his wound healed, he rejoined the
Battalion at Kervenheim. In March 1945 he became a GSO
II Instructor at the Staff College, Quetta.
His peacetime service took him to less peaceful places.
Evacuated from India on Independence in 1947, he
rejoined the Battalion for service during the airlift of
Berlin. Staff employment in Hong Kong followed when the
New Territories were threatened by the Chinese Army.
When this threat receded, he was posted to Seremban,
Malaya for anti-communist operations.
He became Second in Command of 1st Battalion The Suffolk
Regiment in Trieste and led its families during the
evacuation to Wuppertal due to trouble between
Yugoslavia and Italy. When the families were rejoined by
the Battalion, he was moved to Staff employment at the
Headquarters of the British Commonwealth Force Korea in
Kure, Japan.
He was appointed to command 1st Battalion The Royal
Norfolk Regiment for anti-Eoka operations in Cyprus. At
the end of Eoka activity the Battalion moved to
Iserlohn, Germany where he relinquished his tour of
command.
In retirement he served in a variety of Staff
appointments in Chester, Exeter and for the last
fourteen years of his retired service he had the Army
Band Office in the Ministry of Defence which moved to
the Royal Military School of Music. He settled in
Ricklinghall, Suffolk where he was church warden for a
period. He was also Chairman of the local branch of the
Royal British Legion for 12 years. A strong supporter of
all Regimental occasions and activities he was also a
keen golfer.
In 1943 he married Jean McCreath and they had a twin son
and daughter.
(Click
here for a reminiscence by Maj Gen Jack Dye CBE MC.) |
George
Clapham died on 22 October 1995 in St
Michael's Hospital, Aylsham aged 89. A great Norwich
character and Freeman of the City he had been unwell for
some time. He was a man of the people who loved keeping
up with local news and lending a hand when he could.
Norwich born, George was a hairdresser for 50 years,
joining Gibson and Mallett's shop in Magdalen Street
before running it as his own business. He used to walk
down the street in the mornings in his bowler hat and
rolled umbrella to the shop, opposite Looses, which
still has his name above the door. He served with the
5th Bn Royal Norfolk Regt and was captured in Singapore
on his 36th birthday. (Click
here for a Changi reminiscence by Herbert Widdows.)
A founder member of the Norwich Branch of FEPOW he was
chairman from 1954 to 1989 and was also a member of the
Norwich Branch of the Royal Anglian Regimental
Association.
Reproduced by courtesy of
the Eastern Evening News, with additions by JLR. |
| HS Grass
of Great Yarmouth died on 13 July 1995. He served with
the Norfolk Regiment in WW1 and was a fire officer in
Yorkshire during WW2. |
| Edwin John 'Jack' Loveday
died in August 1995 in Australia aged 70. He left school
at the age of 14 and became a farmworker and member of
the Home Guard before joining the Royal Norfolk Regt at
the outbreak of war in 1939. In 1950 he emigrated to
Australia where he settled in Queensland and married. He
had 6 sons, a daughter, 13 grandchildren and 2
great-grandchildren. |
| Bob Potter
of North Pickenham died on 7 June 1995 aged 91. He
served with 1st Bn the Norfolk Regt overseas before WW2. |
| David Roome
of Brinsley in Nottinghamshire died on 16 July 1995
after a short illness, aged 71. He joined the Regimental
70th Bn (Young Soldiers Battalions formed after the
Battle of Britain) then served with the Royal Norfolk
and Suffolk Regts in Burma with the 14th Army. He did
not live to join in the VJ Day Commemorations to which
he was so looking forward. David leaves his wife Audrey
and one son Stephen. |
Maj John
Montagu (Monty) Smyth MBE died on 16
November 1994 at Perrina House Nursing Home aged 89.
Born in 1905 at Edgbaston he was the son of Captain JRH
Smyth JP and represented Charterhouse and RMC Sandhurst
in the 100 yds and 200 yds sprints.
Commissioned into the Norfolk Regt in 1924, he served in
Bermuda, Egypt, Shanghai and India before posting to the
Depot, Britannia Barracks where he was Adjutant in 1936.
He was Adjutant and Quartermaster the Royal Militia,
Jersey 1936-1940 before posting to the 6th Bn The Royal
Norfolk Regt in 1940 with whom he trained in Norfolk,
Scotland and Cheshire as OC B Coy. Proceeding overseas
with 18th Division via Nova Scotia, the West Indies,
Cape Town and Mombasa he landed in Singapore on 13
January 1942 and was in action 2 days later on the
Malayan Mainland. Cut off and under Command of Lt Col
Alan Cubitt, the Bn were ordered to take to the jungle
and endeavour to 'get back'. By a lucky contact with the
Royal Navy it was evacuated to Singapore on 31 January
and reformed but after the attack on the island was
ordered to lay down its arms on 14 February 1942. In
Changi the 18th Division Officers Club was formed but
after the war the word officers was dropped and it
became a dining club, meeting annually, alternately in
Cambridge and London. Monty became its Secretary from
1947-1982 and President in 1982.
Retiring in 1946 to his origins in Worcester he built up
a pedigree Jersey herd. A great and accurate shot, he
devoted the next 40 years to Parochial, Rural District,
County Council, Country Landowners Association and
Police Authority Committees. He became High Sheriff of
the County of Worcester in 1966, a Trustee of local
Almshouses and schools, a General Commissioner of Income
Tax and in 1983 he was made MBE for Public Services.
He married Rosamund, daughter of Maj W Harker of
Blofield Hall, Norfolk and leaves a daughter, Ann
Humphries. |
| H Wagg
died on 16 Oct 1995. He was a member of the Kings' Lynn
Branch. |
| Dick
Wood died on 17 May 1995
in Cricklewood, London, aged 75. He served with the 2nd
Bn in Burma and was a member of the London Branch,
seldom missing a meeting. |
| Alfred Charles Yaxley
of Bungay died on 6 June 1994. He served with the 4th
Battalion. |
|
B&C Norfolk Editor