Major Tom Styles
on 19 February  2001 aged 73

Maj Tom Styles, aged 73, unexpectedly, following a minor medical procedure, on 19 Feb 2001. Born on 13 Jul 1927, most of Tom's service was with 1 Royal Norfolk. He wrote, in Tom's first piece B&C 85 Dec 95, 'Britannia was my cap badge and my first loyalty was always going to be to the 9th.'
From April 1945 to Sep 1946 his first career was with The Royal Navy then The Royal Marines before going to The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst. Tom said in Three Out of Four B&C 93 Dec 99: 'I never fancied the brylcream boys!'
Tom served first at The Depot until 1947 (see his 1946 tale of Col George Winter and the Penny in B&C 87 Dec 96), then with 1st Bn The Royal Norfolk Regt in Germany and at The Depot until 1949 before a posting to The Malay Regt 1949-51. Between 1951-1955 Tom was IO in Korea, Boxing Officer in Hong Kong in 1953 and then in Colchester. (Tom appears in a 1954 Hong Kong photograph in the 'History of the Royal Norfolk Regt 1951-1969', Volume IV by Maj Bob Godfrey MC BA, Colchester. See B&C Nos 87 A Tale of a Ha'penny and Winkie Fitt and The Rum; 88 An Odd Oddie Ode and Ben Chapman's thoughts; 89 A Misquote; 90 Slope Aaaahhhhh .... and Hong Kong and USS Algol ; 91 In My Day and Wiggy and B&C 94 The K-Force Men for his Korea and Hong Kong tales as well as B&C No 93 Dec 99 for Coping with life, Three Out of Four, Ello, Ello, WWW and Krait Alright on the Night.)
Succeeding Maj Ben Chapman as OC Training Wing at the Depot in 1955 he then went in 1957 as Adjutant to 1st Bn, The Singapore Regt until 1960, before rejoining the 1st Battalion, The Royal Norfolk Regt, in Berlin (see B&C 91 Dec 98 and 92 Jun 99), thence to Dovercourt and Guyana, until 1962. As an East Anglian he went to the Depot in Bury St Edmunds 1962-4, 4th/6th Royal Lincolns TA 1964-6 then to the FARELF Training Centre Singapore before resigning after the Wilson cuts in 1968.
Tom then had a successful career in industry. In recent years he was a Regular attender at the Royal Norfolk Regt Officers' Dinner Club and extremely good company. On a personal note from this scribe, the receipt of 'blueys' in 1996 from Tom to Bosnia was more than a tonic (sadly, the 3-can rule applied and Gin was definitely off-limits !)
A tribute to Tom's prodigious written output for the B&C appeared in B&C 95 Dec 00.
(After note: The printed B&C has carried, since B&C 98 Jun 02, and will continue to do so, the following:
REGIMENTAL ANECDOTES
`Old soldiers never die, they just fade away’ may not be true but their priceless memories do fade away. The Late Maj Tom Styles contributed an unparalleled 23 unique pieces between 1995 and his untimely death in 2001. (All of his pieces are on the B&C website www.norfolkbc.fsnet.co.uk)
With the passing of Old Comrades it is increasingly evident that much Regimental anecdotal history is being lost. The facts and deeds are nobly recorded in worthy tomes but much of the human element, sayings, stories, emotions and opinions of events is often only recollected at Regimental gatherings. These reminiscences and the undocumented informal facets of military life need to be recorded. From pre-war, WW2 and especially the Far East, Berlin blockade, Korea, Hong Kong, Cyprus, Aden and recent conflicts, please send them in.)
Tom's writing exemplified the Editorial Rule principles 'if the facts don't fit the legend, print the legend'. Put another way, Tom excelled with the writer's axiom: 'Don't let the facts get in the way of a good story!'
His widow Margaret expressed the opinion: 'Tom missed his vocation!'
B&C 86 Jun 96 carried: ADVICE from Maj Tom H Styles' long departed Granny, 'Remember, it ain't what you do, it's what you get caught doing.'
Following a stroke and an operation for an abdominal aneurysm while on holiday in the USA in 2000, Tom became severely immobile and went to live at The Royal Star and Garter Home in Richmond.
The Dec 99 and Jun 00 issues of The Royal Anglian Regt Castle magazine carried a quiz question and answer about a photograph of The Team from The Depot, Blenheim Camp, Bury St Edmunds at RAF Cranwell in Jun 1963, judging the Drill Competition. With a very bemedalled Tom were WO1 (RSM) Ray Baldry (later Capt, d 97), WO2 Ted Holden and Capt John Hutchings. Tom had never seen it so a copy was obtained from The Regimental Secretary, Col Tony Taylor, and posted.
He married Margaret in 1971 and is survived by her, son Ben and daughter Jacqueline.

JLR

The Obituary above should have appeared in B&C 96, Jun 2001 Britannia and Castle.
Due to an error it was omitted along with the obituaries for Bandmaster Eric Thompson and for Capt Tom A Weymouth.
All these obituaries appeared in B&C 97 Dec 2001 but are published on this site with the Jun 01 obituaries.

Click here to see the collection of Tom's prodigious contributions to the B&C

Afternote from Norfolk B&C Editor: In Aug 2002, the following was sent by e-mail:
Margaret Styles kindly loaned me some of Tom's priceless archive photographs. It's not so much the pictorial element which stretches from Tom as a young Royal Marine in 1945, though 1958 Singapore with Harold MacMillan, 1963 at Grimes Graves with the Duke of Edinburgh to a very bemedalled Field Offr in 1964 with the Duchess of Gloucester, but the comments on the photographs.
Like: 'Yet another Guard of Honour for some RAF type in Berlin 1961'.
We'll not see his like again.
While we corresponded regularly I only met Tom on a few occasions during his sending an unparalleled 23 pieces for the B&C.
Maybe for some, as an archetypal Regimental Officer, he is typified by the photograph, right, of him, 50 years ago, in Hong Kong.
But for me, as he exemplified the whole purpose of the B&C, '`If the facts don`t fit the legend  print the legend’, this of him, below, 50 years ago in Malaya with the late Maj Gen Trevor Hart CB RAMC, maybe says it all:
"Trevor Hart and Tom 'in some dive' in 1952"

Tom remarked in his tale 'Krait Alright on the Night' in B&C No 93 Dec 99: 'The jungle course I was attached to was quite interesting and though I was not fully participating I did pick up a tip or two. Jungle cooking as told and performed by a WO1 in the ACC was far better than any Max Sennet silent film. One of his great jungle culinary tips was to know that the dumplings, made from ground up hard biscuits out of compo rations, were ready for cooking ‘when they had the consistency of a woman’s breast! Most of the young officers on the course, including me, thought this was something to do with lifting and separating for we were not exactly familiar with female anatomy in those days!'
I added to the photograph above, the comment: 'No doubt Trevor is explaining anatomical terms to Tom.'
His tales of Berlin in B&C No 92 Jun 99 brought one letter of adverse comments on the accuracy of pigs, Rolls Royce cars and the Vopos Guard in Berlin at the Brandenburg Checkpoint, about Maj Harold Wigginton MBE in ‘Berlin or Bust’, ‘A Night at the Opera’ and ‘A Ballet Good Show’. It also brought a request from Mrs Pat Wigginton for 5 copies of the above Jun 99 article for her grandchildren!

Cheers, Tom, a Prince among them all.