It has been some time since I have written a blog but with the book on its way to the printer I can give more time to expanding on some of the stories revealed by my research. I thought I would begin by explaining the book’s cover, designed by Jag Lal. There are seven images … Continue reading The Book Cover
At last the book is finished and on its way to the printer! Honours, Decorations, and Medals to The Royal Corps of Signals for Gallantry & Distinguished Service, 1920-2020 will be published by 30 September 2021. It will be available through online retailers (such as Amazon) or by ordering through local bookshops; it may be … Continue reading Project Update – September 2021
The Royal Signal museum's 'On This Day' series has a short piece about the Berlin Airlift. The Army effort was directed by Colonel L. de M. Thullier OBE, Chief Air Formation Signal Officer, Headquarters British Air Forces of Occupation. His account of the operation and the part played by 11th Air Formation Signal Regiment appeared … Continue reading Operation Plainfare – The Berlin Airlift 1948
I must firstly record my most sincere thanks to Muhammad Naeem, a civil engineer from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, for his enthusiastic help in providing the photographs used here. For more information on the men buried at Manzai Fort cemetery, please read the notes linked to each of the photographs in the galleries. One of the interests … Continue reading Manzai Fort Cemetery, Pakistan
The other book being published this year about Royal Signals in its first 100 years is Roger So Far. Written by members of the museum staff and with contributions from many others, this is a richly illustrated tour through the century looking at the people, the technology, and the events that have shaped the Corps … Continue reading Roger So Far
In the Summer edition of the Journal of the Royal Signals Institution, John Young wrote an excellent short history of 661 Signal Troop (LPD). I was prompted to write something about the Troop’s predecessor and where it all began—No. 1 Ship Signal Section on HMS Bulolo during the Second World War. The article (somewhat bizarrely … Continue reading BULOLO – No. 1 Ship Signal Section 1942-1945
As I was working through one of the registers for distinguished service awards, I came across an anomaly. The obituary in The Wire for Major General A. C. Fuller CBE—the inventor of the Fullerphone—records that he was mentioned in despatches four times and that he did not receive the Victory Medal. These statements are at odds—if he … Continue reading ‘Class ‘B’ Mentions’—Rewards for Valuable Services Published in The Times during the First World War
Many will be familiar with the evocative Corps painting ‘Go To It’ by Peter Archer, which features the indomitable Corporal Tom Waters on his dash across Pegasus Bridge at Bénouville on the Caen Canal. Earlier he had rescued a man wounded by machine-gun fire, one of the party originally tasked with laying that line to … Continue reading D-Day
In the late summer and autumn of 2017 I wrote about the Hong Kong Signal Company and the bravery of one of its number, Signalman Arnie 'Topper' Topliff BEM. Since then there has been much interest in the stories and I have examined the battle in more detail for the chapter in the book, 'The … Continue reading Hong Kong Signal Company – Update
The photograph above appeared in The Wire in June 1959 under the heading: ‘Who are they? Where are they now?’ The accompanying caption was: Taken outside the W.O’s and Sergeants Mess S.T.C. (I), Jubblepore, India, 1931? Reading from left to right, (Standing): C.S.M. H Hartley, D.C.M., M.S.M., CQMS Andrews, M.S.M. (Seated): RQMS Nixon, RQMS Earwaker, M.S.M., RSM … Continue reading ‘Who are they? Where are they now?’
After the 1993 review of decorations and medals for gallantry, the Military Cross replaced the Military Medal as the third level award for non-commissioned officers and other ranks. Prior to 1993 there were 97 Military Crosses, including two bars, awarded to officers of the Corps and one to a warrant officer. In addition, there were … Continue reading Non-Commissioned Officers and the Military Cross
Amongst the many anniversaries being commemorated or acknowledged—the start of the Advance to Victory that ended the First World War (100 years), the Munich Agreement (80 years) and the Italian Armistice (75 years)—it is somewhat surprising that there has been little mention of the end of the Palestine Mandate and Britain's withdrawal from that ancient … Continue reading Palestine 1920-1948: In Memoriam
Ninety-eight years ago, on 22 May 1920 the former Royal Navy hospital ship and troop transport SS Dongola arrived in England carrying some of the last British and French refugees to flee Bolshevik Russia. Amongst the passengers was also the final batch of British prisoners of war, who had been captured a year before during … Continue reading Major Robert Norman Dodds MBE, MC, DCM, MM
I suspect many of the readers here will have seen Darkest Hour and Gary Oldman’s superb performance as Churchill. One aspect of the final days of the fighting in France that gets a deserved mention in the film is the ill-fated defence of Calais by Brigadier Claude Nicholson’s 30th Motor Brigade. Ordered to hold out … Continue reading ‘Darkest Hour’, Calais—Capture and Escape
Operations in Waziristan and elsewhere on the North-West Frontier of India, earned for Royal Signals some of its very first awards for gallantry—the earliest in the 1920s are dealt with in the chapter of the book that deals with the Meritorious Service Medal for gallantry. By 1924 conflict in the region had largely abated but … Continue reading The Shahur Tangi Ambush, North-West Frontier, 1937
