Great Fire of Brampton!
I was on the Supply Staff at the time of the fire. I recall that the fire started on the inside of the hollow square building, so by the time that the flames were visible the building was well alight.
Rumour had it that one of the AOs called the guardroom to report the fire, but the duty Cpl thought it was his mate messing around and was a little less than polite!
At the time I was recovering from a broken leg, and was getting a lift from a old civil servant. When he picked me up, I told him that the HQ had burnt down, and he didn't believe me! We also were giving a lift to a Wg Cdr who also said that the HQ had burnt down!
When we arrived at BPOM chaos reigned, as Supply had been located in the Annex, our offices were intact. So at the insistence of one Gp Capts, all of the Supply filing cabinets were moved to Supply Sqn, and we next saw them weeks later as all of the other filing cabinets were then also added.
We then had the joys of working in portakabin city as the Senior staff took over the Annex.
Deep joy!