Cranwell Batmen
Flight Cadets at Cranwell, after the first 6 months living in the South Brick Lines, moved into the Junior Mess blocks in small, but individual, cells, with a single civvy batman/cleaner for the whole block. He would clean but also press uniforms - badly, from memory. Once you moved into the College Mess, you met batmen of a whole different variety. Most seemed very old and had done the job forever. They were first class, not just in cleaning rooms, shoes, uniforms and civvies, but also in saving one from the wrath of the sqn SNCOs. I managed to oversleep one Wednesday morning and was only woken by the sound of the band playing as the parade marched on. It was still pitch dark, but I leaped out of bed with abject fear of what would happen. The batman, who had just come in, took in the situation in a flash, pointed out that they obviously hadn't missed me otherwise I would have been fetched, gave me a cup of tea and told me to put my boots on and go and walk around on the gravel at the back of the College. He manipulated my belt and rifle sling to look as though they had been used, and told me to mingle with the other cadets around the armoury after the parade - and to deny everything. I got away with it. The flight sergeant saw me and rewalised that he couldn't remember seeing me, but examined boots, belt and sling and had to give up.
The recommended monthly tip for a batman was 32 shillings, out of our pay of 17 shillings and 10 pence per day. He certainly got a bonus that month!