I did four yes FOUR full tours in and around Whitehall and I hated every minute of it. With one exception, the job didn't need to be in London and except when I lived in the mess at Uxbridge, the accommodation at Woolwich was squalid and the daily grind into town depressing.
Friday lunchtime on the 'General Belgrano', as the paddle steamer pub was known post-1982, was some light relief and my mates and I eventually invented The Wine Bar Commandos. The tie of this exclusive body was a a red wine glass and Commando dagger and qualification for membership was to drink a bottle of red wine (each) in a lunch break. This resulted in the essential need to disguise the absence of the newly qualified guy from the boss for the afternoon (he was usually sleeping it off in a 'cubicle' in the next floor's loo). Eventually, it was decided to initiate the boss and he then needed to be hidden from the one star help until going home time.
Old Duffer