I was accommodated at Mons Barracks Officers' Mess one time in the late seventies. My quarters consisted of a suite with separate bedroom and a sitting room furnished with a huge leather sofa and a large, solidly built bureau. There was a chap who shone my shoes and tidied up. Meals were served in a nice homely dining room - long mahogany tables with linen table cloths and napkins, bone chinaware and uniformed waitresses. My mess bill when I left came to a modest (1979) £30. The standard of the Garrison Sergeants' Mess at Aldershot wasn't far behind, though the accommodation didn't include a suite, just a well furnished bedroom on an upper floor. For living-in SNCOs at Northolt in 1974 the Sergeants Mess didn't include quarters: SNCOs were accommodated in single rooms in a separate barrack block, but the Mess building itself was well run with proper linen and waitress service of full three course meals.
It seems to me that someone is taking the p**s out of todays Officers and SNCOs.
