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Old 1st Oct 2015, 14:58
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harrym
 
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Fairford, Glos
Age: 99
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Observers/ACRC

Ormeside-

On arrival at ACRC in April 43 I was allocated to Empress Court (?), a large block of (once!) luxury flats fronting Regents Park, from where we were moved after a week or so to Hall Road for no apparent reason – probably just to give us something to do, as much effort seemed to be devoted to keeping us occupied doing nothing much other than wasting time under supervision. There was one bright interval however when an outbreak of some infection (can’t remember what) necessitated the Hall Road flats being closed for fumigation, its occupants being sent home on leave for a few days – an unexpected bonus!

Ah yes that mass inoculation parade at Lords - over a hundred of us in line with upper arms bare, facing a long tunnel of grinning fiends holding large syringes with long needles who attacked us mercilessly as we shuffled along. I seem to recall about six separate jabs – smallpox, cholera, typhoid, tetanus, plague, maybe yet another and somewhere in the process I think a blood sample was taken as well – the guy in front of me passed out completely, as did one or two others, the only plus point being that we were allowed the rest of the day off.

Danny42C

The wearing of Observer brevets continued for some time after the war, though the number inevitably diminished as time passed; the last one I can recall being a navigator on 10 Sqdn in the late sixties.
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