Giving Govt. property a good home.
 

My wife has just mixed a huge quantity of mystery ingredients in a massive bowl bearing the Government Broad Arrow [Pheon?] stamped underneath, and year 1965.

Like a fair number of artefacts scattered around the house it was variously acquired via "breakage allowance", "Class C stores", auction at Station closure, auction at Mess closure, and inadvertent theft.
[The latter category is represented by several nice coffee spoons at stand-up dos, for which I had no use, so stuffed them in top breast pocket.]

The most unusual item is a massive EPNS salmon salver, with detachable head and tail, bought when the Mess at HQRAFG JHQ auctioned its plate before being merged with the army.

The least useful was a complete set of RAF bright orange 3-piece suite chair covers, packed in error by our removers. Undetected at march out, found when unpacking, and rejected by stores when I contacted them. Unloved at any moment in their lives, they ended up in the bin.

The most loved is a very large tall white jug, with blue and yellow lines on the rim, which holds kitchen "spoons, ladles, long things assorted" by the stove.

I am sure there is a lot of stuff out there, beyond the usual valedictory tankard and silver. Any offers of an anecdote please?

Back in the early 1980s, the quantity of items that went into a fully furnished quarter was reduced....the occupants of the quarter could choose to buy the non-scaled items, which included the card table, the standard lamp, the dinner trolley, and much of the kitchen equipment including said large mixing bowl (which I still use after 35 years).

I can only say one thing about those chair covers. AAAAARGH! Whoever designed them (and those other dreadful colours) was either blind or a sadist.

I bought a card table (still useful, but we've never opened it up and played cards on it either in my RAF days, or the 25 years since) and the drinks trolley, which my wife has always hated, but she still puts a load of her stuff on it. I also bought a few assorted cutlery items and utensils (some of which are still in regular use in the kitchen for their intended purpose) and I use a pair of thin spring steel bladed dinner knives as gasket scrapers when I'm working on my engines! The standard lamp was converted into a display stand and is used in my wife's shop.

Soldier's First Field Dressing, issued to me in 1966, was old then, but now has seniority in my workshop first aid kit.

I think we did chinagraph pens in a previous thread. I still have some in the workshop.
Also 4B [I insist , 4B] leads for pencils, propelling ......... synoptic chart analysis on fax paper.

I've no illicit items but I had a wry smile when I found a shirt on a coathanger bearing a Naafi price tag.

One of my UAS QFIs had been on B(I)8s at Geilenkirchen as it was closing. One day he was outraged to see a whole pile of brand-new G-plan furniture being smashed up and burnt. The excuse was that it would have been 'too expensive' to return it to the UK - and 'the rules' didn't permit it being sold off to the locals....

Amongst his possessions, the QFI had rather a good cine camera. So he filmed this utter vandalism and told OC Admin Wing that if ever he was charged for anything at an OMQ march-out, the film would go straight to the media.

That didn't go down too well - so he found himself sent to Rissy to become a Chipmunk QFI, rather than getting the Buccaneer posting he'd been promised.

Couple of packets of Biscuits Brown turned up in a loft clear-out the other year. I have no idea how (why) they even made it home, let alone into a storage box.

They hadn't changed...

Our OMQ inventory at Gütersloh in the early 80's included some rather nice cut glasses with accompanying jug (sorry, pitcher for our American cousins!). On March-out it was stated that these had been broken and when I protested, it was pointed out that they were priced at 10p an item. Needless to say, they are still in use now.

As are my Boots, Flying, Winter (with flaps) and Coveralls, Aircrew, Inner (both knitted and acrylan), which are both extremely useful in the Tiger at this time of year.

mog

I have a plastic pouch, adorned with the Government Arrow, containing four instrument screwdrivers. These have been most useful over the last 38 years for tightening loose spectacle legs and adjusting watch straps. I doubt if they ever went near an ‘instrument’.

Funnily enough I was using our mixing bowl yesterday afternoon to make a chocolate and orange marble cake... yummy. Our bowl is stamped 1973. Its actually made by TG Green, the people who made the well known "Cornishware" pottery range and the bowl is of excellent quality. I think the only other surplus MQ stuff I have is a garden spade and some garden shears.

I bought some ex MQ bits at a sale in Horncastle in the early 80s, I still use the carving fork and the steel (knife sharpener)

Brize had a 'sell-off' in the 70s and I bought 2 'tables, kitchen, formica-topped', one white, one red at £1 each! The quality was exceptional - high grade multi ply tops with 'proper' Formica surface. 4 wing nuts to dismantle and simple to modify to required size. The white one remained with ex-wife on divorce and the red, much modified, is still the daily meal table. Best purchase - ever!
Other ex-Service items? Flying boots (survived total immersion in house destruction and flooding), Lightning seat safety pin!, dinghy knife and holster, leather flying helmet, throat mic, modified 4a helmet box, whizz wheel, protractor, nav box and the inevitable chinagraph collection!
Attempts (half-hearted) to return these on PVR were ignored ... perhaps because during my time, traditional 'Stores' morphed into 'Supply' but "plus ca change...'

Apart from my original 1968-issue Mk9 flying suit and a later Mk14A, neither of which were on my clothing card and were in any case obsolete, the only item I asked to keep was a pair of combat highs. Great for walking to Waitrose in the winter when the roads were too dangerous.

Then a couple of years ago I wore them to AeroExpo at Sywell, having been advised that the car parking field and exhibition area were rather muddy. But the wretched things disintegrated - large chunks of the soles fell out. I gather that this is not an uncommon phenomenon with combat highs of that era - perhaps that's why I was allowed to keep them?

But why do flying suits shrink in wardrobes?

Purchased a couple of formica topped chest of drawers at the 431 MU furniture sale in the late 80's - still providing excellent service in the garage as tool/garden kit storage. Well worth the 5DM each!

Rolls-Royce-Turbomeca Adour engine i/d plate (no engine number) probably from an engine transit case. My son worked in the engine bay on a Jaguar unit.

Now, own up all those who have a perspex Lockheed C130 badge from the control column yoke!