Bob was near my age, maybe a year or so older and before the army got hold of him he was a school teacher. He found life just as boring as the rest of us but he surprised us all when he announced that he was going to apply for a commission. We enquired in what branch and he said that the only commissions available then were in the infantry. Our further enquiries elicited the following; he and his wife had a fairly large circle of friends and when they entertained their hallstand became full of uniforms, all with pips, crowns or rings. His wife pointed out that all Bob could rustle up was a standard army greatcoat without even a lance-corporal's stripe, so Bob decided to remedy the situation. Well, good luck, Bob, I thought, if you don't make it, as you probably won't, your wife can always hang your posthumous medals on the hallstand together with all the bowler hats. In the early part of 1942 in bitterly cold weather I was on daytime guard duty at the gate (what else is new?); I was bundled up in my greatcoat and a leather jerkin, one of the more acceptable pieces of equipment supplied by the army, when the duty sergeant approached "you're to go up to the GOR and take a teleprinter test this afternoon," he said, "teleprinter operators are required for an overseas draft and so far four from different units have been found to be inefficient, it's your turn to try." Not having touched a teleprinter for a couple of years I said, "It's no use, sarge, I'll fail, it's a waste of time." He was a regular soldier and he found it difficult to understand that anyone would voluntarily drop in pay. "You mean you're prepared to forfeit your trade pay without even giving it a try? you'll revert to general duties." An idea had begun to form in my mind, if I were to revert to general duties then I would be free to apply for a transfer to another branch of the services to a trade more in line with my civilian job, possibly into the Royal Engineers or the Royal Army Ordnance Corps and I told the sergeant so. He thought about it for a moment and then agreed, he went into the Company Office, saw the CO and returned within half-an-hour with the necessary papers for a transfer application.