Preface-The Royal Signals Association in Aldershot

The history of modern military signalling in Aldershot can be traced back to the 19th century and the Royal Engineers Signal Service which had both its training centre and operational units in the area. Soon after the formation of Royal Signals in 1920, the first branches of the Association were listed in The Wire with pride of place given to Aldershot which, by 1921, had 15 paid up members.

In the following years Aldershot was a major garrison for the Army and in 1926, no less than three of the 39 branches world-wide were in Aldershot attached to Command Signals, 1st Divisional Signals and 2nd Divisional Signals. This situation was rationalised in 1930 with the appearance of a single Aldershot, Farnborough and District Branch. This was probably occasioned by the move of the Signals units into Mons Barracks which had been specially built for them. In 1931 the branch held its own Reunion in the garrison in a format very similar to those which have later taken place at Catterick and Blandford. During the Second World War the branch, like most others, fell into abeyance but was reformed in 1949. In 2001 the Master of Signals honoured the branch by presenting it with its 75 Year Pennant.

Today, the Aldershot Branch is proud to uphold this long tradition in “The Home of the British Army,” maintaining links with the three regular Signal Squadrons stationed in the garrison.

The Early Years

The historical link between Royal Engineers and the formation of Royal Signals in 1920 is well known. The origins of the Association can also be traced back to the Royal Engineers Old Comrades Association which in 1920 initiated a Signals Branch prior to the severance of the two organisations a year later. In parallel with these events in 1920-21 a number of branches of the Royal Signals Association were being formed and these are listed in The Wire of March 1921 as follows:

Aldershot, Birmingham, Exeter, Liverpool, Derby, Glasgow, Bulford, Belfast, Taunton, Rhine Army, London, Maresfield and Crowborough.

Thus Aldershot was in the very first wave of branches to be formed, with RSM HE Mallows at the Command Headquarters, Stanhope Lines as the local representative.
 

Before proceeding further it is instructive to look back a little further before the formation of Royal Signals in 1920 prior to which time communications had been the preserve of the Royal Engineer Signal Service formed in 1908. The Aldershot area has always been a stronghold of Royal Engineers and, in those early days, there were RE Signal Service units in the area. The father of a branch member in the 1990s, Peter Unwin, served in such a unit at Cowshot Plain near Pirbright and Peter has some splendid photographs of the cable wagons there. The Royal Engineers tradition is maintained today through their training unit at Minley and Hawley Hard.

Returning to the origins of the Aldershot Branch, by August 1921 the Branch had 15 members and by September 1922 the Secretary had become CQMS AL Winter, 1st Divisional Signal Company. New branches were being added to the original list at that time and in 1926 there were 39 branches including no less than three in Aldershot:

Aldershot Command Signals with Capt AC Sykes DSO OBE as Secretary

1st Divisional Signals with CSM R Keevil as Secretary

2nd Divisional Signals with Sgt N Grant as Secretary

On 5th October 1927 the first AGM of the Signals Association was held at 95 Belgrave Rd, Victoria, London.

Mons Barracks

At about that time Signals units in Aldershot were moving into Mons Barracks. These barracks are perhaps best remembered as the location of the Mons Officer Cadet School but officer training did not begin there until the Second World War. Mons Barracks was in fact built in 1926-27 specially for Royal Signals and they remained there until 1940. The construction of the barracks involved a change to the landscape of Aldershot because of the removal of Smallshot Hill, a dominating feature of the area on which at one time had stood the carrier pigeons lofts of the Royal Engineers Signal service.

Plans of Mons Barracks in 1929 exist in the Aldershot Military Museum. They clearly show occupation by the Signal Companies serving A Corps, 1st Division, 2nd Division and Cavalry Division. In addition to all the normal features of a barracks complex, including both MT sheds and stables, there were a number of specialist buildings for wireless and line training and demonstrations. There were also two Battery Charging Shops. These remained in existence until 1999 when they were demolished in 1999 to make way for a new swimming pool as part of the Joint Service sports centre of excellence. In 1929 one of the playing fields adjacent to Mons Barracks is clearly named Royal Signals Cricket Ground. Today, the only part of Mons Barracks still standing is the Officers Mess.

In the late 1920s, perhaps occasioned by the move into Mons Barracks, there appears to have been some rationalisation within the local Association for in March 1930 just the one branch, described as the Aldershot, Farnborough and District Branch, existed. With RSM J Wigglesworth as the Secretary, it seems to have been a thriving organisation for on 18/19 July 1931 its first official reunion was held at Mons Barracks.

Aldershot Reunions

There is a good account of the subsequent 1938 Aldershot Reunion in the August edition of The Wire of that year, together with a picture of the 143 Old Comrades taking part. These included representative contingents from Birmingham, Bournemouth, Portsmouth, Southampton and Salisbury. The gathering "taxed accommodation to the limit". Nothing changes! The latter shows two officers in uniform, Brigadier RH Willan DSO MC ADC, Representative Colonel Commandant, and Colonel Fladgate, Chief Signal Officer, Aldershot Command. It appears that these Reunions took place on the Sports Ground in Aldershot and took much the same form as the Reunions we are all familiar with at Catterick or Blandford. They included sports, a smoking concert and church parade on the Sunday morning. As part of the march past after church, a detour was made through the Wagon Sheds while the band played "Boys of the Old Brigade".

Certain locations have long been associated with the development of Royal Signals: the names Maresfield, Catterick and Blandford immediately spring to mind. Scrutiny of the history of the garrison in Aldershot between the World Wars reveals that it too played a not insubstantial part.

There is then something of a mystery in that the March 1939 Wire records that "a new branch of the Royal Signals Old Comrades" Association has been formed under the patronage of Maj Gen Sir MGE Bowman Manifold KBE CB CMG DSO and the chairmanship of Colonel RM Powell DSO. This retained the name Aldershot, Farnborough and District Branch and held its inaugural meeting on 25th January 1939 at the Imperial Hotel, Aldershot.

After the Second World War

It would appear that, for obvious reasons, there was little Association activity until the conclusion of the Second World War. Straight away in 1945 new or resurrected branches began to form. The so-called "inaugural" meeting of the Aldershot Branch was held on 9th April 1949 in the Alexandra Hotel in Aldershot. We have the minutes of that meeting which was also heralded in The Wire for July. Maj Gen Fladgate was elected President, Mr WJ Abbott Chairman and Mr AH Green Secretary. A photograph of some of the 80 members participating is in existence. "Dodger" Green had been largely responsible for getting this event off the ground and, having been a noted sportsman himself, had invited some notable personalities to attend including Joe Cotterell, Jimmy Emblem and "Dolly" Grey, the former Indian middleweight champion.

Joe Cotterell was an outstanding athlete whose achievements were fully written up in the October 1949 Wire along with photographs. He was an English, AAA, Southern Counties, Army and Corps champion in middle distance running and had a similar record for cross country. This led to his "famous" collection of 30 cups and over 200 medals, 60 of them gold.

Two more meetings were held in quick succession in May and June 1949. At the latter the forthcoming trip to the Catterick Reunion was discussed, cost per head, including free beer, £1.18.

By 1956 the branch is "still giving a good account of itself". The AGM that year was held in the Royal Standard with Maj Gen Fladgate still the President. Mr LV Goodman was re-elected Chairman, Mr R Fairclough, Hon Secretary and Mr AV Ient, Hon Treasurer. The committee elected for the coming year included Mr Jim Cadwell who instituted a collecting box for welfare to be used at meetings. The Cadwell Box, which is still in existence, was well used at one time and became known as the Pice Box, using a name from the Indian Army. The annual dinner of the branch is advertised for 24th March, and congratulations are offered to Mr EA (Ted) Mayne, Telephone Manager Guildford, on the award of the Emergency Reserve Decoration. Ted died in 1997.

The July 1956 edition of The Wire reports on the Annual Dinner held in the Royal Standard Hotel. The principal guest was the Representative Colonel Commandant, Maj Gen Sir Hubert E Rance GCMG GBE CB. The General Secretary of the Association was also present. 41 sat down to dinner.

Maj Gen Fladgate who had clearly played a major part in the life of the branch died at home in Fleet in June 1958 aged 67. He had a distinguished career commencing with RMC Sandhurst in 1910 and commissioning into 60th Rifles. He was severely wounded in action in France in 1915 and later transferred to the RE Signal Service. In 1916 he returned to France in command of the 2nd Army Signal Company. He transferred to the newly formed Corps in 1922 and held a number of appointments in the next ten years including command of 2nd Divisional Signals in Aldershot. In 1940 he went to France with the BEF and eventually became Director of Signals in 1941 as a Major General. In 1943 he became Chief Signal Officer Middle East Land Forces in Egypt, which appointment he held until his retirement in 1946. He was a well respected and loved officer as Obituary reveals, together with the letter from 1855003 CM Bartlett in the August 1958 edition of The Wire.

Maj Gen Fladgate was Colonel Commandant from 1947 to 1955 and Chairman of the Royal Signals Association 1949-1954. In 1968 Mrs CW Fladgate presented her late husbandís medals to the Corps Musem in a ceremony at Blandford.

In August 1958 the branch is still going strong, still meeting in the Royal Standard and very active in supporting the Reunion at Catterick and similar events such as the Midland Reunion at Loughborough. In June the branch formed the largest contingent in a parade following the annual Mayoral Day Service in St Michaelís Church, and also paraded in honour of 16th Independent Parachute Brigade Signal Squadronís tenth anniversary.

In 1968 the annual dinner was held at the Masonic Dining Rooms in Farnborough with 75 members and guests. Brigadier FJ Allen OBE was President at that time with Mr AH Green as Chairman and Mr AV Ient as Secretary. Joe Cotterell was also present along with many other names familiar to our current membership such as Maj Gen Moberly and Brigadier Pat Hobson.

The Masonic Dining Rooms were still in use for the annual dinner in 1969.

1982 was an anxious time for many in the Services and the on-going link between the serving and retired Corps is illustrated by the signal sent from the branch in May that year to 216 Signal Squadron in the Falkland Islands: "Very best wishes to all ranks. We look forward to your safe return." Brigadier Pat Hobson was the President at that time.

In 1990 there is a record of a Christmas Luncheon Party at the Royal Aldershot Officers Club attended by a number of personalities who served the branch well including Gordon Pickard, Terry Rawlings and Douglas Gardiner. Maj Gen and Mrs Alistair Anderson were guests.

Since 1993

There then appears to have been something of a down turn in activity but in April 1993 Brig Tom Wheawell, as Area Vice Chairman, wrote to The Wire (and also personally to all members in the Aldershot area) to publicise a re-launch lunch party in the Garrison Sergeants Mess on 25th April by courtesy of WO1 Cartwright. Maj Gen JH Hild MBE had agreed to become Branch President; other officers were Capt Jane Knight, Secretary, and Lt Col (Retd) Douglas Crookes, Treasurer.

In the same year the AGM was held in the Sergeants Mess of 5 Armd Bde HQ and Sig Sqn which, at that time, was the normal meeting place for the branch. A change to this occurred in 1997 when the Garrison Sergeants Mess became the normal venue for meetings thanks to the good offices of the new Garrison Sergeant Major WO1 J Fairbairn. The very positive involvement of the latter during his tenure of office in Aldershot carried on the tradition of strong support from senior warrant officers which began way back in 1921.

In the period 1993-1999 the Branch prospered once again with a varied programme of events organised by a committee which contained some of the older members such as Dodger Green and Douglas Crookes along with a leavening of younger members. Associate members played there full part in support of all events. Another facet of this period was the strengthening of links with neighbouring branches, particularly Reading, West London and East Kent. One event enjoyed by all was attendance at the Dress Rehearsal of the Sovereigns Parade at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst kindly organised each August by Paddy Verdon the Membership Secretary. Another event which helped to strengthen the bond between the regular and retired membership of the Association was an annual Quiz Night which attracted teams from garrison Signals units including 216 Signal Squadron, 251 Signal Squadron and the RMAS Signals Wing.

On 9th April 1999 a 50th Anniversary Dinner was held in the Garrison Sergeants Mess. This commemorated to the exact day the reforming of the Branch after the Second World War. Some 90 members and guests took part in a memorable evening at which the Corps Band played. The Guest of Honour was the Master of Signals, Major General Sprackling accompanied by his wife. Other guests included Mrs Barbara Torrie, the daughter of General Fladgate referred to earlier and Mrs Jocelyn Boniface, daughter of Dodger Green who had sadly passed on the previous year after tirelessly serving the Branch ever since the War.

Later in 1999 the Branch was awarded the 50 Year Pennant to be flown on the Branch standard. At that time it was the only pennant available but shortly afterwards a 75 Year version became available and this was presented to the Branch at the Annual Reunion at Blandford in June 2001. The standard bearer at this time was Fred Bridges.

2001 saw a change in the presidency of the Branch. Maj General Hild who had supervised its regeneration since 1993 moved away from the area and his place was taken by Brigadier Noel Moss who had been chairman and, indeed, who continued as chairman in the interim period.

Throughout the year 2000 increasing use was made of e-mail, particularly for committee business. This trend towards use of the Internet took another step forward in 2001 with the initiation of the Branch’s own Website - www.rsa-aldershot.org - thanks to the efforts of Mike Wilson, one of the more IT-literate committee members.

Garrison Units

For many years after World War II the Royal Signals unit most closely associated with Aldershot was 216 Parachute Signal Squadron. After the ending of the Cold War there were many changes in the Army, one of which was the move away from Aldershot of the Airborne Brigade. However, the presence of the Corps was increased and in 2001 the following units were stationed there:

• 12 Mechanised Brigade HQ and Signal Squadron (228)
• 101 Logistic Brigade HQ and Signal Squadron (261)
• 251 Signal Squadron

In May 2001 all of these units, as well as neighbouring Association Branches, were represented at the Annual Quiz Night which was attended by over 100 participants.

OFFICERS OF THE ALDERSHOT BRANCH

Top