Occurrence Book

Coming through the Green Line at Ledra Palace yesterday (as you do), I noticed, whilst the TRNC Customs Officer was checking my Passport, that they had an Occurrence Book on the desk. I couldn't help smiling to myself wondering what sort of entries were in those pages, I used to enjoy it when I was Guard Commander catching up with things people got up to since my last duty. I remember one entry when I was in Dortmund "0045hrs a Taxi pulled up outside the Guardroom, Gnr ******* alighted from the Taxi naked from the waist down he then proceeded to have an altercation with the driver. When he booked in, I noticed that he had "Messed himself". You couldn't make it up, happy days.

One of my RSMs took great delight in reading those books..More often than not you were summoned from your pit to explain your entries..

I had a RSM in Colchester who required that the Occurrence Book was on his desk every morning at 0800hrs, this was an hour before Staff Parade, when he "Briefed" all incoming and outgoing duty pers. If you were going off duty, he would peruse your entries for spelling mistakes, and then hand out extras if you had committed the heinous crime of spelling a word wrong! Many's the Gun Bunny who took a Dictionary on duty with him.

During my time with 1st Bn The Black Watch, the Occurence book pages were dated.

Therefore , you could not write on the next page if you had had a busy duty. If you needed more space you had to get an A3 sheet of paper and enter the other entries onto this and sellotape it to the bottom of the page.

Also, your duty had to fill the page, therefore a lot of divvle was entered to fill the page.

Spelling mistakes was a BIG No No. and whoa betide if you used any abbreviations!

17 months of hell with these guys in Werl, but what a breath of fresh air it was when 1st Bn Royal Scots took over.

Just finished reading this topic, and I found this on the 54 Sqn facebook page There are a few entries

Bit naughty that, especially regarding Mrs Webster. I know it is a long time ago but personal stuff like that shouldn't be on facebook.

1973???I wonder if Mrs Webster is still Mrs Webster.

They must have been having a good night in the JNCOs Mess if they had to do a Bar run at 0330hrs.

Shelldrake wrote:

I had a RSM in Colchester who required that the Occurrence Book was on his desk every morning at 0800hrs, this was an hour before Staff Parade, when he "Briefed" all incoming and outgoing duty pers. If you were going off duty, he would peruse your entries for spelling mistakes, and then hand out extras if you had committed the heinous crime of spelling a word wrong! Many's the Gun Bunny who took a Dictionary on duty with him.

I would have had a few extras Shelldrake thanks now to Word I can minimise my spelling mistakes. Why is it that I can read and see them but start composing and they appear.

Gordon. wrote:

More often than not you were summoned from your pit to explain your entries..

Am I to read that to mean you were able to (GASP !) go to bed after a duty ?

What sort of mob were you IN ?

Jimmy would not have been in any position to dish them out when he was RSM, Jack!!

brum wrote:

Gordon. wrote:

More often than not you were summoned from your pit to explain your entries..

Am I to read that to mean you were able to (GASP !) go to bed after a duty ?

What sort of mob were you IN ?

R Sigs - 8 on 24 off!!

Quote :

Am I to read that to mean you were able to (GASP !) go to bed after a duty ?

What sort of mob were you IN ?

Guard Commander and I/C reliefs got morning off to sleep.

Quote :

R Sigs - 8 on 24 off!!

Hmmm....Something like that

Shelldrake wrote:

I had a RSM in Colchester who required that the Occurrence Book was on his desk every morning at 0800hrs, this was an hour before Staff Parade, when he "Briefed" all incoming and outgoing duty pers. If you were going off duty, he would peruse your entries for spelling mistakes, and then hand out extras if you had committed the heinous crime of spelling a word wrong! Many's the Gun Bunny who took a Dictionary on duty with him.

We had a similar situation while in Munster.
We had a Brylcreem - plastered RSM whos great delight was studying Guard Reports and finding the most ridiculous faults with them.
Failure to write "Sir" at the beginning and end of the report would incur the worst of his wrath.
Silly as it all was, extra guards were no joke.

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extra guards were no joke.

Any guard was no joke..

Worst ones, in my experience, were Site Guard at Menden. Murder, Polis!!

Sleep after duties.....luxury, we had to do the normal days shift after.
From the Guardroom to get showered and changed, then work.
No rest for the wicked.

Best duty was Buck House, had my own Batman dontcha know?

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had my own Batman dontcha know?

Who was it?....Phill?

Edward.

Shelldrake wrote:

Worst ones, in my experience, were Site Guard at Menden. Murder, Polis!!

I thankfully missed out on 'site guard'. Most of the other lads hated the job.

I did do 'Puckridge guard' which was the only time we carried live rounds on English soil.

Gnr Henson.

I used to love reading those occurrence reports, great laugh sometimes.

Oh and talking about Mrs Webster, we had a guy report to the guardroom with a bread knife stuck in his back, we called out the duty medic who sorted it and the Dr came and sowed him up. It tuns out hos wife had stabbed him in the back after a fight. he went happily back home and she was all tears and sorry. Thank god i wasn't married to her is all i can say.

Shelldrake wrote:

Worst ones, in my experience, were Site Guard at Menden. Murder, Polis!!

Site guards ? The most soul-destroying, boring, miserable duty imaginable !

In the early 60s the site we were guarding was in the middle of nowhere on the Sennelager ranges. Shabby old huts, that horrible black dust blowing everywhere.

I think at one stage there was only us and 39 Msl regt guarding the place and the whole regiment was tied up with it for a month.