re user names

Going back to the original subject I always thought it was "knobby" and directly linked to "stature"?
------
Don

Joining the confession session, my name really is Colin (Lowther). An expat Yorkshireman, living in Lancashire with a cockney wife (ex QARANC) a scouse son (we don't talk about him) and a sarf London Daughter! moved about a bit after demob!! Love near Blackburn, despite wot the locator says. Still working, about another 3 years will do me though, and I agree with previous posts, Nobby had something to do with hats. Joined this site after leaving another vets sight that got a bit like the military wing of the BNP. intermittent visitor ever since

Should say live near Blackburn, but you never know when your luck will change!!

wrinkles wrote:

Oh! Ok then if we are all coming clean.

John Stephenson, ex- Worcestershire Reg, Minden early 60's.
I'm not sure how I discovered this site, but it was in a roundabout fashion via Google earth when I was looking for The barracks in Minden. I took the name wrinkles 'cos that's the one I use for most sites I visit and it gives a true impression of the miserable old goat that I am.
I do know another member of the site, Hardrations, from the colonies whom I hope to be taking a pint of two with in Oct when he pays one of his rare visits to these shores.( I hope none of his ex-girlfriends read this) Can't tell you anything else otherwise I'd have to kill you and quite frankly, these days, I don't have the energy or the inclination

Geeze wrinks, she still asks, " Is she going to be there?" and this time SHE is back from Australia. Ah well, we'll see how goes.

Nobby

The explanation given for the use of this nickname is that clerks (pronounced "clarks" in British English) in the City of London used to wear Nobby hats, or top hats. Alternative spellings include "Knobby" and "Clarke".

An alternative explanation for the name Nobby attached to the surname Clarke is thus: 16th century monks wrote letters for the illiterate. These monks were referred to as "Clerks". The outcome of so much writing causes calluses on the fingers "nobs" and therefore "Nobby Clerks" was born.

In England the term "nob" is used to refer to a member of the aristocracy and by extension a posh person. A clerk (pronounced "clark" in the English language) would deal with the common people but would be better educated, better paid and in a position of relative power. To the uneducated, clerks were posh and therefore considered to be "nobs". Hence, nobby Clark. Clerks were also required to maintain a high standard of dress, and were paid a clothing allowance. The result was that they always appeared smart. Both the Oxford English and the English Dialect Dictionaries list nobby as being of a rich man, a nob or toff, or “smart”, and gives it a wide distribution, so smart persons were "nobby".

Nobby Clark is also cockney rhyming slang for a shark.

Soldiers of the Canadian Forces seem to have picked up this nickname as well during the 20th Century.

My real name is Graham. If you call me it i'll just ignore you.

nobby,i hope for your sake the dictionary defination is true,especily the rich bit,

Bernard but now refered to as Bernie since leaving the REME in 1980. Barney or Bert in the Army.

OK as I started the bitch about anonymous posts its about time I fessed up, my real moniker is Len which ain't no secret ... why Ciphers, 'cos thats what I did in the mob, I was a cipher operator by trade, later on in the TA I switched to Lineman.

Len (Ciphers)

I've always been interested in the origins of names, both proper names and place names. My maternal grandfather was a Clarke but I never heard him referred to as "K/Nobby"...I can't imagine anyone being that familiar with him, for one. He was a gentle soul, not "posh" but his family was, back in the day, landed gentry. The family, his mother's, made their money in pottery/chinaware but his father, apparently, was bit of a scoundrel and gambled the fortune away so that when he died, while Papa was still a young boy, there was nothing left. I forget which factory it was that was family-owned (eventually nationalized) but it is the one that produces china flower baskets and such and is much prized by those who collect Doulton figurines and such...

Re Canadian Forces soldiers picking up the nickname in the 20th Century...I never heard of that. Nicknames were, of course, common (Frenchie as we had so many Quebecois and even a Quebecois regiment whose soldiers spoke, by and large, only French; Canuck, of course, "Colonial" was always a favourite, etc.)

Reading how "Nob" was a term for members of the upper classes rang a bell...over here in both Canada and the US, some posh neighbourhoods are known as Knob or Knobb Hill. the most famous being in San Francisco, of course, but we have one in Calgary too, although that was more a conscious decision on part of developers to make it sound attractive. It is an older inner city neighbourhood now and is quite nice, but it is a middle-class neighbourhood, perhaps even upper middle-class, but no higher than that.

I have also read somewhere that "Clark" vs "Clarke" is a regional difference, with "Clarke" coming out of the area nearest Wales.

A family story has it that a river near where my Papa was born and raised was diverted just prior to his birth and if it hadn't have been, he would have been a Welshman. I have no idea how true that is.

Speaking of pronounciations, I always find it interesting when a 2nd or 3rd or 4th generation Canadian, who sees absolutely no ties whatsoever with UK in their own lives (and are often totally ignorant of Canada's strong ties) pronounces something like Derbyshire as "Derby"shire rather than "Darby" shire. This error is often compounded by pronouncing "shire" not as "sherr" but as "shy-er" which only works when one is using the term generically (as in "the shires" or when discussing Tolkien and Lord of the Rings LOL). I've had people argue with me about pronouncing Derbyshire the way it is spelled rather than as "Darbyshire." But then, I get people who argue that my name is pronounced "Stefan" not as "Stee-phen" which drives me nuts...especially when we have a Prime Minister, Stephen Harper, and nobody calls him "Stefan Harper"!

At one time, "Stephen" was the most common spelling, but in the last 20-odd years, damn yankees!, the spelling has drifted to "Steven" which is pronounced in a similar fashion but is actually a totally different name.

Oh, and then we get "Thames" pronounced as "Thayms" rather than as "Tems"...I don't understand how people can be so clueless. Have they never heard these words spoken??

Ciphers,

I was in a TA R.Sigs radio relay squadron for a number of years, before I re-badged to the monkeys. We used C41/R222 sets, which were pretty ancient even in the 70s and 80s. It was driven by steam and housed in equally ancient Bedford RL trucks.

When we were tactical, there was one truck that no one was allowed anywhere near under pain of... well... pain, really.

It contained something called "BID equipment". Only those few tutored in the black arts were permitted even to make passing reference to it. I'm probably risking elimination even talking about it now. It was cryptographic 'kinky gear' and if it was as old the rest of the kit, it probably consisted of a quill pen, lemon juice invisible ink and a crate of pigeons in the event of equipment failure.

I wouldn't have understood it, anyway. I was entirely unequal to the struggle with MAPCO, SLIDEX and later, BATCO.

There was another forbidden area to we radio relay types, Ciphers....... Line Troop! They were animals. It is said that they eschewed compo rations in favour of freshly killed babies.

Is this true?

Seeing a Line Troop mentioned remindes me of ! Line Troop RC Sigs,they were a law unto themselves,real hard men, up a pole rigging lines at -20 F.About 1958 they were in Camp Petawawa (north of Ottawa) drinking in the barracks was a chargeable offence,they had beer by their beds and nothing was said.Later I was stationed in Kingston Ont.,home of RC Sigs includig 1 Line Troop and had one of their Sgts living next door to me,he was a real tough nut who gave his very pretty blonde daughter boxing lessons,he got complaints about her roughing up the boys.We were good neighbours of course.Just a happy memory of my time in Canada and the strange characters I met.

I am offended with the reference in regard to Linemen preferring 'freshly killed babies' .. that is totally barbaric ... they had to be hung for at least two weeks just like pheasants before we considered them fit for consumption ... us Scaleybacks were particular what we ate ..

Len(Ciphers)

len,where did the name scaleybacks come from any way,dave.

Ciphers, please excuse my crass insensitivity. Perhaps I should have allowed lineys a greater measure of credit for their undoubted levels of sophistication.

By the way, what wine would you recommend as a suitable accompaniment for babies?

Newfie Screech without hesitation ... Colonial Joke ..

Len (Ciphers)

Scaleybacks, boy does that open a can of worms .. even the Gentlemen of the Royal Corps can't make their minds up over this, but the most accepted explanation is that the acid leaking from the batteries that powered the old time radio sets used to scar the backs of the operators backpacking them. Another rationale is that the pay for a Signalman was Scale E, a higher grade than the rest of the Riff Raff. As an ex Scaley, I never gave a damn what they called me as long as it wasn't late for pay parade.

Len (Ciphers)

How would you like to tangle with this guy (me .. waaaay back, a REAL SCALEYBACK)

Len (Ciphers)

now thats a fine figure of a man,and i was still two years away from joining up, dave.

Ciphers, I sse you spent some time with 63 Sigs. From my memories of training courses at Catterick, weren't they the lot with the berets that were a very different colour from everyone else's?

Or would you have to kill me swiftly and silently if you told me?

Maybe they had a different role in your day.

Not in my time, we wore the Blue beret, sometime after I left they became 63 Signal Squadron (SAS) ... closest I got to the SAS was being turned down as not old enough in 1953 for a transfer to the Federation of Malay Military Forces (SAS), I was not quite 20 at the time and kicked up a stink arguing I was a Substantive Corporal with over 18 months in the rank .. they then told me I had to have served 5 years minimum to be considered .. still got my application with officers comments ...

ciphers wrote:

How would you like to tangle with this guy (me .. waaaay back, a REAL SCALEYBACK)

Len (Ciphers)

RC Sigs ( Canadian version 1963 )

http://usera.ImageCave.com/Hardrations/File0031-copy-copy-copy.jpg

Jesus Ross, did they issue you Canucks with fishing poles ..

Len (Ciphers)

ciphers wrote:

Jesus Ross, did they issue you Canucks with fishing poles ..

Len (Ciphers)

Had to get our grub some how

Claymore wrote:

Ciphers, please excuse my crass insensitivity. Perhaps I should have allowed lineys a greater measure of credit for their undoubted levels of sophistication.

By the way, what wine would you recommend as a suitable accompaniment for babies?

Liebfraumilch

I remember an interesting story concerning blue berets worn by UN troops in Cyprus and their visits into Limassol and to various houses of...well, never mind..... :-)