RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31975, 30 April 1969, Page 18

RANDOM REMINDER

THERE’S SOMETHING ABOUT THAT SOLDIER . . .

The cartoonist Bateman won undying fame with the guardsman who had dropped his rifle, but all of us, at one time or another, have shared those dreadful moments of embarrassment when we wish we could simply become invisible, rapidly. The guardsman was an excellent choice as a central figure for such a situation, for there is nothing which comes undone more spectacularly than the soldier who fails to move with the military precision of his fellows; he stands out, vividly. Of course, in all the armed services, there, is a

very high proportion of non-combat troops, the people who service, who move authoritatively behind the scenes, organising. fixing, planning. And among them are officers who are not terribly keen on the stagey setting of the parade ground and who, in fact, would not be at their best if suddenly required to take command of a military tattoo, Gther than the one their knees are likely to do at the thought of it. But a Vice-Regal garden party? Surely that is an occasion on which the extra-parade ground officer can be seen at his hest.

shoes ashinc. uniform and conversation freshly laundered? One might think so. But not long ago even this mild manoeuvre was sufficient to expose one of Her Majesty’s serving officers to contumacy. He looked absolutely splendid, aesthetically. And he would no doubt have charmed those he met with his conversation and personality, had he not had to make a precipitate withdrawal, at the insistence of an agitated fellow officer. At the back of the marquee, it was explained to him. that he had his Sam Browne on over the wrong shoulder.