NEVER SHOUTS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 124, 19 February 1938, Page 6 (Supplement)

NEVER SHOUTS

New Type of Sergeant' Major

Regimental Sergeant-Major Clark, of the King’s Stropshire Light Infantry, never shouts at recruits. He believes in using psychology. There is nothing of the traditional sergeant-major about R.S.M. Clark. Recruits never get in a panic when he is on the parade ground. They look up to him as they would to a father. He explained recently why his regiment has had no i-oom for new recruits since last June. “When I joined the Army over thirty years ago,” he said, “sergeantmajors used to scare men to death. They used to make enemies of men instead of friends. The best sergeantmajors in the now Army are psychologists. We still preserve discipline and get efficiency, but in a different way. “I make it my job to see that all the lads in may care are comfortable both at work and play. “A soldier who is unhappy cannot be a good soldier, and at this barracks we go in for happinenss and the real esprit de corps. The result is that we never have to look far for recruits.”