EX-SERVICE COLUMN

Northern Advocate, 21 August 1948, Page 2

EX-SERVICE COLUMN

Meet Len Rogers

Scottv

Mr R. A. (Len) Rogers is well known in Northland RSA circles as an executive member of many years' standing. He was born at Aratapu. on the Northern Wairoa, of pioneering stock, ana was educated at Te Kopuru School. He then entered the joinery trade.

He enlisted in the .infantry in 1910 and went through Sling Camp, of evil memory” before joining the Ist Auckland Battalion in France just before the Messines stunt.

lie joined the snipers of that unit, a small group of men. mostly from the main body, whose reputation will be known to Diggers, and. was wounded at Messines.

Alter a six-week period of convalescence in England lie returned tc the unit and was wounded again at Passchendaele, this time rather more seriously.

He was sent across to England for hospital treatment and was transferred to the Engineers, which unit he joined in time to avoid being cleaned up passing the walled city of I.e Quesnoy. which the front line had by-passed in the final break-through. This was the last big action in which the New Zealanders took part, and Mr Rogers went into Germany with the Army, of Occupation. He returned to England with his unit from Germany in March, 1919. and came home on the T.S. Pakeha. since sunk, arriving in New Zealand in June, 1919. when he was demobilised.

His first job in civvy street was in his trade, and then he worked with M" H. Hammond, an architect, of Dargaville.

In 1925, Mr Rogers joinea me Public Works Department, and has spent the greater part of his- time in Whangarei, where he holds the position of acting resident architect to the Ministry of Works.

Len has been actively associated with the RSA in Whangarei from 1934. since when he has been secretarytreasurer for eight years, president for another three. Northland district vice-president for a year, and executive member for a further term. He attended three conferences of NZRSA as a Northland delegate.

For the last six years he has been RSA representative on the Patriotic Standing Committee, and also secre-tary-treasurer of the South African War Veterans’ Association since 1944 Since the death of Mr C. W. Swanberg, Len Rogers has been the RSA official hospital visitor, and makes weekly calls distributing comforts to the men in hospital.

i As a member of the PWD staff it ! has been his job to attend to the mainj tenance of soldiers’ cemeteries in | Northland, but his interest in this j side of his job has been a keen, personal one, and the dignified layout of ! these last resting places of the boys | is largely due to Len Rogers. * ’ I |C Coy, 18th Battalion | When the 18th (Auckland) Battalion ' was formed in Hopuhopu Camp in | September-October. 1939, an effort was ! made to recruit the four rifle comi panies— U A” Auckland, “B” Waikato j “C” Northland, and “D" Hnuraki — ! from personnel who had been living j in those districts. The men who found themselves in j “C.” Coy were from all parts of North- ; land, from Waimauku, in the south. | to Awanui, in the Far North. These ! fellows soon settled down to hard work . and also to build up the esprit-de-

! corps which they had been told they j must have. ' It was this spirit of comradeship | which carried (hem through the many i difficulties and adverse conditions they ! found on the other side. Some humori cus incidents are recounted here:

Conducted by L. S. Pitcher

Most ex-members of ”C” Coy will remember with somewhat mixed feelings the company mascot, Scotty, the goat.' When the 18th Battalion was in Kasr-el-Nil barracks this noble animal was attached to “C” Coy for rations and “strength” as a gift from the Scots Guards.

As a kid he was quite a pet. coming in for the usual attention received by regimental mascots, and being provided with a batman, the spare nco. Bob. from Waipu, who was assisted by more voluntary labour than he could have hoped to obtain for a fatigue. Later, as an adolescent Capra, he became rather a pest, with strongly developed ideas on his place in the scheme of things.

Bob could certainly handle him, but Scotty required, in fact demanded, the company of his batman at all hours of the day and night. 4 ■ Left out in the desert darkness by himself after lights-out, Scotty would raise such a commotion that even a Northland company, which should have been immune to the outcry of animals bereft of their relatives, demanded in tones' dulcet and language sulphurous that Bob go out and curl up alongside his adopted progeny and quieten the brute down. The alternative of watching the sudden and painful demise of Scotty was offered, so Bob crawled out of his warm scratchy and peace was restored.

Plots During 1940 the company made three trips from Maadi to the desert and Scotty was a member of the party or. each occasion; and he liked to see where he was going so he occupied a place of honour on top of the ration truck for the journey. It was in the third of these desert visits that certain members of the company hatched a dark plot, the basic idea being to get rid of Scotty —he was becoming a nuisance. There were a few camps of Beduin Arabs in the vicinity and they each had small flocks of goats, so one day Scotty was abducted stealthily from outside the quartermaster’s store and taken for a ride, the idea being that he should be presented to a Beduin as a gift from the friendly New Zealanders.

But the plot was foiled; the Arab would not accept, his goats being brown or just dirty like any other Wog. Scotty was pure white.

A second plot was hatched, with the mascot being taken out into the desert and there conveniently lost. The boys retreated from the bleating nuisance almost as fast as Rommel’s outfit was to scurry in days to come. The gang arrived back brimming over with the self-satisfaction common to Kiwis with an evil job well done — and were closely followed into camp by—that’s right—Scotty. A certain amount of mystery still shrouds the ultimate end of the miserable animal, as no one will own up to being a party to doing him in. Anyway, he didn’t come back from the next . “ride,” and the only man who knows his fate just wont’ talk. Finish Scotty.

Air Force Week The peacetime Air Force has agreed to cooperate with the Air Force Association in holding an Air Force Week once a .year. This has been arranged by the Auckland branch and it is hoDed that this will become a Domin-ion-wide feature. * Battle Of Britain The Auckland branch of AFA is also staging a reunion on September 15. Battle of Britain Day, while the Whangarei branch intends to conduc'; a church parade the following Sunday, this being the date observed by the RAF for celebration of the final defeat of the Luftwaffe, and remembrance of those who fell in the action.