“OFFICE BOY”
‘As previously stated S. carried out every duty, job or any mortal thing that came his way with amazing speed and accuracy that often we wondered at his reserve power which pointed him out as differently as though he was miles above our standard at anything we tackled. His letters were the joke of the flight, because at every post something or other turned up. Am convinced that had he been given more spare time, the load of letters would not have been littered all over the trays, tables and pigeon-holes—in fact they were everywhere. Mind you his kit was kit, but correspondence he could not keep in check. To see him sign a cheque on his book-account (Seven Pillars) for a large amount, with his left hand after his accident made me wonder what proof the bank held of the genuineness of the signature. They used to get through without a line or word of doubt.
FIRES
‘S.’s job during cold weather would be to light the fires in the offices. Coal was usually difficult to obtain, but nothing would prevent the fires from being lighted. One day he pulled down a dead tree actually in the Air Officer Commanding’s private plantation, walking past flights and offices till he reached the “B” Flight, perspiring like a bull and all smiles. Anyone would think he walked about invisible. He invented a “Shaw mixture” of old oil from aero engines, sawdust and coaldust and mixed it like mortar. So with his trees and mixture fires were kept roaring all day long.
NIGHTS OUT
‘Asked his idea of a good night out, he told me that to take a man on his Brough to a decent town and give him a good feed and general good time was O.K. to a limit. That limit was that his companion on those rides must be mildly a ruffian, for preference, and his pleasure was derived in studying the man’s peculiarities unseen to the man himself.[7] “There are too many honest men in this world and a few more rogues would make the world a very interesting place.” Never sly, he would weigh up a cute scoundrel and gently smile at the result of his observation.
[7] Shaw has told me himself that he took out nearly all ‘B’ Flight at one time or another: all very decent fellows, he said, whom he admired very much.—Sergeant Pugh has made a joke read too seriously, I think.—R. G.
PROMOTION
At the beginning of each quarter a return is to be submitted stating the particulars of men recommended for promotion. Talking it over with the Flight Commander, he asked for S. to see if he had any views on the matter. S. emphatically refused to hear of any advance, a thing which made the Flight Commander nearly curl up, laughing.
NIGHT RIDING