A few items from my Uncle.

[alysloper]

Ade
Family stuff like this has a value beyond money - thanks for the post. Topless thimbles were standard issue to British soldiers in WW1?
regards
ian

[Gary Cain]

A very nice and obviously personal group there Ade, many thanks for sharing it.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Here is a German pen knife that he brought home. A commercial item with an advert for a saw mill & tool makers on the side. No doubt these were given away to customers etc.

Cheers, Ade.

[OKW]

Didn't REME evolve from RASC, the equipment becoming to technical for them to maintain?

[Adrian Stevenson]

Didn't REME evolve from RASC, the equipment becoming to technical for them to maintain?

Hi OKW, they did not exactly evolve from the RASC, but REME certainly took over a lot of tasks from both RASC, RAOC, RE, etc.

Cheers, Ade.

[Davidh]

great items Ade especially being from family, priceless , rgds Dave

[MarcM]

Thank you for sharing. I wish I had my grandfathers things that he collected over the years as a career Marine (1926-1955.) I do not remember ever seeing it, but my older siblings said he had a Thompson that he had brought back from the PTO.

[Adrian Stevenson]

Bringing this old thread back up as I have a couple of new additions to this little group to show.

My "Aunt" was having some work done in the attic and she discovered with the other junk stored up there, these two kit bags. She has kindly given these to me.

The first one, in khaki, belong to Arthur. It was very dirty indeed and smelt of soot after 50 odd years at least in the lost. So a careful clean was in order. It bears his name and serial number, 14693345, plus the text: RTYFY-V. This I have no idea of the exact meaning of this?

The second dark grey kit bag belonged to Aunt Kath's older brother, Lance Sergent Royce Chettle, 14258994, 1048 Port Operating Company, Royal Engineers. He fought at Dunkirk and came through the war only to be tragically killed in 1946 in an accident while unloading a train load of ammo ready for dumping in the sea off Stranraer, Scotland. It appears that the accident was hushed up at the time, but it is mentioned here:

BBC - WW2 People's War - My Story of War Time in Cleland, Lanarkshire and My Time in the RAF

I found another quote regarding the accident taken from here:

The Cairnryan Military Railway 1941-1959 - Scottish Corpus of Texts and Speech

Ordinary shells were loaded in their boxes on to a fleet of landing craft, taken out to sea, unpacked, and rolled down chutes to the water. Although all ammunition was supposed to be defused before arrival, tragedies could happen. Eight young servicemen, members of an RE section loading shells on the North Deep Water Wharf, were blown to pieces when a case of fuses was accidentally mishandled. Four of them are buried in Stranraer's Glebe Cemetery, three "known only to God".

Royce is commemorated here:

CWGC :: Certificate

Neither of the two kit bags are maker marked or dated. Royce's kit bag also has a unit marking on the bottom.

Cheers, Ade.