Alfred Robert Mount - Coldstream Guards 1927
Alfred had joined the King's Own Scottish Borderers as a territorial soldier at the age of 16 in 1925. After spending two years with the "KSB" he was looking for adventure and wanted to travel overseas. He was 18 and the great depression had reduced any prospects of progression in his trade as an agricultural engineer.
His hometown was Coldstream so it was natural that he chose to join the guards. He enlisted for seven years in the colours, five in reserves. In March 1927 at the age of 18 and because he was a territorial soldier he retained his regimental number 3184631 from the KSB.
The guard's basic training took 24 weeks and they were not regarded as guardsmen until they had "passed out" after training. His basic training took place at Caterham barracks, which undertook the basic training of most of the brigade of guards. On his way to the barracks from the railway station he stopped and helped a plumber carry his tools to the top of Caterham hill. The plumber grateful for his help jokingly said, "When you get to the top of the hill you will see two gates". "The one on the left is the lunatic asylum the other is the entrance to the barracks". "Young man take my advice and take the gate on the left".
Basic training was very hard and seemed to be designed to strip the soldier of individuality and make him conform to obeying orders without question. This form of training is probably out dated today but was seen to be the way to obtain discipline before the war. The sergeant major at the time was a strict disciplinarian and used regular soldier's to carry out his commands. It was these regular soldiers that seemed to enjoy instilling hardships on the trainees. During the 1920's a game called "Milling" was used to remove a trainee's individuality. The guys had to enter a boxing ring and fight it out until he fell. The victor had to stay in the ring until he was knocked down. Milling was stopped later on as too many trainees got hurt. Most of the training was of course "square bashing" as this is a traditional role for the guards, however there was considerable time spent on manoeuvres and weapons training.
After 24 weeks Alfred "passed out" and joined the 1st battalion, number 3 company. After his passing out parade one of the regular soldiers admitted to Alfred that he had tried to break him and make him fail the training. Alfred seemed to inherit the Mount stubbornness as he was determined not to give in to the "barracking" by the regular soldiers.
Alfred joined the colours
at The Tower of London where he stayed for a year guarding various parts of
the Tower including the Crown Jewels and was quickly promoted to corporal. It
was during this period he caught diphtheria and was lucky to recover.
Photo of Corporal
Mount
He then moved to Headquarters London District for three years where he was promoted to sergeant and worked for captain Casanove. Captain Casanove was one of the finest officers Alfred had met, he was the sort of officer all men respected and would unquestioningly follow into battle. The captain later became a Brigadier during world war two but never forgot the men who worked for him. I remember my father Alfred always receiving a Christmas card from the Brigadier every year until the Brigadier died sometime during the late 1950's. Captain Casanove seemed to have a soft spot for sergeants. One day he dictated a letter, in front of Alfred, to a retired Coldstream Guards sergeant. His letter stated "I will never forget the way you said, come on lad take my hand and we will go over the top together." This note referred to a time when the captain was a young officer during the 1st world war and the sergeant helped him lead the men on his first attack from the trenches.
Alfred them moved on to
Wellington barracks and his duties covered providing a guard for the Bank of
England, Trooping the colours on two occasions and leading the gun carriage
for part of the funeral procession of the King George 5. Alfred appeared on
the front page of the Daily Mirror- see attached during the funeral procession.
It was at Wellington barracks that Alfred met his best friends Cecil Knowles
and Potter, friendships that would last a lifetime.
Photo of
Mount & Potter
The first battalion were shipped out to the Sudan in the early 1930's to take the place of the 3rd battalion for were being shipped out to China. This gave Alfred his first experience of living abroad, an experience, which developed future aspirations for foreign travel. The battalion set sail on the ship Tuscania for Port Sudan. The Tuscania was a passenger ship converted for troop transport. The ship still retained its luxury conditions and the troops were sorry to arrive. Life in the Sudan would be hard and hot. Alfred's company were put on a train and sent inland to Attborough for 3 months and then joined the battalion at Khartoum for 9 months. Alfred then transferred to Cairo and was based at the Kasarel-Nil barracks for eighteen months before being shipped home to England.
Alfred had now served his seven years with the colours and decided to leave. He had met his future wife Mavis Lillian Harrison whilst based at the London Headquarters during the trooping of the colour parade and he wanted a more stable life to get married. He took advantage of the guards training facilities and received three months intensive training on welding at the Hounslow barracks. He left the army to embark on a career in aviation.
