14 Platoon of the Sovereign’s Company
Charles Smethurst
On commissioning I spent four years as platoon commander in Dover and Berlin. In 1971 the Staffords were posted to the Persian Gulf as the last battalion to be stationed there before the East of Suez withdrawal. I met my wife on the one weekend I visited Bahrain from what was then the Trucial Oman.
In a surprising piece of career planning I was then posted to the RAC Centre to attend the Long Armour course. This was so I could learn about the design and procurement of AFVs to allow the likes of Paddy H and Tim H to swan around the battlefield in relative safety! Regimental duty then followed in Osnabrück and my first staff job to Berlin as the SO3 Intelligence and Security - the ultimate oxymoron! I commanded a Company on a residential tour in NI before returning to HQ 3rd Armoured Division in Soëst as a quarterer. A further stint at RD with another tour to the Province then heralded the end of my battalion soldiering as I was then variously posted to Depots and District HQs in England. I did spend 14 months on loan service in Zimbabwe where I was visited by one Paddy Hartigan from DMAO who advised me to keep my ‘head down and swing slow’!
On leaving the army in 2000, I got a job as the MS representative for the Commandant at the School of Infantry which had then been relocated to Catterick. I did this for 6 years before finally retiring to Easingwold in North Yorkshire. I have been married for 49 years, have a son and a daughter and 3 grandchildren.
End note. Whilst at Sandhurst I twice ended up on College Commander’ Orders. Once for a smoke bomb offence involving Inyang and once (led astray by Grant Steel) for skipping a College Church Sunday service. Denis O’Flaherty put me through the wringer on my second appearance in front of him, still wearing the white belt from the previous offence. As you know, he was quite a scary guy with eye patch and weeping eye. Many years later Denis was working for the ASVU and needed to travel to Berlin and was having trouble getting the necessary staff clearance. Apparently I was responsible for this clearance because of his security status but was unaware he was having problems. My phone rang and I picked it up and announced my name and appointment only to hear a familiar gravelly voice say “Smethurst, Denis O’Flaherty here. Let bygones be bygones!’
May 2021