General Chat

Where was it as I was Nottinghamshire at the time and renting was not that expensive. Council tenants were not expected to pay this and it went up again in 1977 but we'd just moved - with moving so often it almost trapped you into going into quarters as you are in the countryside with little renting opportunities.

Since we've lived here (arrived 2005) MOD have admitted they have left families in asbestos housing that were crumbling and on another camp a Fijian woman (I think that was her nationality), wife of a Fijian soldier asked why the married quarters were so squalid. Repairs were a joke and you weren't supposed to touch them yourself. You marched out and if they found anything wrong you got a bill. On one of our march outs they took the cooker apart inside and out to see if it was clean :-S


Anyone under the rank of corporal with a child got benefits at this time I'm discussing. I went on a trip with some of the wives and children from the camp to Newstead Abbey (home of Lord Byron) and I was sat with my friend on a bench by the lake watching our 2 boys playing. On the next bench was an officer's wife with a picnic for her 2 boys. Her boys got near the lake and we realised she was almost asleep. We got them back and found out that to buy a fridge as she was a nurse she was doing 3 night duties a week at a nearby hospital to get the money. She hadn't slept the night before. We took her boys with us so they could play away from her and let her sleep. That's how bad it got. She worked every weekend and one night during the week.

Don't think OH was on much more than you Maggie if it was more. It was just about the time we started getting child allowance for the first child as that made a bit of a difference as it paid for our son's clothes and shoes.

We got our own house and were a little better off, then Maggie started giving us real increases but in reality for those like my husband it didn't keep track with the equivalent job in civvy street so he left after being made to serve a year's notice.

We both enjoyed our jobs in the air force but the way things happened with the inflation of the 70s the services got way behind pay wise, pay rises didn't keep up with inflation. We were in a service where the only extras you could get was if you were aircrew or had an overseas posting. OH didn't get either he became too specialised.

In 1974, the rent for my 1 bedroomed flat, wirh bathroom, kitchen and living room, on the first floor of a house (so those living upstairs went through my flat) was £40 a month, which was a quarter of my wages, as a clerk on the bottom rung in the Civil Service.
My ex (then boyfriend) lived in a bedsit, and paid £60 a month rent.

To give you an idea of my pay as a civilian I was earning just under £10 a week in 1966, when I joined the WRAF I was earning as a trainee £4.50. 5 years later as a SACW I got £8.00. This is after deductions for food and accommodation done at source so you never knew what cost that was your stated wage was after that deduction.

When I got married and was still in the WRAF I lived off camp but I was told I wasn't entitled to get the money for food and accommodation back as only one of a married couple was entitled to it.

The army could get extra money by going on courses and qualifying for extra pay - my husband did lots of courses but the RAF expected you to do this so no extra money given.

You were much better off if you got an overseas posting but my OH only did one and that's where we met so we just rattled around UK a little until we decided the children needed a stable home. OH became a weekend husband and father. He did almost 25 years in the RAF. Although we can both moan at what we went through we wouldn't change it.

By the way Alan you were getting nearly as much per day as my husband did per week when he started his 3 years as an apprentice in 1964 at £1.50 per week for the 1st year rising to £5.00 in his last year in 1967. He was an electronics apprentice.

Maggie your family saved money by not being in quarters. When we left quarters in 1977 our 2 bed house plus garage, that was in a block some way away from the house, was nearly £40 per month.

Out here an unfurnished 3 bed quarter on camp for other ranks is £400 per month plus they have to pay average UK council tax because they normally have to pay it when in UK, you can guess where the council tax money goes - straight back to the government.

Here in my village not far from 2 camps for about £410 a month a 3 bed plus plunge pool - annual council tax for the year just over £100.

Warrant officers grades 1 and 2 .....

They say there's a troopship just leaving bombay, bound for old blighty shore
Heavily laden with time expired men, bound for the land they adore.
There's many an airman just finishing his time, there's many a twerp signing on.
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, bless 'em all.

Bless em all, bless em all, the long and the short and the tall
Bless all the sergeants and w. o. ones,
Bless all the corp'rals and their blinkin sons,
'Cause we're saying goodbye to them all, as back to their billets they crawl
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, bless 'em all

They say if you work hard you'll get better pay
We've heard all that before
Clean up your buttons and polish your boots
Scrub out the barrack room floor
There's many a rookie has taken it in, hook line and sinker an 'all
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean
So cheer up my lads bless 'em all.

Bless 'em all, bless 'em all, the long and the short and the tall,
Bless all the sergeants and w. o. ones,
Bless all the corp'rals and their blinkin sons,
'cos we're saying goodbye to them all, as back to their billets they crawl
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, bless'em all

Now they say that the sergeant's a very nice chap, oh what a tale to tell.
Ask him for leave on a Saturday night and he'll pay your fare home as well.
There's many an airman has blighted his life through writing rude words on the wall
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean
So cheer up my lads bless 'em all

Bless 'em all, bless 'em all, the long and the short and the tall,
Bless all the sergeants and w. o. ones,
Bless all the corp'rals and their blinkin sons,
'Cause we're saying goodbye to them all, as back to their billets they crawl
You'll get no promotion this side of the ocean, so cheer up my lads, bless'em all

Nobody knows what a twerp you have been, so cheer up my lads bless 'em all

G Formby

Pat, I'm surprised about service pay versus civilian pay as my experience in the UK army reserve was completely the opposite.

I joined the Reserve (TAVR) in 1967. At that stage I was a student Environmental Health Officer. For reasons that I wont go into I had to join the RAMC.

As a student EHO my civilian pay was far greater than my service pay, which from memory was 17s/6d a day. I progressed through the ranks and did the various trade training as a Hygiene Assistant.

On passing my civilian exams in 1970 I was re-classified in my army role as an Environmental Health Technician. I also passed a promotion course and became a WO2.

I used to look forward to the various camps as I received more pay in the reserve than I did in my civvy job, so much so that I often did extra training usually by doing a week or two lecturing at the School of Army Health, just to get the extra pay.

My dad was in the Fleet Air Arm, so wages were possibly higher - and I'm talking about the 50's/60's..
My mum refused to live in married quarters, so in Malta they rented a 'flat' (lower floor of a house), and when we moved to Scotland, we rented a converted bus in a field, then 'progressed' to a very small caravan, that I think they bought - I slept on the unplumbed bath that was in the same area as the bunk beds, toilet was a bucket in a shed.
That was possibly cheaper than married quarters.

Today they get a different wage but in the seventies they kept putting up quarters rent so the pay rises were almost wiped out. When my husband left as a SNCO he went back as a civilian working for a firm attached to the MOD in the same job and was given twice the money as in the RAF and he was on top pay scale as an RAF technician.

We had been given a rat infested damp quarter that later the local council refused to have as it wasn't good enough for council tenants. We also paid far more rent than a council tenant.

We left quarters for our own house as a mortgage wasn't much more than the rent and OH would keep all his pay increases, that year the corporal who worked with my husband got a pay rise of just over 50p per week because of rent increases - this was 1977. All my neighbours were on benefits but OH got his sergeant before we had our second child so we were just above the poverty line.

One of the few good things that Maggie did was start paying the services more but it was still nowhere near what the technicians in the RAF could get if they were civilians. One way that they could balance the books then was by not replacing people leaving so to get service numbers down. Now they haven't got enough people or equipment to do basic jobs that they are supposed to do. :-S

Gosh, Pat, my dad was in the Services 50 years ago - and we didn't claim benefits - apart from child benefit.
Maybe it depended on what Service you were in.
Over the past few years, Service pay has essentially been cut.

This is from 2019:
"In 2010, an army private was on £17,014. Had that figure kept up with inflation it would be £21,635 today – £1,635 more than privates now get. That’s a fall of 7.5% in real terms".

Saw this on the news different areas taking food boxes out brilliant idea very kind of volunteers .Barbara

My school have been taking around lunches for children who get free lunches, also every child gets a food box on a Friday, some people have four children so they get four boxes.

Yes they did, 40 years ago service personnel were on such poor pay that when they had children they qualified for benefits. :-0

40 years ago, people who worked a full week earned a decent wage, and didn't have to claim benefits.

Footballer campaigned as voucher money was being stopped .not alone in his quest he has done a good job .maybe kids will get more than bag of crisps & bottle of water :-S

A lot of people out of work 're Covid 19 therefore money tight childten will get food at least with vouchers not going in parents pockets for Sundries it is awful time just now surely the vouchers should be avaluable during the Summer .as well as school time that's what Govermants do .help people ?

One boy in my class had free dinners, after his father was killed in an accident.

Nobody ever relied upon the school to feed their children unless circumstances were dire.

I think our idea of necessities was different then.

Well, to be honest, if children need free meals at school, they'll need them in the holidays too!

Aren't schools supposed to be educational establishments?

Looks like they are childcare facilities now.

Sharon: :-D

Unfortunately holiday food vouchers will not give a guarantee of a proper diet.

So, the Sun has stopped running the country now and footballers are deciding government policy.

Not wanting to detract anything from Marcus, but Help children in need?

where the heck do the millions go that have been amassed for various children in need projects?