Reply To: Drill instructors at Hereford 1954-56

[Alan Bell]

Uncle Joe Salter, remember him well Jimmy. Favourite expression was ‘bloody ‘ell’ and he had a host of well rehearsed bits of what  now would be great situation comedy. Once caught me skiving of PT and I remember he said to me, ‘Ain’t you supposed to be on PT?’ Without a good enough excuse he then said ‘ Do you know anything about cooking’? I made the mistake of saying no our course and was promptly dispatched to the cookhouse where I could ‘start learning by washing up a few pots and pans’!

A master of the rhetorical question eg ‘You will never come to anything you won’t – what will you come to’? Nearly always started his rants by saying ‘Wot’s your name boy’!

Everyone had a bit of a soft spot for old Joe and at reunions we always talk about what may have happened to him after Hereford.