Before they Donned Khaki

The R.A.M.C. (T.) Unit of the 3rd L.G.H. has been recruited from what must surely be a unique variety of professions and trades. The patients whose comfort depends so considerably upon the services of their ward orderlies and - less visibly but none the less essentially - upon the work of the staff employ and general duty orderlies, may legitimately be curious to enquire the walk in life which was formerly followed by these quondam civilians. It would be impossible to answer the question exhaustively, but a few examples may be cited.

Amongst our orderlies, there are several schoolmasters, two actors, a lexicographer, two dentists, a cinema pianist, a piano tuner, a fireman, a novelist, a retired professional boxer, a racehorse trainer, a barrister, a mining engineer, a member of the Stock Exchange, a character vocalist, a stage carpenter, a tube liftman, and several sculptors and painters, including an A.R.A., an A.R.S.A., and members of such distinguished bodies as the International Society of Painters, Sculptors and Engravers, the Royal Portrait Society, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, and the Société Nationale des Beaux Arts. The unit, of course, is only recruited from men who have either been rejected (or certified unfit) for active combatant service, or who are under or over the age of enlistment.