RSM Torrance, Scots Guards, who reigned over the Infantry Junior Leaders Battalion at Park Hall, Oswestry in Shropshire.
Garrison Sergeant Major 'Black Alec' Dumon, The Guards Depot, Pirbright, Surrey and later Garrison Sergeant Major London District. And finally Regimental Sergeant Major Barry Smith, 2nd Battalion Coldstream Guards.
Sergeant Major Torrance was outwardly fierce but inwardly fair, and an ideal individual to be dealing with a couple of thousand 15 years old schoolboys who had to be turned into the next NCO Corps of the British infantry.
'Black Alec' is of course a legend. Those dark, sunken eyes and unblinking, cold stare. 'Captain Black & The Mysterons' except for that voice, the gruff Yorkshire accent that barked a command out on one side of a parade square and flowers in their beds outside Battalion Headquarters a quarter mile away would wilt and die.
RSM Smith was a pretty decent actor I think. The act was to make everyone, including young subalterns, believe he was perpetually angry and a heartbeat removed from downright furious.
I was on barrack guard one night when one of the old soldiers, an 'old sweat' with a few campaigns under his belt, and as it turned out at least one demon, went berserk. He had a rifle and bayonet attached to it in a barrack room he was trashing. The Picquet Officer voiced the possibility of arming the Picquet Sergeant, with obvious consequences, should the soldier in question make a fight of it, which he would have. The RSM intervened, whatever past trauma was troubling the soldier, he knew about it. He sent everyone away except for a couple of us and he waited out the storm. The RSM entered on his own an hour later, and spoke in a normal voice for long minutes before exiting and handing me the rifle before leading the soldier to the medical centre, speaking quietly to him all the time.
Next day, RSM Smith was of course once more a heartbeat removed from outright furious.
General Henry Shaw USMC, another easy one, but also oddly out of time. It was back in 2004 when I added General Henry Shaw, and in my mind Henry is Tom Selleck as 'Frank Reagan' except that 'Blue Bloods' was not yet screened. Possibly Mr Selleck played another role around that time which was solid, professional and reliable-to- the-end in character. If I say so myself I do like General Henry Shaw, I could serve under a leader like that.
Sir James Tennant, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police is to me 'Foyle’s War' Michael Kitchen an exceptionally talented British actor of the finest type.
When we first encounter Colin he is out in the ‘Oulu’ shadowing a patrol on Sennybridge training area. He is a bit senior to be ‘Dee Essing’ as a man of his rank should be running the office, keeping on top of the admin and as the company level disciplinarian; he should be ensuring no one is slacking off. Officers are not going to do that.
However, Colin is a soldier, not an administrator and not a ‘Drill Pig’, so getting out with the students is something he would contrive somehow.
Colin is a Geordie from Newcastle who did not fancy shipbuilding, when there were still ships to be built of course, and made his way to the Army Recruiting Office armed with his O level certificates.
Brookwood station is where he arrived at ‘The Depot’ he may even have visited the gents before the 4 Tonner arrived, and seen ‘Flush twice…it’s a long way to the cookhouse!’ graffiti on the wall of trap one.
‘Cat Company’ aka Caterham Company, is where Colin would have been introduced to the first mysteries of the British Army in general, and The Guards specifically.
A Platoon Sergeant and a buckshee Guardsman/Household Cavalry Trooper (the B.R.I, Barrack Room Instructor) would teach them how to iron, polish, bumper and buff, plus who and who not to salute.
I can see him sat on the end of his bed, sporting the haircut to end all haircuts as he polishes his boots for the first time, wondering what the hell he has let himself in for.
Colin is 6’ 2”tall, so initially he would have been posted to 4 Company on arrival at Victoria Barracks, Windsor.
Selection takes place on height alone when you are a lowly and buckshee Guardsman. The tallest go into 1 Company; the next go to 4 Company. The short arses, 5’10” dwarves in comparison, find themselves in 3 Company. 2 (Support) was a mixed bag which could reduce a Drill Pig to drink as they were the specialists, the Mortarmen, Recce Platoon, Anti-Tanks and Assault Pioneers. They came in all shapes and sizes.
With promotion and courses such as Section Commanders, Platoon Commanders, and the All Arms Drill Wing, Guardsman Probert has become a Warrant Officer.
Nobody knows his first name, and even Mrs Osgood calls him ‘Oz’, but he joined the army from the coal mines, tired of strike pay and bleak prospects.
Oz is already married when he joined the army, and Sarah had a baby on the way back then.
The Osgood’s and Colin will have quickly to become friends. When Janet and Colin eventually marry, Sarah would take the newly wed under her wing and show her the ropes, guiding her away from pitfalls such as those purveyors’ of innuendo, and assassins of character, the pad-hags.
With Colin and OZ away on exercise or deployed on operations the wives support each other.
I recall once seeing Anna Chapman, before she was notorious, and being struck by the way she stood out in a room, at complete odds with spooks such as Terry Jones in the book, but I fancy Svetlana would have that same effect.
At 5’10” tall, with curly chestnut hair to the backs of her legs and a dancers physique, Christina/Svetlana, is too strikingly beautiful to be a spy.
Having been robbed of a normal life and set to bedding whichever men and women the state required Caroline/Svetlana still had greater expectations. She does not object to the bedroom gymnastics it is just that it is not on her terms.
The Seventh Chief Directorate, into which she had been recruited, dealt with visiting foreign diplomats, politicians and businessmen. Her mind and high IQ are of little importance to her employer, it is her talent as a seductress and her talents between the sheets that are the only assets they value.
Somehow, Christina/Svetlana winds up in London with a flat in Knightsbridge and a legitimate six figure salary job at a leading merchant bank in the City.
She is living the life, or is she?
Constantine was an able and courageous pilot. He drove the SU27 Flanker until younger pilots were on the verge of making the old man of the regiment look precisely that.
His wife, Yulia, until recently the Prima Ballerina at the Moscow State Ballet, had friends in high places and instead of Constantine leaving the service he instead moved to London to take up the post of Deputy Military Attaché at the embassy of the Russian Federation.
The good major did of course need to undertake a course in fieldcraft and trade craft for ‘new agent and asset handlers’ at the embassies.
Yulia’s involvement with a billionaire entrepreneur and the divorce which followed, served to drive Constantine into his work rather than into a bottle, and the major developed into a highly capable spy handler.
Sir Richard wears two royal jubilee medals, his ‘undetected crimes’ medal aka Long Service and Good Conduct medal, along with the Queens Police Medal, but two other ribbons occupy the first two spaces. The General Service Medal with Northern Ireland clasp, and the South Atlantic medal. The Commissioner had not always been a copper; he had spent six years in the Blues and Royals, serving in the Falklands War as well as a couple of tours in Ulster.