Extracts taken from the diary of 2nd Lieutenant G M Sisson, employee of C A Parsons

“The Home Guard¹ is assuming alarming proportions, I hope it may get better as we settle down to the new conditions;  just now I am attending lectures frequently and have too much to do. Last night an Admiral, Sir Michael Hodges, came to speak to the works on the seriousness of the war;  in the after-noon they asked me if I could supply any men towards a Guard of Honour so I made the best arrangements possible at the last moment. When the time came half the men did not turn up till the last minute, the officer Walton who was supposed to be taking the guard didn’t arrive at all and the Admiral arrived too early with FGB².

       Murton with great presence of mind asked me if I would do the job, so it was all a bit hectic, I got together a collection of about fourteen men and hearing that the Admiral had arrived, immediately sloped arms with all the lads in their overcoats still. He did not enter the room for about another ten minutes but stood talking at the door while we stood and sweated mostly with nervousness in front of most of the works gathered in the Canteen, myself well out in front with not the least idea what one was supposed to do on such an occasion. Eventually the old boy hove in sight and we duly presented arms, I had expected him to stroll past up to the rostrum but to my dismay he stood still returning the salute and then stopped saluting and continued to stand still. The next thing to do seemed to be to slope arms again so this I did unfortunately giving the wrong order in a loud clear voice, luckily it was an impossible order and everyone did exactly the correct thing so the situation was more or less saved. The Admiral then hove up alongside and asked if he might take a look at the men so of course I said I was charmed and strolled round after him as I have seen it on the films, but what I had not noticed or expected was a string of stinking questions on the types of gun we had and what battery we belonged to and the crest on our buttons, this I did not know and I said it was the Service Crest, actually it is the Royal Crest;  and so on. However at the end he was very complimentary about it all and expressed himself very satisfied with the turnout. Fun to look back on and I shan’t mind doing it again if I ever have to, but not too rosy at the time.”

 ¹ In the early stages the Works had its own Home Guard.

² Gordon Bedford, MD of Parsons.

“After a bit the Works Home Guard became absorbed into the outside body: our Battalion Commander was Colonel J. B. Mennie who owned a rather smart jewellers shop in Newcastle, and I was very soon appointed his Intelligence Officer.  I was expected to lecture to the other officers about German aircraft, weapons, tactics and so on, and it became very laborious after a few years thinking up anything new to talk about.  I also had to organise mass exercises according to schemes dreamed up by the Colonel, and after some years I played a dirty trick on him one night in one of these adventures.  I introduced a fake message into the exercise which was quite obviously written by the opposition, that is words spelt wrongly in a Germanic way and verbs at the end of a sentence or two.  As I suspected NQ swallowed the lot hook line and sinker and the complete exercise fell into total confusion.  Mennie was absolutely furious when it was all over and told me I had entirely ruined his plan, I was immediately sacked from my post and made Catering Officer.  Whether this was intended as a penance I do not know but it certainly was that, because with no idea how to boil an egg I had to feed several hundred men on future events.”