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The Mess

100% agree, when I was in Pet, early 90s the Regt used to send Sprs to the SNCO mess to butter toast daily, (we called the duty "toast tech") serve coffee, etc during stand easy / break, well I tell you this the people(SNCOs) who ate that toast, freshly buttered, by the troops, should NOT have eaten the toast....lol , Anyway they all gobbled it up, every day....good times!! Lol
Some how Im expected to grab my own coffee at SNCO coffee. We get breakfast sandwiches brought in once a week now and have to walk the entire width of the mess, some 40 ft at times, to grab it from the tray ourselves. Incredible what I have to put up with.
 
Some how I’ve never felt diminished by grabbing my own coffee and SNCO coffee. We get breakfast sandwiches brought in once a week now, and somehow manage to grab it from the tray ourselves. Incredible what I have to put up with.
Once I got promoted into the SNCO mess I always got my own coffee and made my own toast, (if I felt like having toast)....yes back then that was pure BS to employ troops to serve SNCOs in garrison...
 
Which is why Hiller's merge of the tri-services failed.

100% agree, when I was in Pet, early 90s the Regt used to send Sprs to the SNCO mess to butter toast daily, (we called the duty "toast tech") serve coffee, etc during stand easy / break, well I tell you this the people(SNCOs) who ate that toast, freshly buttered, by the troops, should NOT have eaten the toast....lol , Anyway they all gobbled it up, every day....good times!! Lol

The Steward trade has entered the chat.
 
Which is why Hiller's merge of the tri-services failed.



The Steward trade has entered the chat.
I've sailed on a few ships and I can say that officers should never, ever piss off a steward that serves their food...lol
 
The trade is removed June 2025, I had the privilege of extending their utility, training their QL6 and QL3 as First Responders and fist aid instructors.
 
In Edinburgh, the Royal Scots Guards have a house, which they share with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards. They are each others mutual defence and consider each other family. The bottom floor is the bar and upstairs for functions. Apparently, it is the norm. Only a small plaque at the door identifies it. Otherwise it blends into the neighborhood. The RSDG have a pub just outside the castle gate on the Royal Mile, which the owner and the locals consider the gathering place for the Regiment. Maybe d&b could add something about the use of houses as regimental retreats.

My first posting was to Edinburgh, Redford Barracks, for public duties.

There was an Officers' Mess in the barracks that we used occasionally, but we mostly went downtown of course because: Edinburgh. I used to go to the Ensign Ewart, the first pub outside the castle's gate, every once in awhile. Top tip: if you're going to 'Drink the Mile', it's best to start from the high ground and head downhill.

Until I read your post, I had no idea that those sissy craphat bastards local Scots regiments had special mess houses available for their use and have never heard of that being available anywhere else in the UK. As these regiments are dripping with cash, and could be guaranteed to be based in Edinburgh (more or less in perpetuity) it doesn't surprise me really. Other regiments packed up and moved physically around the UK, and elsewhere around the globe, every 2 years so that kind of stability and continuity was usually impossible.

In general, the messes that were furthest away from urban centres tended to be the liveliest. For example, the 45 Commando Group mess at RM Condor in Arbroath was fantastic. Friday nights were always a spectacular pub night type event, with wives joining in. The 1 PARA mess at Bulford Camp, next to Salisbury Plain, and the mess in Dhekelia, Cyprus, were similar.

In contrast I always found that my regiment's messes in Aldershot, close to London, weren't all that well attended because people would usually head into 'the Smoke' on a weekend.
 
My first posting was to Edinburgh, Redford Barracks, for public duties.

There was an Officers' Mess in the barracks that we used occasionally, but we mostly went downtown of course because: Edinburgh. I used to go to the Ensign Ewart, the first pub outside the castle's gate, every once in awhile. Top tip: if you're going to 'Drink the Mile', it's best to start from the high ground and head downhill.
That's not a short walk back, and their are a few less than savory places if you wonder off the mile in the right places.
 
Some how Im expected to grab my own coffee at SNCO coffee. We get breakfast sandwiches brought in once a week now and have to walk the entire width of the mess, some 40 ft at times, to grab it from the tray ourselves. Incredible what I have to put up with.
Must be because you're in a gunner (or former gunner) mess. In all my years as a gunner officer we never had staff to do what we could do with our own hands.
Once I got promoted into the SNCO mess I always got my own coffee and made my own toast, (if I felt like having toast)....yes back then that was pure BS to employ troops to serve SNCOs in garrison...
See above.

☕ :giggle:
 
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