The Banker (Part 5) – aboard the troop train

In Findlay’s compartment acquaintance was quickly made with fellow travellers. The odd troop would poke his head around the sliding door to locate buddies from civilian life.

By the time the steam locomotive chugged out of Germiston station, the initially tense atmosphere began to loosen a trifle. The new recruits tentatively began to ease into small talk and some light-hearted banter. Findlay, not a gregarious type, settled into a corner of the compartment and tucked into a book he had brought for company.

Railway stations and sidings, it appeared to the young men, was an invitation to the locomotive to slow down or stop. Troop trains seemingly adhered to the progress of a milk train. Each stop along the route added a layer to the monotony of the journey.

Shortly before nightfall a bedding crew did the rounds. They rolled neatly folded sheets, blankets and pillows from leather bedding bags onto bunks that had been slammed into position. Green railway seats rapidly formed into beds, before they scurried to the next compartment. The chaps were left to select their own bunks for the overnight trip – Findlay landing the top bed where he gained control of one of the sliding vents. The smokers tended to gravitate towards the lower bunks with easy access to the windows and compartment door.

As Findlay reclined on his bunk with a book, the level of noise increased. Increasingly boisterous would-be soldiers were loosening up. It soon became clear to him that Lt Barry’s admonition about the consumption of alcohol was being ignored. Lads in the neighbouring compartment had clearly succeeded in sneaking copious amounts of booze on board, despite the checks at Park Station. Where there is a will, there is a way!

As the train wound its way to Ladysmith during the night, the atmosphere was punctured by off-key singing wafting along the passage. Smoke billowed from countless cigarettes feverishly sucked to assuage a level of anxiety. The liquor soon enough did its work and loosened remaining inhibitions. Silly, childish pranks led to gales of laughter and the odd altercation between the sober and the inebriated. Few things are more annoying to the sober, than a drunk. Few are more amusing to a drunk, than the sober.

Findlay’s choice of the top bunk revealed itself to be serendipitous. He became ever more engrossed in his book as the night wore on. Sleep overtook him despite the din in the carriage. He woke intermittently to the bellowing of corporals seeking to put a lid on the raucous behaviour. Also, the interminable stopping at sidings and dimly lit stations jolted him out of deep sleep more than a few times. Little rest would be had this night.

First light brought rising intonations: “Get up! Get up! Rise and shine!”

The NCOs weren’t subtle. Retribution for ALL for the revelry of the night that was. No mercy for hangovers. No truck with the defiance of boys barely out of their adolescence.

“Yes!!!! You were warned! Rise and shine, you useless drunken slobs!! PT will be in five minutes.”

“Troops! AAAALLL in the passage!”

“Down for push-ups! To my count......One....Legs and backs straight! .... One .... Two .... Some slackers there at the end... Start again! One .... Two ....“

And so, it continued ‘till breakfast – for the drunks, the lazy, and the sober alike. Like Findlay.

For these young reprobates as well as for the more mature men from the world of work, this was their first foray into the ways of the army.

Upon alighting from the train in Ladysmith, the reality of army life would hit them all like a ton of bricks. Stepping onto the platform the process of integrating a disparate band of “civvies” from all walks of life and varying degrees of maturity would begin in earnest.

A fighting force they would yet be.

 

©Paul M Haupt

 

The Banker — (Part 5)  aboard the troop train.  A visual interpretation of Findlay Nicholson's further transition from bank clerk to soldier. Image generated with AI for this story.