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245595
Capt. Douglas Gerald "Mac" McLewin
Royal Army Service Corps
from:London
Douglas McLewin was my father. He served in the RASC, maintaining British military vehicles, mainly in France and Belgium. One story I remember, Mac was very fond of tea, and the tea supplied to the army was of the instant variety tea, milk and sugar in a powder form. This came in a tin, and apparently the instruction on the tin stated "Do not boil". By all accounts it was pretty nasty. Mac's batman came into his tent one day with a steaming mug of great tea, and Mac said "excellent tea, corporal, how did you manage it?". The answer was "I boiled it sir"!
Another time, earlier in the war, my father was given the job of screening new recruits as lorry drivers. One day, he was in a lorry testing a young man who did not seem to have even the basics of driving, he was crunching gears, jerking and stalling the vehicle. After nearly ending up in the local bakery at the bottom of a hill, my father said "Good god man, your application form says you are a driver. What on earth do you drive?" The answer "A horse and cart, sir".