Peter Jones

A letter received from an Oppo about a Bootneck: Peter Jones.

Hello again Steve ,
You asked about the demise of Pete Jones so here is what I know.
Pete joined the Corps in about 1962 (his number was RM20452 which is a guide) after drafts to Aden with 45 Borneo with 42 and several tours of Ireland Pete found himself at CTC and continued his time until discharge after serving 36 years!!.
He continued to work at CTC doing his old service job in the new entrants department, after a while he changed jobs but stayed at the camp until ill health forced him to retire, as usual Pete, like many other servicemen was despatched to civvie street without any proper re-adjustment, he asked me if I knew of any flats for rent in the Exmouth area where he decided to settle, think he needed to be around former booties cos that is all he knew. I contacted D—M-- (ex SBS and now explorer) who I knew had a flat going and Pete moved in. D-- and A---- decided to sell the flat and Pete was homeless again, but not for long has I had bought a flat and rented it to Pete. Unfortunately by now (he) was seriously into the bottle and I contacted the welfare at CTC to try to get him help but they sloped their shoulders and told me they could only help him if he contacted them, (but Pete was an "ex bootie and could cope" where have we heard that before?).
I was away in Nottingham a few months later and I received a phone call to say that my flat had caught fire and Pete was in Hospital, I raced back to find Pete had discharged himself and had gone awol, the fire brigade informed me he had fell asleep with a pint of red wine in his hands and a chip pan left on in the kitchen. A few weeks went by and I found he had moved into another flat, I went to see him but he had moved again, a few more weeks passed and in November 2004 I got a call from his elderly mother to say Peter had been found dead in another flat in town ( he had a heart attack) and she asked if I she could pass my name to the local authorities and of course I agreed (who wouldn’t).
I had a phone call from the coroner who asked me to identify the body, after which the body was released to Staffordshire CC (his home) for cremation. I cleared his room of his possessions and returned them to his mother. I went up to Stafford for his cremation which was attended by a bugler from CTC and three members of the Stoke on Trent RMA, a total of 5 RM comrades after 36 years, what a sad waste. His family rarely heard from Pete and even less visited his home town.
I am sorry Steve if this resume is a bit depressing but that’s the way it was, how many more of us will go down the same path?
Yours aye

Terry