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With thanks to
Angela Gutteridge by Maj Bob Prophet
Angela Gutteridge moved from the Legal Aid Board to the MOD in 1991 and took up the post as typist within RHQ 3 WFR, a position she much enjoyed and through which she got to know many of the men and women of the Reserves and Regulars. Working as part of a team in the Orderly Room with John Pearson, (Chief Clerk) and Kath Spencer, (E1) she says that she owes many thanks to them both for teaching her Defence Writing, the unfamiliar
working practices of the Armed Forces and also for their friendship and encouragement in the early days of her Civil Service working life. Between 1992 and 1999, she covered the post of RHQ typist on various occasions and, in May 1999 on the sad disbandment of 3 WFR, she was offered the post of typist on the movement of the incumbent to the Tax Office. For many years, Oliver Hackett and Andy McDougall were an inspiration to her and she learnt many interesting historical facts regarding the Regimental family and the British Armed Forces from not only Olly and Andy but also Cliff Housley and, later, Eddie Edwards.
Over the years of being both in RHQ 3 WFR and RHQ/Regimental Archives, she met many members of the regiment past and present, including the many and much loved soldiers who bore the name
of Pte/LCpl Derby. Many were the volunteers and visitors to the archives and she enjoyed very much learning the stories of their regimental connections. She thanks Andy and the late Olly Hackett for their generosity in passing on their knowledge with regard to
the working practices of how to keep an office going with such a high volume of varied customers and requests. After Olly retired, she embraced the new challenge of working for the three new incumbents of the post of Assistant Regimental Secretary and
A H L McDougall by Maj Bob Prophet
Andy McDougall has retired from the RHQ Nottingham office after 14 years as the most brilliant, loyal and efficient Chief Clerk/Office Manager Foresters House has known. He started his military career as a Trooper in
The 4th/7th Royal Dragoon Guards in which he served for 22 years, rising to the rank of Warrant Officer Class 2 Office Regimental Quartermaster Sergeant and retiring from the very year after a tour of Regimental duty as
Chief Clerk of his Regiment. He joined the Ministry of Defence Guard Service with which he served for 8 years at Chetwynd Barracks, Chilwell before being appointed to the post of Chief Clerk in Foresters House serving five successively Assistant Regimental Secretaries.
He took to his newly adopted regiment easily and his fierce loyalty and his firm place in a strong team were realised very quickly. He became very knowledgeable in the Regiment’s history, its soldiers and in the ways of RHQ. Always polite, cheerful and a superb team player, nothing was ever too much trouble for him and it was usually to him that enquirers turned for information and help. His accounting was impeccable, he always produced paperwork on time with no errors and he was tireless in his work. He took a personal interest
in the Crich Memorial Tower, supporting Major Oliver Hackett in his strenuous (and successful) efforts to put the Memorial on a sound footing. He was a very intelligent, capable and well-read man and, in the absence of an Assistant Regimental Secretary when Major Hackett, Major Bill Whitton, Lieutenant Colonel Keith Seddon and Major Mike Green retired in succession with no successor to fill the post, he took on for eighteen months all the duties of that post in addition to his own without complaint and without problem, ably
enjoyed being part of the newly formed Mercian Regiment as it found its feet and overcome the many challenges of Afghanistan.
It was always very obvious that Angela enjoyed meeting the members of WFRA and hearing their stories and she looked forward every year to helping to organise the Reunion, Crich Supper and the Pilgrimage. She has expressed her thanks for the friendship offered to her by the members of the Regimental family and she has said that she will always hold the Regiment dear in her thoughts.
Spring 2014 brought about many changes in Foresters House including the news that her post was to be disbanded. She saw this as a time to spread her wings and take up a post outside the Civil Service as an Administrator with a national grounds management company, Glendale, in Beeston. Not wishing to lose her connection with the regiment, she has joined the Long Eaton Branch WFRA and, to keep her ties with the Armed Forces, has volunteered to be Secretary to the Nottinghamshire Committee of ABF The Soldier’s Charity.
Angela’s devotion to the Regiment was unquestioned and her support to Andy McDougall and to a succession of Assistant Regimental Secretaries was quietly efficient and very loyal. Her typing, filing and other clerical duties were of a very high standard and she stood in very capably when Andy McDougall was on leave; she ran RHQ alone on many occasions during the frequent gaps between Assistant Regimental Secretaries. Although employed only as a part-time clerk, many was the day that she worked overtime without recompense to complete an urgent task. Without being prompted, she had no qualms about working at weekends to
help with a regimental function and she took on the running of the regimental shop at the Crich Pilgrimage (usually dragging her long- suffering husband and son along to help...) with great success and enthusiasm. Likewise, she attended the Reunion in Worcester every year selling regimentalia and supporting RHQ without complaint. There is no question that, without Angela’s unstinting help and support, Andy McDougall and the Assistant Regimental Secretaries would have found life in RHQ much more difficult.
As Regimental Secretary, I had full confidence in Angela’s abilities and devotion to the Regiment and I knew that RHQ was in good hands. It was a shame that she took early retirement and we wish her well for the future.
assisted by Angela Gutteridge; they were a formidable team. He didn’t hesitate to work overtime (rarely necessary, such was his efficiency) or at weekends to attend a regimental event and he was even to be seen conversing with Pte Derby on many occasions. As Regimental Secretary in Worcester, I had full confidence in him and
I knew that regimental matters in the East Midlands were in safe hands. Andy never received the extra pay which normally went with such a situation because, according to Civil Service rules, he could not be paid for a post two grades higher than his own. Andy never mentioned such injustice because his sole priority was to keep RHQ going without hiccup. He continued to produce all the administrative instructions for the Crich Pilgrimage and, latterly, for the Reunion
at Worcester as well as for countless other events, dinners and functions; he made all the necessary arrangements, he carried out the recces and the on-site briefings and he was the king-pin on the day. During the gaps between Assistant Regimental Secretaries, he became, ex-officio, Secretary to the Museum Trustees and to the Crich Memorial Tower Vesting Trustees, he continued to organise the pre-Crich dinner and to administer the Sherwood Foresters Officers’ Lunch Club. He ran all the accounts at RHQ (RHQ, Museum and WFRA) and he often helped others with their book-keeping by keeping a parallel account in case of problems.
Andy never sought – nor liked – the limelight and the words of Robbie Burns are particularly relevant: “Oh wid some power the giftie gie us, to see oorselves as ithers see us”. There is no question that, without Andy, RHQ Nottingham would not have run so smoothly and efficiently for so long. He was sorely missed when he left and we wish him well in his retirement; the good news, however, is that, effectively, he is back where he belongs. Farewell, Andy, and welcome back!
THE MERCIAN EAGLE