Mechanic training in the ASC mt can anyone help please

[hamishmck]

Hi all,

I was wondering if anyone knew about the training course for mechanics in the ASC mt.

For instance; were trainees chosen at random or passed some sort of apptitude test?

were recruits trained on everything mechanical or specialised on motorbikes, tanks or ambulances for example.

How long was the training?

Anything along these lines would be really helpful please.

cheers

[Guest]

There might be some information in Mike Young's book Click It seems to be quite an expensive, and difficult book to get a hold of. I do have it, but have not really studied it yet. Not sure if it answers your questions. Maybe someone who's read it can tell you if it's worth you parting with so much cash. It's probably well worth you having in your collection anyway. I will have a look and see if it covers training.

Mike

[michaeldr]

Mike & Hamish

I had a quick flick through Young this morning when I first saw these queries, but was not able to turn up anything useful

I've also had a quick look at Col Beadon's second volume of his history (1930s) but again found very little on this aspect

There is one ref to

“The Isleworth Mechanical Transport Depot embodying the Osterley Park and Hounslow centres has an important rôle. There was accommodation for 2200 men and intensive twenty-eight day courses in driving and technical instruction were given to recruits.............................................

The technical instruction was given at the school at Osterley Park itself,...................................

The work of these establishments is of high interest, as it represents the earliest attempt made by the British Army to grapple with the problem of what may be termed 'mass production' of technical personnel. As it turned out some 45,000 semi-skilled men, it may be said to have been successful.”

I'm not sure that this answers Hamish's question and I would suggest looking further, perhaps to the

RLC Museum see http://www.rlcmuseum.co.uk/docs/archives.html

[hamishmck]

Thanks guys, a great help and it has me going in the right direction.thanks again.

[hamishmck]

I was trawling the internet early this morning and came across this which is interesting.

On 25^th July 1914 the great cricketer, W G Grace who lived nearby in Mottingham Lane, played his penultimate match for Eltham against a Grove Park team on a pitch in Marvels Lane. With the outbreak of the Great War soon after, the 400 residents of the workhouse were expelled to other institutions when the building was taken over by the Army Service Corps as a mobilisation and training centre. Between 1914 and 1919 nearly 300,000 men and women passed through it. Some of the troops were at Grove Park for less than 24 hours while others were on 12-week training courses for the maintenance of various motor vehicles which ranged from staff cars to lorries and buses. Many of the officers were billeted in the big houses.

http://www.gpcg-ringway.org.uk/GroveParkHistory.htm

The Grove Park Community Group

at the

RINGWAY CENTRE

A Short History of Grove Park by John King

[Phil Evans]

Hamish,

Entrance to Grove Park Barracks

ASC Workshop at Grove Park

[hamishmck]

Many thanks for the pictures, a big help.

cheers

[researchingreg]

'T' stands for technician I think like 'M' stands for mechanic.

My uncle Augustus King number M 202906 was in the ASC in Grove Park training as a Mechanic in 1916. However he was a motor mechanic before he joined the Army so I suppose that is why he was in the ASC.

[Kate Wills]

T represents the Horse Transport element of the ASC.

My grandfather was an M; he enlisted in the infantry in September 1914, but must have noticed a big leap in pay by applying for transfer to the ASC. He took a trade test (he was a qualifed fitter at Wolverton Works, and had attended night school to gain qualifications for his trade), and was tranferred to a workshop at Kalamaria near Salonika in 1917 with the number M/280441.