War Diary - AQ Branch - January 1941
1 January 1941 – Artun – Reykjavik.
New Years Honours – Colonel E Temple (late A.A. & Q.M.G.) O.B.E., Captain A R Wise G.S.O. 3 I(b) M.B.E., and L/Cpl B. Cobb, 1/5 West Yorks, M.B.E.
Christmas mail arriving. Unloaded by troops owing to Icelandic General Strike for higher wages.
H.M.A.M.C. (His Majesty’s Armed Merchant Cruiser) Wolfe disembarked drafts:- 5 Officers and 15 Other Ranks, C.D.R.A. (Coastal Defence - Royal Artillery), nucleus of Reykerskoli Battery, and 1 Officer and 34 Other Ranks increment to Norwegian Platoon.
7 January 1941
Captain P C N Sturt, Royal Artillery, (G.S.O.3 (O)) sailed for UK for Staff College Course starting 23/1/1941.
8 January 1941
Icelandic Labour Strike settled by raising the cost of living increase from 27% to 41%. Our policy was one of non-intervention although about 1500 Civilians were employed by us. Military labour was employed on more urgent tasks, mainly as a demonstration of independence.
10 January 1941
War Office propose to reduce Ration Scale. Not fully agreed with. Experimental measure adopted – to be reviewed after one month.
12 January 1941
War Office urge use of local produce in ration scale. Exploring possibilities of using local produce in ration scale.
H.M.A.M.C. Letitia disembarked:-
397 Coast Battery – 3 Officers and 122 Other Ranks (Videy Island).
60 Section Field Security Corps.
H.M.A.M.C. Chitral disembarked:-
382 Coastal Battery – 3 Officers and 120 Other Ranks (Hjalteyri) and drafts to meet reinforcement demands.
20 January 1941
War Office authority to increase reserve of supplies to 120 days plus transit margin.
21 January 1941
22:00 hours. E.N.S.A. Concert Party sailed for UK. 1st week Reykjavik; Akureyri till 17th December; then gave performances in Reykjavik and all nearby garrisons including Kaldadarnes, Borganes, and Sauerbaer. A good party who stayed ten weeks instead of the six weeks for which they were originally engaged. They gave 54 performances attended by 25,140 troops.
S.S.M. Dunwell sailed for UK for HQ Northern Command (commission). S.S.M. M J Palfery succeeded him (from UK).
25 January 1941
Strike of male and female labour in Hotels continues to end of month – all hotels closed.
27 January 1941
Force Cookery Courses opened at Reykjavik with instructors sent from UK.
31 January 1941
Endeavours to obtain 49th Division Funds started.
GENERAL – (i) COURT MARTIAL SUMMARY.
January – Reykjavik – 10 convictions. Akureyri – 2 convictions.
Cases of uncensored letters being handed to trawler crews for posting in England decreasing, but misuse of Green Envelopes more apparent.
(ii) Summary of Compassionate Transfers and Leave granted to date.
Appendix attached.
This summarised the number of cases, by unit, where compassionate transfers or leave had been granted in total up to the end of January 1941. In total 17 cases of leave and 66 cases of transfer were approved over the period. Numbers were scattered fairly evenly throughout the Force.
Those from 70th Brigade were:-
1st Tyneside Scottish – 2 transfers.
10th DLI – 2 transfers.
11th DLI – 1 leave and 2 transfers.
There were none from Brigade HQ.
(iii) Routine Orders for January.
The remaining pages of the Routine Orders document had not been copied when the file was photographed.
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