Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Let’s do this together SILLIEST PET SELFIE
After wrestling with call centre speech recognition telephone systems that seem to be related to Manuel in Fawlty Towers, reader Brian Davies got in touch with a story about how accurate messages could mean the difference between life and death.
Or even the quickstep or waltz…
He says: “I was a boy army apprentice at the tender age of 15 years old at Catterick Camp in Yorkshire, training for the Royal Corps of Signals.
“I had to learn Morse code, wireless telegraphy, be a teleprinter operator and use a field telephone on top of the usual weapons training and drills.
“We were told it was vital to be 100% accurate when either sending or forwarding a message.
“To illustrate this, the message to be sent read ‘Send reinforcements, going to advance’, but due to mistakes made in transmission, the message received by the Commander in Chief was ‘Send three and fourpence, going to a dance!’
“The introduction of a humorous element into the lesson was to make sure we didn’t forget, and I have to say that fast forward almost 80 years on, I haven’t – as yet – forgotten!”
What’s that, Brian? You’ve haven’t met my bottom?
Please keep your stories, memories and photos coming to siobhan.mcnally@mirror.co.uk or write to Community Corner, PO Box 791, Winchester SO23 3RP.
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