New TA unit formed 50 years ago in drill hall that’s now a night club
Fifty years ago today, a new Territorial Army unit was formed at the Connaught Drill Hall in Stanhope Road, Portsmouth. The hall has since been converted to a night club, first Liquid Envy, now PRYZM.
The new unit was to be called ‘A’ Duke of Connaught’s own Company, 2nd Battalion the Wessex Regiment (V). They were based at the drill hall until 1992. I must thank Andy August for the following information.
The company’s first sergeant major was the late John Jenkins of Milton, always known as Jack. He came to prominence as a D-Day veteran when he was presented to the Queen at the D- Day remembrance service on Southsea Common in June 2019.
John was a lifelong Pompey supporter and boardroom steward. He also carried the Olympic torch at Fratton Park during its progress around the UK before the 2012 London Olympics.
The high point of ‘A’ Company’s service at Stanhope Road was the presentation of the battalion’s colours at Eastney Barracks on June 30, 1979, by the Duke of Wellington. The event was the last military parade at Eastney.
The battalion then paraded its colours in Guildhall Square in the presence of the lord mayor of Portsmouth, Councillor R Taylor.
At the following civic reception the city was presented with a silver wyvern, a mythological two-legged winged dragon. It is still exhibited in the Guildhall’s silver collection.
On May 3, 1980, A Company provided the Escort of the Colours when the battalion trooped its colours in Guildhall Square.
A Company recruited from the Portsmouth area and was always supported by local men, it being the largest battalion in the area.
In the photograph in Guildhall Square we see Major J Fox on the left at the head of the parade. The quarter guards, those half a turn away from the line-up are, left facing camera, Colour Sergeant Clive Hellyer and to the right Sergeant Alan Cooper.
Clive Hellyer’s past family used to carve figureheads for sailing ships and several are on display in the Victory Museum in the naval base.
The regiment used to meet every Thursday at the Drill Hall in Stanhope Road. Sadly the division has ceased to exist.
As for John Jenkins, I had the privilege of interviewing him a few weeks before he died, aged 100, in 2019.
John was a bell boy on the Atlantic liner RMS Mauritania when he was 14. He also told me of the time his troop entered a concentration camp and the horrific sight that met their eyes. ‘It was then I realised why the Nazis had to be destroyed. No one had ever seen anything like it,’ he told me.
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