News was received of the deaths of Ted Vahey in an Italian P.O.W .camp and of Bill Barnes, lost on operations with the R.A.F.  Woking's Christmas morning run that year was again to Ripley, this time to The Forge.

Because Stan Baron was a war correspondent, he acted as Vice-President while Mr. Benstead held the reins through 1944, Tom Keeble and Ken Larbey being the mainstays of Woking Section's runs.

Despite the air raids and all the other difficulties however, Woking had a week-end at Sutton Benger and Stanford in the Vale, a day run to Whipsnade Zoo and a night ride into Essex.  They also started a News Letter to nearly 20 section members in the Forces, compiled and sent every other month and these were much appreciated.  They consisted mainly of quotations from member's letters, relayed so as to keep everyone in touch. Some extracts read as follows:-

Chronicles

From Reg Best, now a lieutenant in the Queens Royal Regiment -
"..... my first voyage lasted several weeks but the residents (later learned to be South Africans) met us at the docks in their cars and took us sight-seeing and entertained us in their homes.  A further long voyage took us to India ..... we were certainly not made welcome ..... the towns were very dirty and the people seemed spiritless ..... it has been almost perpetual summer for me since last April and I am getting tired of so much sunshine.  I used to love the misty autumn mornings on the road in England but now I only see a heat haze.  You can tell the cycling folk, quite definitely, that there's no place like England.  Can you still get beer at home - we can't get it here."
And later -
"After visiting Capetown and India, I am now in Iraq and have been to Baghdad where we were lavishly entertained."

From Don Field -
"I'm having a good time in the Mecca of the North - Blackpool - with shows, dancing and bathing."

From Cpl. Daphne May, W.A.A.F., Watnall, Notts. -
"Two years in the Midlands have convinced me that there's no place like the South.  I love the W.A.A.F. but the sooner I'm issued with a topee, some overalls and a spanner, the better.  What news of May Garrett and the other girls?"
(The Editor replied -
"Sorry Daphne but we've few girls riding with us now.  May Garrett is busy at an aircraft repair factory and gets no time to come riding.")

From Tpr. G. M. McGregor, Tank Brigade, B.N.A.F. -
"From what I've seen of North Africa, it's not at all bad though the smells are not enchanting.  The river is very muddy for swimming but mud doesn't worry us now after 8 months in Scotland.  The food is quite good but not up to the standard of Dunsfold or Somerset Farm.  It's all in tins which means that the cooks cannot spoil it too much."

From Lt. R. G. Best, 12 Indian Div., May 1943 -
"... I am in Teheran;  it is more like Paris than anything I have seen - long boulevards with double rows of trees - American cars everywhere.  North are the wonderful Elbury mountains, snow-capped, with Mount Demavend 18,000 ft towering over all.  I went to Ruevandiz where there is a gorge that makes Cheddar seem like a street gutter.  It towers up 2,000 ft and the road is cut out of the rock.  There are bears, eagles and ibexes.  The trans-Iranian railway was quite the most spectacular train ride I've ever done.  A new cycle costs up to £100 here (1943!);  car tyres fetch £100-£200 each and a large 8-wheel lorry may well run to £3,000-worth of tyres."

From Don Field, R.A.F., M.E.F., 11th June 1943 -
"I was very pleased indeed to receive the No. 1 Newsletter this morning.  After a spell in hospital with jaundice I've at last joined my unit in the midst of a rather large area of sand.  We reside in tents - full of flies.  The 'canteen' is also a tent where one bottle of beer a week is generously allowed us.  .... have visited the Sphinx - and two or three pyramids - and been inside;  they are huge - nearly 500 ft high.  .... buried in a spot like this it's not easy to realise that, way back in Blighty, some lucky devils are still meeting at Gammon's Corner every Sunday morning.  Don't forget news about runs, week-ends, pile-ups etc.  Best wishes to all."

From L/Cpl. W. G. Hammond, M.E.F., 24th June 1943 -
"... one of my pals here had the Surrey Comet recently and I saw the full account of the West Surrey D.A.'s Annual Meeting ... quite thrilled to see that most of our old members still held their positions.  Haven't yet met any fellow members out here - always been prodding and chasing Jerry but now that he's finished out here I may yet see a member of the W.S.D.A.  Had a great welcome from the people of Tunis.  Flowers and kisses from charming French women and girls - and wines!"
(Editor's note:-
We have to confine ourselves to about six well-tried tea places.  We had to cry off a run to Waltham - eight other sections and clubs were going there on the same day!)

Message from our President - Archie Benstead -
"... memories of past happy days mean much when we can refresh our minds with such thoughts as the incident at Romsey when we had beer and sausage rolls with the village Policeman on an all-night ride.  Best wishes to all members."

From Dvr. E. Collyer, M.E.F., 29 July 1943 -
"Sicily is certainly a better country than N. Africa - we are eating our fill of grapes and there's a lot of red wine here tho' I don't like it - it's much too strong.  I've seen some lovely scenery but for all the mountains and plains, give me the quiet lanes of Surrey and Sussex.  I'd like to be able to get a bit of back wheel and away for another enjoyable run into the country - and that pint of beer at lunch time;  that's what we miss badly, the old English pub."

Editor's note:-
"Eadie Ottoway who was on the committee has left to take up nursing.  We can't give you news of the weather here but things are beginning to look quite autumnal - Burnham Beeches will soon be at their best.  Bernard Reeves is in forestry down Winchester way and we see little of him now.  All for now - a good basin full - at least you'd think so if you had to type the ruddy stuff!"

From Ron Sadler, Ceylon, 15th September 1943 -
"I've only been here a few weeks after about a year in East Africa.  While there I got a bicycle and made good use of it but there was little to see apart, that is, from lions, cheetahs, wild boars, deer and baboons.  Here in Ceylon we're in real tropical setting - on the sea shore - and I'm able to swim every day."

From Sgt. J. H. Taylor, West Africa, 17th October 1943 -
"... I got away from the sticky heat of the coast ... I got hold of an iron and explored the roads and tracks of a high plateau - rocky hills reminiscent of Donegal.  We are the forgotten army but I hope to get away from black troops some day.  Best wishes to all especially Messrs. Best, Field & Creamy.  I wish the sea bathing was safer;  there is very heavy surf and shark and barracuda lurk - even just off shore."

From Lieut. R. G. Best, Paiforce, 4th October, 1943 -
"I am now in Andimeshk, South Persia - it's one of the hottest places on earth.  This year we have touched 130° in the shade - last year it was 8-10° hotter.  I used to go to bed in my birthday suit (no coupons), sprinkle water over the bed (from a bucket stupid) and encase myself in a thoroughly soaked towel.  By doing this and placing an electric fan (yes, we do have fans, everybody does) in close proximity I was able to snatch some sort of sleep, only to wake next day in a pool of perspiration, the artificial dampness having dried up hours before.  For weeks the temperature rarely dropped below 90° at night.  Fortunately the atmosphere is so dry that one manages to stick it reasonably well.  I only got prickly heat (pink spots all over), lumbago and an abscess on the hand that had to be operated on.  What a war!  I'm hoping to leave here soon for the Middle East so if Don Field or any of the old gang are on leave in Cairo they might like to show me a few sights and/or addresses (young Don was always a great week-ender wasn't he?)  I find the Newsletter intensely interesting - for learning if there are any other friends in these parts - also, it's amazing that the mere mention of place names - Chalfont St. Giles;  Waltham St. Lawrence - conjures up memories of long ago club runs.  Remember me to the boys - Tom Keeble, Jack Thompson and any other relics of the 1920's."

From Officer-cadet A. R. Wyeth, September 1943 -
"The boys' letters make me feel a bit self-conscious about my 'foreign' service which has been confined to Yorkshire.  I've got my commission now with memories of scrambling up Snowdon with a 2" mortar as a necklace."

"Shorts" from the Editor, November 1943 -
"A very enjoyable week-end was spent at Stanford-in-the-Vale on 2nd/3rd October.  A record war-time number of 9 went and supper, bed & breakfast only cost 5/0d (25p) each!  Another generous donation for the Comforts Fund has been received from our President Mr. Archie Benstead.  We hope to run another lecture in the New Year, proceeds going to the Comforts Fund.  Section A.G.M. will be at Martyrs Green on 19th December.  D.A. A.G.M. in January, but where?  There are so few places that can accommodate both sections for tea these days."

Your Editor (Bill Inder) actually led a run himself on 30th October - his first all-day run for years.  Left Woking at 9.30 via Mayford, Worplesdon and Pinewood Corner where the Guildford crowd was picked up.  Then over the Hogs Back to Tilford, Frensham, the Worldhams, Alton and Medstead - 1 pm lunch.  A new landlord - the old boy with whiskers - whose window I broke throwing a ball of scraps at Vic Jenner - is now deceased.  Then a wander northwards, tea at Bentley and home by eight.

Maps were useless on part of the run;  the country has been completely transformed.  Lanes just fizzle out and emerge into enormous new aerodromes;  new concrete roads replace the old lanes now swallowed up and make great sweeps round large areas once well known to us.  The committee has decided, in its wisdom, that members holding or attaining commission rank in the Forces shall not participate in the Postal order scheme but it is hoped that this will not deter members from aspiring to such heights!  They will, of course, continue to receive the Newsletter.  October runs were:- 17th October Stedham. Tea, Queens Head, Bucks Green.  24th October Surrey Lanes. Tea, Croft Cottage, Gomshall.  30th October Medstead. Tea Mrs. Trotman's, Bentley.  7th November Frieth. Tea, Star, Waltham St. Lawrence.

From Lieut. C. Loughnane, Central Fleet Mail Office, Bombay, October, 1943
"... I got four pieces of bomb splinter in a Jap air raid on Chittagong in January which fractured a shoulder blade and put me in hospital for 7 weeks.  Good hospital though;  they also let me have mumps.  After that I had 2 months as 1st lieutenant of one of our new corvettes (local boy making good) and captured a pirate dhow in the Persian Gulf and was then sent to the signal school as an instructor (local boy making no good since people on shore jobs are inclined to be looked down upon.)  I'm now on leave and fulfilling an old ambition to go right into Tibet and this letter will be posted 160 miles inside the border.  Incidentally, as I sat by the fire in the first bungalow inside Tibet (12,000 ft up), answering your letter, I threw the sheets into the fire-place.  When the chankidar (caretaker) came in to put more wood on the fire, he asked if he might have the sheets of your letter and the Newsletter.  When I asked him what for, he said that he papered the walls of his house to keep out the cold.  So your letters are now decorating the walls of a Tibetan home.  After walking 105 miles and riding 73, I arrived in Gyantse on 15th October.  This is as far as Europeans are allowed to go - still 9 days from Llasa.  The ponies and mules are all very small, the saddles are made of wood and all the equipment is tied up with odd bits of yak hair, rope and leather so that, altogether, I can't recommend it as a pleasant alternative to cycling.  The country is desolate;  vast plains surrounded by barren mountains with the snow-capped giants of the Himalayan range often in sight.  Chumulari, 23,900 ft, a sacred mountain, dominated the road for more than 2 days.  A bitterly cold wind comes up every afternoon and nothing grows but dried up grass.  After 3 days here to see the fort, Buddhist monasteries etc., I have to return by the same road and this letter will be carried by runner and mule the same way."

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Web page by Chris Jeggo.  Last revised:  26 December 2004.