Company Sergeant Major Charles Sharp of 1st Battalion, the Queen's Royal Regiment, recalls some rather basic bedding.
Charles Sharp
Company Sergeant Major Charles Sharp

The beds were two bunks. You was issued with a palliasse when you joined up and you was told to go over to the stables and fill them with straw and to well fill them and I think that straw by the looks of the straw and the stables I think had been there since Napoleonic days as well and the reason why they were well filled is because when you came back and you put them on the bed and you laid on them it flattened them out and you could find yourself on the strings otherwise and so life went on. You had denims of course for training and you had six weeks you were interviewed what would you like to do and I don’t think they took much notice when you said you would rather be in the Salvation Army but I think the officer ignored that.