Sergeant Alan Caulkett

Luckily enough I got the Bank of England guard, which was not a bull [bullshit] guard, it was one where they locked you in for the night, so you had to ring up, get the password, go down by truck to the Bank. You went down inside the Bank where there was a whole barrack room there for the guard, for about 15 people, kitchen, bunks etc. The officer had a special panelled room (which he had to wear blues in) and I always remember we had a guard with a rifle, this was inside the Bank down the stairs. He had a rifle and bayonet. We sat at a table in the guardroom. We had a box of ammunition, the box of ammunition had a padlock on it and the cupboard was padlocked which we had the keys to, so if anyone had broken in, it would have taken hours to get the ammunition out, so it was all a bit of nonsense, they have stopped it all now. The other guards were at Buckingham Palace, the Tower and Clarence House. We did that for a few weeks and then came August 1969, we were on stand by battalion again. Northern Ireland started.