A Royal Marine who lent Churchill his gun

Reg joined the Royal Marines at 17 in 1936, because they had a younger minimum age requirement. He recorded his experience in 200 pages of handwritten notes after the war, which began in 1938 when he was serving on HMS Cardiff in the Far East. These notes will be digitised separately using specialist software. One story in particular stands out. When serving as part of Churchill's security detail (1943?) he met the great man who asked him to borrow his rifle, then proceeded to fire several rounds out to sea. Reg then had to explain the missing rounds. Later in the war he was awarded the BEM, not as a consequence necessarily of lending his rifle to the wartime leader.