The King's Regiment has been asked for information about the service of Ray Barker-Schofield with The Manchester Regiment in the 1950s. It is wanted as background for a book under research about the Sultan's Armed Forces (SAF). The subject was a colourful character who appeared in a documentary about the war in Dhofar in 1972. It may be seen at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GGMX_oBpDKQ It is worth watching. I noted a trace of an Oldham accent in his speech.
My involvement is as the self-appointed Honorary Historian of The King's Regiment. Much of my public research involves writing obituaries. I have until relatively recently held back from offering to write about Manchesters because the Regiment has such a strong following led by Bob Bonner and Derek Lawrence-Brown. But over the past couple of years I have written about Tony Davis, Donald Gibbs, Geoffrey Lee, Colin Logan and George Sweetman, so have some experience of post-war research, and this is another great challenge.
I have looked in Bob Bonner's book '1st Battalion 1945-1958' but there is no mention of Schofield.
So far I have discovered that Schofield was a pre-war Territorial; he was awarded EM(T) 25 Sep 1951.
He had an Emergency Commission as 9988 2nd Lt 13th FF Rifles 8 Jul 1943, and was promoted War Substantive Lt and Acting Capt 8 Jan 1944. India Army List 1947 notes 1yr 337 days service which may refer to pre-commission service in India.
In the documentary he mentions serving in Burma, and 13th FF Rifles served there. He will have left the Indian Army on partition in 1947. There is then a three year gap in his record.
He transferred to The Manchester Regiment as 410394 Lieutenant 1 Jun 1950 with seniority 8 Jul 1943. Promoted Capt 20 Jul 1951. Transferred to the Regular Army Reserve of Officers (RARO) 1 Jun 1956. In the documentary he lists where he had served and none of the places correspond to where 1 MANCH was serving between 1950-1956. He mentions South Africa, Egypt, Somaliland, Libya and Zambia, with a hint that he was a mercenary.
The question is, what did Ray Schofield do whilst serving in The Manchester Regiment 1950-1956?
I would be grateful if anyone with access to the relevant Regimental Journals could look him up in the sections covering 'locations of Officers'.
