Duty man

The recruit eventually graduates to become a trained soldier and dutyman, with his place in a troop.

It has often been claimed that the Household Cavalry's mounted dutymen have a busier routine than any other soldiers in the Army.

Some stations were connected directly to the automatic fire alarms of important premises and to call boxes in the street which all had to be tested. So the role of dutyman was complicated and as he had to stay awake all night, this was called a wakeful watch.

On two occasions during the night, usually around 1.30am and 4.30am, divisional control would circulate a test message. This was done ostensibly to make sure the telephone line was in good order, but really to ensure the dutyman was awake.

Some time later the dutyman heard a guttural screeching and whooping of a phonation that was quite clearly not Christian, and already at that point he felt the desire to cross himself, but was too idle (let us add, from ourselves, that this was a mistake).