Free Wig Betrayed by Charles Courtley Page A

that’s patently absurd, I’m just as much a judge as any of my civilian counterparts and he was in contempt of court!”
    â€œAh, that’s the point, Courtley. The General believes that he can’t
be
in contempt, in his position.”
    â€œWhich makes him all the more contemptible, therefore.”
    â€œDon’t be facetious, Courtley. The implications of this could be serious.”
    This brought me up rather. Casting my mind back, I had assumed that the row had simply fizzled out. After Merse’s acquittal, the club had been returned to the General without delay, and it was only afterwards that I discovered on the grapevine that Merse had signed a disclaimer on the basis that the prosecution wouldn’t pursue the AWOL charge. Merse was more than happy to return to the army, provided he was not required to caddy ever again.
    â€œThe whole thing is a storm in a teacup anyway. The ruddy General’s got his precious golf club back, hasn’t he? What I want to know is how long this enquiry will last. And what am I going to do if I can’t officiate at courts martial?”
    â€œAh well, there’s certainly work to be done: a huge accumulation of final legal reviews, in fact. All the old cases which need to be signed off before being sent to the archives.”
    â€œSurely that practice lapsed years ago, on the basis that every case is reviewed automatically anyway.”
    â€œLapsed or not, final legal reviews still exist and in order to use up your time I expect you to undertake this task, Courtley.”
    â€œBut all the old files are lodged in London and I’m living in Germany. Short of commuting every week or returning to England, I can’t do it.”
    â€œOh, that won’t pose a problem. The staff here will send a pack of files off to Margery in Germany. I expect you to work a nine to five day, Courtley, just as if you were in the office in London.”
    * * *
    â€œHow long is this business going to take?” Andrea asked after I returned to Germany the next day.
    â€œWell, the enquiry shouldn’t take that long. Meanwhile, I’ll be busy with the reviews.”
    â€œSo why do we have to remain in Germany at all if you’re not doing courts martial?”
    â€œBecause that’s what I’ve been told. We’ll have to stick it out. By the way, has anybody been talking about the row with the General at the Thrift Shop?”
    Andrea had recently taken up voluntary employment in the Garrison charity shop (known in army language as the ‘Thrift Shop’) and enjoyed the work, giving her the opportunity to meet a broader range of women than just the officers’ wives.
    â€œOh, no problem at all. I did mention it to Norma, our manageress, that you’d had a dust-up with the General and she was very sympathetic. She can’t stand Lady Hudibrass anyway who, needless to say as the General’s wife, is the patroness of the shop. Apparently, she comes in once a month, perches herself on a chair for a couple of hours and watches what everybody does. Checking up on the staff, I suppose, although we all work there for nothing!”
    * * *
    The next day, when the post arrived in the office I received a personal letter from Colonel Kayward:
    â€˜Dear Judge Advocate Courtley,
    As you are currently suspended from officiating at courts martial and to avoid embarrassment in the garrison, the GOC, BAOR requests that you do not attend any officers’ mess functions, or indeed the mess at all for the time being.
    By the same token, Mrs Courtley, by virtue of her status as a ‘wife of’, should desist from working in the Thrift Shop.
    Yours Aye,
    Col B Kayward: Chief of Staff, GOC, BAOR.’
    As I had no intention of attending the mess anyway, I was not unduly put out but I suspected Andrea might feel differently, which indeed turned out to be the case when I showed her the letter back at our quarters.
    â€œThey