Royal West African Frontier Force

[ansteynomad]

My father was conscripted into the RAMC in 1940 and served throughout WW2 as a nursing orderly. I have now found out that in 1946 he went to Sierra Leone as part of the Royal West African Frontier Force. I cannot find out very much about this. I am wondering whether my father would have been sent, or whether he would have volunteered for this as it was after the end of hostilities.

Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

[KGarrad]

Some info here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_West_African_Frontier_Force

[ansteynomad]

Thanks. That gives an overview, but doesn't answer my questions.

[Andy J2022]

I can only talk about more modern practices. Soldiers who are trickle-posted* can have their posting preferences recorded with their record office, and if volunteers are called for to meet specific operational needs they can volunteer, but ultimately they will be posted according to the Army's needs, rather than their preferences. So if your father was suitably qualified for the role with the RWAFF, and he had said he would like to go there, he might have been posted there instead of another suitably qualified RAMC soldier who didn't want to go there.

* Trickle posting is the process of moving (posting) individual solders between units within the Corps which do not tend to move as complete units. That is to say, most Regiments within the Royal Armoured Corps and the Infantry move as one unit according to a schedule known as the Arms Plot. They rotate on fixed 3 or 4 year cycles. The larger Corps such as the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, Royal Logistic Corps and the smaller Corps such the RAMC use trickle posting.

[ansteynomad]

Thanks Andy, that's interesting.

His story was that he was supposed to be going to Burma but swapped with someone on the boat and ended up in Sierra Leone, but this was all after the war had ended.

If only I had known to ask these questions when he was alive!