| Surname: | Harper |
| Initials: | C J S |
| Rank: | Lieutenant |
| Army Number: | 171633 |
| Notes: | Provost Officer. General List. LondonGazette 35128, page 2025, dated 7/4/41. General List. the undermentioned to be 2/ Lt's. General List. 7/2/41 Claude James Spencer Harper (171633). Extract fro Surrey Mirror, 1/10/43. BEJA RACES. Limpsfield Officer wins second place in Tunisian Plain Event. The Union Jack evening paper, "Tunis Telegraph," give a descriptive report of the Beja races in which the last event on the card, Lieut. C J B Harper, Corps of Military Police whose home is at Courtlands, Limpsfield came in second after a hard race. "The whole meeting" the report states, "was a miracle of brilliant improvisation. To stage a tip-top race meeting, out in the middle of a Tunisian plain, was a problem of organisation which might have staggered even C B Cochran, but these British officers had forgotten nothing and made it look as though putting on a race meeting was just another detail There was a Tote, a paddock for the parade, a grandstand garlanded with flowers, Buffets, Programmes, car parks. a starting bell, the music of a famous Scottish regimental band, an impressive Judges' box - in fact all the trappings of a slap-up English race course. Only the bookies were missing, and all of it conjured up on a bare stretch of land three kilometres outside Beja. The writer of the article Dudley Blake, says:- "It was a day stolen from peace-time, and it seemed hard to believe that only a few weeks ago, tanks and guns were rumbling up past those same hills, and fighter planes were sweeping up and down the road." The race (1,400 metres in which Lieut Harper came in second, was won by Mdlle. Zeller, described as the heroine of the races. In a cheery letter, Lieut Harper writes:- "I have regularly received th 'Surrey Mirror' since about 29 ears having lived at Reigate for 10 years. He joined the Reigate Borough Constabulary during the Great Strike in 1926, and four years later transferred to "K" (Oxted) Division, Surrey Special Constabulary in which he held the rank of Deputy Chief Divisional Leader. Previously he served for eight years as an NCO in "A" Battery, Honourable Artillery Company. He went out to North Africa with a well-known Division and remained with them as a Provost Officer until the end of the campaign. Lieut. Harper writes: "Although I had very little opportunity of riding I entered y name in the last race which was open to Allied officers and French farmer, and one French girl was permitted to enter. Four English officers, three French officers and the girl took part. By change I managed to come in second, three-quarters of a length behind the winner. In a postscript, he adds:- "Owing to the fact that the name of my horse was Tunis, I understand a large number of the troops and others, backed me for a place with good results. |
Provost Officer Appointments: | |
| No appointments recorded | |