A PERMANENT SENTRY

Standing upright between the Keep and the Police Post in Brecon Barracks is a large shell of a type used by the Royal Navy.  Not many people who enter the barracks these days know how it got there.  The story goes like this.

In 1957 Jimmy Hubbard was the Quartermaster of the depot South Wales Borderers.  Those who remember that irascible character, whose bark was worse than his bite, will understand how infuriated he could become if, for example, a driver ran the wheels of a truck over his favourite flower bed outside the Guardroom.  This used to happen quite often until Jimmy decided on a course of action.

    For many years a shell used by large men-o‘-war had been lying by the side of the road at Felin Newydd between Brecon and Llyswen.  Nobody could remember how it got there and Brecknock Council were content to leave it alone as it was so heavy.  Jimmy Hubbard had an idea though – it would be ideal for protecting his flowers.

    A dozen National Servicemen were despatched in a 3-ton truck to Felin Newydd and, after much sweating and heaving,  the shell was lifted on to the truck and taken back to barracks.  On arrival it was set upright on its base and proved to be the perfect deterrent for drivers who cut corners.

In 1984 I met someone who was knowledgeable about the old Naval Dockyard in Milford Haven.  I showed him the shell and asked him if he could throw any light on its history.  He rang me a few days later and said that it most probably fell off a truck as it was coming back from Milford Haven after being de-activated.  “On the other hand,”  he said, “it could have been going to Milford Haven to be rendered harmless, and if that is the case, it could still be live.”

Major (later Lieut Col) Peter Kerruish was the officer responsible for action concerning unexploded bombs in the vicinity of Brecon Barracks and he gave me a sick look  when I told him that there was a fifty-fifty chance that a monster UXB was standing outside the Guardroom.

    A team from Hereford arrived the following day and carried out tests.  Fortunately for those who worked in the Barracks and others who lived in the Watton, it was given a clean bill of health,

Jimmy Hubbard died on the 13^th June 1981 but his shell is still doing duty outside the Guardroom.