Conscript, Traveller, Author
R A (Bram) Bramley
R A (Bram) Bramley is the author of ‘Misadventures with Coco-Oscar: A Conscript’s Role in the Malayan Emergency’ a unique memoir based on his 1959 ‘Demob Diary’ and over 60 letters written home during his service.
R.A. (Bram) Bramley
About the Author
After completing his National Service in Malaya, R.A. (Bram) Bramley re-armed himself with a degree from the University of Cambridge and headed north to Scotland to embark on a career in town planning. After working in Edinburgh and Glasgow and, later, in County Durham he emigrated to Canada in 1969.
In Canada, he managed a regional planning commission in Nova Scotia for 18 months before relocating to Toronto where he worked on regional parks, recreation and leisure facility planning including a feasibility study for a domed stadium in Toronto.
In 1974 he moved to Australia to work on the Whitlam government’s growth centre programme. A year later, following the dismissal of the Whitlam government, he found himself in a career vacuum. This vacuum was filled by his appointment to lead the team that prepared the feasibility study and development plan for the Yulara Tourist Village (now Ayers Rock Resort) adjacent to the Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park.
Following this he joined an international consulting firm as a consultant to the tourism and leisure industries before establishing his own practice. Over this time, he has worked on a wide-ranging portfolio of projects throughout Australia and the Asia-Pacific region. In 1999 he was awarded a Commonwealth Product Development Grant to study heritage tourism initiatives overseas. On his return he took up a post-graduate scholarship examining why heritage tourism ventures fail and was awarded a PhD in 2003. Since that time, while aspiring to become a writer, he has travelled extensively for pleasure rather than work.
Bram lives in Brisbane with his wife where they share their backyard (and sometimes their house) with the resident wildlife.
Author of Malayan Emergency memoir
The story behind Misadventures with Co-Co Oscar
How did a British teenager find himself involved in an undeclared and little-known war on the other side of the world? Simply by accepting an offer he couldn’t refuse: to donate two years of his life defending the Queen’s dominions around the world, in his case Malaya. It was called National Service.
Based on his 1959 ‘Demob Diary’ and the 62 letters he wrote home over 16 months, Misadventures with Coco-Oscar portrays life in a dysfunctional infantry battalion on active service as seen through the irreverent eyes of a reluctant conscript.
The memoir is centred around the battalion’s commanding officer, ‘Coco-Oscar’, a decorated veteran of World War II when his youthful bravery outshone his inherent ineptitude.
The ‘Malayan Emergency’ was Coco-Oscar’s first command of a battalion on active service. He was obsessed by his need to impress the senior ranks above him and equally oblivious of the welfare of the other ranks beneath him.
Instead of impressing senior ranks at Brigade and Division level, Coco-Oscar found himself having to account for a succession of cock-ups and cover-ups. During the battalion’s tour of duty morale among the other ranks was gradually eroded by excessive ‘bull’ and atrocious food, ultimately leading to a spate of vandalism on the camp during his absence on leave in the UK.
On his return these disciplinary concerns were soon overtaken by panic over the need to find replacements for the first 40 National Servicemen scheduled to return home for release, most of whom were employed in specialist jobs in HQ Company.
Operationally, the battalion he led mostly found itself in the wrong places at the wrong times to demonstrate any combat capability. During its brief period on active operations:
The only casualties it suffered were self-inflicted…
The only people who surrendered to it were prostitutes (for a price)…
The only hostile bodies it captured were sexually transmitted…
And the only fighting it did took place in bars and dancehalls.
The pinnacle of the battalion’s achievements in Malaya was winning the Far East Army Football Cup.
