Catering Corps

The Catering Corps is the assignment Tom Burgess selects when he volunteers for conscription. His choice is presented as a way to exercise control over what he will do, and it briefly brings his decision into focus for his family. The novel offers no account of the Corps’ organization or his duties there; its significance lies chiefly in what Tom’s enlistment reveals about his choices and the direction of his working life.

Tom’s Choice of Service

At a family meal at the Burgesses’ home, Tom announces that he has gone to the conscription office to volunteer, explaining that this will let him choose his work. He says he is due to start the following week. When his father asks what he will be doing, Tom names the Catering Corps.

The announcement produces an unusually formal exchange between father and son: Mr Burgess stands and offers his hand, and Tom stands to clasp it. Their handshake suggests a moment of recognition, though neither seems sure what to do after it. Sylvie responds with a quiet complaint that Tom always has to outdo her; when the assignment is named, she giggles, and Mr Burgess sits down again.

From Catering to the Police

The account later places Tom in the police force. During his Saturday swimming lessons with Marion Taylor, he explains that he joined the police because it was not the army, because others thought his height and fitness suited the work, and because it was preferable to factory employment. He is described as proud of the job and interested in its responsibility and danger. The narrative does not specify how long he served in the Catering Corps or how he moved from that assignment to the police; it does establish that his earlier choice of service preceded this later account of his police career.

Tom also responds approvingly when Marion says he would make a good chef. The remark connects his later self-presentation with the catering assignment, without providing further detail about his work in the Corps. Together, the episodes show Tom making practical choices among forms of employment and service, while keeping the Corps itself largely outside the narrative’s focus.