 At the beginning of the war Widmerpool joins the army and with the advantage of his Territorial commission is rapidly promoted . By mid @-@ 1940 he holds the rank of major and is serving as Deputy @-@ Assistant @-@ Adjutant @-@ General at Divisional Headquarters in Northern Ireland . Jenkins becomes his junior officer and observes Widmerpool 's industry and his skill as a manipulator . Among the rank and file troops at headquarters , serving as a mess waiter , is Charles Stringham . Widmerpool is embarrassed by the presence of his former school @-@ fellow , and engineers his transfer to a mobile laundry unit , which is sent to Singapore where Stringham meets his death . In June 1941 , Widmerpool is transferred to London as a Military Assistant Secretary at the Cabinet Office . Promotions to lieutenant colonel and colonel follow and he is appointed an OBE . In his new post he is close to the centres of power and is able to influence war policy and settle old scores . He is complicit in the death of another school rival , Peter Templer , who as the result of a policy recommendation by Widmerpool , is abandoned while on a secret mission in the Balkans . Just after the end of the war , Widmerpool surprises his acquaintances by marrying Stringham 's niece , Pamela Flitton , an ATS driver , whose sex life is rumoured to be " gladiatorial " . 
