Thanks to all of you for your input. Clouds was in Royden at the crux of Essex, Herfordshire, and a few other counties besides, but as a displaced Austrian Jew, I get the gut feeling he would have been snapped up by some Headquarters group for his linguistic abilities during their final advance into those territories formally occupied by the Germans.
Nice tips about berets and ties, which helps place the picture post war, and makes the insignia more likely to be the last regiment he served in. Combined Ops suggested by Sharki might be just the ticket.
An unusual social comment is that he was highly educated and came from a very wealthy family, but I suppose an underlying distrust of anyone with a former Germanic background, still only saw him get two stripes rather than a plethora of pips.
Roy G