One Hundred Years of Military Cadetship

One Hundred Years of Military Cadetship

at Sutton Valence School

Introduction Military training in Schools was adopted in the second half of the nineteenth century, when, on 12th May 1859, the Secretary of State for War sent out a circular letter to the public schools and universities inviting them to form units of the Volunteer Corps.

The first school cadet corps was established at Rossall School in February 1860, initially as an army contingent only. Other corps were very quickly formed in 1860 at five further schools: Eton, Harrow, Hurstpierpoint, Rugby and Tonbridge. In 1908, the units were re-titled the Officer Training Corps (OTC); a school contingent having any combination of Royal Navy, Army, and (eventually) Royal Air Force and (sometimes) Royal Marines sections, the army section being invariably the largest.

The Combined Cadet Force (CCF) was created on 1st April 1948 by the amalgamation of the Junior Training Corps (formerly the Junior Division of the Officers Training Corps) and any school contingents of the Sea Cadet Corps and Air Training Corps.

The CCF movement is dominated by the independent sector with 200 contingents still being based in independent schools with only around 60 in state schools. It was reported in 2008 that some independent school CCF detachments would be opened to pupils of local state schools, however there was no resultant change.

In February 2014 it was announced that independent schools will lose millions of pounds of funding and support for cadet forces under plans to divert the money into the state sector. Under the plans, 100 state schools will set up cadet units by the end of 2015. A further 250 are expected to follow suit.

For most of its life Sutton Valence was a small ‘Grammar School’ whose intake was largely made up of local boys, some of whom boarded and a contingent of boys who were sons of members of the Clothworkers’ Company, or boys sponsored by that Company to benefit from a good education ‘in the countryside’. Very rarely, before 1914 did its numbers exceed 90 in total, and it was often well below that number.

There was no internal organisation to provide military training, but ‘drill’ formed part of the exercise regime.

Sutton Valence School joins in the history of the OTC in 1914, when it was given permission to have a platoon of Infantry and two officers. At that time the School had abandoned its ‘Grammar School’ identity and was striving to join the ranks of the Public Schools under a new governance of the United Westminster Schools’ Foundation, the result of the transfer of governance from the Clothworkers’ Company in 1910. The story told in the pages that follow is of the activities and adventures of that body over the next one hundred years as interpreted by me.

David Pickard School Archivist Spring 2014

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Part 1 The Birth of the CCF at Sutton Valence School In May of 1914, well before the 1st World War had begun, more than one month before the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand, which was the event that sparked the great tragedy, the School applied to the War Office to have a contingent of the OTC. For all of its life the School had provided officers for the forces of the UK and many had served with considerable distinction. Drill formed part of a PE programme, overseen by Corporal Eley (late of ‘The Buffs’ and a resident in the village) and the School considered itself to have an unofficial Army tradition. After 1910, the School had intensified its aspiration to be recognised among the ranks of the Public Schools, and to have a proper OTC was a must in this regard.

The initial letter was acknowledged coldly and reluctantly.

‘The Army Council are not prepared to sanction the formation of any fresh contingents unless they have reason to expect that a satisfactory increase in the number of officers joining the different branches of the Army will result therefrom’.

How ironic! The School was already providing a good number of officers without an OTC, and it might be difficult, even with one, to increase the numbers. However, the School was increasing in size along with its ambition. It sent particulars of those who had joined the ranks in the previous decades and indicated just how many more might be potential recruits. Just for your information, it might be interesting to note that Old Suttonians at that time included one Admiral, two Colonels on the General Staff, three Colonels of the Royal Engineers, a Chaplain 1st class and 75 other commissioned officers. Of two army men on the staff of the Indian Army, one was Head of Woods and Forests and the other was Inspector General of Irrigation!

There was no response to the Sutton Valence appeal against the letter until October 1914, by which time the War was in danger of being lost. The small British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had been beaten back towards Paris but had resisted, with a major input from the French, along the river Marne and had themselves forced the Germans to retreat back towards the Belgian border, but at great cost to their manpower. This time the Army tried another ruse to deflect the application.

‘I am to point out that the examinations for certificate A and B have been suspended during the war, and that in all probability it will not be possible at the present time to afford the facilities for training which normally exist in times of peace. Further it may not be possible to supply arms and equipment…’

The School was asked to consider very carefully whether they wanted to pursue the matter, or wait until the war was over. This made absolute sense to the Army. Why waste time and money helping train young men to be soldiers in a School when they could take the same lads and work with them as members of the forces?

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Headmaster Holdgate asked for an OTC immediately. I need to point out that he was not at all aiming for his boys to share in the perceived glory of war. He did not preach that it was the duty of his boys to sign up and fight. In Lambe’s House he was reminded daily of those who had fallen in the Boer War, just over a decade earlier, by the presence of the memorial window that had been placed there, and in September of 1914 he had to tell the whole school about the death of Fred Smythe, the first OS to fall in the Great War. His motive for an OTC was a simple one; a complete education in a good School had to include a great variety of experiences, more than lessons and games. He had introduced an expansion in the societies within the School; he promoted debating skill and he encouraged pupils to take up interests out of the classroom to increase their experience and breadth of activity. Providing an OTC was a straightforward extension of that educational aim.

In the words of the School magazine of 1914 .. ‘(A Cadet Force) would be for the benefit of the boys; it would bring them smartness – a sense of discipline and duty, and that training that every good citizen ought to have. A public school is a place where boys serve, not to get privileges, but to undertake responsibility and to learn to develop public spirit. Boys will learn to sink their own ideas and to put aside their own convenience, to deny themselves for the public good’ On 29th November, 1914 the School received the letter giving permission; restricted to just one platoon of infantry and Holdgate himself would become the Commanding Officer. There would be no arms initially, nor uniforms either. G T Hardy, one of the first platoon commanders recalls that at the beginning drill was done in shirtsleeves, with the sleeves rolled up – to have them buttoned down was seen as non-patriotic.

Headmaster Holdgate nearly did not take up command. He considered very carefully whether he ought to go and fight as had some junior members of staff who disappeared quite quickly. In the end, Holdgate decided his greater duty lay with the boys of the School. L W Bridges was one who went; he had been appointed to be the first Housemaster of Westminster, partly as a tactic to prevent the War Office from requisitioning the otherwise empty space when only 18 boys initially occupied its dormitories. His tenure in the School was short, but his legacy a long one – Ponts remains the affectionate nickname of Westminster.

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Part 2 The Military Legacy of the 1800s and the Boer Wars There is no complete record of those at Sutton Valence who went to the School who subsequently went on to fight for their country until the advent of the Boer War, and for this conflict, records are by no means extensive. There is plenty of evidence to suggest that boys left the School to pursue a career somewhere in the Empire, as soldiers, or as traders, or otherwise seeking their fortune. Several boys on the list of those who served in the Boer War went to Africa before the war started seeking their fortune. There were plenty, like Arthur Nethersole, who joined the ranks of the Indian Army. The Kelly brothers were sons of a serving doctor in the Indian Army.

Samuel O’Grady also exemplifies such boys. He left School and went to Canada, where he became a constable in the North West Mounted Police Service. He joined Strathcona’s Horse for the Boer War. Even those who chose to remain at home and pursue non-military lives sometimes found time to join the ranks of the soldiers, at least for a short time. The oldest OS military photograph that the School has is of William Skinner, who left in 1885. His uniform is that of a recruit in the Volunteer Medical Service Corps, a fledgling terrritorial contingent (established in 1885) and fore-runner to the RAMC. This was a London organisation and it is thought he signed-up while working in Bromley prior to his taking up Friday Street Farm in Chartway Street.

William Skinner OS (1885)

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Below there is a list of those who took part in the Boer War, with more detailed notes (where found) on those who were killed. It is interesting to note that the death-rate of these boys is approximately the same as in WW1 (between 15% and 20%) but it must also be noted that these records are by no means complete.

The ages below are estimations; no dates of birth available, only ages at arrival at school.

Name A J Corlett

Years at School 1890-93

Age at Death 28

Date of Death

Rank

Regiment etc.

30/10/1900 Lieutenant East Kent Regiment (The Buffs), Natal Mounted Police

Died at Bakenlaatge There is a memorial window in East Sutton Church He was killed in “Colonel Benson’s Fight”; the action took place 20 miles north-west of The son of John Corlett, proprietor of ‘The Sporting Times,’ he went out to South Africa before the war, joined the Natal Mounted Police and served throughout the campaign, being promoted from the ranks of the Natal Police to a commission in the Buffs in May, 1900.

J Rowlands 1888-93

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12/11/1900 Trooper

Brabant’s Horse

Died in Durban (enteric fever) Memorial in St Padarn’s (Mission) Church, Llanberis On the outbreak of the Anglo-Boer War in 1899, he volunteered for service with Brabant’s Horse and was involved in the siege of Wepener and was later captured at Spitzkop in April 1900. He was eventually released at Pretoria and discharged on 15 October. He was admitted to Addlington Hospital in Durban suffering from enteric fever caused by the insanitary conditions endured whilst a prisoner and died there on 12 November 1900. He is buried in West Street Cemetery, Durban.

A W Hewett 1888-93

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16/02/1901 Lieutenant 1st. Loyal North Lancashire Regiment

Died at Hartebeestfontein He was killed in action during this skirmish. He had earlier been wounded during the siege of Kimberley in which he had distinguished himself, and also had been involved at the action at Carter’s Ridge and the subsequent operations in the The Orange River Colony. The ORC was the British colony created after Britain first occupied it in 1900 and then annexed it in1902. The colony ceased to exist in 1910, when it was absorbed into the Union of South Africa as Orange Free State Province. He saw much

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service in connection with convoys and was invalided home in Aug 1900. This was his second visit to South Africa and he joined Lieutenant-General Lord Methuen’s column in November of 1900. He fell while leading his men under very severe fire from the Boer position. The School magazine reports…”We were proud to hear from his brother officers of his gallantry and coolness in every fight in which he was engaged…His men would have followed him anywhere, having perfect confidence in him.”

M E J RALFE writes to The Suttonian of February 1902 (No 67 No 4 of Vol IX) an account of that very fight – without mentioning Hewett at all. They were in different outfits and it is possible he did not know that Hewett was there. His company of only 173 were ambushed at the start of the engagement and after retreating to a kraal, where they lost many of their horses and were surrounded, they were relieved by the arrival of a column of infantry and Hussars. Perhaps Hewett was in this relief column.

G F Hayward

1892-94

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23/05/1901

Died at Begnisel He was severely wounded in the action, and died a few days later from the wounds he received.

F A Hurlbatt

1894-98

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06/06/1901 Trooper

Died at Vlacfontein Nothing is known about the details of his death.

H P Woodham 1889-93

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22/06/1901

Duke of Cabridge’s Own Imperial Yeomanry, 27th Company 7th Battalion

South Australian Imperial Bushmen, Colonel Plumer’s Column

Died in Albany, Western Australia Hugh Prior Woodham arrived in Adelaide on board the Orient steamer RMS Orizaba with his older brother William Robert Woodham on 31 October 1893. Hugh would have been about 17 years of age at the time. They both settled in Renmark, a newly established settlement on the Murray River close to the Victorian border. Renmark was to become a major centre for the South Australian horticultural industry and it is evident that Hugh and his brother William became involved in that industry right from its early beginnings. In 1900 Hugh volunteered to serve in the South African War as a trooper in the 4th Contingent South Australian Imperial Bushmen Corp

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which sailed from Adelaide on 1 May 1900. He was returning home on the Britannic in July 1901 when he contracted measles and died a few days out of Albany, Western Australia. Apparently there was a major measles outbreak on the ship which affected up to fifty returning soldiers but unfortunately Hugh also conrtacted pneumonia and became one of just two fatalities over the whole voyage. He was buried at Albany with a full military funeral.

A memorial window in Big School – the present Library – was unveiled by R Moore, Master of the Clothworkers’ Company on Speech Day, 24th June 1902, in honour of those killed in the Boer War. Sadly this window was removed sometime after the Second World War and was not replaced. School records suggest that 27 OS fought during this conflict. They are: Name

Rank, regiment (where known)

Year left School

Names in bold letters also fought in WW1

HS Amoore G E H Brickwell J S Cameron G O Chapman A J Corlett N Cruddas J M Harrison G F Hayward A W Hewett F A Hurlbatt P J Kelly C J Kelly C B Margetts H G Margetts A R Nethersole C S H O’Grady S N Perfect M E J Ralfe H R Ralfe J R D Robertson R C Ronaldson J Rowlands R Smither W F Sorsbie M J Wheatley F G Whitehead H P Woodham

A division South African Constabulary Robert’s Horse Capt. Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry

1893 1894 1889 1891 Lieutenant East Kent Regiment 1893 Imperial Light Horse 1898 Captain Army Service Corps 1886 1894 Lieutenant Loyal N Lancashirs Regiment 1893 Trooper, Duke of Cambridge’s Own Imperial Yeomanry 1898 1890 1890 1892 1893 Indian Army 1884 Strathcona’s Horse (Canadian Contingent?)

1892 1895 Imperial Light Horse 1898 Imperial Light Horse 1887 Captain Dublin Fusiliers 1893 1892 2nd Division, Brabant’s Horse 1892 1901 Reverend Chaplain to the Forces 1880 Lieutenant Dorsetshire Regiment 1898 1899 South African Imperial Bushmen 1893 (Colonel Plumer’s Column)

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It is fitting that the story of Mervyn Wheatley be told at this point. His tale sums up much of what the boys were made of in those days.

Wheatley was the son of a Chartered Accountant, and a member of the Clothworkers Company living in Poole, Dorset. He came to the School as a Clothworkers’ Scholar and immediately impressed the staff because of his bravery and perseverance. He was blind in the right eye and was prevented from joining the Regular Army because of this fact. Immediately on leaving School he was gazetted a Second Lieutenant in a Volunteer Battalion (without an eye test) and applied to join the forces in South Africa where extra men were badly needed. He was seconded to the Army Service Corps and at the tender age of just 20 he found himself in command of supply wagon-trains of up to 200 wagons strong. It was a busy and dangerous time for him culminating in an interview with Lord Smith-Dorrien who told Wheatley that a DSO was being recommended for the sterling work he had performed and who also asked why Wheatley was not in the Regular Army. On being told that despite several applications Wheatley had always been turned down on ‘King’s Regulations’ (blindness in one eye) Smith-Dorrien proposed that Wheatley might accept a Regular Commission instead of the DSO. It took over a year. Smith-Dorrien went to see Kitchener and he, in turn went to see the King, who graciously agreed to the idea.

(Lieutenant Colonel Sir Mervyn Wheatley KBE DL died, aged 94 after an accident at home in Poole. He had retired from the Army in 1919 and joined the political service of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan where he became governor of a province and private secretary to the Governor-General. IN WW2 he was an army welfare officer and organised the Home Guard in Poole. He became mayor of Poole and won the East Dorset seat for the Conservatives in 1945. He was a Conservative whip from 194851.)

Whilst Wheatley survived the Boer War, John Rowlands did not. ‘Jackie’ Rowlands did have some military background. His uncle was General Sir Hugh Rowlands VC KCB. Jackie earned a formidable reputation at Sutton Valence as a sportsman. He played rugby for Richmond, London Welsh and Kent whilst at School and in the three years immediately after. In 1895 he was in S Africa, employed as a secretary in the Crown Reef Gold Mine on the Rand. Co-incidentally, one of his work-mates was Hugh Nethersole, brother to Arthur (see in the list above) who had also left the UK to seek his fortune in Africa. With Rowlands’ background and education he could easily have taken a commission, but instead volunteered as a trooper. He had a hard war. He was one of those besieged at Wepener, suffering vicious attacks for 16 successive days. Taken prisoner at Spitzkop, he suffered insanitary conditions and inadequate nourishment such that on discharge he was taken ill and admitted to hospital in Durban where he died a month later.

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Part 3 The Sutton Valence School Officers’ Training Corps during WW1 If the OTC began in the January of 1915 military activities had been a part of what we did here well before that. Drill formed a part of the physical exercises that were undertaken. Shooting was also part of the suite of activities that boys could enjoy.

An official OTC simply formalised the position.

From the School magazine of Spring 1915…

‘At the end of last term we received from the War Office the long sought permission to form a contingent of the Officers Training Corps. Owing to the War it is extremely difficult to get equipment and what can be got is much dearer than usual. Still we have succeeded in getting uniforms, a matter of great satisfaction to members of the Corps. Rifles are not at present to be had. Towards the estimated cost (about £175) of equipment, we have received – from the War Office, £47; the Governors, £50; M Aird Esq., £10.10s; and from GL Bennett Esq., £5. There are 52 cadets, officered by the Headmaster, Messrs Bridges and Dodd.’

By the end of the Summer Term the School magazine continues…

‘With the exception of rifles and bayonets the Corps is now fully equipped. A competition was held at the end of last term for the posts of Section Commanders. The following were successful; and have been put in charge of sections:- No. 1 A de C M Denny; No. 2 G T Hardy: No. 3 J R Barlow; No. 4 S P Briggs.

For interest, here are details of the four section leaders mentioned as being the first chosen.

Arthur de Courcy McGillycuddy Denny (No 1 section) will have read of his being made Section Commander with mixed feelings, for in the very same magazine that announces his achievement there are three other articles; one mentions that his brother is wounded and a second is a report by his brother of his experiences at the front; the third is the school report of his brother’s death, as a result of those very wounds. It seems, at first, he puts the tragedy behind him. He obtains colours for both rugby and cricket and is promoted to corporal in the Corps… then he runs away!

He is aiming to join the army in order to avenge his brother’s death, but is intercepted by headmaster Holdgate. Undaunted he tries again and rushes off to Maidstone on his bicycle where the police find him and put him in the cells for the night.

He has his prefect-ship revoked and his corporal stripes removed as well. Eventually, using a more traditional route to enter the army, he passes into Woolwich and goes off to France with the Royal Field Artillery. After the War he went to Ireland and Egypt where he spent three years finishing his service. He obtained a pilot’s license in Egypt and spent two years on the original Baghdad-Cairo air mail service. After a brief spell in Nigeria, which followed a brief spell as an actor, he went to Canada where he spent the WW2 years training pilots to fly.

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George Theodore Hardy (No 2 section) was a significant character at School. He was the first Head of House for Westminster and became Head of School after Barlow and Briggs. He was captain of swimming and also shooting. He left School to join the RMA at Woolwich and became a regular officer in the Royal Field Artillery, with which force he stayed until 1922. He had been born in Port Said, and after his military service he returned there to follow in his father’s footsteps as a merchant of ships’ stores.

In WW2 he was recalled to the colours and served in North Africa with distinction James Radford Barlow (No 3 section) was another who was also Head of School.

Unfortunately, he did not keep in touch with the School and there is very little information about him. We know he went into the RFA and served for a while with 24 Battalion 4B Reserve Brigade. He came to the School from Brackley, where he had been at School with headmaster Holdgate. It was common in those days for pupils to follow their teachers as they were promoted. He was a brilliant cricketer and good at other games as well, being captain of rugby and a member of the School Fives team. Like Hardy, and Briggs he also was Head of School. He died in Longton, Staffordshire, in 1953.

Sydney Pallant Briggs (No 4 section) passed into Sandhurst in 1915 and from there went to War. He was a Second Lieutenant in the Northants Regiment but then passed his flying test on 2 April 1916 in a Maurice Farman Biplane at the Military School, Farnborough. Unfortunately, the war did not last long for him - He was captured by the enemy - and spent two and a half years as a POW. He had been on a bombing expedition and the squadron was caught in a heavy storm, and he and four others failed to find their way back to base, and landed behind enemy lines. Initially he was taken to St Quentin and then to an officers camp in Gutersloh and then to Osnabruck.

He died in Bromley in 1983.

The ‘best’ platoon 1915

Standing (left to right) RD Wickham, GC Gianetti, CA Sharp, GHF Wintle, HH Collis, FW Holdgate.

Seated (left to right) ER John, LG Bacon, GT Hardy, A St.P Harris, HG Fehlman.

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Of this group four served in the War itself; Hardy joined the RFA, Harris went into the Irish Guards and Bacon joined ‘The Buffs’. Collis joined the Artists Rifles. Fehlman is an interesting lad. He found it difficult to manage during the War with a surname such as he had. He changed it to Carver and emigrated to New Zealand soon after.

The first official War Office Inspection took place on June 22nd 1915; the lads did not have much time to get themselves prepared. However, it seems they paraded well and their signalling was highly praised. Later that term they indulged in a night exercise, the aim was to ‘capture’ the School which was defended by members of the School scouts group. It was reported ‘Everyone was in bed by 11.00 pm having gained nothing but the knowledge of the ease with which one’s own men may be mistaken for the enemy!’

Their enthusiasm was not daunted by this setback. Following the precedent set by the Duke of York, they finished the term marching to the top of Boxley Hill, then marching down again soon after; they had inspected the trenches that were being prepared for the defence of Chatham whilst in those parts so all was not wasted.

The School Magazine records ‘The fact that 10,000 rounds of miniature ammunition were fired during the year speaks for the amount of shooting done by the Corps, and we think that the results obtained fully justify the expenditure of ammunition. In the case of most cadets a steady improvement was shown – the result of keenness and constant practice.’

What was really pleasing was that there were no really bad shots. They were satisfied to have an overall good standard rather than have a few crack-shots and a good number of rabbits. The Corps involved itself in two shooting competitions. In the first, ‘The Country Life’ Competition, they failed to distinguish themselves, but against a local Volunteer Corps they won quite easily.

Thus ends the first full year of OTC activity. There was much to be proud about, and yet, there was still a lot to do to achieve a standard that would please everyone. A second inspection took place in June 1917 and the report was not quite so good as before. Intriguingly, the report ends ‘Considering the quite extraordinary difficulties this contingent has had to cope with, the Inspecting Officer considers the display given was extremely creditable.’

There is no indication in our records of what these difficulties may have been, except for the lack of arms and a lack of professional army instructors, Arms finally arrived in the Christmas term of 1917, and Sergeant-Major Morey came with them. His bayonet-fighting course was long remembered by those who took part! Night exercises were held with the local Territorial forces, rather than with comrades, and were

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much more successful as a result. Perhaps the arrival of arms and the man, Morey, was sufficient; the 1918 inspection was very successful, the Inspecting Officer being very happy with nearly everything he saw. The War years had been very hectic indeed. Games practice and matches had been reduced so that more military activities could be fitted into the timetable.

The School started with little or no military knowledge and no experience in 1915, and had achieved a commendable standard only three years later. Holdgate had initiated the OTC but could not have conceived of the horrors the next few years would bring as the stories unfolded from those of his charges that went to fight and the tragic deaths of so many. He could console himself that his boys were better prepared to fight when asked to do so and could also be very grateful that none of the boys he had taught in the School OTC were killed. Some of them had great adventures, as the story of Reggie Fulljames illustrates ’On June 29, 1917, the young pilot, Fulljames, was flying his two-seater RE8 above Belgian trenches when suddenly he was ‘jumped’ by the famous Red Baron and four single-seater Albatross that flew towards him with the sun behind. Bullets whipped round the pilot’s head and during the close-range attack the British crew fired off 300 rounds of ammunition and shot down one enemy plane. Fulljames put the plane into a right hand spin from 7,000 feet. The Germans flew away convinced it would crash as the RE8 had a reputation for its inherent instability in a spin and many had crashed out of control. But Reginald Fulljames had been one of the first pilots trained at Gosport to bring the RE8 out of such a spin and at 2000 feet he pulled out and flew back to base. (During this event his observer was shot in the leg and wounded and afterwards the aeroplane was found to have more than 48 bullet holes in it.’

(News in Southern Evening Echo August 29th 1979, to mark the unveiling of a painting depicting the event, painted by Ralph Gilles and subsequently presented to the RAF Club in Piccadilly).

Some were very brave. Lieutenant G F M. Apps, RFC was awarded the DFC. His citation reads ‘A bold and skilful airman who in recent operations has destroyed six enemy aeroplanes, accounting for two in one flight’ On March 11th 1918, whilst on patrol at 14,000 feet with companions Jerard and Carpenter, he attacked six enemy planes. Apps sent one down out of control; Carpenter saw it drop into a deep gully. Later that month, on the 28th Apps fired 300 rounds into an enemy Albatross D.III, chasing it downwards from 10,000’ to just 400’; he was credited with its destruction over Spresiano. On 4th May 1918, Apps sent another Albatross down in flames on the banks of the river Piave and downed another making head-on firing passes on him. The latter foe crawled from the wreckage only to be strafed by another pilot; this victim was probably Austro-Hungarian ace Andreas Dombrowski. On 24th May Apps became an ace whilst flying as wingman

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to famed ace ‘Billy’ Barker, being credited with another Albatross destroyed.)

Second Lieutenant E G A Jones, Yorks and Lancs Regiment was one of several OS who won the MC ‘After an attack by the enemy he found himself the sole officer remaining in his company. He assumed command of his Company and completed the consolidation of the position with marked ability and held command for three weeks. He set a fine example of courage and determination throughout.’

In each of these three examples above the boys concerned had been out of School for only two years.

However, a great number of the alumni of the School did die and it affected Holdgate greatly. He had led the Corps he had founded and done so with great vigour and skill, but he would not continue that task for long.

The first photograph of the SVS OTC, 1916-17 taken after the rifles arrived – its nickname – ‘the final hope’.

How self-conscious and proud they look! However, their prospects are quite bleak at this point. The BEF had been virtually wiped out and the Reserve troops and the Territorials were being depleted rapidly; if the slaughter was going to continue then these boys, and others like them really would be the final hope.

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Below find the photograph for midsummer of 1918 which shows a much more relaxed approach to soldiery! The German offensive of 1918 had petered out and now, with the Americans, at last, giving a hand, the future looked a lot brighter for these young men. Although still a very young contingent there was a lot more self-confidence both in the ranks and in the officers’ mess.

The OTC in 1918

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Part 4 The OTC Between the Wars The imminence of having to fight and possibly of having to die concentrated young minds during the War on their OTC endeavours. G T Hardy wrote in his memoir of that time that the guns of Ypres could be heard at School, another reminder about what was happening. One might think that there would be a relaxation afterwards.

Not in the case of the SVS OTC! There was an inspection in 1919 which concluded ‘There is certainly a keen spirit in the Contingent and the senior boys appear to take a good deal of interest in their work…In my opinion the present condition of the Contingent is quite satisfactory, and creditable to those who have been responsible.’

Continued enthusiasm with ‘military ideas’ was not the norm in the days between the early 1920s until the mid to late 1930s. As each analysis of the Great War began to be published any feeling of satisfaction at a ‘job well done’ that the general public might have formed once the Germans sued for peace in 1918 gradually began to dissipate. It was argued that we should have avoided going to War in the first place.

This conveniently ignored Britain’s arrangement with Belgium to go to its aid in the event of invasion and the fact that we had continually, if informally, given the French the understanding that we would not let them fight alone in the event of German invasion. The consequences of not going to war were also overlooked; German troops sitting on the coasts of the Low Countries building their strength for an invasion of the UK and exercising control over the mainland to ensure that British trade was diminished in favour of German commerce with its new protectorates. The conduct of the War was severely criticised and many myths, detrimental to the reputation of the leaders, were allowed to go unchallenged. The emotional outpourings of The War Poets poured petrol on these hot topics and a general revulsion of all things military began to take hold.

It is indeed remarkable that the OTC remained strong at SVS. Admittedly, it was compulsory and there was dissatisfaction from some in the ranks, but Holdgate had not asked that it be established so that he could train boys how to kill others, rather he used it as a medium of teaching vital personal, life skills to those in his charge. He was intent on improving the performance of the cadets, through his leadership as OC and through his encouragement of his successors as OC. The standard of shooting did drop, however, for a while at least. In 1920 new rifles appeared, which helped to improve matters and the OTC band, initially capable only of soul- harrowing sound, was beginning to produce more harmonious noises. Spirits were high, and lifted higher by the arrival, in the late Spring of 1920, of a German Field Gun. This was a souvenir of the War and presented to the School by the Army for the support given.

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In 2012, a conference was held at Wellington School for personnel in the Independent School sector to receive advice and ideas about how they may commemorate the up-coming 100th anniversary of WW1. In the plenary session at the end a nervous female voice from somewhere near the back of the hall told us that her School had been presented, at the end of the War with a German Artillery piece. ‘It was falling to bits’, she said and then asked if anyone else had any such artefact. I was about to leap to my feet and let her know that the one other School in the country to benefit was Sutton Valence, when a huge shout went up and just about everyone else in the room indicated they, too, had received a gun! In the vast majority of cases it was no longer seen, having been disposed of in subsequent years.

The German Field Gun

Photo taken early 1928

Sutton Valence School was no more caring of its souvenir than the others. Our story has some humour and mystery, however.

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The twenties and thirties was a period in which a hatred of war was strong. Pacifism was taking hold. At Sutton Valence, the gun was a reminder of horror and not wanted. The building of the Chapel in 1928 gave the School the opportunity to landscape the western half of its property. In those days there was no Refectory, nor Music School and the area to the west of Westminster House was orchard and grassed and not particularly flat.

Landscaping created problems. As the land was flattened large holes appeared where the bigger blocks of limestone were removed. The School took the opportunity to bury the gun in one of the holes. Irritatingly, no accurate description of its location is given, but there are strong indications. There are no records extant of it being dug up and removed completely, which may indeed have happened, but there remains an opportunity for it to be re-discovered if it is still there – but where?

Headmaster W W Holdgate

It cannot be suggested that Sutton Valence OTC was strongly affected by the public distaste for military activities referred to earlier. During the 1920s and 30s it remained as vigorous and as effective as ever, even if there were some undulations in standards. There is a possibility that if Headmaster Holdgate had continued to lead the Corps it might have been less active. He was becoming older, the War had taken a great toll of his energies and reserves, and he was having to manage a School whose numbers had risen from about 50 when he took over to about 200 by 1921.

He retired from the OTC in 1921 and handed the lads over to Captain H F Grizelle MC who was an Old Suttonian who had left in 1904 and returned to teach here. He was younger, experienced militarily and much more enthusiastic than Holdgate could be.

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Grizelle’s first year began uneasily. A field day was arranged against Cranbrook, but it had to be cancelled because of Cranbrook’s diffidence at the last minute. Night operations were to be held, but illnesses of key players put paid to that idea. The band regressed. As the School magazine says ‘The Corps Band has unfortunately fallen into a state of hopeless inefficiency, owing chiefly to lack of people capable of playing a drum or bugle or anything like decently.’

Camp that year was not a great success, either. The weather was atrocious, essential materials (like straw to fill palliasses) was unavailable, and the instructors uninspiring.

Worse for the morale of young lads, on the last day they marched a long way in the rain to hear an ‘interminable’ speech from a General and then had to march home again in the rain.

The 1920s and 30s did see a formal combining of resources The Scout troop and its supporting cub pack, formed of the youngest members of the School did more in concert with the OTC so, for example, much of the leadership training was conducted by both Scouts and OTC working together, and, indeed, the Scouts often assisted their more fierce and bloodthirsty warriors in their endeavours without themselves becoming part of army manoeuvres. The Scouts were seen as an intermediary between cubs and OTC. The Scout Patrol leaders usually transferred into the OTC as they became older. This combined activity is seen to occur today with the increasH F Grizelle ing ‘togetherness’ of the CCF and those pupils involved in The Duke of Edinburgh’s Award Scheme. Neither case, then nor now seems to have posed any threat to the success and efficiency of the military wing. Grizelle aimed to generate a renewed enthusiasm in shooting. In 1921 he entered a team in ‘the Country Life’ Shooting Competition; it distinguished itself and came third. In 1922 the success was repeated, SVS again coming third and a

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match between SVS and University School Hampstead was won by SVS 544 – 489; the growth in shooting was increasing in pace. The School won the Sporting Life Competition for the first time in 1924, winning the cup and taking first prize out of 26 competing schools in Class B, open to Schools with less than three platoons.

Indeed, 1924 was declared, in the report in the School magazine … ‘the most successful year to date’….’It won the Public Schools’ ‘Country Life’ Miniature Range Cup, in sports it repeated the previous years’ success in the ‘eastern Command’ Relay Challenge Cup at Woolwich and carried away the Army relay Challenge Cup at Aldershot, and won the Camp Sports Competition at Mychett, in the more military work, it was very well reported on, both at the Annual Inspection and at Annual Camp’.

In 1925 Grizelle’s aims may have been given a further boost when the results from the Army Rifle Championship at Bisley were announced. The outstanding shot in this year was Captain G B Champion (OS 1908) who won the ARA Bronze medal and the Roberts Cup and the ARA silver medal. He won the Watkins Cup and Gold Jewel, and by aggregating his score he became Army Champion for 1925 – to cap it all off his team (of six) won the Britannia Trophy open to teams from any Army unit.

‘Shooting’ as a heading for a memo in the School magazine makes its first independent appearance in 1930. That year SVS came second, again, in the Sporting Life Competition but they also shot against 12 other schools, winning 6. By 1930 a House shooting competition had been a fixture for some time; Westminster won that year.

In the summer of 1930 a Field Day was held against Maidstone Grammar School, Cranbrook once again having pulled out. SVS OTC attacked Staplehurst, captured several Maidstone prisoners and forced the other school to retreat. Another Field day saw SVS OTC defending Staplehurst against Maidstone and Cranbrook, who, this time had deigned to make an appearance. This event was independently supervised and refereed by a Captain Neville, GSO 3 of the South Eastern Area. The SVS OTC initially held against the combined enemy, but gradually their advanced posts were driven back. However, this retreat was designed to draw the enemy into withering flanking fire from machine guns and a massive vigorous frontal rifle fire in which aim it was entirely successful and SVS OTC were declared the victors on the day.

At Annual Camp the report by the Brigade of Guards praises ‘Quite the best all-round contingent in the battalion, and in a high state of efficiency.

Always keen and always very well trained, they stood out above all the others in the field. Captain Grizelle, Officer Commanding, was by far the most capable and efficient officer in the battalion. He set his boys a fine example of what an officer should be.

He has military knowledge far more than any other officer in the battalion. He is a strong disciplinarian, a born leader, and exceedingly popular.’

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This exceedingly popular OC of the SVS OTC resigned in 1931 and his place was taken

by Edward Craven, another OS who had returned to the School to teach. Grizelle had been in charge for ten years and had taken over when the world was undoubtedly weary of military activities and had turned it from a good unit into one that was respected throughout the whole OTC community. He had been supported well by his Headmaster, who had preceded him as OC, but it was his professionalism and his leadership, gained during WW1 that had counted. Craven had some act to follow.

He was charismatic enough – he represented his county at Rugby and regularly played at first class club level. He was a brilliant cricketer, and if his teaching style is best described as ‘relaxed’ there is no doubt that he had the respect of the boys in his charge. Always busy and innovative, one of Craven’s first acts was to encourage the Scouts to take up shooting. In this way he provided a better pool of shooters among the younger OTC lads so that as vacancies appeared in the ranks of the more experienced they could be more efficiently filled by the newcomers.

Headmaster Holdgate had chosen 1932 as the time to retire from teaching. The OTC was fortunate in that his successor as Headmaster was T M James, who had come to the School in December 1913, before WW1 and who had been Holdgate’s junior officer in the OTC for some time. Craven would not lack support. However, just as Craven took up the reins of command, Grizelle suffered a major illness and died after a very short time. It was a great shock. Grizelle had been a lot more than the Commanding Officer of the Corps. His leadership quality has been commented on before, but he was a really good musician – he had been the first recipient of the Hubert Parry Organ Scholarship while he was at Oxford. He was the one who introduced and organised the School tuck-shop. He was the one to whom everyone, pupil and staff alike went for advice; always he had a welcome ready.

The facilities for shooting were woefully inadequate and the standard was remarkably high considering this fact. Edward Craven managed a massive improvement as the inspection for 1932 tells, identifying the massive reduction in 3rd class shots compared to the previous year. His introduction of shooting to the Scouts seemed to be paying off. At this time all he had at his disposal was a small range over-exposed to the south west winds, without adequate safety at the firing point and the facility for only two to shoot at any one time. Bigger Schools than ours also had indoor facilities where the cadets could train in wet weather, we did not –we simply got wet.

But they were fit, and strong. In the period between 1910 and WW2, and afterwards as well for a while, it was common in boarding schools for a significant reduction in numbers because of contagious infections such as chicken pox, measles and ‘flu. At Sutton Valence, from time to time, instances where numbers at camp are slightly reduced are mentioned, but they are relatively few and far between. Our outdoor, all action, Corps must have developed resistances through their fitness.

Craven’s No 2 at one time was Henry Cyril Franklin. He was the one, encouraged by Grizelle, who had made great strides in guiding and improving the standard of shooting. Franklin would not stay long on the staff, he had bigger fish to fry – see his bi-

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ography on Wikipedia below. Franklin did take over the running of the OTC from Edward Craven in 1936, but left almost as soon as he was in post – to become leading bass soloist at Glyndebourne. The School very much missed the stentorian and melodic commands from one trained as an opera singer. From 1936 until the middle of WW2 O G Miller was Officer Commanding.

David Franklin (17 May 1908 – 22 October 1973) was a British opera singer and broadcaster.

Born in London in 1908, David Franklin originally trained as a schoolteacher. A bass singing in amateur productions, he was discovered in 1934 by John Christie, the founder of the Glyndebourne festival. In 1936, at the age of 28, he made his professional debut as the Commendatore in Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne. He sang with both the English and Welsh National Opera companies. He was leading bass at Covent Garden from 1947. He created the role of Mars in the world premiere of Sir Arthur Bliss's opera ‘The Olympians’ in 1949. A throat condition forced his retirement from professional singing in 1951. He taught at St. Albans School in Hertfordshire during the 1940s and early 1950s, directing many School productions during this time. On retirement, Franklin turned to writing and broadcasting. He wrote the libretto for Phyllis Tate's opera ‘The Lodger. An excellent raconteur, Franklin was, from 1966 to 1973, a panellist on the light-hearted radio panel game ‘My Music’, chaired

by Steve Race. He also became the chairman of the very long running popular BBC radio panel game ‘Twenty Questions’ from 1970 to 1972, following in the steps of fellow distinguished broadcasters Gilbert Harding, Richard Dimbleby, and Kenneth Horne. He died shortly afterwards at his home in Evesham.

Camp 1932

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The report on Camp for 1933, written in ‘The Suttonian’, can be found below. It is included here in order that anyone of the present generation reading this little history may compare a typical pre-war event with their own experience.

‘The Corps sent a party of 60 to the OTC Camp at Tweseldown near Aldershot, during the early part of August. We went a day earlier than most other contingents. After all the flurry of getting ready and making arrangements for departure, a welcome shower of rain prevented the CO’s idea of marching to Maidstone from being carried out. Fortunately a bus was forthcoming, so we made our way to Maidstone in style, the only contretemps of the journey being that the CO had carefully packed our railway tickets into his kit, which was then somewhere near Aldershot on the luggage lorry.

This shower on departure was the only one we saw for a fortnight. Camp, this year at least, was to break records for heat. Why is it that Camp is either intolerably wet or hot?

Our early arrival at Tweseldown was in many ways fortunate. To most, camp was a new experience, and the extra day to get used to things, settle in and find the way to the N.A.A.F.I. tent was very useful. On the other hand we were called for battalion guard on the first night, and also we managed to fall for sundry odd jobs as we were the only complete contingent present.

There followed a week of training in one of England’s best heat waves. Fortunately the CO had provided ‘shorts’ for camp – his own were a fine sight. Eventually the authorities took the hint and we did our training in shirt sleeves, and earlier in the day, to escape the worst of the sun.

The standard of food was well up to scratch. Sgt. Major Meades (the then SSI) looked after our interests with the Army cooks to good effect. We certainly had an appetite for all that they could give us, as the dusty marches in the Long Valley certainly whetted our appetite.

Our afternoons were occupied cleaning equipment, foot and rifle inspections, much sleeping and visiting the N.A.F.F.I. Our evenings were spent watching guard mounting and boxing, and attending sing-songs. We were much interested in the various guns and wireless cars on show at the end of our lines all the time we were in camp.

Sunday, far from being a day of rest, was hectic. After preparing ‘lines’ for inspection we attended Church Parade after which we waited a while in the hot sun for the G.O.C. – in – C. of Aldershot Command, Sir Charles Harrington, to inspect the Camp.

After lunch we spent a strenuous afternoon at the Camp Sports, gaining second place in the 4 x 100 yards relay, reaching the semi-final of the tug-of-war, and providing a large number of competitors in the boat race, sack race, three-legged race and the pillow fighting.

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An account of Camp would not be complete if we did not mention work. We learnt about many things of which we previously had only the haziest of ideas. Space is too short to tell of machine guns, howitzers, wireless controlled cars, fire-power demonstrations and the like. We managed to build a kapok bridge which managed, among other things, to bear the weight of the officers. The demonstrations given by various parties of the Scots Guards were well thought out and well described to us.’

This Camp was attended by about 60 boys and four platoons assembled for the inspections. The true size of the SVS OTC was about 140. This number must have included just about everyone in the School old enough to be a member. Of this number some 30-40 took the ‘A’ Certificate each year (with just over half being successful).

In the early years of the 1930s there was an increasing number of boys who, on leaving School, joined the TA. The experience of the OTC certainly did not deter them; and, of course, war clouds were beginning to form again with the rise of fascism in Germany, Italy and Spain.

In the mid-1930s the lack of shooting facilities was overcome to some extent by using the range at Maidstone Barracks. More and more competitions were entered, postal shooting matches were arranged against other schools and, on the Maidstone range, matches were held against other OTC contingents in the Kent area. Under Edward Craven’s leadership and the sterling work of ‘Bill’ Franklin, we were becoming more and more ambitious.

Consequently, when Franklin resigned in 1936 and handed control of the OTC to O G Miller, he could be proud that he had continued to maintain the OTC as his predecessors would have wished, indeed he had built on their excellent foundations.

No OTC can develop well without outside help. The SVS OTC benefited right from its beginnings as a result of close liaison with the Royal West Kent Regiment based at Maidstone. Their role is always recognised and commented upon in the annual inspection reports that are available right up until the late 1930s and beyond. Their taking of drill instruction relieved the School’s own CSM Instructor of much of that task and allowed him to concentrate more on being a Quartermaster, which for the size of the contingent was quite reasonable. The OTC suffered, periodically, from sudden and catastrophic depopulations in its NCOs (as they left the School having completed their education.) Of course, they were replaced by younger, less experienced lads who had just completed their Certificate A, but from time to time there was an imbalance between those numbers leaving (large) and those newly qualified (small). This crisis was overcome by a very hands-on approach by the CSM Instructor who had the time to spend with these lads because much of the burden was taken from his shoulders by the Royal West Kent commitment. 1937 illustrates this quite well. At the beginning of the year not one of the NCOs – including the schoolboy CSM was even a Lance-Corporal 12 months earlier. Yet in that period they had taken their tests and, whilst inexperienced were ready to assume command. They achieved great success. The Inspection Report tells us

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‘DRILL – Very good. The Company are very well handled by the Cadet CSM TACTICAL TRAINING – An inter platoon exercise was carried out. Platoon Commanders gave out sound orders to their Section Commanders and (they) showed initiative in carrying them out TURN OUT – Very good; clothing clean and in good order, Puttees and boots notable good.’

And there is more praising comment along these lines. Clearly the new leadership had responded well to their challenges. But, 1937 was not an unusual year. The Inspection reports are invariably very pleasing ones, ‘satisfactory’ appears a lot fewer times than ‘good’. As the OTC silver jubilee approached, ex-Headmaster Holdgate, now a parish priest, must have looked back on a very full and rewarding life and I am sure he must have been very proud that the work he had begun was continuing with great verve.

In 1936, the reign of Edward Craven as Officer Commanding the OTC came to an end. In the same year, after a very brief stint, so brief it is possible that he left before his appointment could be realised, Franklin in his turn gave up command. Ottwell Grenville Miller took over the OTC. He had come to the School from Merchiston Castle School in Scotland and immediately impressed all by his enthusiasm and energy – as befits one with a Tennis Blue at Oxford and one who had played hockey for his country (Scotland). He continued until the middle of WW2, when Edward Piersene took over the role.

In 1938 the OTC put aside drills and weapon training for three days in the early part of the Christmas term; there was a political crisis! The prospect of War in Europe had once again become a significant threat. These days saw the digging of air-raid trenches on Lower and Stoney and learning the art of wearing a gas-mask whilst still doing ‘normal’ things. Our Infantrymen had become Pioneers!

As the Suttonian reported ‘Air raid precautions were practiced. Afternoon School was interrupted by the clanging of bells and whistles and the School, forewarned as to the meaning of these noises, lost no time in evacuating the school block and proceeding in an orderly manner across to the Lower, to the trenches.’ (that was fun) ‘Less popular was an outbreak of these sounds at dead of night (10.30 to be exact) and the language as, having donned trousers, overcoats and shoes we made our way to our murky hiding places, will not bear repetition here. After a conference at Munich it seemed that the crisis had passed and superficially, thoughts turned to more mundane topics – schoolwork for example.’

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For the unknowing, the Munich Agreement was a settlement permitting Nazi Germany's annexation of portions of Czechoslovakia along the country's borders mainly inhabited by German speakers, for which a new territorial designation "Sudetenland" was coined. The agreement was negotiated at a conference held in Munich among the major powers of Europe without the presence of Czechoslovakia. Today, it is widely regarded as a failed act of appeasement toward Germany. The British Prime Minister of the time, Neville Chamberlain, returned from the conference, claiming that there would be ‘Peace in our Time’ and by implication, that the threat of War with Hitler’s Germany had been removed.

The more prescient were not complacent, however, and training continued to have a very firm purpose. In the previous War, SVS had called itself The Last Hope and there was a strong likelihood that this nickname might return and need to be justified.

Air-Raid Precautions

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Part 5 The Contingent during WW2 The School magazine, which is the source of most information for this book, was produced termly until the mid-1960s. It is slightly surprising that the first three magazine reports of OTC activity since September 1939 make no mention of the War at all. ‘Don’t panic, just carry on’ must have been the motto. However, early in 1940, the magazine reports ’…the unofficial visit of Colonel W S Cowland from the War Office… It was not an official inspection, as such, but there is little doubt that very little of the work of the contingent was not noted by him. An unrehearsed defence scheme was carried out by the two senior platoons. The enemy comprised a small force of cadets under CSM Meades, whose instructions limited them only in respect of ‘bounds’ and objective.

The defenders made good use of rather skimpy cover and disposed their forces to very good advantage; the attackers were led with great keenness and initiative.

Colonel Cowland’s talk to the senior cadets afterwards was very helpful and greatly appreciated.’

This was a reminder, if ever one was needed, of how close the War was to touching the lives of all and sundry at Sutton Valence. Shooting, as an activity, already popular benefited from a major surge in interest. Once the war had begun in earnest news began to filter through concerning those OS that were in the thick of things. News of valour and adventures quickened the spirit but news of death served as a reminder that war was by no means ‘glorious’. To add some insult the War Office demoted the OTC in schools; it became the Junior Training Corps (JTC).

In 1944 Captain Ottwell Grenville Miller retired from school life and Captain Edward Piersene took over command – for two years and saw the contingent safely through the rest of the war and its immediate aftermath. Major F T W Blatchley-Hannah replaced him in 1946.

Training continued at School throughout the war since there was no evacuation. It must have added some urgency to acquire the relevant skills as the Luftwaffe were flying overhead, and occasionally boys would stop their efforts to view dogfights over the Weald. Nor were the lads’ connections with proper soldiers confined to the local Maidstone Depot. Some New Zealand troops were stationed nearby in the early part of the year and they came over – but rugby was their preferred subject to teach.

There were regular visits from members of all three of the Services, each describing life in their branch and each explaining how boys might successfully apply to join their ranks. The Brylcream Boys must have been the most persuasive. It is remarkable, as each list of leavers’ destinations is published, how the RAF numbers increase rapidly; this despite a high casualty rate. Of course, without much action on the land or sea it was the antics of the flyboys that garnered all the headlines. The performances of OS in the RAF had certainly fired the imagination of ‘impressionable youth’ at School.

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In 1944, just before D Day, there is a report of an exercise undertaken by the JTC that shows how training might have been geared towards potential real-life events.

‘The idea was to defend the Water Tower; the defenders were allowed to know that the ‘enemy’ was advancing from the general direction of Tower House Lane. It was a difficult task for the attackers, and they were hampered by the failure of their feint attack and the breaking down of their wireless system. The attackers, using a bicycle squad were badly ‘shot up’ during the seizure of their first objective, and from then on both sides were badly mauled, but on the whole the defenders won. The umpires thought ‘Both parties showed dash and enthusiasm throughout.’

I have, not so long ago, been told of an incident in the American Civil War. There occurred an advance of the Bluejackets of the north which seems as if it is going to be conclusive, and for some reason the principle of a (confederate) military school of boys aged 14-16 (the older ones already have been taken for the Army) decides that his boys must help out as best they can. They have benefited from a very thorough schooling in military matters, they are as smart as anyone would wish, they employ exactly the right tactics… and are slaughtered. Is the report above of the SVS defence of the water tower slightly self-congratulatory? How might our lads have fared if an invasion occurred and they were called upon to be ‘The Last Hope’?

However, the JTC’s work progressed and whatever the chances of any opportunity to put their efforts into practice as schoolboys there is no doubt that, as during WW1, the stories coming back from a variety of war zones provided the Sutton Valence boys with much evidence that their immediate predecessors had acquitted themselves well in ‘the real thing’.

One such was Roy Bridgeman-Evans. In 1943 he was in the SAS and on July 13th on a special operation, when the plane from which he was to parachute into enemy Italy was hit, and a fire started. The soldiers bailed out, but they were without their equipment. Armed only with hand guns, they were soon rounded up. BridgemanEvans escaped from the train taking them to their camp, but was recaptured. In the camp he was only a few yards away from completing an escape tunnel when he was moved to a different camp. He was transferred to Strasbourg and escaped from a camp there by virtue of discovering a part of the wire fence that could not be seen by the guards at various points on their beat. He used this time interval to cut through the wire. Walking and foraging he made his way through the Vosges before finding the local underground movement. They put him on the route to the Spanish border and he crossed the Pyrenees with a guide and made his way to Barcelona, breaking into the British Consulate under the noses of the Spanish guards posted there to prevent just such an event. Once safely in British hands he was sent back home.

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Another soldier who remained very cool in the most trying circumstances was Major JD Grafton, Dorsetshire Regiment. He was one of 250 men of his regiment who crossed the Lower Rhine on Sep 24th 1944 at Arnhem to go to the relief of the 1st Airborne Division.

According to The Times Another small party had also made its objective – to link up with the airborne HQ on the right. Two of these officers Major J D Grafton and Lieutenant D L Eccles . Pushing inland, though the odds were all against them, they gained that precious elbow room to allow the withdrawal of the airborne. It was very costly fighting. It was during this time that Major Grafton, fighting with one of the many small groups into which the airborne had been split, called over the wireless for our own guns to put a concentration down on his own map reference. German tanks had filtered into the area.

The fierce British barrage was effective, and Major Grafton continued to call the artillery down on various targets to the great assistance of the airborne pockets of resistance.’

Finally, a very brief account that shows the horror that must have been all about.

An account from the School records ’Surgeon Lt. E A Spouse OS saved four airmen from drowning and performed the feat of amputating one man’s leg with a penknife. The operation was carried out on the beach under the most difficult of circumstances, after Spouse had swum out to rescue the men.’

The School records contain very many more accounts of valour and excitements of the War. These give but a flavour of the stories the boys must have been hearing.

The episode recounted above, of the ‘dash’ of Major Grafton at Arnhem may well have been the inspiration for an exercise in 1946. I quote from the orders received by the CSM SVS JTC on that day, ‘…Corps Movement Control Traffic Post at road junction 289715 has received warning that a small group of SS troops are believed to be at large in the woods south of the road, who may attempt to crater the Corps route or put it out of action in some way.

A ‘G’ staff officer from Corps HQ with elements from the HQ Defence Squadron is on his way to organise such defence as may be necessary until the arrival of 50 (N) Division.

As a result, Sutton Valence School Contingent JTC (less Nos 1 & 3 platoons) who are on route to Maidstone as reinforcements for Guards Armoured Division, are given the task of being responsible for the defence of the Corps Centre-Line to the SE from the road junction 283717 to road junction 289715 from as soon after the receipt of the order as possible until the arrival of 50 Division.’

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This exercise was just but a part of a greater scale event based on ‘Operation Market Garden’, and involved the School in a series of adventures along a line from Maidstone to Ashford with the villages along the A20 being substitutes for the towns and bridges over the Rhine that needed to be captured in the original Market Garden operation.

Re-enacting past events was just part of the activity post war, and the adventure was not without its danger. At the 1946 Camp in Folkestone a specific order was given out at the beginning of the week.

‘Item 5, Mines and UXBs There are still a considerable number of mines and UXBs in the district and it is therefore essential that (a) the demarcation of danger areas should be strictly observed and (b) Anyone finding mines, UXBs or suspicious objects that might be dangerous should note its position and inform an officer AT ONCE. Steps should also be taken to mark the area until the object can be removed’.

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Part 6 The Second Half of an All-male Contingent 1915-1945 represents the first thirty years of the SVS OTC. Just more than thirty years after 1945 the School will admit girls and the CCF (for by 1983 its designation had changed) will follow suit.

The half-way point neatly coincides with a change of name. From 1948 the School’s military wing is to be called The Combined Cadet Force. During the War it had changed to the JTC to make the distinction with training for adults elsewhere, and after the War the developments in this form of education enabled a more collective description to be made.

Between 1945 and 1985 the adventures continue just as before the War. However, society was undergoing a great change at the same time, and this may be an appropriate place to introduce an alternative view. I suspect that, right from its inception there were those who did not agree with the concept of the OTC, and especially, the compulsion to take part. Not everyone was comfortable with, or tolerant of, the nature of OTC methods. Before WW2 it was almost inconceivable that there would be overt complaint, but afterwards it would not be many years before the CCF became an option rather than compulsory. Please find below and account of the Sutton Valence CCF in the very early 1950s, not based on reports in the magazine, but penned by one who underwent the indignation of being a member of the body. He certainly did not find the OTC a happy environment.

‘A dreaded weekly obligation in the ritual of schooling at Sutton Valence at the time, how much does one remember, 60 years on, of the time and energy expended on this “extracurricular” activity? A lot of it seemed at the time absolutely pointless, with endless polishing and blanco-ing of belts, square-bashing in the quad, stripping and reassembling rifles or bren guns and squirming through the Kent countryside on field days. However, as preparation for the then obligatory National Service, it no doubt provided valuable military experience, instilling discipline and allowing pupils to acquire useful skills such as map reading and target practice. And, of course, the school had a long tradition of entrants into the officer corps as career soldiers, for which the course was a good grounding.

I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to shoot, taking happily to the then issued .303 rifles – although the failure of instructors to recognise that without earplugs, the reverberation from live rounds fired from these weapons would lead to severe hearing impediments for many of us in later life; I remember invariably a sharp pain in the right ear after each shot, followed by a ringing which obliterated sound and lasted most of an afternoon (my requirement for a hearing aid since many years past could be, I was later told, directly attributed to this). Another minor irritation that health and safety would take an interest in today was the fact that those left-handed were allowed to shoot with their weapon on the left shoulder. With a bolt-action rifle, there

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was a real risk of taking an eye out from the bolt’s recoil. However, I avoided this particular danger, and was grateful for the skill I achieved with this weapon, which later ensured my progress to ‘expert’ category when enrolled in the US Army at the end of the 1950s (even to the point where on one occasion I became a member of the team shooting for the US Seventh Army Division in Germany).

When I joined the school in 1948, I think we were among the last intake into the OTC where the uniforms provided still required us to dress in puttees, a holdover from the Great War. I was among several boys who never rally mastered the art of tying puttees, which would come unwound during our parades, causing us to trip up and resulting in caustic comments from the drill sergeant. I was thankful that before leaving the school, this element of the uniform was abandoned in favour of gaiters – easier to put on, but requiring yet more blanco-ing.

The object of OTC service was to enable pupils to achieve Certificate ‘A’, which we were given to understand would be looked on favourably for those wishing to gain a commission in the forces when called up. The certificate came in two parts; part I covered basic training, part II more advanced training (during which we got to drill other ranks and perhaps gain a few stripes on our uniforms).

While square-bashing was certainly the dullest of the activities we pursued, all of us enjoyed the annual field days, when, camouflaged and faces dirtied, we learned something of army tactics through practical experience, crawling through wet woodlands and attempting to remain undetected by the opposing force, under the careful scrutiny of Captain F T W Blatchley-Hennah. “Blatch” had a dry sense of humour: I was assigned to Signals, sending communications to our HQ, and I recall him asking me to relay the following message. !”Ask them”, he whispered to me at one point, with a thin smile on his lips, “If they are in possession of matches, igniting, smokegenerators for the use of”. It always struck me that field days were a kind of organised chaos; none of us appeared to know what we were doing, or what was expected of us. But it was fun. The opportunity to throw thunder-flashes around was particularly welcomed. These were employed in quite cavalier fashion, and would undoubtedly today be another cause for investigation by health and safety.

We received an annual visit from a military dignitary, anything from Colonel to General, but all of whom would present almost identical speeches at the end of the day, starting out with something along the lines of …”I saw a grand get-up in mufti…..” (do they all employ the same speech writers?). I remember swapping notes with my brother, who had attended Sutton Valence in the 1930s, and found that he had heard almost identical speeches then!

One other memory comes back – a visit to Chatham dockyard, to see the Royal Marines at work. I remember very little of the day, apart from the lunch they provided; undoubtedly the worst food I have ever eaten in my life (and I include the dreadful meals we were served in my prep school, when evacuated to Wales during

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the War). The main course consisted of a kind of grey mush which we were obliged to force down, with marines around us roaring with laughter at the expressions on our faces. This was followed by a pudding of similar consistency, and I would have thought of virtually no nutritional value – however, this was only five years after the War, and some rationing was still in force.’

Chris Holloway (St M, 1950) Chris Holloway is by no means the only one who was not wholly enamoured of the CCF activities. Here are some extracts from another memoir of the CCF in the mid01950s.

‘The uniform was the most uncomfortable of many uncomfortable clothes, everything about (it) scratched and itched…worst of all were the boots…The idea was to prepare us for National Service and it did help a bit. With eyes closed I even learned how to strip a bren gun in the dark, which might just possibly have been useful in the event of riot and serious disorder in Beckenham. Drill was unbearably tedious, and handling a heavy Lee Enfield .303 rifle quite difficult for a boy of fourteen.

Field Days made a change from the usual routine and a highlight of these were the live blank rounds we were issued with to annoy the local residents as we wandered rather aimlessly about local woods and fields. One year there was a strong rumour that someone had managed to get hold of some really live .303 rounds and had shot a sheep. Certainly an angry farmer had turned up at the School to complain about something.’

Brian Bone (St M, 1056) Let us put Bone’s and Holloway’s comments into context. What was the official version of the CCF in the early fifties? The account is provided by M F Beaman (W 1952) who later came back to teach at the School and, indeed, was for a while OC. ’Junior boys, i.e. all of those in Lambe’s, Bennett and Bailey’s, together with junior day boys were, willy-nilly, in the Boy Scouts and did scouting activities when all the seniors were doing CCF training. All the boys had two afternoon sessions of CCF training a week – a uniform parade on one afternoon and a non-uniform parade on the other. In their first year recruits wore old style uniforms – knee breeches and puttees etc. – before subsequently being fitted out with battledress. However, in addition to the basic uniform, everybody was also issued with a greatcoat. It seems these were seldom, if ever, worn on training afternoons but were worn over the top of games kit in winter to minimise the chill on BM before games started. Most were also worn on the way down from BM but occasionally one or two would be left up there and Jim Sergison (staff instructor at the time) used to say that half of the village community could be seen wearing our greatcoats on cold days! Much of the training which followed each parade was done in classrooms. Those cadets training to obtain the two parts of the Certificate ‘A’ course had periods of foot drill and arms drill when the weather allowed and had also some field craft training on Lower. Weapon train-

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ing, learning to strip, clean and reassemble bren and sten guns and Lee Enfield rifles was all done indoors. All the instruction was done by cadet NCOs, occasionally overseen by an officer, or in the case of drill, by the Staff instructor. Those cadets who had passed both parts of the Certificate ‘A’ test had several options; either join the Royal Artillery Section (learning gun drill on the 25 pounder field gun that was kept in a garage to the west of Westminster House and also learning to align a troop of guns to fire at a given target); or they could train as signallers using very temperamental wireless sets and also field telephones; or they could train to become instructors. Shooting was an extra-curricular activity for those aspiring to become members of the school shooting team. Competition 303 rifles were standard issue. There was also the miniature range. Aged .22 rifles were kept (not under lock and key) in Westminster House and a supply of live ammunition was kept by the captain of shooting.

There was also to be found, in Westminster, a laundry basket full of sword bayonets – the sort that were used in WW1 and which fitted the Mark 1 rifles with which the school had been issued. Needless to say, many of them disappeared as souvenirs.’

Lest one thinks that gloom abounded, the experiences of 1953 may help to show a more positive side to the CCF. 204 cadets and six officers formed the contingent, except that there were three officers less than strength. Even this was considered to be useful since ‘it is an advantage in the long run to have so few officers, as the chief value of training is to be derived from the leadership experiences gained by the senior NCOs’.

The principle officers were the real driving force, however; without their inspiring leadership the senior NCOs may not have developed the skills. In the body of 204, which included 53 raw recruits, 1953 saw 26 candidates sit (successfully) part 1 of the certificate and 26 were successful out of the 27 entrants undertaking part 2 of the Certificate. Indeed there were a couple of distinctions, too. The report of the Officer taking the annual inspection was, again, most favourable. He enjoyed in particular the military music (provided by Blatchley-Hannah’s gramophone) that enabled the parade to go with a real swing and a parade that was conducted most efficiently despite the very small space into which the 204 cadets had to be crammed. The cadets were keen to show their skills of weapons handling and tactical nous in the mock battle, and it matters little that over-enthusiastic use of smoke prevented the Inspecting Officer from seeing the success of the surprise pincer movement that captured the defenders of BM with minimum casualties to the attackers.

Attendance at Annual Camp was rising in number and there seems to be no sign of the pacifism that might have threatened to grasp the School post War, as it so nearly did after WW1. Indeed, it may be that the very exuberance displayed by the leaders and the majority may have contributed to the dislike of those less demonstrative in the minority of boys, as indicated in the preceding section.

1953 was also one of the years that the CCF won the Country Life Class B shooting competition – but in this case it was for the fourth time in succession! Other trophies

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were won as well. In the postal shooting matches against other schools 13 out of 15 matches were won on the miniature range and ten out of ten matches won on the open range. We had an outstanding competitor in T Hills, who won the Gale and Polden tankard for the second successive year. Three other SVS boys, J Melvin, D M Traherne and B H Lockhart came 2nd, 3rd and 4th. In the team event the School won for the sixth time in eight years. T Hills went on to shoot for his country in following years. The School was lucky in having a good teacher to help them. Peter Marchant, who had left the school immediately before the war was a really fine shot and he also shot for his country, came back to help out whenever he could. He was a local farmer before he emigrated to New Zealand. Marchant had applied to serve in the war but was turned down on account of medical problems and was taken up by those seeking to defuse unexploded bombs. Subsequently his expertise at demolition was much sought after by farming colleagues throughout the county. Major F Blatchley-Hannah, who left at the end of the year must have been very proud if a little apprehensive that a band (newly re-formed) would try to improve on his gramophone as a motivator to better marching.

Perhaps the development in the shooting that took place during the 1950s can best be illustrated by the fact that the entry for shooting in the Magazine regularly runs to 4 pages in the summer term and two pages in the other two (the magazine was produced termly). Admittedly the pages were rather smaller, but they were not covered in photographs. Like many activities within a small school such as Sutton Valence, there was a waxing and waning of the standard. What mattered was the leadership and determination of the person in charge, or his response to enthusiasm shown by pupils. Sutton Valence was very lucky at this time to have Jim Sergison as its Senior Staff Instructor. He was an enthusiast and he built on the pupils’ enthusiasm they derived from the example of forerunners such as Marchant.

What did they do?

Open Range shooting Ashburton Meeting, Bisley Sussex County RA (Bisley) Cottesloe Vase London and Middlesex RA Meeting (Bisley) Spencer-Mellish Cup Postal matches v other schools (usually 10) Kent RA Meeting (Sheerness) Gale and Polden pistol and rifle Miniature Range Shooting Country Life Competition House Matches Individual competition (internal)

Postal matches v other schools (again 10 or so)

They were good at it, too. Perhaps because of the developing reputation in Shooting and almost certainly because of the really good reputation of the CCF itself, the 1954 inspection was conducted by Field Marshall Lord Ironside GCB, CMG, DSO formerly

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Chief of the Imperial General Staff no less. He was impressed! He said so, nor were there any qualifications in his approbation ‘You are one of the best organised contingents I have inspected. The NCOs in particular are very impressive in their confidence and enthusiasm’.

No doubt some of the explanation for his pleasure must have come from the synchronisation between the newly reformed band and the cadets. That unison came about because of the really hard work of Jim Sergison, the contingent instructor. He was fairly new to the School in 1954; he came in 1950. His stay was long and very commendable; he left in 1974, and his partnership with Robert Coutts, who was in charge of shooting in 1954 and took over the CCF in 1957, was a really effective one that maintained and enhanced our reputation for all of the 50s and into the 60s.

Accounts of Field Days in the 1950s make amusing reading. We were a very considerate lot. Venues for the ‘battles’ that were customarily fought on such occasions were often changed to avoid upsetting lambing sheep, calving cows or temperamental pheasants. Often the venue was changed at the last minute on the whim of the landowner but the boys never seemed to be caused a significant problem. 1954 presents a good example of the sort of things they did, as The Suttonian reports ’King’s Wood having been denied us at the last moment we were forced onto an area below East Sutton Park. Here in the morning St. Margaret’s and Founder’s platoons occupied defensive positions around Drivers farm. The attacking force was divided into three sections. A main force was to assault frontally after attacks had been put in from the north and south. The northern force ran into considerable opposition and was deemed to be decimated. The frontal assault would possibly have succeeded if the south force had showed up on time but it did not.

After lunch another group attacked the school armoury. The perimeter defence found it difficult to cover every approach. An assaulting force coming down the side of BM was held up by a bren gun firing from the area of the gap between BM and Stoney but was well timed with a similar attack coming from the opposite direction from School lane. These two forces joined together and appeared to be being beaten back towards the north when the main body of attackers came up through the village and easily took the armoury position devoid of its defenders, they having chased north after the feint.’

Such was the stuff of Field Day. It need to be rousing in order to rid boys’ systems of the boredom of classroom soldiering. Apart from drill, little was done outside the classrooms in those days. Perhaps the following was a product of time on one’s hands

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Field Day We come from haunts of House and home, We make a sudden sally, In open order thus we go ‘Advance!’ along the valley.

Our sergeants shout their orders loud In voices rude and harsh.

We follow, all resistance cowed, Through mud, and snow and marsh.

We chatter, chatter as we go To join the bitter struggle; For some troops come and some troops go, Our victory’s born from muddle.

At Field Day’s end our way we wend, Returning to the School; Our legs they ache; our backs they break. Who cares for army rule?

The officers then recall to mind The tactics mad and clever, and oft their well-worn axes grind; Thus ‘Corps’ goes on for ever.

The officers certainly were wont to review proceedings enthusiastically. They had enjoyed themselves just as the boys had. Three officers on roll at the beginning of the 1950s became five by the end. The leaders were Blatchley-Hannah, mentioned before who retired in 1953, Major Bennallack-Hart who held the middle half of the decade and Major R P Coutts who led the Contingent from 1957-61. A conspicuous junior officer at this time was the School Chaplain Reverend Lieutenant ‘Josh’ Nichol MC. The 1960s saw a steady development of the CCF. Officially, as M F Beaman writes ‘Training was still compulsory for the majority of boys; upper 6th. Form boys could opt out. The Scouts had been discontinued and ‘Junior Unit Activities on Mondays (JUAM) took its place. This was mostly sports orientated. Training had reduced to one day per week and that was Monday. It was always in uniform. The 25 pounder had gone but there was still a signals section and an MT section, though this latter activity had a short life. An army cadet training team, based at 36 Engineers, Maidstone was available to help. It was their help of several schools in the area that was one cause of the switch to Monday – it gave us exclusive use of their time. Monday was also chosen because it allowed Field day activities to start on the Sunday, with night exercises and the like. The security of shooting was much advanced. An armoury was provided in which all weapons were kept, and locked at all times. At the end of each training day, cadets were lined up and each had to make a declaration

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that he had no live rounds or empty cases in his possession. Those who had, rather than confess, usually threw whatever they had into the cotoneaster border to the swimming pool (no longer). When in 1980 the bushes were cut right back, a considerable haul of blank cartridges and empty cases were recovered.

During this time there was an expansion in the CCF, to include an MT section. As was said at the time ‘The aim of the CCF, being for the most part military but also to provide opportunities for the development of qualities of leadership.’ The inclusion of an MT section gave a greater variety of activities and thus opportunities for boys to become proficient at something they might then teach to others. Acquiring skills in first-aid was another innovation at this time and the period was characterised by an attempt to get away from classroom instruction (which had been the norm) and teach ‘in the field’. For a relatively small contingent we were not doing so badly – Signals, RA, MT, Infantry and Music all combined together to provide good opportunities.’

The Corps of Pipes and Drums 1961

1968 was the year when sponsorship of our training passed from the RE at Chatham to the Intelligence Corps at Ashford. Although further away, it promised rather better facilities than had previously been the case. In 1969 the first overseas camp was held, in Malta. Whilst potentially a much better place to practice all that had been learned at School, it proved to be a disappointment. With less experience of dealing with cadets than the soldiers of Salisbury Plain, the 1st. Lancashire Regiment sta-

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tioned in Malta provided rather a poor week. Nevertheless, the weather helped to make it a socially better camp than many before it had been. The CCF went there the following year and the affair was a great deal more successful.

The Royal Artillery Section on a Field day in the very early 1960s

The early 1970s saw a bit of a dip in the fortunes of the CCF. Membership of the contingent became voluntary – with those who wished to do so signing on for a year’s service each September. A number chose not to sign on, but more than were expected. By 1975 cadet numbers were in the order of 100 or so, out of a total school population of 320, quite a drop from a total of 200 cadets out of a population of 270 boys. A new training scheme (APEX) was introduced with a greater variety of activity, but it was not greeted with enthusiasm. Orienteering (one of the additional activities) achieved some popularity, taking place on a Sunday. The basic problem was that there was not much to excite the senior boys. Once they had obtained basic qualifications there was little else to occupy them except teaching the younger ones.

APEX went some way to address this, but recovery depended on improving opportunity and excitement and the encouragement to boys to re-adopt leadership skills.

Major Beaman began this, and on relinquishing the CCF to Captain Smith in 1975 change continued. Keith Smith gave the CCF a boost by his energy, but being made Housemaster of St Margaret’s curbed his endeavour and he passed the baton within a year to Major Hughes who had recently joined the School from The Duke of York’s RMS Dover and who was a recently retired serving officer. Just as the introduction of Captain Grizelle in 1921 had steadied the ship and boosted our effort, so the new leadership in 1976 had a stimulating effect.

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The School magazine of 1976 is the first in which Major J B Hughes writes the account of the CCF. He is very keen to remind everyone of the values of CCF activities, which he does, after a quite up-beat account of the year’s progress. Please find below some edited comments from his exhortations ‘Having ‘gone voluntary’ after many years of being compulsory the onus is upon those who support the CCF movement to sell their ideas to the boys and to those whose cooperation is needed to facilitate the running of the Corps….It is safe to say that the Army itself would bitterly resist having reluctant conscripts forced upon it as happened during the days of National Service…There are many who wrongly believe that the CCF is only for those contemplating a service career. This is not so! … The qualities one would hope to see developed by CCF training are of value in any walk of life. The CCF seeks to establish a disciplined organisation at School level within the framework of which activities are provided to help foster the qualities of endurance, determination, resourcefulness, self-reliance, leadership and responsibility…. This is much more difficult to do than to talk about. For example it is relatively easy to teach a garage mechanic to service a motor car; it is much more difficult to train him so that he will service it well, with or without supervision, at all times even in adversity. On attaining NCO status a boy must be capable of organising himself and others in a beneficial way and soon realises that leadership (i.e. the ability to bring out the best in others) is established through good example and by gaining the confidence and respect of the rank and file rather than by reliance on the trappings of rank….The CCF makes no claim to holding a monopoly of the means of training boys. We do offer a carefully though-out training scheme designed to achieve clear objectives, and we do not bite!’

Sutton Valence CCF attached to the Army on the Rhine at Bielefeld.

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Camp in 1976 was held in the training area at Nesscliffe in Shropshire and also in Germany as guests of Royal Corps of Transport located at Bielefeld in West Germany.

By 1977 the CCF were boasting a rise in numbers and the provision of six different courses over a two-year period. Shooting improved; it had declined rather during the late 1960s because of frequent squabbles with the authorities concerning the security of weapons and ammunition. Excitement increased; at the Annual Camp, held at Warcop in Cumbria a new regime was introduced which made the whole thing a great deal more realistic and less of a leisure holiday. The report on Camp, found in the magazine suggests ‘One found oneself under physical and mental pressure for at least twelve hours each day and for one point for 36 hours non-stop. The boys learned what it is like to work a full day, follow this up, with a night exercise, launch an attack at 4.30 am, grab breakfast at 7.00 am and be prepared to embark on a full day of very exacting exercises, March and Shoot consisting of a five mile run in boots, followed by a full scale battle assault course followed by shooting. Throughout the assault course the teams were bombarded with thunder-flashes, smoke bombs and blank fire from Regular Army instructors.’

By 1985 the contingent had grown to almost 50% of the School population. There was a full complement of five officers, the School had an Royal Engineers section and an Advanced Infantry section, in addition to its usual activity. Things were clearly on the up.

This was the year that girls were first admitted into the ranks.

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Part 7 Sutton Valence School’s Modern CCF Since 1983 the CCF has been fortunate to have had only three Commanding Officers, ensuring a strong continuity. The officers were also charismatic, energetic and hard working. Just as importantly, they were supported during 22 of those years by just one Senior Staff Instructor, who, like Jim Sergison in the 1960s and 70s, took over the role of making the shooting as good as ever it could be. Brian Miller, for the SSI was he, was also very well respected and hard working. This leadership structure has ensured that in the modern era, Sutton Valence CCF has gone from strength to strength.

Lieutenant Colonel Christopher Parkinson took over the CCF in 1983 from Major Brian J Little, who himself had succeeded the short reign of Major J B Hughes in 1978. The five years of Major Little’s tenure as CO had proved to stabilise the CCF and to begin to move it in the required direction identified by his predecessor. Unfortunately, any development was dependent not only on pupil cooperation, but also provision of help from the Army authorities. This latter benefit was not always delivered, as is indicated in 1984. Brian Little writes ’Being relatively new to cadets, I have been fascinated by the endless streams of paper telling me what kit I may not have, what will not be available for another year, and what I may just possibly receive in the future. The kit itself arrives with rather less alacrity. In order to be able to teach ‘survival’ outdoors, much School money has had to be spent on Field Rations, sleeping-bags and decent modern webbing, but I am sure it is worth it… Our specialist platoons had a difficult year. The RE troop had to be suspended for the present as we have been unable to get the professional help we needed. The Royal Signals troop has struggled manfully with equipment that was out of date when Pontius was a Pilot, and the oft-repeated promises of new sets have been less useful than the new sets themselves might have been.’

However, improvement was beginning to be seen. An RAF section was formed under the leadership of Flight Lieutenant G R Piper and in 1985 the CCF won the SouthEast District Patrol Competition, having entered it for the first time, against about 50 Grammar Schools in six counties. This is a prestigious cup – we won easily. Not only did they have success in the Patrols Competition but they won the Country Life Shield for ‘The Most Improved Shooting team’. If cadets were developing, the authorities were going backwards. They decided to replace lost and worn-out lightweight trousers. Unfortunately they sent 32 pairs of (very) outsized combat trousers in lieu These were rather larger from top to bottom (see photograph) than many of our cadets were tall, voluminous in cut, and suitable for only clothing seven footers suffering terminal elephantitis – a disease rare amongst cadets.

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Cadet Robin Raja manages to fit in just one leg of the new issue trousers.

You will see that the trousers are about 15 courses of brick from bottom to top – well over 4 feet.

It did not take long for the newly admitted girls at the School to begin to clamour to join in the fun of the CCF. What was feared as ‘a monstrous regiment of women’ (John Knox’s phrase), turned out to be the opposite. Initially girls were allowed to join only the newly formed RAF section, but within a year they began to be seen in all the sub-units including the Infantry, and to contribute very well. The RAF section did not start slowly, but came with a bang! The contingent was visited by two helicopters, a Puma and a Chinook, giving rides to cadets. Talks were given by a variety of RAF personnel, a small group of cadets spent the weekend on a survival exercise camping under a parachute and skinning rabbit for breakfast and finally being winched up by a Search and Rescue Wessex Helicopter from RAF Manston. 52 cadets flew in and took controls of Chipmunk aircraft and two cadets successfully completed a one week’s exercise to obtain their gliders wings’.

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Wing Commander Geoff Piper sent in some of his own recollections of the time associated with his setting up of the RAF section and the immediate aftermath.

‘I came to SVS in January 1985 as Flight Lieutenant and did not want to muscle in by saying “let’s start an RAF section” so I ran the Royal Engineers section, but wearing a pretty blue uniform and the cadets said, ”let’s have an RAF section”.

Setting up the RAF section led to the MoD giving the School CCF the “new” CCF building.

I had links with RAF personnel in Helicopter and Tornado squadrons so I did my best to get helicopters in to school as often as possible. There were two main Puma squadrons and two Chinook squadrons so sometimes I was able to get four visits per year and of course each one would take up the cadets for flights. For many years I used to be able to get a search and rescue helicopter in which after a talk from the crew would usually winch up a few cadets! Sadly we lost that when the SAR was relocated from Manston to Norfolk. Mr John Posnette was very upset at one chinook’s arrival as it blew most of the flowers off his clematis. On one occasion I had arranged for a chinook to come and received a polite message from Mr Brian Day (Head of Languages) that they were recording their French oral exam and all they had recorded was a very loud thumping noise – he was amused by it.

Flying was a priority for the RAF Section: we used to get a lot of cadets flying in chipmunks before Manston was closed, after that there was less action because we had to go to RAF Wyton, which was the other side of Cambridge.

We had presentations from aircrew: a tornado pilot and navigator gave us an excellent presentation of planning a bombing raid on SVS, including the final run in from Bewl Reservoir to SV, which was to be at a height of 500 feet and would take 1 minute and 23 seconds! They flew the mission the following week and we were all on top of St Margaret’s tower as they zoomed past exactly on time nearly knocking the flagpole off! Later I received an 8mm film, taken through the head-up display of the run.

I got many aircraft to land or fly over because I asked. Sometimes they said no but usually tried to oblige. We had several fly-pasts by tornados: one caused a stir at the primary school who thought that the Gulf war had begun, several caused car burglar alarms to sound!

In about year three or four of the section’s existence, I arranged a survival weekend: this wouldn’t be possible these days. I had no experience of survival but arranged with a farmer near Canterbury to camp on his land in a wood. I was there with about 10 cadets one of whom knew all about catching and skinning rabbits. Everyone had a sleeping bag and I took an old parachute. The cadets made a shelter for all of us with the parachute and were instructed how to make snares (don’t worry nobody caught anything). After an amusing but relatively sleep free night I produced some

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rabbits (from a butcher) and bread and the cadets had to skin them and make breakfast. After that they had to yomp to survive. I drove them to Reculver and we set off along the track in the direction of Birchington. Half way along we had a long rest and unknown to them I had arranged a search and rescue helicopter (Wessex in those days) to come and pick them all up, fly them back to Manston where they were booked in for Sunday lunch! I had to walk back to Reculver to get the minibus and by the time I got to Manston lunch was over!

I persuaded the Contingent Commander (Lieutenant Colonel Parkinson) to buy us a hovercraft kit (the ultimate in low flying!). So we made it and used it every week for ages with two way radio communication to simulate aircraft communication. We worked out our own proficiency tests, which had to be passed before going solo.

There were very few mishaps, though one cadet collided with a track hurdle. The worst crash, believe it or not (believe it!) was when it was being ”flown” by the pilot of a visiting Chinook helicopter who, on the whole of BM, decided to be at the same place as a football goal!

Field days were mainly away weekends at RAF Stations with Brize Norton (VC10) and Odiham (Chinook and Puma) and Lyneham (Hercules) being favourites as there was often cadet space for flights in the aircraft. In the early days we used to combine our summer term field day (at somewhere like Wittering or Coltishall with a camp-out) with the “fighter meet” flying day at North Weald.

One of the best memories was staying overnight at RAF Northolt in February when on arrival we found that the cadets were staying in four man tents rather than accommodation blocks (and it was frosty!). After bed time the officers had to retreat to the warm and cosy Mess for sleep. We did not know that one boy had forgotten his sleeping bag! Later, after some time Flight Lieutenant Andersen was awoken by knocking at her door. It was senior cadet WOPhil Day, who had not only managed to get into the Officers’ Mess (only HE could have done that) but had found out his officer’s room number so that he could wake her up and ask for some blankets; having failed to wake up his commanding officer!.’

The above account is much more illustrative of the events of that time than culling excerpts from the magazine and I think it shows how the time was one of an improvement in the CCF’s fortunes. Geoff Piper was clearly an enthusiast and one who took delight in giving the cadets a good experience.

Lieutenant David Moore, as SSI, had been a major instrument in the revival of fortunes of the CCF since 1978, but as his workload elsewhere increased he felt it necessary to resign. His role was taken over by Lieutenant (later Captain) Brian Miller.

His tenure of the SSI position over the next 22 years or so will be particularly invaluable. The authorities came up trumps but some of the improvements in the CCF were self-generated. The assault course was repaired and extended by our Engineers section and a new obstacle added. Their difficulties at the beginning of the decade

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were being slowly addressed by the Army authorities and the boys responded well to the new opportunities. A new rifle was issued, a single shot cadet version of the new Army rifle, thus we skipped a whole rifle generation (the SLR) jumping from two WW2 vintage to the 1980s in one bound. The Air Rifle Range was also rebuilt under the supervision of Lt B Miller; it had been condemned in the 1970s, at the same time as we were denied use of rifles because of our lack of security. 1990 was a great year for the RAF section. Not only were they able to boast more flying hours per cadet than probably any other CCF, but Stuart Saunders won one of only a very small number of Air Cadet Exchange awards. He went to Canada for a two weeks exchange representing RAF cadets, and two other cadets, Patrick Chance and Jeremy Hannah, won places on the ‘overseas flights’ scheme sponsored by the RAF and went to Cyprus for a day trip acting as supernumery flight crew and two cadets, Mark Sands and Stuart Saunders completed flying scholarships awarded in the previous year and both qualified to fly powered aircraft.

The renewed optimism and enthusiasm continued into 1991 when the School magazine devoted seven whole pages to the CCF. Most of the articles were written by the cadets themselves and mostly are full of joy and excitement and pleasure at overcoming obstacles, real and imagined.

Girls were now taken rather for granted within the ranks; the regular soldiers found it just a bit more difficult.

‘Never before had Brian Miller experienced his team at Aldershot being called “pretty little things” and “chicks” and having their rifles carried for them: on the other hand, he also observed that his minibus had never been so clean.’

This quote was made on the occasion of a CADSAM exercise when five girls were recruited into the team. Never was a CCF contingent running the 300 yards prior to firing off at ‘falling plates’ so roundly cheered by the gallery.

1995 was a good year. The complement was maintained at 175 cadets, roughly half the school population and there were nine officers.

We won the Cadet Patrol Competition outright for the second time, beating many larger and well-known public schools and all the ACFs. We also won the Assault Course Shield. Cadet David Hayman won a Cadet of the Year award, given by the Lord Lieutenant of Kent, and we re-entered Bisley for the first time since the 1950s and, astonishingly, for such a novice school, Lance Corporal Chris Thomson won the Financial Times Challenge Cup and other cadets won silver spoons. It was a good year for the girls, too. Sutton House won the internal drill competition (again); this was a competition they would make their own during the 1990s with several wins on the trot. Adventure Training attracted a record number of cadets and the Biennial Inspection produced a string of ‘excellents’ which prompted a review of the reports of the previous six, all of which showed a complete string of ‘excellents’.

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1997 saw another completion of the .22 range. Cheers were muted. Sutton Valence has had a long and chequered history with the authorities concerning the safety of the ranges. Official disapproval and banning of range use had led to the marked decline in shooting between the 1970s and mid-80s, though brave attempts to overcome the problems by utilising the ranges at Hythe were made. Recent improvements, as indicated in recent paragraphs, enthused us and a drive to become a Bisley School again was well under way. Indeed, an eighth place in the Ashburton Shield and the winning of the Queen’s Regiment Cup, the Devon Plate, placing four cadets in the Bisley 100 and winning top place in the Kent Schools’ Rifle Competition, was a fitting reward to the improvements.

Melissa Saggers, a RAF cadet, helped a friend to restore an old Auster and flew it herself for many hours. In February it was flown by her friend and landed on BM with another two. Their fly past after taking off was very impressive.

Melissa Saggers continued her love of flying after School and became a Senior Pilot with Easyjet. She also trained others to fly. Her story reminds me of an anecdote from very early in this booklet, concerning, Denny, one of the very first platoon commanders in 1915. He, too, went on to be an air-line pilot being one of the first to fly the Baghdad-Cairo Mail planes. Both the Army and RAF sections of the SVS CCF can lay claim to success in producing pilots!

Melissa’s efforts were not the only RAF ones to be recognised as outstanding. Our RAF Section senior cadets recorded the most astounding success in the history of the Section (to that date) From the magazine of 1997

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At the end of 1997 permission was given to establish a RN Section and this was achieved the following year. Our CCF became truly ‘combined’. Lieutenant Paul Collins and Sub Lieutenant Fiona Clayton (later, Porter) were the first officers. One of the first things that this section did was to make a visit to a proper Navy ship to see what things were like. Lo and behold, they were given the full works tour of the frigate HMS Bristol by Lieutenant Charles Evans who was one of the officers, and ex SVS CCF (Charles has since become a sub-mariner).

The Navy section took over from the discontinued Engineers section and many of the cadets from that section remained in the Navy section. Most of the first year was spent by senior cadets attending courses, the better that instruction could be given to the juniors. All received lessons on rope-work. It became the case that the Navy section became responsible for rigging the School’s assault course. Sailing, Windsurfing and Navigation became more frequent activities during the spring and summer. Of course sailors should swim (it is amazing how many in the past could not) and in addition to ensuring this skill cadets took up sub-aqua activities, using their aqua-lungs to support them in underwater hockey matches.

The new Navy were no less well served by their initial officers than the RAF section had been. Paul Collins was an experienced yachtsman, who had sailed in all sizes of boat. He was also an Australian, full of energy and enthusiasm for any task in hand.

His tenure, however effective, was short. Newly promoted Lieutenant Clayton took over and recruited Sub-Lieutenant P Horley, ensuring there would never be a dull moment in the training regime. As the turn of the century approached, the feeling was strong that it heralded a potential golden era of the CCF at the School.

1998 also saw the resignation from the CCF of Captain Nigel Jones. He had come to the School more than ten years earlier and immediately he set to work on the struggling band of Royal Engineers and had led it to some fine achievements, not least in being good all-rounders capable of beating the infantry at shooting and in drill and on the assault course. He was technically very gifted.

In 1999 Lieutenant Colonel Chris Parkinson retired and his place was taken over by Wing Commander Geoff Piper; the first time the CCF had a non-army type in charge.

Chris Parkinson’s tenure had been the longest in our CCF history and had seen major changes and developments; not only were there innovations, but decline in standards in some areas and lack of equipment in others had been mightily addressed and he was leaving a CCF that could rightly be described as fit for purpose. His legacy lies in the list to be found in the paragraph that succeeds this one, the RAF ‘high fliers’ scholarships indicated earlier and in the list of ‘excellents’ referred to at inspection times. He had rebuilt the CCF to a complement of 50 % of the school population in times when it was a voluntary organisation and in times when a great deal of other attractive opportunities to occupy pupils were beginning to be offered. The departure of Chris Parkinson was also an opportunity to institute a new award – The Sutton Valence CCF Sword of Honour. In its inaugural year it was won by Holly

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Fletcher. ‘That Monstrous Regiment of Women’ whose introduction into the CCF some 15 years earlier had caused some soul-searching, and male chauvinists to blanch, was now being seen as a fully justified far-sighted initiative. Indeed, so far sighted that the present commanding officer is female and very well regarded in the role she performs. In the list that follows just look and admire the large proportion of females in it.

Motor Transport Maintenance – everyone gets involved

As the decade of the 1990s came to a close the product of that decade, in terms of CCF success was assessed.

Captain Jake Scott Jon Holroyd James Evans Katie Woods Dan Willdridge Eddie Copland James Roberts Cpt Rupert Farrant Justin Bradburn Jo Woods

Coldstream Guards Officer in the Fleet Air Arm Officer training Royal Marines Short service commission, prior to studying medicine Short service commission, then a career in RAMC Territorial Army commission Territorial Army commission Parachute regiment Sandhurst, then Prince of Wales Royal Regiment Short service limited commission, Royal Engineers, then Cambridge.

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In 1999 we learned that James Evans, at Sandhurst, found himself in the same platoon as Eddie Copland and Warwick Strong. Then Gavin Saunders, see RAF photo above, later went on to join the Army. In the following year Colette Davy won an Army Scholarship and she would go on to be a doctor in the Army, having an adventurous time in Afghanistan before taking a career as an Army GP. John Arthur was selected to go on the very prestigious Rocky Mountain International cadet course in Canada at the end of which he was selected ‘Best British Cadet’ and third best Cadet overall.

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Part 8 Sutton Valence Cadets in the 21st Century The picture below is both similar and different from the very first that appears in this booklet. Both show a group that is proud of its achievements. In the first, there is stiffness, perhaps nervousness of the strangeness of something new, but the second one shows a bunch of girls and boys seemingly very comfortable with what they are doing and have done; full of self-confidence and aware of being part of a team, proud of themselves and of each other. I suggest this picture illustrates just how much the SVS CCF has changed in 100 years of existence. It looks very much as though the CCF is succeeding in its purpose if that is to instil a sense of discipline, self-reliance, self-awareness, self-confidence and a sense of cooperation with others that allows something to be achieved by the group that is greater than the sum of the qualities of each of its parts.

How to hide a tank

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If you have persevered with these notes this far, it is quite likely that you have become rather exasperated at the continuous self-congratulatory tone, even dismayed at the hyperbole in the preceding paragraph. I make no excuses. It is the case that the history is researched from accounts that are themselves (mostly) a report of the events as they have evolved and reports that are written, in the main, by those who are experiencing what is taking place for the first time in their lives. Their excitement and enjoyment (with one or two exceptions) is quite easy to see, and the repetition of it, and even the increase in the satisfaction levels of pupils is testimony to the enduring success of the CCF within the School.

The 21st century provides a much greater variety of opportunity for the cadets and a greater likelihood they can find their own niche. As the first decade has passed the routine of the CCF year has become quite clearly defined. In the spring of each other year there is a ‘Junior Field Day’ during which those newly inducted are given the opportunity to sample a great deal of what might be in store for them as their careers progress, but the event is not without its more serious side. Cadets are also made totally aware of the hard work and effort that is going to be required to learn the necessary skills to allow them to take full advantage of those opportunities. Every other year, during the Spring the CCF has its biennial inspection, full of pomp and ceremony and the visit of a senior serving officer to examine and sample the skills and knowledge of the cadets. In the autumn of each year there is a Senior Field Day, during which, for the Army, the more traditional exercise is held; for example, a volunteer platoon may be tasked to defend a given position and others tasked with attacking it.

The Naval Section and the RAF section each have their own set of exercises in their specialism, which usually includes being aboard a warship or flying with service aircrews. Each year there is ‘adventure training’ for all who want it’ usually taking place in the Lake District. Part of this event can be an opportunity for those in the CCF who have enrolled on the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award scheme to complete some of their ‘units’ not least the camping and expedition part.

Other expeditionary opportunities are also provided, less regularly. The CCF has twice spent time in Brunei and once in Belize (slightly more exotic places than Malta or on The Rhine, as had happened before) during which they enjoyed exercises in the jungle, performed mightily with paint brush and DIY expertise to assist local charitable projects and benefited from the reward of some R & R at a suitable sea-side location.

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The picture below shows the cadets in formal dress, but not at all phased by the formality of the occasion, the newly instituted annual dinner for the senior NCOs. I think it is much more characteristic of the 21st century than the last that the rapport between officers and cadets has developed so strongly that such an event can occur without any risk of awkwardness.

Not a foot-slogging infantryman’s life for me – not when you can fly!

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Adventure training

Of course, as well as these major events there is the day-to day work. These days there has arisen the opportunity to undertake courses in specialist skills and to be examined in them and receive qualifications that are the equivalent of GCSE. I doubt it is possible for a cadet to write, these days, that CCF life is boring. It is not easy, and there are the needs of discipline to endure, but it is not dull.

In the 2008 expedition to Brunei, voluntary work took up the first part of their trip.

This was followed by jungle experiences and then a well-earned spot of R and R. So more expansive and adventurous are today’s cadets that one wonders when it will be that the RAF section send their first cadet into space! Such expeditions were a real first in our history and the experience was potentially life-changing for those that went on them. If you read the accounts of the cadets themselves you will be impressed by the mature way they faced the problems encountered and humbled by their responses. I think it appropriate to let Tom Hurrell speak for what happened on the first Brunei trip.

On Friday 4th July 2008, fifteen brave cadets and two staff members departed London en route to Brunei. Bleary-eyed from the early morning meet at 5.45 am, spirits were running high – we had passed through Heathrow during rush-hour, the rest of the expedition was sure to be a doddle!

We were greeted by a muggy, humid and very hot Brunei: however we were happy to see the smiling face of Captain Suresh from 1st Battalion Royal Gurkha Rifle Regiment of whom we would be the guests for the next two weeks. We quickly settled in and started to acclimatise. This generally consisted of sitting under the few fans we could find, and having lots of cold showers!

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The first week was spent participating in voluntary work for a local charity (KACA) aiming to assist and care for handicapped children. We painted, scrubbed, washed, swept cleaned and mopped all day and hoped we made a difference for a very worthwhile cause. Also, during this first week we visited some of the local sights including the Shell Oil Museum in order to discover the history and story behind this booming industry, the Empire Hotel (6*), the cinema, twice, a conservation centre (where we had a lesson in taxidermy)…and also two beaches.

Acclimatised and well fed we started training for our jungle phase. We had lectures regarding health in the jungle, emergencies and wildlife. This left us feeling very apprehensive to say the least. After a mad rush into town to hunt down cycling shorts to stop creepy crawlies creeping too far we were issued with our kit, then, covered with insect repellent we were finally ready. It had started to rain, torrentially.

We were sent to rainforest in the middle of nowhere with the Gurkhas – it was amazing. We hiked for twenty minutes to find base-camp where we commenced a series of lessons about camp craft, putting up our hammocks, mosquito nets and ponchos.

With lots of help all was prepared and we were in bed for 6.30pm. It was already pitch black. On day two we had to practise collecting water, building shelters and laying traps, then making fires and catching food. We paid particular attention since we knew we’d soon be putting these skills into practice whether we liked it or not.

We were beginning to smell on day three. Having no sanitation in one of the hottest and most humid places on earth was very unpleasant. Once we had MoD Burger and beans we were raring to go, but more practice took place in the navigation and first aid exercises and a long trek to the ‘survival area’.

We arrived in a densely overgrown area and were told ‘This is it’. We were given four hours to construct two animal traps, a shelter to hold ten people, two water trapping devices, catch some fish and build a fire! With the aid of two Gurkhas and their kukris, we decimated the forest, felled 15 small trees and built something roughly resembling a shelter. Our traps proved unable to catch anything since the animals were not so stupid as to walk into them – luckily we had good old MoD rations. Everyone survived the night – and that’s the main thing! We found water in our collectors in the morning and were almost sad to leave, but we had helicopter extraction to look forward to as we walked back to base camp. Our helicopter transfer was mostly silent as we were all awe-struck by the stunning views of hundreds of square miles of vast jungle.

We enjoyed a vast number of soapy showers and then had a formal evening in the officers’ mess which was most instructive – the men of all ranks who attended gave us lots of their stories of their time in Afghanistan.

We were sad to leave but the next phase had to be done – R & R in Malaysia! A highlight of this part was the visit to Sepilock Orang-utan Park.

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Who is in charge here?

In the modern era, when less regard is paid to the ‘this is how things are done’ and young people are far more inclined to say ‘why not try doing things this way?’ there is much less respect paid to tried and tested ways and expected rituals. In a sense this can be a good thing, for in an ever increasingly fast-paced changing society anything that is ‘yesterday’ cannot be as good as that which is ‘today’. How often, however, is it discovered that after a succession of changes to an institution, or its behaviour, each undoubtedly for the better, a way of doing things is established which is exactly the same as that which took place many years earlier?

Today, the CCF has as its commanding officer a lady who it is thought hold the highest rank of a female officer and who is the longest serving female officer in the whole of the nation’s CCF. At the time of writing this short biography of the Sutton Valence Contingent we have been informed she is to receive ‘The Lord Lieutenant’s Meritorious Award’ for her sterling service. Anne Wilkinson, who took over from Geoff Piper in 2004, is the third of that trio of Officers Commanding mentioned earlier whose tenure between them has lasted since 1983 and whose leadership has been so fundamental to the growing success and prestige of the School’s contingent. The introduction of girls into the contingent over forty years ago stirred up and energised an already proud institution. Messrs Parkinson and Piper cleverly used that to advantage. As the leadership passed into the hands of Lieutenant Colonel Wilkinson, and for the last ten percent of that century of existence during which time she has been in charge, she has built on their initiatives, and all the while, maintaining the spirit of Headmaster Holdgate’s philosophy.

100 years ago the School embarked on a course to have an OTC as a core piece in its curriculum jigsaw. It was never established to satisfy military adventurism, but was

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set up to provide a different way in which youngsters might begin to learn of the advantages of self- assurance, self-discipline and become resourceful and potential leaders of others.

Achieving these goals cannot have been easy for those involved. Individuals may well, during the service, have endured some hardship and privation. They will sometimes have been embarrassed and self-conscious of their short-comings; that is part of the experience of developing self-esteem and self-awareness. There will have been a number, greater than the very few quoted earlier in this book, who found the whole experience just too difficult to manage or who were just too intolerant.

But Holdgate’s innovation has succeeded! It is more successful today than it ever has been, and it is voluntary!

This short history has been largely CCF-congratulatory (I have given reasons why this should be so) but the pride is well earned. The men and women we have sent out into the world at large, the product of our CCF, have shown themselves to be those who put much more into society than they take out.

Can the CCF still shoot?

Please look at the picture below. It was taken in the Spring of 2014 and represents only the major shooting trophies won the previous year.

The trophies are, from left to right – back row; Back Row The School Snaps, The Devonshire and Dorset Falling Plate, The Financial Times Front Row: The Marlborough, The Oratory Bowl, The Marling, The Cadet Skill at Arms

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Part 9 Three ‘Stars’ I am told that a good CCF needs three things: wholehearted support from the School management, enthusiastic officers, preferably in sufficient numbers to fill the complement allowed and a group of NCOs who have learned the skills and the leadership ability to pass on these skills to juniors. I’d add a fourth requirement, good communication and mutual respect between the three major inputs.

These basic requirements omit, because they take for granted, an even more important feature; the contribution of its Senior Staff Instructor (SSI). In all the foregoing requirements it is the latter one that has been most influential at Sutton Valence.

Three men in particular have contributed in this way.

C E Meades (1924-1939) was the first. Coming from ‘The Buffs’ and instructor at the Small Arms Academy, Hythe, he was our first proper SSI and was very enthusiastic and helpful. It was his organisation of stores and ability to manage the raft of paperwork that made the job of OC so much easier and his handling of the more complicated aspects of training so useful to junior officers and the NCOs. His experience of Army life was a great boon in the annual ‘camps’ attended; he was a first-class scrounger and his ‘contacts’ made our life so much more pleasant than they might have been. Unfortunately, his health was not strong and he left us just before WW2 and died a year after that.

Jim Sergison is the second of our SSIs. Coming to us from the Royal West Kent Regiment, his tenure in office was long – 24 years from 1950 until Christmas 1974 – and distinguished. Under his tutelage the shooting team became well organised and very strong. Indeed one of our major internal shooting competitions is named in his memory. If he was picked to continue the good work of Meades, the School could not have chosen better. Jim was another with an absolutely certain mental map of the mine-field that is Army regulations and had an encyclopaedic knowledge of the multitude of forms that needed to be filled in (several times copied) to ensure we received our due supply of equipment, or anything else that was essential. He was a hard man but showed just enough softness underneath to give the boys the confidence he was on their side and determined to see that he did his best on their behalf.

Brian Miller is our most recent of this triumvirate of ‘good men and true’. He was our SSI from 1987-2011; the three of them being on duty for very nearly two thirds of the CCF’s existence. His introduction to our pupils was a bit of a culture shock for him; no longer was he responsible for junior soldiers but school children ‘whose idea of camouflage was a few daisies in the hair’. He was a very effective SSI, and an enthusiastic responder to, and (usually) solver of, every problem. He was also an innovator and made many improvements to the organisation of training of the CCF. His open-door policy enabled both Officers and Cadets to achieve their goals to the best of their ability. In the period between Jim Sergison’s departure and Brian Miller’s ar-

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rival, shooting had declined significantly as a successful CCF enterprise. Brian Miller set about to change all that and it was his leadership that again placed the name of Sutton Valence in the ranks of the very best regarded shooting schools.

Addendum Sutton Valence School CCF 1915 – 1940 1940 – 1948 1948 1986 1998

Officers Training Corps Junior Training Corps Combined Cadet Force RAF Section Founded RN Section Founded

Contingent Commanders 1915 – 1920 1921 – 1931 1931 – 1935 1936 1936 – 1944 1944 – 1946 1946 – 1953 1953 – 1957 1957 – 1961 1961 – 1965 1965 – 1967 1967 – 1975 1975 – 1976 1976 – 1978 1978 – 1983 1983 – 1999 1999 – 2004 2004 - present

Lieutenant Reverend W W Holdgate Captain H F Grizell MC Captain E A Craven Captain H C Franklin Captain O G Miller Captain E R Piersenne´ Major F T W Blatchley-Hennah Major N T Bennallack-Hart Major R P Coutts Major C A Porter Major B H Vibert Major M F Beaman Captain K M Smith Major J B Hughes Major B J Little Lieutenant Colonel C F G Parkinson TD Wing Commander G R Piper Lieutenant Colonel A F F Wilkinson

SSI Prior to 1924 names unknown 1924-1939 C Meades, The Royal Berkshire Regiment 1939-1945 L Wallace, The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1946-1950 N Dumbrell, The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1950-1975 J Sergison, The Queen's Own Royal West Kent Regiment 1976-1977 SSI filled in irregularly by local serving officers on a part-time basis 1978-1982 Lieutenant Colonel (Ret) W Gethin RE (voluntary role) 1982-1987 D Moore, Queen's Regiment

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1987-2011 2011-present

B Miller, Queen's Regiment P Ale, Queen's Ghurkha Engineers

Senior NCO From 1986 1986-1987 1987-1988 1988-1989 1989-1990 1990-1991 1991-1992 1992-1993 1993-1994 1994-1995 1995-1996 1996-1997 1997-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005 2005-2006 2006-2007 2007-2008 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 2011-2012 2012-2103 2013-2014 2014-2015

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WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 WO WO1 WO1 CPO WO WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1 CPO WO1 WO WO1 WO1 WO1 WO1

F N N A J A M A D P A M M R C T P B J C J A T C C M S A G

Gedney Turpin Griva Rissik Scott Hudd Woodgate Winter Hayman Catt Lovegrove Wooderson Saggers Montagne Foreman Poulton Day Bardsley Lennard Fermor Stretton Brooke Dowling Vernon Pawlik Newman McGannan Bromley Roberts

Army Army Army Army Army Army Army Army Army Army Army Army RAF Army Army Navy RAF Army Army Army Army Army Navy Army RAF Army Army Army Army

Founder's Cornwallis Lambe’s Cornwallis Westminster Westminster St Margaret’s St Margaret’s St Margaret’s Westminster Valence Westminster Sutton Westminster Sutton Lambe’s Lambe’s Westminster Groves Lambe’s Groves Holdgate Lambe's Holdgate Lambe’s Westminster Sutton Westminster Lambe’s