Page 52 - BR April 2024 - converted

April 2024 April 2024

application and completed an exam. I was delighted but slightly surprised to be
called for interview and went off rather nervously for the two-day process with an
overnight stay at the Regular Commissions Board at Westbury in Wiltshire. There
was a selection of physical tests and tasks, and a very daunting interview with a
panel of army officers and headmasters. I was thrilled, a few weeks later, when my
Dad received a letter confirming I’d been awarded a scholarship, which
guaranteed me entry to Sandhurst in September 1966, subject to satisfactory A
levels. The scholarship was a huge boost to my cash strapped parents as it paid
my school fees for my last two years at school and gave me a small allowance.
Sixth form passed quickly in a blur of A level subjects, mock exams, rugby, sailing,
joining the local TA regiment as a soldier and finally, in the summer of 1966, the
dreaded exams. My results, a few weeks later, weren’t brilliant, but they were
acceptable! Sandhurst was now in view, but first, at the army’s request, I had to
complete an Outward Bound course at Towyn in mid Wales. With that out of the
way, with a good grade, I joined Sandhurst in early September 1966.

SANDHURST CADET

At that time the commissioning course was two years long. Sandhurst had about
1000 cadets and was organised rather like a public school in three colleges, each
with four companies. Each company had commander and a number of officer
instructors plus a host of senior NCO instructors, many of them from the Brigade of
Guards. I was posted to Blenheim Company, in Old College, as part of a platoon
of 22 young men (all men then, of course). The first term was tough, really tough,
with quite a high dropout rate. The middle terms were more academic and I took
an additional A level and an O level. The final terms had a military emphasis again.
Throughout, there was a lot of drill, oodles of weapon training, study of various
military subjects (I won the Military Law prize) and a series of exercises on a variety
of training areas in UK and abroad.
There was time, too, for sport and adventurous activities. I did a lot of dinghy and
offshore sailing, and the army paid for me to obtain a Private Pilot’s Licence.

We paraded for the final time for the Sovereigns Parade on 1st August 1968. The
salute was taken by a very attractive Princess Alexandra, and we marched up the
steps of Old College to the strains of ‘Auld Lang Syne’ and I received my
Commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, the Gunners,
from Her Majesty on 2 August 1968. That date assumed much greater
nd
significance a number of years later.

ONE PIP WONDER

New 2 lieutenants usually go straight off to learn their new trade, and I was no
nd
exception. Next stop was the School of Artillery at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain for the
Young Officers’ course for three months. That completed, including a brief

52 33