Archive #20/65: All things military

The emphasis on things military, was maintained by Mr Southwell, who labelled the first 31 pupils with the sobriquet, “The Old Contemptibles” at a Reunion in 2008, after the name given to the first echelon of British Troops to leave England at the beginning of World War I.

Mr C.S. Crockett pioneered the Army Cadet Unit in 1955, explaining to the School that at the end of the year there was to be a Review and March-past. Within a month, Army uniforms were issued, and throughout the year Parades were held regularly.

At the 40th Jubilee, one Old Boy says, “Cadets were compulsory. Once a year the full complement of cadets were on review. 113 boys marched past some dignitary – usually a Brigadier someone or other, in time to left, right, left, right. On the dais was the local dignitary, at the appropriate signal it was to be ‘eyes right’ and salute on the march past. Unfortunately, three girls who were known to the boys as passing acquaintances because of their many attributes, just happened to be passing.

The cadet who was supposed to say, ‘eyes right, said ‘eyes left’. In unison the entire company saluted the girls!!

It did not go down in the annals of Lindisfarne history as one of its better days. Result: Master demoted from Cadet Captain to Corporal.”

In 1959, such was the high regard in which the College’s Cadet Unit was held by the local Army Officers, that a Signals Platoon, along with an Armoured Troop, were both formed at Lindisfarne. An intrinsic part of the Armoured Troup was the arrival, on every Friday during Cadets, of a Valentine tank onto the College ground. The Cadet year ended with the College Tank Corps taking the two Valentine Tanks out to Roy’s Hill in order to participate in some army manoeuvres.

Barracks Weeks, in which the five days concluded with an inter-platoon competition between the army cadets and the Air Training Corps, which was keenly contested. The 1963 Chronicle recorded that: “Cadets are without doubt a very necessary part of our school life. Those who achieve the rank of N.C.O and meet with success in their instruction retain an element of leadership that can never be lost.”

In 1963, the .22 miniature Rifle Range was constructed in the far western corner of the College grounds, where Mr Brown’s garage currently is. The building of the twelve-foot-high wall was largely done by a group of senior boys, led by A Tiffen and PG Smyth, who displayed not only commendable initiative but also exemplary building skills, in constructing a steel-reinforced concrete block wall, that was made to last! The work was completed with the construction of a shooting mound, a distance of some twenty meters from the wall (where Mr Brown’s house is) and a retaining wall for sand, behind the target area.

For more photos click here.