Derek's RAF Stuff

Air Training Corps

I was born at a very early age. I wanted to be a test pilot from the age of 9 - something, I never managed, but there you go! However, I did join the Air Training Corps, and got to do lots of fun things: -

Fly in Tiger Moths, and discover the joys of the paper bag
Fly in Ansons and enjoy the noisiest flight - other than the Fairchild Packet
Go to lots of Camps: Redhill, White Waltham, etc.

This was my ATC Squadron - No.1413, later No. 342 - Ealing. We met in the basement of the Ealing Library, in Walpole Park, Ealing, London.

That's me, 2nd from left, front row.

We learned all sorts of things, from how to strip a Bren gun in the dark - jolly useful - to aerodynamics, aircraft recognition, how radar worked, and all that. Great stuff - well, it got me hooked, didn't it!

Occasionally, we had a big white chief come to visit.

That's me - the squirt on the right. Keen as mustard, but several blades short of a full prop.

RAF Aircraft Apprentice

Start

So, of course, I joined, 5th January 1952 as an Aircraft Apprentice at sixteen and a half. Well, Dad thought I should get out into the world - I'd had more than enough schooling...har, har.

I asked to go to Cranwell - I'd seen some film about Cranwell Cadets and thought that was what I would be - another thing I never managed. Cranwell was hard - too hard for some. The Apprentice Wing was run by the older apprentices after dark - for the regular servicemen ("boggies" we called them, since that was what we thought them useful for) the Apprentice Wing was a NO-GO area.

Notice the checkerboard hat band - black and red - characteristic of Cranwell apprentices, later replaced by plain coloured bands at RAF Locking.

In December, 1952, No.6 Radio School moved to RAF Locking, down near Weston-super-Mare, and we all moved with them. Life was looking up. Weston was just the teeniest bit more fun than Sleaford, and there were swimming pools, cinemas, dance halls, snooker clubs, youth clubs...and there may have been the odd girl about, I really can't remember.

I had developed a passion for photography by now, and here is a picture of the gang that I hung out with. That's Butch Spencer at the right, sadly no longer with us, Dave Denyer at left, Tony Golds with the wavy hair, China Derek centre front, Lional Miles behind China's left shoulder and Gigs George top left

You can see the dreaded camera in this shot, taken into a mirror. That's Dave Denyer right behind me, and George Roberts further back - mirror-image, of course.

This one is off the gang again, different selection - that's George Roberts at left, Dave Denyer at right, Lionel Miles top left, then Don Hodgeson and Tony Golds top dead centre, China Derek at top right, and Derek Young in the middle. George, a life-long chum, now lives in Weston-super-Mare with Pam, the girl he met at a Worle youth club. Mind you, he had a pretty full RAF career in between, finishing up on the Queen's Flight. Smart!

This is Bas Greaves - yet another good chap from the Gang - and me sat sitting outside C Squadron hut. Notice the inverted chevron - hook - indicating a full year of undetected crime.

This is me as a leading apprentice, with 3 good conduct stripes showing. Comparing this with the studio pic. at the start of this session. From quiet and shy, I appear to have gone excessively cool. Still, pride comes before a fall. I was soon to be stripped of my single stripe for wearing civvies to the theatre in Colston Hall, Bristol. Sat next to my flight commander, didn't I!?

Of course, it wasn't all work - although they kept us at it, if only to prevent us getting into mischief.

This shot shows a group of us at the end of an all-night exercise, during which we had been firing blank rounds at an enemy, anything that moved, our own boots to see if blanks hurt (they do!).

Bottom left is Tony Austin - long-time chum, now living in S. Africa. I am the short-house in the centre, with Dave Denyer to my left.

Finally. in this section, here is the Gymnastics Display Team on the Beach Lawns at Weston-super-Mare. that's the Grand Atlantic Hotel in the background. George Roberts is centre front, Dave Denyer is back row on the right, and I am front row on the right. We went around the area in the Summer giving free displays for Charity. I remember at Chard Ghymkana dressing up as a woman with balloons for boobs, hoping to run into the box and burst them. Instead, they went under my arms. Still, we had a great laugh, and may be did some good too.

Couldn't resist this one...China Derek practising for the pipe band. Now that is a pair of legs. Is that Bill David in the background? Sorry, the picture has a bit of camera shake. Are you surprised!

Just a few years later - well, 1972 at the 50th Anniversary of the Apprentice movement - here we are again at Locking. You may, by now, recognize the odd face. That's Pat O'Brien, Tony Austin and Dave Denyer in the back row, and yours truly - short-house - in the front centre, Pete Bebbington to my left....

Well what do you know...?

2005 - Golden Entry meets up at Warwick University, 50 years on...

Ian Ashcroft

Bas Greaves

George Roberts and me-still mates after 53 years!

Interesting to see how we have turned out. We all look older, of course, but it is curious how, compared with most folks of our age, there is a still spring in the step and a twinkle in the eye...not to mention a fire in the belly.

I guess that the early training is still in there driving us...or is it, perhaps, that we are the fittest that somehow managed to survive?

Anyway, it was great to see people, some after 50+ years, to recognize instantly, and to slip effortlessly into relationships as comfortable as an old jacket...I do believe that we all had a great time.

Let's see now...Wallace, Hitchins, Richtering, Ashcroft (kneeling), Wyer, Roberts, Pepper, France, Greaves, Bebbington

Oh! and by the way, for the cogniscenti...we were 70th Entry, 5M1. You really wanted to know that, I can tell!

More? See: -

'RAF Apprentices and Boy Entrants On The WWW'

Main contact site for RAF Apprentices and Boy Entrants who wish to be put in touch with their Associations, Entry Representatives or Entry Colleagues.

For more on the 70th Entry, see http://www.appbe.com/library/liaplk70.html

Next comes my time as an RAF Cadet, plus time out in the big wide world of the RAF at large.

Start

Last updated: Nov 2005

http://www.hitchins.net

	So, of course, I joined, 5th January 1952 as an Aircraft Apprentice at sixteen and a half. Well, Dad thought I should get out into the world - I'd had more than enough schooling...har, har. I asked to go to Cranwell - I'd seen some film about Cranwell Cadets and thought that was what I would be - another thing I never managed. Cranwell was hard - too hard for some. The Apprentice Wing was run by the older apprentices after dark - for the regular servicemen ("boggies" we called them, since that was what we thought them useful for) the Apprentice Wing was a NO-GO area. Notice the checkerboard hat band - black and red - characteristic of Cranwell apprentices, later replaced by plain coloured bands at RAF Locking.
In December, 1952, No.6 Radio School moved to RAF Locking, down near Weston-super-Mare, and we all moved with them. Life was looking up. Weston was just the teeniest bit more fun than Sleaford, and there were swimming pools, cinemas, dance halls, snooker clubs, youth clubs...and there may have been the odd girl about, I really can't remember. I had developed a passion for photography by now, and here is a picture of the gang that I hung out with. That's Butch Spencer at the right, sadly no longer with us, Dave Denyer at left, Tony Golds with the wavy hair, China Derek centre front, Lional Miles behind China's left shoulder and Gigs George top left
	You can see the dreaded camera in this shot, taken into a mirror. That's Dave Denyer right behind me, and George Roberts further back - mirror-image, of course.
This one is off the gang again, different selection - that's George Roberts at left, Dave Denyer at right, Lionel Miles top left, then Don Hodgeson and Tony Golds top dead centre, China Derek at top right, and Derek Young in the middle. George, a life-long chum, now lives in Weston-super-Mare with Pam, the girl he met at a Worle youth club. Mind you, he had a pretty full RAF career in between, finishing up on the Queen's Flight. Smart!
This is Bas Greaves - yet another good chap from the Gang - and me sat sitting outside C Squadron hut. Notice the inverted chevron - hook - indicating a full year of undetected crime.	This is me as a leading apprentice, with 3 good conduct stripes showing. Comparing this with the studio pic. at the start of this session. From quiet and shy, I appear to have gone excessively cool. Still, pride comes before a fall. I was soon to be stripped of my single stripe for wearing civvies to the theatre in Colston Hall, Bristol. Sat next to my flight commander, didn't I!?
	Of course, it wasn't all work - although they kept us at it, if only to prevent us getting into mischief. This shot shows a group of us at the end of an all-night exercise, during which we had been firing blank rounds at an enemy, anything that moved, our own boots to see if blanks hurt (they do!). Bottom left is Tony Austin - long-time chum, now living in S. Africa. I am the short-house in the centre, with Dave Denyer to my left.
Finally. in this section, here is the Gymnastics Display Team on the Beach Lawns at Weston-super-Mare. that's the Grand Atlantic Hotel in the background. George Roberts is centre front, Dave Denyer is back row on the right, and I am front row on the right. We went around the area in the Summer giving free displays for Charity. I remember at Chard Ghymkana dressing up as a woman with balloons for boobs, hoping to run into the box and burst them. Instead, they went under my arms. Still, we had a great laugh, and may be did some good too.
	Couldn't resist this one...China Derek practising for the pipe band. Now that is a pair of legs. Is that Bill David in the background? Sorry, the picture has a bit of camera shake. Are you surprised!