There has been some discussion recently on who exactly was in the Entry on Day 1. Mr Varty is mentioned in another thread, but Vic Faloon has now raised a query about one or two others......
Bushby - known as "Bushy" - had a habit of fainting after climbing stairs - think he left after first term.
Tony Burke - was in the band for a while - liked to go potholing - had a bit of a stammer - think he came from Bristol.
Harris ?? known as "Bomber" - cant remember if he lasted the first term.
Maybe someone else out there remembers them and any others who didn't stay the distance?
Frank
Other missing names
Im sure it was Brian Bushby - he would faint at any time. Once our class was taken for a run by the PTIs and he fainted while running on the grass verge of Locking Road!
Tony Burke was nicknamed "Smokey" after being caught smoking in bed after lights out by the LA at the time. I think that was George Wring of 95th? I do remember he was from Bristol.
Dave Davies left to join Adult Wing.
Rod Hewson was a good guitarist but went AWOL and was discharged on his return to camp.
Ozzy Orrell was from East Midlands and was discharged because he had varicose veins.
green satin
One guy I remember , "???" Bass-Twitchell , a very quiet guy I seem to remember , I don't think he passed out either . He seemed to have got infected by "Ghosts" or "Black Magic" of some kind ! I think he left quite late on in our apprenticeship .
Nick Ponting was killed in a scooter accident in France . The scooter used to belong to Brian Cockayne before , and I was originally going to go with Nick on that holiday on the scooter to France , but something cropped up at the last minute , and I had to cancel . Probably just as well !
Cheers ,
MONTY.
dunkydave
Tony Burke I remember, he was in the next bed to me in the first days in the block, before we were split into our trade classes. During inspections, the App NCO's used to get quite excited when they inspected him. All the things they were upset about (just about all his belongings in those days) used to go out the window, and we were on the first floor!
I remember hoping they would 'do' me before they got worked up over him! If they 'did' him before me....my stuff joined his out the window.
Happy Days.
Dai
Day One
Wasn't there a guy called Pyke or Sykes. He spent the first evening on his pit crying and I am sure that was gone before attestation???
Burke - wasn't the self confessed geologist or something, said that the new Apprentice Naafi would sink - he left shortly after...
PFG
That's right Dai - not only did he think the NAAFI would sink he actually prepared a report and submitted it !
I seem to remember he was rapped across the knuckles in the Mess for trying to help himself to food - ended up with his hand all bandaged.
john rogerson
Victor Bass-Twitchell
Seem to recall that Victor left early on. Think he left during the first three months when it was free to 'get out'
iquarrie
I remember another one of Smokey Burke's calculations that went wrong. He had planned a caving expedition to Wookey Hole during Christmas grant. He ignored the weather forecast and spent all Christmas and New Year underground cut off by rising flood water.
Vic Falloon and I were talking about him at the reunion and remembered him having a great appitite for best blues, one year he had spent all his clothing allowance on 2 blues and then managed to burn his jacket sleeve with the iron giving him one blue and one brown sleeve. Although I remember him in the band I can't honestly remember him playing anything.
green satin
Tony "Smokey" Burke
I wonder if the Tony Burke of our 100th Entry Fame , is the same one as the one of Salalah, Sultanate of Oman fame in late 1975 ?
I did not associate with him at Salalah , as he was "Ground Trade" , and I was an Avionics Engineer , and the two trades rarely mixed , even in the Bar !
On Fridays at Salalah , a bus used to come down for the day to us at Salalah with our mates on board from the Air Base on top of the escarpment at Thumrait . Tony evidently met some of his old "Oppos" from Thumrait that particular Friday , got gloriously pissed all day , as the rest of us usually did anyway , but at 17:00hrs he boarded the old ex-RAF Bedford Bus back up the escarpment to the Air Base at Thumrait with his "Oppos" ! Why he did this , nobody to this day knows !
At three quarters of the way up the escarpment , the bus used to stop for a "Piss-Stop" and to replenish the boiling radiator from a natural spring beside the tarmac road . When the bus eventually set off on its last leg , Tony somehow missed the bus , and they left without him ! He was evidently chipping at rocks with his little hammer and forgot about time !
Tony had been at Salalah long enough to know that one NEVER strayed from the Tarmac road , as we were in the middle of a war with South Yemen , and there were marked and unmarked minefields surrounding Salalah all over the place . The whole of the escarpment was covered 24 hours a day , by the Iranian Army and Air Force using Infra Red and Doppler Radar equipment linked to the Automatic Twin Bofors quick firing gun batteries that surrounded the whole of Salalah ! There were certain "RED AREAS" that the Bofors guns could not fire into , and these were all the minefields .
The sun was just setting to the west , and instead of walking back to Salalah on the tarmac road , Tony took it upon himself to break every written rule in the book , and decided to take a short cut and walk in a drunken weaving straight line down the escarpment through the open bush back to Salalah ! It obviously took him quite a long time , as darkness descended with the setting sun , and of course Salalah was in a wartime Blackout situation !
Suffice is to say , the Iranian Army arrested him trying to climb over the airfield perimeter fencing , and brought him round to the Bar at our Mess ! I was drinking with my old mate Howard "Lofty" Blackburn , who was the CO of the 22nd. Para Regiment of the SAS at Salalah at the time ! Lofty did his nut when he found out that Tony had walked in a roughly straight line from the notorious "Piss Stop" on the Thumrait escarpment road all the way across the bush back to Salalah . He had traversed across a dozen separate mine fields without setting any off !
Lofty refused to believe him , but then we went to the Iranian Air Force Control Rooms for the remote Automatic Bofors Gun Batteries . Sure enough , they had traced every step he had made across the mine fields , but were unable to open fire at the intruder as his tracks were all within the forbidden Minefield Red areas !
Early next morning , Lofty took Tony and a team of Sappers to retrace his footsteps on the escarpment ! His foot prints were all clearly visible , all the way from the "Piss stop" back to where he was arrested trying to climb over the fence at Salalah ! He had in actual fact trodden on several land mines in the dark , but they had failed to go off . Lofty found out that these mines that had been laid only recently , were all ex-WW2 vintage , so the whole lot were dug up again , and replaced with newer more recent vintage land mines !
If this is the same Tony "Smokey" Burke from the 100th at Locking , then he has to be THE most luckiest person alive today !
Suffice is to say , his stay at Salalah was curtailed considerably after this incident and he was never seen or heard of again !
Cheers ,
MONTY.
admin
Monty - have you noticed that all the adverts following your post are for Oman/Salalah? You'll have to ask for commission.
I have a feeling that Vic Bass-Twitchell is on a couple of the BILLETS photos at Bz1 and Ba6.
admin
Oggie Gilbert has noted the absence of Graham Stapleton from the 100th members' list. He was in Class 100ab2 until he left somwhere around the end term 8. Does anyone else remember Graham and is he one of the unidentified faces on the Group Photo?
bobmac
Rod Hewson was in the pit next to me in the original huts. Our LA was "Curley" Carnell, who I think died while at Locking. Anyway Rod was a brilliant guitarist, loved Django Reinhart, and he spoke in a very posh accent but was obviously skint.
Rod never quite managed to attain any good level of personal hygene and I remember Pyle (The Younger) doing an inspection and tearing Rod apart, total humiliation. Anyway I thought Rod just left at the 3 month point but I could be wrong. If anyone has ever heard me play guitar then blame Rod for the inspiration.
Bob
Frank
I was also in the same room as Rod Hewson. He had a good repertoire which included a song about eating worms and another about a girl and a red rose.
I recall he went AWOL for a few weeks and received a discharge when he returned.
admin
Graham Stapleton IS one of the 'unknown' faces on the 1962 group photo (AP135); he wasn't around for the 1964 photo.
!