Posts

Cadets and Carnivals

Image
  Cadets and Carnivals Once a year, Newport held a carnival, the proceeds from which went to the Royal Gwent Hospital. It started with a long procession through the Town of all the youth organisations, military bands and various decorated floats most of which were horse-drawn. The uniforms were properly tailored for us and I was appointed drum major, complete with mace, to head the team. We became so proficient that we were detailed to lead the Town procession with me at the head, followed by our own ACF band. We were then in constant demand for two successive summers, for processions and fêtes in and around Newport. It was decided that the RA Cadets should put on a toy soldier and PT display. We were taken in hand by a Sapper Sgt who was also a trained PT Instructor, one Ginger Raeburn RE.  The uniforms were properly tailored for us and I was appointed drum major, complete with mace, to head the team. We became so proficient that we were detailed to lead the Town procession with me at
Post a Comment
Read more

A sad event recalled

  A Sad Event Recalled On one sad occasion one of our cadets was killed in an accident. I think his parents may have been rather poor and as the boy had been a keen cadet they were happy to allow the ACF to give him a military funeral. I can recall the details vividly to this day. I and my bugles sounded the Last Post and Reveille at the graveside and three volleys were fired by another of our sections. I have never since seen or heard of an ACF boy given a full military funeral since that day in 1926.
Post a Comment
Read more

Bugles, Bullets and Boxing

Image
Bugles, Bullets and Boxing The ACF became very much part of my life and took pride of place over all other activities. I became a trumpeter and bugler and wore both instruments. Calls were normally by trumpet and that instrument was carried at the side with the bugle worn knapsack fashion on the back. When on the march we played the bugle with the band when the instruments were in carried in the reverse order. I knew all the calls before I ever put an instrument to my lips, so for me it was a case of practising until ones lips became hard and the tongue could flutter or ‘double tongue’ as it was known. AWH, Army Cadet Force Bugler In less than no time I became a bombardier and drill instructor. Our TA quartermaster Sgt was very kind to me and taught me to use a .22. There was always plenty of ammunition and I would spend hours at weekends when the riding school was not in use, at target practice – prone, kneeling and standing positions. It gave me a totally unfair advantage over other
Post a Comment
Read more

Newport Cadets part 1

Image
  AWH Joins the Army Cadet Force 1925   Newport had a very fine Army Cadet Force unit which although badged Royal Artillery, was based on the Monmouthshire RE [Royal Engineers] whose drill hall was at Stowe Hill in the centre of the town.  Stow Hill Drill Hall, Newport I was officially too young to join, but I was determined to get into this unit which was the envy of most of the lads.  I hung around the drill hall every drill night for weeks until one evening when the OC, a Capt Templeton, asked me who I was. I explained that my father was the RSM Permanent Staff Instructor at the RA TA Centre at Pill, and pleaded with him to let me join up. To my delight, I was accepted – only, I suspect, because it was felt that my father being a Regular soldier might be of some help to the Cadets! I had to wait some weeks for my uniform and became more and more excited as the great day approached. Finally at last, one drill night, I was sent into the QM store to be kitted out. I was nearly burstin
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
  Home Life in Newport We had not much of a family life. Father drank a lot and treated my mother badly. It was not until after I had many more years experience in life that I realized that there had been faults on both sides, and the wartime experiences of my father had much to do with his behaviour. As it was, we seldom went out or did anything together as a family. Family holidays were unknown, and a trip up to London with my mother to see her relations in Woolwich was a rare treat. However I made the best of it.  We had three bedrooms in the house, a downstairs ‘front room,’ living room and kitchen-cum- scullery complete with wooden rollered mangle and copper boiler. There was an upstairs bathroom and the lavatory and coal store were in a separate outside shed. My bedroom, which I shared with Tom when he came home on leave, looked out onto the stables.  Sketch showing position of the family's quarter next to the riding school As a rule I woke fairly early in the morning and wou
Post a Comment
Read more
Image
  Schooling in Newport My sister and I were sent to St. Joseph’s, a Convent School. Mabs was in her element, but I couldn’t stand it. There were too many prayers, too many girls, and Mother Superior had whiskers! I think it cost 2/- a week to attend that school so my father did not object strongly when I asked to leave!  Mabs, seated on the left   This photo may be of Mabs's class at St. Joseph's  There was no alternative other than to go to Bolt Street elementary school with all the ‘raggedy arsed boys,’ as my father called them, but it suited me. It was only a couple of miles to walk, and all my quickly made friends went there.  Newport, like the rest of South Wales at the time was just into the throes of a terrible depression leading up to the 1926 General Strike. There was little work about, and Pill was particularly hard hit.  I was one of the few boys at Bolt Street School who wore proper shoes. The vast majority work ‘daps’ or plimsolls – many were bare-footed. Disciplin
Post a Comment
Read more

Newport

Image
Move to Newport   The next move was to Wales where my grandfather took up his posting on 20th September 1925. My father was then 9 years old.  Around 1925. Tom, Arthur, Nanny Hall, Mabel (Mabs) and Grandad Hall About 1925, brother Tom enlisted as an apprentice artificer RA, and went off to the Military College of Science at Woolwich, and within a short time we moved to Newport in Monmouthshire where my father was appointed RSM of the 83rd (Welsh) Brigade RA (TA.) We occupied one of two married quarters, the adjoining one housing my father’s Battery Sgt Major Jerry Old and his family. These quarters were part of the TA complex in the poorest area of Newport, at the bottom of Lime Street in the district of Pillgwenlly (commonly known as Pill.) The complex consisted of a Drill Hall with gun park for its 13/18 pound field guns and 4/5 Howitzers, administration offices, Officers’ and Sgts’ Mess and a Men's spit and sawdust wet canteen. Adjoining the drill hall was a Riding School. Our q
Post a Comment
Read more