Bugles, Bullets and Boxing

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 cadets and I won practically every major prize at our annual competitions. Annual camps were great fun, the best when we took the steamer across to Clevedon in Somerset to camp on a hill overlooking the Bristol Channel with the Monmouthshire coast in the background. (I was to be reminded of those days some forty-five years later!)

(My parents moved to Clevedon when my father took up a Retired Officer role at the Recruiting Office in Bristol.)


AWH, Beaming with Pride

We had a useful boxing team and a very good trainer. I was keen and represented the Cadets at their very lightest weight. On one occasion we were taken to the regular Army barracks at Warrington when I was just ten years old, to box in the ACF Championships. I was several pounds below my class and drew a London boy who had already won the Jewish Lads’ Brigade title. I took an awful hammering until the referee mercifully stopped the fight in the second round. I think I put up a harder fight not to cry than I did while I was in the ring! It was some consolation when my opponent went on to demolish two other boys before winning the championship at his weight. It was all good experience, and the training stood me in good stead.

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