HHS COMBINED CADET FORCE ( CCF )

I knew even in Junior School that I wanted to join the CCF . Don't know really why ; perhaps it was the uniform or maybe the pipe band . You could not join till you were 14 which meant the 2nd year at Senior School .

In Scotland the CCF was compulsory in private schools and voluntary in the grant aided . Being voluntary our cadets were as " keen as mustard ". Officially the CCF is a Ministry of Defence (MOD) sponsored   youth organisation. We thought we were "proper little soldiers " and took everything very seriously ; drill , weapon training, map reading etc.

Our detachment was affiliated to the Highland Light Infantry (HLI) which is the   City of Glasgow Regiment . In World War 1 it had 36 battalions.

In 1958 the HLI amalgamated with the Royal Scots Fusiliers (Ayrshire) to become The Royal Highland Fusiliers . I went to the amalgation parade at Glasgow High School's grounds Anniesland. Princes Margaret took the parade . I was to meet her many years later in Kensington Palace when I commanded the  Pompadours .

In the photograph are my two main friends in the CCF , Gordon Imrie (bottom left ) and Peter Jopp (bottom right) but more of them later . I am the one not in uniform as I had to take the Civil Service Exam that day.

 As cadets we paraded on Mon & Fri after school ( Fri being in uniform) .One did a total of five years in the CCF .In the first two years the aim was to get Cert A Parts one & two and then in the third year do signals. Some of our radio sets had Russian markings so they must have been surplus stock earmarked once to go on the Artic Convoys .

As I came top in Cert a Parts 1&2 I skipped signals as I got accelerated promotion to eventually become head of the CCF & a Prefect . It was really the senior cadets in the 5th and 6th Forms who ran the show and did all the instruction . In the 6th Form I took cadets to  .22 shooting on a Tues evening at  Glasgow University OTC .

A ten day summer camp was immediately after the end of the school year ( 30 Jun ). We went to Cultybraggan Camp near Comrie in Perthshire . The camp had been built in 1939 to house 4,000 German POW s. Being a Cat A Camp it housed the bad boys ; Waffen SS and U Boat crews . Camps were fun but compared with today with the emphasis on adventure camps  would be considered dull. I suppose in the1950s there was simply neither the funding nor the the trained instructors .Fibreglass canoes and climbing walls had not yet appeared on the scene .

At Easter senior cadets would go on centralisd 10 day camps with regular units. On these you linked up with cadets from other schools all over Scotland .

I suppose I had been toying with the idea of joining the Army for some time. The only other idea I had was the Colonial Police ( Like Orwell in Burma !) However , in the 6th Form (East Break) I went on a CCF visit to the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst .That clinched it that was where I wanted to go .

GLASGOW  UNIVERSITY

Glasgow University was founded in 1451 . It is the fourth oldest in UK after Oxford , Cambridge & St Andrews . One of the few things I remember doing with my father was being taken up the tower you see in the background . You got the most fantastic view of the River Clyde .

Of my generation three Thompsons went to Glasgow University .

The first to go was Irwin Thompson who was three years older than me . He qualified  as a doctor . He went to The Glasgow High School which, formed in 1124, is the oldest school in Scotland and 12th in the UK .( Also discovered there  is a Glasgow High School in Newark, Delaware) . Amongst its Alma Mater are two Prime Ministers : Campbell Bannerman and Andrew Bonar . Irwin's two sisters ( Aileen & Norma) went to Hillhead. Irwin emigrated to America and worked first in Seattle and then Boston. When he qualified as a doctor he added Elliott to his name : presume he thought it sounded better .

Next to go was Dorothy who was well placed in the Competitive Bursary Exam . I was still at school when Dorothy was in her first two years doing medicine . I remember her bringing these bones home , fingering them and reciting their different parts in Latin.

Dorothy worked in Aberdeen, Dumfries and Sheffield before she went to UHCL in London and qualified as a consultant dermatologist.

Ian Thompson ( my age ) who went to Hutchesons' Grammar was the last to go . I don't know what he read but after Glasgow he went to Harvard and then joined Unilever . He worked in South Africa , Hong Kong & Perth Australia. I believe he ended up in America .

My only exposure to these hallowed grounds was at the annual CCF Church Parade when all Glasgow School CCF s marched through the grounds with their Pipe Bands. It was a grand occasion with lots of pomp . Later there was the University OTC bar which was more sophisticated than the Students Union. Most of my school chums were at Glasgow University .

HILLHEAD HIGH SCHOOL-SECONDARY

Hughenden Playing  Fields

Secondary School


I sometimes think life is like snakes and ladders.You climb to the top in one structure and then slide down the snake to be a junior once more.This sure happened to me : Junior to Senior School ; Cub to Scout ; Head of CCF to Sandhurst ; Sandhurst to humble second lieutenant .

In Scotland there was a pecking order in schools . On the east coast you had private boarding schools like Fettes , Loretto , Glenamond & Gordonstoun. They considered themselves the elite and were more akin to English Public Schools.

Next in order would be those private and grant aided day schools . There were many in both Edinburgh & Glasgow-Heriots , Daniel Stewarts ,Glasgow Academy , Kelvinside Academy etc .

The so called " better " schools (not all fee paying ) played rugby .Rugby was for the upper and middle class : football ( soccer ) for the working class. It was different in the Borders where rugby was more popular with everyone  .

Religious bigotry between Protestants and Catholics was a feature in Glasgow similar to Belfast. This was manifested in the great rivalry between   Rangers & Celtic Football Teams .
People rave about Scottish Education .I sometimes wonder as classes were large and in my time there was no career advice . Historically Scotland was ahead of England in providing education for all up to the age of 14 .

One fundamental difference was that at secondary school you were meant to get a broad education , specialisation was for university .Therefore in Scotland you did five subjects up till the the  age of 18. Matriculation was based on Highers and Lowers. Five Highers was considered very respectable  , Dorothy got eight ( English ,French , Latin, Maths , Science , History & two additional Maths ) She became Dux of the Senior School .

Brighter pupils could get the appropriate  Highers in the 5th form. In the 6th form they would concentrate on sitting for a Competitive Bursary to University .This is what Dorothy did and had a stab at Russian in the process. She was glad to inform me that Russian for brother was brat .

I got four Highers ( failed French ). It would have got me to University but as an insurance policy I did the Civil Service Entrance Exam so I could get to Sandhurst.

History was my best subject and the only one for which I got prizes .At  the end of each year there was a prize giving ceremony. You had to climb these steps up onto a stage .Dorothy got so many prizes you could hardly see her head above the pile of books and she had to be assisted down the steps.

My main two passions were rugby and the Combined Cadet Force (CCF ). In the 6th form I made the 1st Rugby xv and got my colours .I have still got the blazer in the attic , never managed to throw it out. I did in the process break an ankle and a nose. We played for rugby for two terms. In the summer the options were cricket , tennis or athletics .As I was never much good at any of these I persuaded the PT master to let me go rowing in the final years. Normally those who did rowing did it all the year round .

In the 1950s respect for the Sabbath was a big thing .No sport was played on a Sunday and all shops, cinemas , pubs etc were closed. I suppose that the advantage was that after church the one option was to get on with homework and get ready for school on Monday.

One big event in my teens was getting my first and only bicycle. It had drooped handle bars and chrome plated front forks--no gears . I cycled everywhere , up the side of Loch Lomond, into the Trossachs and once to Stirling. I think my longest trip was 80 miles in one day .

The Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was once asked what was important in politics  .He replied events, events. I think key events define a decade. If you were to ask an American what defined the 1960s he would probably include : the first man into space the Russian Yuri Gagarin and the subsequent race to get a man on the moon ; the Cuban Missile Crisis ; the assassination of President Kennedy ; Dr Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement ; Vietnam War and for some Flower Power in California.

I have tried to think what actually registered with me as a child and teenager in the 1950s avoiding what I have read in history books.

The Korean  War 1950 certainly registered as adults talked about who might be vulnerable to be called up .National Service had just been extended to 2 years .During breaks in the playground  games would not be about cowboys and Indians but how to beat the dreadful Chinese.

The funeral of King George VI was the first thing I watched on TV. However, most of our visual images came from Pathe News bulletins which you got in between the two films in the cinema .They were in black & white.

Queen Elizabeth's Coronation was the big event in 1953. I recall that from primary school we were all marched in a long snake to the local cinema in Byres Rd to see a colour film of the Coronation. There was some animosity about her being crowned Elizabeth II and Scottish Nationalists threatened to blow up EiiR pillar boxes. Don't know which year it was but there was a degree of admiration for that band of brothers who stole the Stone of Destiny from Westminster Abbey .It of course was the year Mount Everest was conquered.

In May 1954 Roger Bannister was the first man to run a mile in 4 min being paced by Chris Chataway and Chris Brasher. Bannisters great rival was the Australian John Landay.This achievement generated a tremendous interest in athletics .Great runners that come to mind are Derek Ibbotson ,Gordon Pirrie and that great Czech runner Emil Zatopek. Also among the stars was another Australian , Herb Elliott.

1956 was probably the most dramatic year. In April the Russian Leaders Nicolai Bulganin & Nikita Khrushchev visited the UK. They came to Scotland because they wanted to see the home of  Robert Burns. In July Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal which eventually led to the Anglo French invasion of Egypt in collusion with Israel .I do remember convoys of sand coloured Army trucks going south for embarkation.

In Nov we heard on the radio those desperate pleas from the Hungarian people as Russian tanks entered Budapest.

In Oct 1957 Russia launched Sputnik 1the worlds first artificial satellite . Again on the radio we heard the blip,blip coming from the satellite as the Russians heralded their triumph.

The Cod War with Iceland was1958 an insult to the great Empire or rather fading Empire. That was also the year of the Munich Air Disaster .

Dorothy leaned to the left and from my meagre pocket money I was asked to contribute to buying a copy of The New statesman ! Being able to babysit Dorothy was more flush with cash. I wanted to do an early morning paper round. My mother firmly said no as she was convinced that was the start of my father's problems.

In 1972 twelve years after I left HHS lost its special status and was turned into a comprehensive.I have just read a review by a former pupil on the HHS Blog. She describes the transition. There were major fights as they tried to integrate children from different socio economic groups. Also a race problem resulted in mounted police being deployed. Dorothy & I sure were lucky.

The excellent sports grounds at Hughenden could not be taken over by the comprehensive as they were a War Memorial Trust .Glasgow High Sshool which faced a similar fate managed to form a private school on their grounds at Anniesland.

   

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MONTGOMERIES

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MONTGOMERIES

Uncle John tragically died in 1967. There was a storm and he had gone out to check the hens. A power cable had come down and he was electrocuted . Sometimes tragedy stalks the farmer .

I was only involved in one crisis in my time. Cattle love clover and it is good for the butter fat content in their milk . They must not be allowed to eat too much as a gas can form in their stomach and they literally blow up . Grazing must therefore be restricted.

Aunt Margaret spotted from the kitchen window that their herd had broken into a field of clover .Uncle John and I grabbed the dogs and raced to the field on the tractor. With the help of the dogs we got the cows out .Uncle John handed me a pen knife and told me to stab any showing signs of blowing up . This was the only way to let the gas out. We lost three cows but it could have been a total disaster.

In the late 1940s they had been threatened with Foot & Mouth disease and a farm just 4 miles away had been ordered to destroy their entire herd.

I went to Uncle John's funeral , at the cemetery over a hundred men came to pay their last  respects.


Aunt Margaret tried to run the farm for a bit with her brother but it got too much for her. As neither Margaret or Wilma wanted to inherit the farm she sold up and retired to Ayr.

After college Margaret went to work at an Agricultural College near Maidenhead in Berkshire. Like me she never returned to Scotland other than on visits .She worked at this same College all her life. She never married : the love of her life was horses .When I was  at Sandhurst Margaret came on a visit and  I showed her round the grounds.After that we lost touch other than at Uncle John's funeral. Many years later I met her at Alans & then Dorothy's funeral. Before she died two years ago ( aged 68 ) Jinty and I took her to the Rundle Cup in Tidworth which is the annual Polo Match between the Army and Navy. Prince Charles , William and Harry were playing. I am sure she enjoyed it . She was quite an accomplished horsewoman having got into long distance riding ( 100 miles ).She was on the selection committefor the British Team.

Wilma did home economics at college in Glasgow & lived with Aunt Margaret for a while in Ayr. She married a farmer and settled in Dumfries & Galloway. I believe they have retired now handing over the farm to their son .

I could be wrong but I suspect Margaret & Wilma wanted to escape a domineering mother. On summer leave from Sandhurst I made a brief visit to the farm. Mararet , Wilma and I went to a Bowling Alley in Irvan . In conversation over coffee I made the remark " Oh you know what Aunt Margaret is like. " They looked at each other , smiled , turned to me and in unison said
 " Alan go  on " I declined I owed her my silence !

LIFE ON THE FARM

Farms are a great place to bring up children. Whilst one might dwell on the interface with nature I think that the crucial dynamic is the association with animals : horses ,cows sheep , dogs , hens , turkeys , etc. Even the feral cats had their role to play in hunting rats . All these aninals have their have their characteristics . Some are more intelligent than others . They can be obedient , bad tempered ,  stubborn , fierce and affectionate . I am confinced aninmals have a sense of humour .  Am I explaining my my thoughts badly but it seems to me George is part of  one family and Rosie about to be part of another.

Not all species are friendly  to the farmer. One of the few poems I remember is An Ode to the Scarecrow.

                    I lift void eyes
                    and scan the sky the skys
                    for crows , those raving foes
                     my of my strange master man  

As man evolved it his relatiomship with the horse that is probably the most amazing from the mighty Bucephalus to the humble pit pony . The invention of the stirrup changed warfare .

I digress . In the early days at The Muir Wilma and I were the two " little indians " and Margaret was the " big chief ". She organised us in many pursuits mainly to do with horses . Nothing as dynamic as Harry Potter but nevertheless exciting .Despite the odd thump and irritating teasing I am ever grateful to Margaret for it is she who taught me to ride a bicycle , stay on a horse , drive a tractor and once saved me from drowning at Cumnock Swimming  Pool when I got out of my depth .

Margaret initially had a pony called Billy which she broke in herself . Later she had a proper horse , Freka and Wilma inherited Billy. When Wilma & Margaret were away I would take out Billy on my own . He was stubborn . As you headed away  from the farm he would go  at snails pace like "the whining school  boy , with his satchel , And shining morning face ,creeping like a snail Unwilling to school ." When you turned his head for home he went like a bat out of hell.

I used to get teased mainly by Margret but also by some of Uncle John's workers about being a " gleska kellie ". This was a rather derogatory term but part of the banter between country folk and urban dwellers . As it did get me down a bit I sought my mother 's  advice on how I might respond to this teasing .She foolishly suggested I could respond with " If I am a Gleska Killie you must be Country Bumpkins . "

At a crowded lunch table I responded , like Oliver Twist , with this riposte.Aunt Margaret went apoplectic. I learned to curb my tongue . However, the teasing did abate perhaps Aunt Maggie had a word .

If I were cynical  you could say that Aunt Margaret and Uncle John "Were going their Christian Duty " in having this poor relation to stay. That would be partially true but a bit unjust . They were really good people. I hated going home at the end of the holidays. I think I secretly wanted to be adopted so I could stay on the farm .As I got into my teens this aspiration became less intense. I think with Rugby, Cadets,Scouts and friends at School there was more to look forward to on returning . The urban child is more street wise in a broader sense perhaps more advanced than the one brought up in the country. I some times wonder what I would have done during those long summer holidays if I had not gone to the farm. I could have gone feral.

Dorothy did, early on, come out with me to The Muir but with all her allergies she could not be near cattle . I was worried that when my mother came to take her home I would  have to go also. Fate decreed otherwise.

As we got older Marget took a more active part in the harvest , working the horses and driving the tractor . Wilma and I had to invent our own games . We did take on some of the more mundane tasks like gathering dokins for the turkeys ,feeding the hens and taking tea and sandwiches out to the workers in the field . Still there was time to fantasise playing Princeses and  Gallant Knights in the hay loft .

I remember large family gatheringrs on a beach in Girvan. There must have been 40 at these picnics. Somehow I think television killed these sort gatherings.

The months of June through to Sept were a busy time on farms as first the hay was harvested and then the corn ( oats). A working day would frequently be from 5am to 8 pm. . I often wondered  if Aunt Margaret and Uncle John ever had a social life. In less busy months they would go to dances, the Races at Ayr and in later life a cruise in the Mediterranian. However , the highlight was meeting another farming family !

At the end of the War there were a lot of displaced Poles in Scotland . When Russia & Germany attacked Poland in 1939 many escaped . They faught against Germany in many different ways. There was a Polish Spitfire Sqn which faught in the Battle of Britain ,  Polish troops played a major part in the capture of Mount Cassino in Italy and a Polish Parachute Brigade dropped at Arnhem.  There  were also Polish Troops at Tobruk fighting alongside Jack's Great grandad. It is estimated  that in Scotland there are 40,000 people of Polish extraction. I have just discovered that in the 17th century 40,000 Scots emigrated to Poland to avoid religious persecution.

In the 1940s and early 1950s there was a large camp of displaced Poles at Maybole in Ayrshire. They were delivered out to farms by truck . I remember one called Wassel. He must have been a young man in his mid twenties. He was shy reserved and exceptionally polite.He had been in the Polish Cavalry. It is a myth that Polish Lancers charged German tanks. One day Margaret persuaded Wassel to get on her horse Freka. He relucantly agreed but once on it was obviously  at home in the saddle . It was as if he had captured a lost sense of dignity and pride.

Jack, Granpa does bang on bit but so do you .

As kids Magaret would take us on the bus to the swimming pool in Cumnock. In our teens , when Margaret got her driving licence, we went to the Ice Rink in Ayr an to Young Farmers Gatherings . At one of these gatherings there was a cattle judging competion .You were given a card and had to score different cattle according to their merit.I simply did not have a clue nor do I suspect did Wilma . However by looking / peeking over other peoples shoulders I almost won . It would have been a total disaster as you had to stand up and explain why you had chosen this cow to be the best--lesson learnt--stick to the West Point Honour Code Jack it is safer. 

In my teens I did spend quite a lot of time with Uncle John helping with those endless tasks which have to be done to keep a farm functioning . We would clear out woods and plant a new one; at the saw mill make fencing posts, scramble over roofs replacing slate tiles, go out and count the sheep to make sure they had not been poached by the local miners or tinkers.

He once took me to a cattle auction in Ayr. I remember the pantomine when a piglet escaped.They are incredibly strong and difficult to catch. Reminds me of Orwells Animal Farm.

When Margaret left to go to Agricultural College I took on most of her jobs and for the last three years became a tractor driver . This was great fun and I felt I was doing something in return to pay back my Aunt & Uncles generosity in looking after me in childhood.

However, I knew farming was not in my bones . Although a good and sometimes rewarding life it seemed somewhat bereft of intellectual stimulous. I wanted to see the World and be challenged .

   

THE BOY SCOUTS

This is the church where I went to Sunday School. Would you believe it I won a prize for reciting Catechisms . Now I read books like The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins and contemplate Pascal's Equation.

Dorothy also won prizes but rejected religion at a fairly early age . Intellectually it did not make sense to her- "The opiate of the people ."

However my connection with this church was more to do with the 44th Boy Scout Troop who met in the church hall on Thursday nights.

The Scout Movement was strong in Scotland with the first troop being  registered 1908. The rival youth organisation was the Boys Brigade ( BB).

I joined the Cubs aged  eight. On reflection there were vestiges of  Empire. The female leaders had titles like Ba loo from Kipling's Jungle Book. What did I learn ? Well all those games which later in life helped me organise childrens' birthday parties .Also the song " I went to the animal fair " emanates from my time in the Cubs . I would also add :how to sow on a button ; identify trees by their leaves and of course iron my uniform to name but a few .It was also my first stab at leadership--I commanded the Tawny Patrol .

As Cubs we viewed our elders in the Scouts with some awe . They certainly ran imaginative "Gang Shows ". In one we Cubs had a skit .We were meant to represent a BBC string quartet with wooden instruments all four gesticulated to a tape of classical music .With my curly hair I was chosen to be the conductor as I suspect they thought I could impersonate an eccentric composer. Wanting to look smart I got my hair cut ; the Scout Master was furious.

Throughout childhood having curly hair seemed to present Catch 22 senarios .You were either adored or  teased. Usually adored by adults and teased by ones pear group .

As Cubs we were introduced to camping on a farm near Dun lop in Ayrshire .Our own leaders were assisted by senior scouts.

At about age 11/12 we progressed to become fully fledged Scouts.They made a big thing of the transfer ceremony. I took my first oath of allegiance.
      "I promise on my honour to do my best, to do my duty to God and The Queen and to obey the Scout Laws ."

I looked up Scout oaths on Google . They are now more politically correct , less chauvinistic reflecting the non sectarian globalisation of the movement. Don't know about the USA side.
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The Scout Masters were a dedicated bunch . Most had been in the War and wore their campaign ribbons on their tunics. Some were rather severe but others had a good sense of humour.

I did all the things that Scouts do .I wanted to become a Queens Scout and passed everything to achieve that goal.The one stumbling block was I could not swim .Later I did teach myself to swim and even managed to do 40 lengths which was part of SAS selection.
Glasgow Scouts owned a large camping site at a place called Auchangillan .Wen I was more senior I would take my own patrol there for the weekend.

At sixteen I fell in love with a gorgeous Girl Guide , Jean Goldie.I think it was because on a Scout /Guide Dance she picked me on the ladies choice ! I never took her out a combination of being too shy and pocket money would not stretch to two tickets at the cinema .

However, on several occasions when we were both selected to carry our respective  Colours ( flags ) on Church Parades we sat in the same front pew. As we were both escorted by two juniors there two sprogs between us. Achieving an endearing glance when one is meant to be singing "Onward Christian Soldiers " with gusto is difficult. However, with head bowed during prayers I could admire her fabulous legs.

On Tues I would go to the library because if I left at 8 pm and took a certain route home I would likely pass her going in the opposite direction. This infatuation lasted at least three years.



_

THE END OF CHILDHOOD

This is a blog I am not sure I should write but if I am to tell a story  it is part of it . I think for Dorothy and I the end ,or , at least the beginning of the end of childhood started when our father died. Dorothy was twelve and I was ten. Our mother had to go out to work to support us .She left ,before we were up, at 5 am and we did not see her till 8 pm so during the week we had to fend for ourselves.

Our father had been bedridden for some 4/5 years and in  & out of hospital .He died on a Saturday in 1952. I can't remember the month. I had gone by train to see him on my own the previous Tuesday. As I left the ward and turned to say farewell I did not appreciate that would be the last time I would see him. The next day I got belted at school for not doing my homework.

The day he died Dorothy & I were left alone in the flat as our mother had gone to the hospital with some  of my father's brothers. Somehow Dorothy and I got a message to say our father had died and we were to go to an Aunts house. It must have been a neighbour--we dint have a telephone.

Having my father's coffin in the flat overnight seemed a bit scary. The next day there was a short service in the flat taken by a local minister . Crammed in this small room were my father's brothers and fellow Masons .As was the custom women did not go to the graveside so I went with  all these men to the crematorium .I did not cry : it not have been manly.

At weekends our mother tried her best. There were numerous visit s to Kelvingrove Museum ; walks in the park and visits to relatives.

However , slowly but surely, almost by stealth , hardship crept in . Our fees were paid by the state so we did not have to change school. My mother got some hep from the Masons which ensured some sort of survival .

Mother's pay day was a Friday. By Thursday we would go hungry .If we dint have a shilling for the gas meter we would boil a kettle on an upturned electric fire .If the electricity got turned off we would light rolled op newspapers.

The radio died and that put an end to programmes like : Journey into Space , Top of the Form and Dick Barton Special Agent .

If you returned empty lemonade bottles you would get 0.5 p back .Six bottles would buy a bag of chips ' I also discovered that if you pressed button B in a public telephone kiosk you some times got money back.

I know that my greatest humiliation was ( aged 11/12 ). I was told by my teacher (Miss Mc Leod ) in front of a class of 40 that I was a disgrace to the school . A Glasgow newspaper , The Bulletin , visited the school and wanted to take pictures of my class in the gym. I was chosen because of my curly hair.The problem was I dint have plimsolls and wore ill fitting sandals .Also I dint have a school belt so had to hold up my trousers using my braces tied round my waist. A boy in my class, whose father worked for The Bulletin , brought these photographs to school --Hence the censure . I am sure that ever since I have had a fetish about having the right kit for the right occasion. Perhaps also of being wary of being photographed. That incident certainly knocked my confidence.

Dorothy and I developed our own coping strategies.  We never never invited anyone home and if there was a knock on the door we would switch off the lights and pretend we were not in.

I think over time I divided my life into boxes / compartments : School , Rugby , Cadets , Scouts, The Farm & Home. Things were OK in most of these boxes except home : I was ashamed of it .

Compared to many children round the World Dorothy and I were not that bad off . It is , however, relative to ones pear group that a child makes comparisons .

We had the passport to escape -education.

THE MUIR 

Aunt Margaret ( known as Maggie ) was married to John Montgomerie ( known as Jonnie ).They had two daughters, Margaret ( three years older than me ) and Wilma ( my age-she will be 70 in Feb ).

Their farm in Ayrshire was five miles from Cumnock and fourteen from Ayr. My mother and my Aunt Margeret were second cousins on the Mc Culloch side. Considering I was a fairly distant relative it was  generous of them to have me stay for twelve summers.

The Muir ,as the farm was called, was about 150 acres and they kept a heard of 40 milking

 cows. In winter they they looked after sheep which came down from higher ground of a relatives farm.

From the farm you got magnificent sunsets as the sun dipped behind the Island of Arran. On a clear day you could see to the north Ben Lomond.

Aunt Margaret told me that during the War there were anti aircraft guns on the hill up behind the farmhouse.On that night in March 1941 they stood outside and could see an orange glow in the sky : that was Glasgow going up in flames at the hands of the Luftwaffe.

Uncle John was 6ft 2 in tall .He was a quiet reserved man-din't say much but was a man of absolute integrity.In all the years I knew him I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone.

" He was a verray parfit gentil knyght "

Aunt Margaret  was the driving force : intelligent, strong willed opinionated but with a heart of gold. You did not argue with her ! I  remember she once told me how she resented leaving school at 14. However, for her generation that was the norm.Girls were meant to leave early, help on the farm and then get married.

As Aunt Margaret & Uncle John got up at five o'clock to do the milking I felt I had to do the same.I was just a nuisance as I would end up falling asleep in the cows mangers. A deal was imposed whereby if I got up early ( before seven ) I would have to go to bed early ie before Wilma.

It was that first summer aged seven that I broke my left arm.This was an equestrian event organised by Margaret.We took Star & Lilly (two Clydesdale cart horses ) out of their stalls and into an adjacent field. Margeret organised her tribe of six into two teams.Being the eldest she was the big chief.

We were too small to get on the horses so they were manoeuvred alongside a hay rick. The drill was then to climb up the hay rick and jump onto their backs;three to each horse. There was a slight drizzle and their backs were slippery. I was in the front on Star with Ann & Jessica Gibb behind me. On the word GO from Margaret we raced down the field.

Half way down the field Ann started to fall off. In front I clutched Star's mane and Ann clutched my waist but to no avail. I was first to hit the ground followed by Ann on top of me followed by Jessica. Snap my arm broke and the bone fraagment punctured my skin.I don't recall any pain just a sensation I had broken my arm.Margaret took me to find her mother in the dairy. Aunt Margaret felt the bone through my arm and yelled for Jonnie.

Uncle John took me to the GP in Cumnock and thence by ambulance to the hospital in Ayr.

I remember the indignaty of an enema and then being wheeled into the operating theatre .On the table there was this enormous light over my head and a mask was thrust over my face. I woke back in the ward with my arm in plaster.

As I was the only child on the ward I was spoiled by the nurses .Perhaps it was my good looks and curly hair ! The nurses would not give me breakfast till I gave them a kiss. In those days young nurses had starched white collars and cuffs, black stockings ans rustling petticoats.

In the ward kitchen they would do a twirl and get me to check their uniforms ( seams straight ) before the fearsome matron did her rounds. Think I have had a soft spot for nurses ever since but don't  tell you know who.

I had to wait ten years to get my next kiss.

After about ten days I returned to the farm.Managed to ride a bike with one arm in plaster. Weeks later the plaster came off : it was a bit of a shock to see the scar. I had to have another operation to it aged nine.

In later life when asked about my scar I have usually said it was a riding accident : sounds better than falling off a cart horse.

HILLHEAD HIGH SCHOOL PRIMARY

I f Dorothy and I got a break in life it was to be sent to Hillhead High School. It was a grant aided co-educational day school. Grant aided meant your parents had to pay fees but the school got state funding.There were about five of these schools in Glasgow.Some like Glasgow Academy and Kelvinside Academy were totally private.

You went to primary aged five to twelve and the secondary thirteen to eighteen.

In the primary most of the teachers were female spinsters,many from the Western Ilands like Sky.To this day I remember their names : Brooksby, Clark,Campbell and Mc Leod.

One teacher I remember wore a striped suit, white starched collar & a black tie. She had her hair in a bun.

Discipline was strict and the use of a leather belt with two thongs was not infrequent.

Classes were mixed but girls and boys had seperate playgrounds.

There was considerable rivalry between different classes of the same age. In winter this would manifest itself in some fierce snowball fights. I think I collected two black eyes and a split lip.

As one progressed you moved up one flight till eventually your classroom was at the top.From there you got magnificent views of the Campsie Hills to the north of Glasgow.

Hidden in this panorama was the remnants of Antonines Wall which ran from Old Kilpatrick on the Clyde right over Scotland ( 39 miles) to Carriden on the Forth Estuary.This Wall was the Romans most northerly defensive line in Britain. On the east coast they did make forays as far north as Perth and beyond.The Wall was built in 142 AD but 20 years later the Romans withdrew to Hadrians Wall which links the Tyne with the Solway.Douglas and Angus have camped by Hadrians Wall.

In the last year in primary pupils took the Qualifying Exam.If you got grades S 1-3 you went onto a Senior Secondary School Those with J 1-3 went to a Junior Secondary.The assumption  was that that if you went onto a Senior Secondary you would stay at school till 18, matriculate and take up some form of tertiary education to enter a profession.Those going to Junior Secondary would probably leave school at 15 and take up an apprenticeship if they were bright enough. For late developers the only option was to go to Night School which is what many returning from the War did.

In her final year at primary Dorothy became Dux of the School which meant she had gained the highest marks in the Qualifying Exam : our father would have been proud.

If you got S1 (like Dorothy) it meant you did two foreign languages at Secondary.I got S 2 so just did French ( Badly).

Primary school was principally about the three Rs(reading ,writing & arithmetic)with a smattering of history, geography and art.Classes were pretty large ,about 40. We sat in pairs with wooden desks and porcelain ink wells. During writing lessons your pen had to be dipped in the ink to just the right level and the pen had to point directly over your right shoulder.Just tried to find out when the biro was invented but Wikapedia are having a protest about Congress.The teacher would tower over us behind an enormous desk.

In classrooms there would be a large map of the World covered in RED depicting the extent of the British Empire.India was still in Red although it got independence in 1947.

In my early years in the Army I was involved in the demise of this Empire. First in Hong Kong ,Sarawak and Aden but later in Rhodesia.  You could say Ireland was the last colony.

WHO WERE THE THOMPSONS

WHO WERE THE THOMPSONS

I often wish I knew more about my ancestors My grandfather was Irwin Thompson who was in the Glasgow Police Force He was married to an Elliott.There was certainly an Ulster connection as he had been in the Orange Order & with a P it is the Ulster version.Always thought Thompson was rather a common name as it means son of Thom.However, if one had been born a Campbell you would have had to live with the stigma of " Never trust a Campbell " which goes back to the massacre of Glencoe.

Granparents had seven children: Irwin ,William[my father known as Bill, Edward [Eddie], Sam ,Sadie,Margaret and John.

In many ways I think these uncles and aunts were less fortunate than my generation of cousins.They had either to leave school at 14 or their education was disrupted by the War.Eddie & Sam were in the RAF.Only the youngest John got to university, qualified as a vet and emigrated to New Zealand.Sam with his wife and two sons emigrated to Canada in the 1950s.I think one of his sons joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police {RCMP}.

My father did a six year apprenticeship and became a motor mechanic.

My grandmother ran a grocery shop.They certainly needed an other outlet to support seven children as I can't imagine police salaries being all that great.

In total I had 12 first cousins.I have known them all apart from one girl in New Zealand.

Most of this tribe had the benefit of a good education at fee paying schools in Glasgow and went onto tertiary educatio Somehow their parents found the money for the fees or they won scholarships.

This investment in education produced : two doctors, four teachers, an IT specialist, an artist ,one missionary and according to Dorothy one millionaire. I forgot one soldier.

The thompson Diaspora encompassed : South Africa, Hong Kong, Perth Australia, New Zealand Alaska, Canada & Boston Mass Not all locations were of a permanent nature. Few remained in Scotland.

Strangely it was my one cousin on my mothers side , Julia,who was braught up in Preson in Lancashire who settled in the Mull of Kintyre.  She has seven children & thirteen granchildren.
I was really closer to two third cousins Margeret & Wilma Montgomerie as I spent every summer from 7-18 on their parents farm, The Muir near Cumnock in Ayrshire.

EARLIEST MEMORIES

I remember a conversation with Angus on ones earliest memories.It is sometimes difficult to tell is it something  you have been told, a photograph you have seen or is it an actual memory.

Well I am pretty certain mine aged about four were on a holiday in Ayr.It must have been our last family holiday before my father became ill. We stayed in a boarding house opposite Ayr Academy. I remember the school pipe band playing in the playground.

Douglas has a photograph of me standing in the sea in swimming trunks [acceptable to Kate].I was rigedly to attention so perhaps aged four there was the embryonic soldier.

I also remember being given a glass of water by some German Prisoners of  War [POWs]. During the War many Butlins Holiday Camps were turned POW Centres. The one in Ayr certainly was and the German soldiers passed me water over the wire. This must have been 1946 and they still had not been repatriated to Germany.

Also on that holiday we stayed on a farm in Ayrshire. My grandmother on my mothers side maiden was Mc Cullouch. he was very close to a first cousin who owned a farm called Mirclan [phonetic].

I can recall living in the attic of the farm house and having difficulty getting to sleep as outside two owls landed on telegraph poles and hooted all night or so it seemed.

More frightened I had to take these sandwiches out to two German POWs in the stables.I thought they were going to eat me.They in fact adored children.I know that throughout the war many POWs were allowed out to work on farms.Although I am sure they missed their own families they had no desire to escape and and fight once more for THE THIRD REICH>

Aged 7-18 I spent every summer on another farm-The Muir-Aunt Margaret was my mother's 2nd cousin so Wilma and I were third cousins -more later.

What else : well back home in Glasgow the one o'clock pips on the radio was the signal to go and meet Dorothy coming home from school.Asthma which plagued her all her life had set in and she needed help.

One great thrill for Dorothy and I was visits by Willie Darroch. He was a cousin of my mother and a bit younger.He was a bachelor with a motorbike.To us he was a magic man and braught us fabulous presents.I remember getting a ride on the bike sitting on the petrol tank.He did marry later in life and had grandchildren.

I met him after many years at Alan France's funeral : he was aged 80. He was a train driver and during the War & was in Persia [ Iran] driving military equipment [probably supplied by the Americans] up to the Russian border to help them in their fight against Hitler.Other than the Artic convoys that was one of the few routes into unoccupied Russia.

We din't have television but I remember one of the first things I watched was standing in the rain peering into a shop  window. It was the funeral of King George VI. That must have been 1946.

IN THE BEGINNING

On the 13 June 1942 I was born at 18 Byres Road, Glasgow.During labour my mother[Agnes Hyslop Thompson nee Love]claimed she heard sirens and thought it was another German bomber attack. It turned out to be a Pipe Band in the distance.

The worst of the bombing was over before I was born.It was on the nights of 13/14 Mar 1941 that the Clydebank area of Glasgow was flattend by the Luftwaffe.Some 440 German bombers took off from Norway and dropped 440 x 1000lb bombs.

Of the 12,000 houses  only 7 remained undamaged  and 35,000 were made homeless: 528 died in these attacks.

One of their primary targets was John Browns Shipyard where my Grandfather on my mothers side worked .He carved wood panels on the big liners. The family also had a florist/fruit shop on Byres Rd.Grandfather survived this blitz but did not last long enough to see me.

Dorothy, my sister, had been born two years earlier on 14 May 40 at the time British and French troops were being evacuated from Dunkirk'

Byres Road was a pretty
grim place in the 1940s. The tenement blocks were a dark grey colour coated with the grime of the Industrial Revolution; not the vibrant sand stone you see today. Chimneys belched smoke from coal fires rather like Lowry's painting Satanic Mills.The streets were lit by gas lamps and coal ,barrels of beer and ice were delivered by horse and cart.

In the centre of the road and all the side streets were flat roofed concrete bomb shelters One early memory was the noise of pneumatic drills as these structures were demolished circa 1946/47.

Tram cars were the main means of public transport. Glasgow also had an underground system.

Having just returned frm New Jersy one is reminded that the  great boom for Glasgow was the Act of Union in 1707 . It was only then that the Scots were allowed to trade with the thirteen American Colonies.A welcome relief after the diasterous Darien Scheme whereby the Scots had tried to establish a colony in Panama but were defeated by the mosquito.

After 1707 trade flourished with cotton and tobacco imports, inducing an acceleration in shipbuilding for which Glasgow has been famous.

It is this Union that is being currently challenged by the Scottish Nationalist Party.

I don't know if Dorothy and I were evacuated out of Glasgow during the War.I think we spent some time in Crosshill in Ayrshire where my mother and father met and where their ashes are scattered.

My father was not called up as working for the British Electric Authority he was in a reserved occupation.He avoided the Home Guard as his boss at work would have been his Platoon Commander.He opted to do Fire Watch instead and had a white helmet with a big W just as in the series Dad's Army.We of course all had our own respirators.  

1wasasoldier

Communication

My clever daughterinlaw has persuaded me to try and get with iting vis a vis blogg ing--so hear goes.

On the journey back from Penn Station with my son ,Angus, I observed the other passengers and they were all ensconsed in various electronic devices be it ipods or things I have never heard of invented by someone called Apple {I thought that was something from the garden of Eden].

I thought I have almost reached my three score years and ten ,will I ever get withthe most this modern age !

I then thought my greatest problem in communication was as a platoon commander in Borneo when I had to give out orders in three languages namley English,Gurkali & Malay.

I had arrived in Borneo six weeks ahead of my own Regiment and deployed forward to a place in the mountains called Ba Kelan.The British officer departed to be ADC to Gen Walker and I ended up in charge of twenty Gurkha soldiers.Also  in this valley was a troop from A Sqn 22 SAS. The CSM Lawerence Smith [Douglas is named after him] came to the conclusion that we might well be attacked by the Indonesians on the day that Sarawak got its independence.We decided to call in all the local Murut Border Scouts to man our little Fort my the side of the airstrip.The Fort was a bamboo constructin
with trenches.
My cunning plan was to have in each trench manned one Gurkha and one Border Scout.I did not trust the Border Scouts to throw grenades.
Fortunately the Gurkha NCOs spoke English as did some of the Border Scouts.

At the end of my orders the only problem raised by the Border Scouts was how were the going to have a pee in the middle of the night.I did not want them to leave their own designated trench in the dark for fear that they would end up shooting each other.I devised a cunning demonstration.I got a Gurkha Nco to cross his legs in mock demonstration of being bursting for a pee.He then made his way to a desert rose in the middle of camp.[Those who have served in the  desert will know a desert rose is a urinal].I then shot at the Gurkha NCO but well over his head : the Border Scouts got the message.I then got the same Gurkha NCO to repeat the same theatrical performance but this time pee in a can inside the trench.

Is this sort of experience something of a bygone age ?

Korea

It was interesting to see the Korean War Memorial in Washington DC as my Regiment had faught in Korea alongside the Americans.

Trip to Jockey Hallow

me and my grandkids...