HOW I BECAME A TIGER

Not sure aged 18/19 whether I was naive or idealistic . I thought that in getting to Sandhurst I had made a major leap ,well I had but the more import thing was to sort out what part of the Army did you want to join as your future career would be determined by that decision.

Initially I had no clear idea .The Army was divided into Arms & Services the former doing the fighting and the later providing the logistics . I wanted to join a teeth arm which meant either armoured corps (cavalry or tank regt ) , artillery , infantry or engineers . By a process of elimination the cavalry was out as one assumed you needed a private income and to be an engineer you were meant to go to university and get a technical degree which I was sure  was not me despite having physics and chemistry highers . That really left the Royal Artillery or Infantry . Initially I put my name down for the Royal Artillery but later it was really Kim Ross who persuaded me I should join the Infantry : he was right .

The problem was which regiment . I was not totally naive ; to get into the Guards it was assumed daddy would help ! ; certain of the so called fashionable regiments like the Green Jackets recruited almost entirely from those who had gone to Eton or Winchester. There was also the question of family connections . To cut a long saga short I thought I would take the bull by the horns and applied for the Royal Highland Fusiliers .After all I had, at school ,worn the HLI cap badge from 14 to 18 and was Scottish. Well I did have an interview with the Colonel of the Regiment but it did not last long as I was informed I did not have the right connections. Must confess aged 19 I did not have the balls to ask how do you get them ! Well that was a bit of a blow and frankly I was pretty disillusioned .I even asked if I could go to Canada and join the Canadian Black Watch but this was not an option .I suppose my Company Commander was sympathetic for he arranged for me to have interviews with the Sherwood Foresters and the Royal Leicestershire Regiment (Tigers ). I was accepted by the Tigers . This was a relief as I was now in my last term at Sandhurst .

Ironical aspect of this saga was that after I got the MC I was asked if I wanted to transfer to the RHF who had rejected me and in Borneo a Lt Col Rooney who commanded 2/7 Gurkha Rifles tried to get me to transfer. Perhaps I should have gone to the Gurkhas and avoided ever after that boring question "what is a Scot doing in an English Regiment ."

Sandhurst has always had its share of Royals . In Intake 29 we had Prince Michael of  Kent an Qaboos the current Sultan of Muscat and Oman. As Prince Michael was in Old College I never met him but once shared doing guard duty with Qaboos . I remember asking him what he would do when he left Sandhurst . He confidently anticipated being Commander in Chief . It was not to be because after a year in Germany with the Cameronians his father put him under virtual house arrest for the next twelve years and told him to study the Koran. Eventually his father was deposed with the help of MI 6 and Qaboos took over . Family connections are not everything !