I CROSS THE ENGLISH CHANNEL

May seem a strange title but after the Second World War Europe was devastated and  it was only around the 1960s that people started to travel overseas in any great numbers. I suspect the furthest my parents explored was the Isle of Man .

However , my first  trip over the water would have to wait a bit as during the Summer Leave from Sandhurst I got a job in a hotel in Arochar at the head of Loch Long . I was not sure if the system at Sandhurst would approve but to hell I needed the money . As it turned out all the male staff in the two hotels in Arochar were Hillhead High School former pupils who were at Glasgow University .Kenneth Sutherland and I used to go cycling at school and Peter Jopp had a job at a hotel nearby in Tarbert on Loch Lomond so it was a HHSFP reunion of sorts . We all worked pretty hard for not very much money but almost doubled our salary on tips .

The highlight of the week was a Ceilidh (dance ) held at a community hall half way between Loch Long & Loch Lomond. As Kenneth and I did not finish work till 2200hrs the party was always well underway by the time we got there so we had to try and catch up by drinking carlsberg specials !

I had one tricky experience as at lunch the Assistant Adjutant from Sandhurst turned up with a fellow officer in the Scots Guards, presumably on their way to some great estate in Argyle . They wanted  draught beer with their lunch and when I explained that this could only be had in the public bar I was told to go and use my initiative ! This I did and they got their beer ; I was tempted to say " Have it on the house anything for the Scots Guards ." but kept my mouth shut. Often wonder if I would have been in any trouble if they had known I was an officer cadet .

One good thing is that I had saved up enough money to get a decent suit made. In those days you were meant to have the right civilian clothes!

In the first year at Sandhurst ones friends tended to be centred on ones own platoon and I stayed with some of them. I have fond memories of Kim Ross's parents who lived in Macclesfield near Manchester. Kim was commissioned into the Scots Guards. However , in the second year you got to know more people mainly through sport but usually in ones own College all be it in different intakes .Cadets came from all over the World : Ghana, Nigeria , Malaya , Nepal , Iraq etc. There was a white ex pat contingent mainly from Kenya and Rhodesia . The Kenyans joined British Regiments while some Rhodesians did likewise but others went back home . When Ian Smith declared UDI in 1965 all officers of Rhodesian extraction had to be interviewed to establish whether they wanted to return to Rhodesia or stay in the British Army .

As many cadets families lived in the south of England they could go home at weekends .The ex pats of which the Scots were a part obviously could not and we sort of had our weekend community. In the second year I used to kick around with Hamish Bryce who was a farmers son from Perthshire  and a Rhodesian , Mike Farquharson.Hamish went on to Cambridge and became a Sapper whilst Mike went into the Somerset and Cornwall Light Infantry.

During the Easter break Mike and I decided to hitch hike to Sweden.The advantage of going with Mike was that he had contacts in Brussels , Copenhagen and an old girlfriend in Malmo in Sweden. My contribution was to don a kilt which we were convinced would help us to get lifts .We headed across the Channel each with the princely sum of £20 ponds in our pockets or rather Mike in his pocket and my fortune in a sporran. We got to Brussels ok , spent a couple of days with a Belgium family who Mike's parents had known in the Belgium Congo. We then headed north with the intention of visiting the Red Light district in Hamburg just to improve our education. The kilt seemed to work as we even got a lift from two female strippers from Frankfurt who wanted me to join their act : in all modesty I declined .

We then got a lift from a very nice Danish gentleman who had been in the Royal Tank Regt during the war. As he offered to take us all the way to Copenhagen we gave Hamburg a miss.

There was one slight problem with financial planning as part of our cunning plan was based on the fact that on the ferry to Copenhagen you could for a modest sum eat as much as you liked .Our aim was to do just that .However,as we did not want to embarrass our Danish friend, we hesitated He understood perfectly and said just keep going lads and have a brandy to wash it down.

Copenhagen was also fun but things went slightly awry when we got to Sweden as Mike,s ex girlfriend was about to get married ! They did invite us home but when Mummy arrived we got the distinct sense it was time to go but where to ? Well we had met this nice Swedish Policeman in the Square in Malmo and half jokingly asked if we got stuck could the Police put us up for the night. To cut a long story short we got a hot shower ,a double cell and a fabulous breakfast all free of charge courtesy of the Swedish Police .

We did get to Hamburg on the way back but one dance in this club cost us a very expensive bottle of bubbly. We thought of making our escape without paying but the size of the German bouncers put us off so broke and dejected we spent the night sleeping in a dodgem car in a fair in Hamburg.