POST SANDHURST
Sandhurst trained you to be an officer in general terms .Depending on what you were commissioned into determined where you went next .Gunners would go to the School of Artillery at Larkhill for further training whilst the cavalry went to the Armoured School at Bovington and the infantry to Warminster . Sappers would go off to the Army University at Shrivenham to do an engineering degree .

Where did me all end up from my platoon ? As far as I can remember it was :

Royal Artillery   4
Scots Guards     1
Irish Guards      1
R  Signals          2
RMP                  1
Cavalry              2
REME               1
Glosters             1
R Leicesters      1(me)
R Engineers      3

For the infantry the policy kept changing from going immediately to the School of Infantry or doing six months with a battalion first . I went to the battalion first but  initially had to go for two weeks to the Headquarters of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment at Glen Parva Barracks in Leicester . This is where recruits were trained .

Although I was a Leicester I was actually commissioned into the Forester Brigade and wore their cap badge .This was an early attempt to form large Regiments and consisted of the Leicesters , Warwick's and Sherwood Foresters .

Nothing much of significance happened in those two weeks . One vignette which did register was going to the Magistrates Court in Birmingham . In those days an officer had to go to court with a soldier up before the magistrate . I had to go with a black soldier who had been charged with burglary . The Company Commander at the Depot told me just to say he was an excellent soldier .

Well the procedure was that after the magistrate had pronounced if the soldier was guilty or not guilty he would say " Is there an officer in the court ." That was ones cue to stand up and spout .
Although the soldier had been found guilty I stated that he was an excellent soldier and that this offence was totally out of character ( we were short of numbers in those days as national service had just ended ). Thereupon the magistrate asked the soldier if he had anything to say before sentencing .The soldier replied " Yes Sir can I have thirty two other offences taken into account ." I felt a real fool .

The next time I went to court in Minehead in Somerset I made sure I did my homework . However , I did chuckle when an old Somerset poacher who was the case before mine was fined £ 25 by the magistrate for poaching a deer . As he passed me on leaving the court he gave me a big wink and whispered  " I got fifty quid from the butcher ."

The only other amusing tale was the soldier who on returning drunk decided to paint the pigs in regimental colours : red , grey and black .