INFANTRY JUNIOR LEADERS BATTALION

On return from Aden I led a pretty nomadic life for the next six months which took me to Somerset , Isle of Wight , Scotland , Suffolk , Kent , Wiltshire and then Shropshire .

It was strange having to do these basic courses alongside newly commissioned officers just out of Sanhurst . The first was at Hythe in Kent on weapons and the second on tactics at the School of Infantry in Warminster . There were gaps in my knowledge I have to admit but I think the great advantage was that it enabled me to return eighteen months later as a captain instructor on the Platoon Commanders Division thus getting promoted two years earlier than normal . I exchanged my little car for a mini van which was convenient as with all these moves you could throw everything in the back .

I have got to confess I was not over the moon about going to the Infantry Junior Leaders Battalion at Oswestry . Training boy soldiers was not my scene or so I thought. I was to change my mind and became a fan . In fact when I was a commanding officer all my company sergeant majors were ex-Junior Leaders .

In the 1960s the Infantry , Armoured Corps , Artillery and Engineers were all running Junior Leader Battalions and the Technical Arms had Apprentice Colleges . In those days the school leaving age was fifteen which meant we could take these young men in at 15 yrs and train them through to 18 yrs when they would become adult soldiers .

The training was by no means all military and the academic side concentrated on the Three Rs but some of the brighter ones went on to take O & A Level Exams . However , when the school leaving age was raised to sixteen the syllabus had to be curtailed . This was unfortunate as with a pupil instructor ratio of 10:1 I am sure the juniors were getting a better education than in many a state school . Then in the 1990s Junior Leader Battalions were disbanded as part of a cost cutting exercise .

I , with my background, was earmarked to go to the Tactics Wing but a Leicester Officer who had been to Oswestry told me the thing to get into was the External Leadership(EL) Wing ( Adventure Training ). Each term the Juniors did an Adventure Training Week and they got progressively got harder as they got older . Activities included : hill walking , caving , rock climbing , abseiling , canoeing and skiing .

I was in for a shock as I was petrified  initially of rock climbing . Somehow I got over it mainly due to two other officers . First Jim Hawkins who was a really climber who dragged me up second on the rope mainly in Snowdonia and then introduced me to leading easier climbs and secondly another officer who was quite a robust character who had fallen off and explained how he had subsequently had nightmares . Somehow this helped knowing I was not the only one who got scared on a rock face .  Climbs are graded : extreme , very severe , severe , very difficult down to the easy end difficult . I never got above leading severe . It is a salutary lesson when one has to face up to ones limitations . One problem in climbing with juniors is that some would not be strong enough to hold you if you came off so in effect you are climbing free , no safety.

The EL Wing was commanded by a Scots Guards captain and the instructors were my vintage from all different regiments . The second in command was Captain Joe  Hillis (Angus's God Father ) ;not a very good one my fault ! Joe was in the Inniskilling Fusiliers . We would spend most of our time away in Snowdonia , Derbyshire and South Wales . I think the things I enjoyed the most was abseiling off Chirk Viaduct near Oswestry and canoeing on the River Severn and Wye .

Nearly all of us were financially stretched in those days as the Army was not well payed so when the Juniors went off on leave at the end of term we got civilian jobs to make ends meet . Hence four of us ventured off to London to help dig the Jubilee Line .

I did along with some others manage to get off on a parachute course at Netheravon where we progressed from static line to 15 second delays .

It was at this time at the weekends I was heading north to Edinburgh to see Miss Paterson .

What of the big Wide World . Robert Menzies retired as Prime Minister of Australia . The number of Australian troops in Vietnam increased to 4,500 . Also Australia went for decimal currency . In China the disastrous Cultural Revolution was gaining momentum .

In South Africa extended Apartheid to Namibia whilst to the north in Rhodesia sanctions were applied to try to isolate Ian Smith's regime .

In Europe France and Britain agree to building the Channel Tunnel .