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SCHOOLBOYS’ MEMORIES OF WORLD WAR II — PART TWO

1. THE BLITZ

The College carried on as usual during the Blitz though the number of boys was much reduced to about 170. I cannot remember whether we had to bring our gas masks to school the previous year (1939/40) when I was in Figures. If we did it was not for long. However when we reassembled in September 1940 there was no question but that gas masks were compulsory. From the beginning of term there were daylight raids; at least the siren was constantly sounding though I cannot actually remember many German aircraft, unlike night time when it seemed that one could hear German aeroplanes for hours on end.

When the siren went off we picked up whatever books we were working on and went down to our assigned places in the College cellars. As best they could the Jays tried to continue teaching. At the ‘all clear’ we went back to our classrooms and carried on as usual till the next alarm. Sometimes there were two or three per day. In retrospect I doubt that we were much safer in the cellars. Probably the main difference would have been flying glass at ground level.

We were advised to bring a bar of chocolate or other iron ration to sustain if we were trapped at the College for a long time. This must have been before sweets were rationed; I think rationing sweets started a year or so later. I discovered one day that my bar of chocolate had vanished and I could not understand it. I did not dare say anything at home because I felt sure I would be suspected of scoffing it myself. For some time after I kept searching my desk thinking it would suddenly appear; it only came to me a while later that my chocolate had been eaten by an anonymous friend. Education takes many forms.

During the breaks we were allowed to go on to the College field. One aim possessed us. We hunted for shrapnel from ack-ack guns. There was plenty to be found all over the field. During an air raid one was probably at greater risk from shell splinters than enemy bombs. The holy grail of our searches was the nose cone of an anti-aircraft shell. Anybody who found one of these was greatly envied. I guess the College groundsman - Old Sam - was glad that our splinter gleanings spared his mower blades, though he would have been the last to say so. If Sam came across boys sitting on the ground he would warn them portentously that they would get piles. I hadn’t the faintest idea what they were.

Commuting to school was quite an adventure for a time. Trains were few, crowded and wholly unpredictable. One would arrive at Wimbledon Station in the evening and find the platforms already packed with people and nobody with a notion when a train would come in. Carriages were crammed but somehow we all got home. From the following Easter I started cycling to school.

One morning on the line from Epsom to Wimbledon we had all been decanted at Motspur Park Station for some reason. While we waited a dogfight started immediately overhead and culminated in the shooting down to great cheers of a German plane. At least we assumed it was German. I have often wondered where the spent bullets fell as we gaped at this scrap overhead. Two hundred yards down the line were the two Motspur Park gasholders.

The College sustained a bomb hit on the north-east corner where the swimming pool and gym were. The pool was out of action for the rest of the war. In July 1946 we ran a hose into the pool to fill; it took days to fill up. We were able to swim for a few days before the water turned green, and we had to desist.

2. THE CADET CORPS

FROM THE SCHOOL MAGAZINE

December 1942

Sometime in February last, the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey issued an appeal to all Mayors of Boroughs and to all Headmasters to assist in the work of expanding the Cadet Force in the county.

The need for some such organisation had long been felt at the College, but all previous efforts in this direction had been frustrated by our inability to dispose of enough boys of the required age. Now, however, that the age limit was brought as low as fourteen, it was felt that neither we or the boys would be pulling our weight if we did not respond to this appeal by the prompt formation of a Cadet Unit.

Consequently, a circular letter was sent to the parents of boys of 14 years of age or over, asking them to consent to their sons joining the Cadet Unit which it was proposed to start at the College. The response was immediate and most gratifying, and soon seventy names were received. Soon after¬wards, Col. Poole, the County Cadet Commandant, paid us a visit and addressed the boys on the aims and spirit of the Cadet movement, and afterwards enrolled them as Cadets.

The real work of the Unit may be said to have begun during the Easter vacation, when twenty or so boys - all prospective N.C.O.s - were taught their elementary drill by Sergeant Bullen, the P.S.I. of the local Home Guard. Thus when parades started for all after the vacation, there was a nucleus of trained Cadets, some of whom were soon capable of instructing others.

About the middle of May, battle dress uniforms were issued, and though at first some of the uniforms fitted where they touched, this was soon rectified, and in a short time, thanks to Sergeant Bullen, the Unit looked very smart and marched extraordinarily well. Unfortunately, we soon lost the services of Sergeant Bullen, who was recalled to his regiment. We were very sorry to lose him, and we trust that he may be successful in his new sphere of work. The present efficiency of the Unit is largely due to his painstaking work and to the N.C.O.s he instructed.

Personal Memories

TONY HOGG

Early in 1942 the College responded to an appeal by the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey and formed a Cadet Corps thanks to Fr. Sinnott. The unit was affiliated to the East Surrey Regiment and the 54th Battalion of the Surrey Home Guard. By May '42, approximately 70 of us over the age of 14 had enrolled and been issued with battle dress uniforms. This meant that on certain days of the week, when training was given, we went to school in battle dress. We had platoon drill, parades, rifle drill (with wooden imitations !), map reading, aircraft recognition, fieldcraft, weapons training (Sten gun) and other exercises, held either at the College, on the Common or in the Wimbledon Drill Hall. We were under Captain Watson, who was our Officer Commanding, and a number of us took tests and obtained War Certificate 'A' in March '43.

In August '42 some of us Army cadets from school attended a fortnight's Physical Training Course at Shorncliffe Barracks, near Folkestone in Kent. This was physically demanding, but there was plenty of sport (football, basketball, hockey, athletics etc.) We heard cross-channel shelling on two nights although nothing near us, and during the second week we heard considerable activity in the Channel one night, followed by air battles the following day, seeing one FW190 shot down. We heard later that there had been an amphibious raid on Dieppe the night before, although we were not aware at that time what a costly disaster that was.

CYRIL ELKINGTON

Wimbledon College had had its Army Classes in the past and as the war got under way there was a steady stream of Old Boys joining the Services. In due course the Army Cadet Force was introduced at the College and we formed ‘D’ Company of the 2nd Cadet Battalion of The East Surrey Regiment.

In 1942 a group of us volunteered, at the cost of £1, to take part in a 10-day Physical Training Course at Shorncliffe Camp near Folkestone and we were there in August whilst the Dieppe raid was in progress. Indeed, our first taste of ‘action’ (leaving aside the nightly bombing experienced in London) was when we were ordered from supper into slit-trenches as an enemy aircraft made an unwelcome visit. A certain General Bernard Montgomery had just relinquished the post of G.O.C. S.E. Command and as he allegedly had had his Staff out for P.T. before breakfast every morning, we found that discipline was tight and we were kept on our toes. The Instructors, all Warrant Officers of the Army Physical Training Corps with the motto ‘Mens sana in corpore sano’, were outstanding men and, since they initiated us into the correct way of making a safe parachute landing, one imagines that they themselves very likely became the first members of the elite Parachute Regiment shortly to come into being.

We also had an annual cadet camp and I remember attending one at Ockley. Our Officers were Jesuit scholastics - Mr. Watson with the rank of Captain was Company Commander and he was assisted by Lieutenants Bermingham and Lalor. In the nature of the case promotion could be quite rapid and in my final year (1943-44) 1 found myself an ‘Under-Officer’ (an Army Cadet Force rank) in charge of the third platoon. Regular training was held in the College Field during afternoons whilst Donhead playground was used for foot-drill. War Certificate ‘A’ examinations were held on Wimbledon Common, though I imagine that the Army Officers who took us were not too enamoured with the fact that my khaki uniform bore a blue and red badge indicating that I had been accepted for entry into the Royal Navy under the ‘Y’ Scheme.

ALAN WATERS

Another activity during the war was the College Army Cadet Corps unit under Captain (Mr.) Watson S.J. I achieved the lofty rank of corporal and remember drilling my squad under the eagle eye of Sgt. Major Cyril Elkington.

Whilst in the Cadet Corps, like most others I gained the Certificate A in military skills ie. drill, map reading etc. This gave me a flying start when later I was called up after the war for my national service in the Royal Engineers.

MICHAEL PRICHARD

I enjoyed my time in the Cadet Force and learned quite a bit about map-reading and the like that has stood me in good stead since. We had some enjoyable exercises on Wimbledon Common, though the most vivid moment that sticks in my memory is a hair-raising effort to ride a borrowed bike to the Common with a Lee-Enfield rifle on my back and coming off in the road when attempting to negotiate a left-hand turn into a side road. (Since I did not cycle and did not have a bike of my own, it is not surprising that I came to grief.) Incidentally, I am sure it was a Lee-Enfield that we were issued with by 1944, though I see that another old boy recalls a different type of rifle.

BRIAN HORSMAN

The Cadet Force, part of the East Surrey Regiment - an enjoyable romp, the shape of things to come shortly after in National Service. We learnt to march, strip Sten guns and the ubiquitous Lee Enfield .303 rifle, and attack and defend on Wimbledon Common. I recall Mr. Bermingham selecting four of us to display 'Battle Drill’ at a summer fete while he gave a commentary. We took Certificate A Parts I and 2 in soldiering, but later I discovered that the RAF had never heard of it.

Mr. Watson exhorted us to march as though we owned the place, in singularly unclerical terms. But then, there was a war on.

PETER HAMILL

My other non-academic interest was the College Army Cadet Force company, which paraded on Thursday afternoons. Unlike other companies, we had our own band (or more correctly 'Corps of Drums') of which I still have a photograph. Howard was the drum major and Donald Keith, wearing a leopard-skin apron, played the bass drum. Other instruments included fifes, bugles and snare drums. To this day, the only instrument I can play is the snare drum.

Besides the inevitable drill and 'dry' weapon training, we had a signals section, which dispersed around the College grounds and passed pre-planned messages. Other sections were trained in map reading and simple tactics, in preparation for Certificate 'A', which was the mark of a cadet trained in basic military skills. It was also a stepping-stone to a commission in National Service, which we all had to complete before or after attending university.

In summer 1946, the company attended a Surrey County cadet camp at Bembridge, Isle of Wight. It was a splendid fortnight by the sea, where we exercised the skills learnt during the previous year. Accommodation was in bell tents, circa Boer War or earlier, and we were served typical Army rations. I believe we stood out as being particularly good at signalling and I remember Tony Woellwarth and John Daly being keen members of that section. The Welsh Guards provided the catering and training staff, and made it a very enjoyable camp.

BEDE DAVIS

We would parade on the field and crawl on our bellies on manoeuvres, and we had classes in map-reading. We had a drum and fife band (I played the fife). One of the Lilley boys played the big bass drum and another was the Drum Major, and the Taylor boys (later professional musicians) taught us how to play the fife. Our square-bashing was an example to the rest of the Corps !

NORMAN MURPHY

I recall being surprised that they gave me a real rifle to drill with and being very impressed that it was a Ross rifle the Home Guard no longer needed. I’m sure I never fired it: it would have taken my shoulder off.

TONY ISHERWOOD

I believe that the Cadet Corps was disbanded due to the Army authorities insisting that we attended Church Parades on Sundays. I recall seeing with some awe and incredulity the sight of tall khaki-clad chaps in and around Edge Hill and the college, including my brother Douglas, and thinking that it was only a few months or so previously that I used to see them as the senior schoolboys of the College. It certainly seemed to me to be so unreal in those troubled times.

JOHN DILGER

During the war years the school ran an Army Cadet Corps which was largely remembered by the small fry for their setting off thunderflashes and firing blanks on Sports Day. On one occasion they guarded an unusually long staff meeting, complete with rifles.

BERNARD MITCHELL

The war gave added significance to the existence at the College of a unit of the Army Cadet Force, forming one Company of a cadet battalion attached to the East Surrey Regiment. For the ninety or so boys involved, training occupied one half-day a week; there were also once-a-term field days, when Wimbledon Common would serve as the location for exercises and manoeuvres in which thunderflashes simulated the din of adult battle; and an annual camp at some suitably martial venue on the Surrey/Hampshire borders, with a full range of military tasks to be tackled — such as washing up greasy dishes in tepid water. This was the era when parades of uniformed youth, with martial band accompaniment, were a regular feature of Sunday mornings; our Cadet Battalion was no exception, and the experience of listening, and marching, to its drum and fife band doubtless strengthened our capacity to endure military hardship without flinching.

Boys enlisted at the age of 14 or so, those who subsequently displayed military leanings being able to advance to the ranks of sergeant, sergeant-major or under-officer. Routine training was directed towards the acquisition of ‘Certificate A’ and its accompanying sleeve-badge — a four-pointed red star; this qualification was evidence of proficiency in handling small arms, map reading and related skills, and was a useful accomplishment for those boys who faced the prospect of military service on leaving the College.

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