Introduction

100th Entry of Royal Air Force Aircraft Apprentices - RAF Halton - January 1962 to December 1964

The 100th Entry of Aircraft Apprentices came into being at RAF Halton in January 1962 with the arrival of 150 or so keen, bright-eyed, young men intent on an engineering career with the Royal Air Force.

The usual military induction processes followed during which we were introduced to early rising, how to scrub, clean, polish, iron, march, make beds (RAF style), queue for food and sundry other essential skills. In addition we were educated and trained in a system that, despite what faults it may have had, turned out competent and confident individuals on a consistent basis.

In December 1962, having spent our first year in 3 Wing with yellow cap bands, we undertook our passing-on parade before departing for Christmas leave. In January 1963 we came back to 1 Wing (as the junior entry - again!) and adopted red cap bands. Also, for the first time, were supervised by our immediate predecessors, the 98th and 96th entries, who quite naturally gave us a hard time.

After that wake-up call the next two years included, in addition to our main purpose in being there, a summer expedition to the Brecon Beacons (note - even in summer it rains a lot in Brecon) and a number of route lining duties for state visits in London. Was it just a coincidence that the 100th Entry found itself on parade in front of the Air Ministry in Whitehall?

During our final year at Halton, as well as what would now be called 'pressure' around the final exams, we managed to rehearse for our passing-out parade to such good effect that, on a misty but crisp, cold day in December, we proudly paraded in front of Princess Alexandra and our families and friends to an impeccable standard and finally took our leave of Halton.

Audio Recording

Interesting note:

An audio recording of the entire passing-out parade exists, having been intrepidly (and no doubt illegally) recorded by Keith Rann and the late Stan Game. Just listening to the pipe band is enough to bring all the memories racing back. Watch this space for the opportunity to download it - coming soon!

Pictures

Hover over the thumbnails to view a bigger image and descriptions. Click the thumbnail to open the full size image in a new window.

The 2007 Triennial Reunion

Well what a great time we had.

A number of returning ex-apprentices of various entries had opted to stay on site in the block and an interesting experience it proved to be.

The block allocated on this occasion is opposite the main gym and is apparently used for visiting teams so has been divided into one-man rooms. All was perfectly adequate (if low on the luxury stakes) but, most importantly, very cheap. The cost was œ25 including dinner on the Friday night (in what was 1 Wing mess), two nights of kip (Friday and Saturday) and breakfast on Saturday. Those that wanted it could get breakfast on Sunday in the old 3 Wing mess for about œ2. The grub was fine and meeting some of the young people being trained was an enjoyable experience - they're really just the same as we were except that most of them seem to be girls.ÿ The best encounter was two we met marching alongside the square carrying tins of paint... yes, they were on jankers and yes, they were going to be painting the kerbs around the square! Nothing changes!

Later on Friday evening we accepted the kind invitation extended to RAFHAAA members to drink at the officer's mess. Our brave little band of live-in ex-100th brothers was thrilled and delighted to find a round comprising 3 pints and a short to be less than four quid. We paid the price for this later when, having been the last to leave (that's a euphemism for being chucked out), we struggled to work the coded gate lock at the end of Polish Avenue. Just as we were beginning to contemplate the long walk round Del Lloyd managed to pick it open (wonder where he learnt that) and all was well.

On Saturday morning an ex-102nd type turned up dressed in all his apprentice gear and blew Reveille and the 60 or so of us staying in the block marched (quite well as it happened) up to the mess for breakfast. No pipe band though.

The day at the airfield and later at workshops and schools was, as usual, great. Meeting old mates and cracking jokes just made the time fly by.ÿ By the time we assembled for the march up the hill to the sunset parade we numbered about 14 so, given that a number of the hard core members from previous years hadn't made it (you know who you are!), we should be targeting 20 to 25 attendees in future. Del was even so overcome that he volunteered to make us a banner for 2010.

Brian Goodfellow was able to give us all a quick course on the two static aircraft on display, especially the Gnat in the Trenchard Museum, which is also interesting to wander round. He knows his stuff does Brian.

Here's my list of who was there with apologies for omissions and errors:-

Barry 'Boots' Hathaway

Del Lloyd

Brian Goodfellow

Steve Hughes

Nigel Dalston

Keith Worsley

John Bates

Tony Nordberg

Rex Walton

Ken Watts

Dave Bowman

John Stevens

Steve ???

So, is it good going back? In my view the answer is 'yes', but nowadays mainly for the purpose of meeting of up with old mates. It's good to see the various areas and especially St Georges now there are so many entry stained glass windows to view (ours in pride of place by the way, thanks to Geoff Burton).

To immerse yourself in aircraft, and especially those of our era, you really need to go to Cosford and the Cold War museum. For all that Halton still has a feeling in the air that strongly reminds you of three, broadly speaking, enjoyable years at a very formative time in life.

Let's see if we can get a good turn-out for 2010.

 

Graduation Report

The file you can download from here is a copy of the report contained in The Haltonian, Spring 1965 issue, which describes the 100th Entry Graduation Parade.

Included in the report are some good pictures, a record of the sporting achievements, some interesting statistics and also the final order of merit.

Thanks are due to Tony Daniels for transcribing this material as it didn't scan too well.

HALTON MAGAZINE 100TH ENTRY PASSING OUT (650Kb PDF)

Latest News

This area of the site will contain updates of what's coming in terns of 100th Entry activities.

The Questionnaire

May 2010 - Good responses have been received and we are now approaching 30 up-to-date contacts. More statistics will appear here in due course. Meanwhile John Mather has suggested that we challenge the 100th Locking lot to a golf tournament or go-kart race. This sounds a good idea - any takers?

New entry rep

Our official entry rep for all matters relating to the HAAA and general entry information is Steve Hughes. You can reach him on shughes891@hotmail.com.

The Triennial Reunion

This is the big one and this year marks the tenth in the series. The date is Saturday 25th September. There is plenty of information on the HAAA website - www.oldhaltonians.co.uk - and there are significant savings for those who are not already members to join the HAAA at the same time as booking their slot at the 'do'.

We already have five takers for the 'block experience' (see the Reunion tab for a report on the 2007 experience) and are looking for more. It's the cheapest accommodation you'll find anywhere around Halton! Contact Denis O'Brien, who is the HAAA office manager. You can get him on denis7502@gmail.com or call him at the apprentice office or 01494 762482. Thanks to Barry `Boots' Hathaway for forwarding this update.

100th Entry e-mail addresses

If you are an ex-ton then you can avail yourself of a 100th entry e-mail address for a modest sum. Access can be via Microsoft Outlook or similar programmes or you can use the webmail function of our site host uk2.net.

Price is £2.00 per year per address. To set this up please contact chas.challinger@the-100th-entry.co.uk

Contact the committee

Please send any photos, articles, anecdotes or comments to:-

Chas Challinger
chas.challinger@the-100th-entry.co.uk
+44 (0)7850 596 654

HAAA Entry Representative
Steve Hughes
shughes891@hotmail.com

Royal Air Force School of Training 100th ENTRY. Web site coming Summer 2010