Nominal roll PDF document of the Junior Leaders who moved to Harrogate before the Disbandment Parade available on request
Nominal roll PDF document of the Junior Leaders who moved to Harrogate/Troon after the Disbandment Parade available on request
Denbury Junior Leaders at AAC Harrogate
The following article was printed in the Gate the ACC Harrogate magazine and the Wire magazine early 1967
JUNIOR LEADERS FROM DENBURY
As the Junior Leaders’ Regiment at Denbury is closing down, thirty-nine junior soldiers arrived at the College on 10 Jan 67 to train as apprentices. They were attached for a month, and now they have passed the probation period and are fully fledged A/Ts. Eight are now training as Technicians, and thirty-one as Telegraph Operators. One of them, A/T Martin Western of Rawson Sqn, describes his feelings on joining us. He is training as a Technician.
“We left Denbury with mixed feelings – some of regret, some of happiness but we all subconsciously wanted to go. When we arrived at the College, we were amazed at the vast size of the newly constructed accommodation, which, of course, was totally different from the buildings at Denbury. We all thought our first day would be like Recruit Squadron, with the rest of the boys ignoring us, but we were very wrong. We were very quickly accepted by the boys and adopted their way of life. At Denbury trade isn’t usually started until the 4th Term, so we had not experienced this type of education before. We were all proud to have been accepted into the College, but we knew the work would be hard so we buckled down to it and soon adapted ourselves to it. The atmosphere here is very pleasant. The training we have experienced is so far hard, but very worthwhile.”
We all welcome this advance guard from Denbury and though we are sorry to see such a fine regiment disband, we hope that the remainder coming will settle in as happily as have Western and his friends.
FOR THE TIMES THEY ARE A-CHANGING (from our Special Correspondent)
“We ran a survey at Denbury amongst all Junior Leaders who were due to come to Harrogate
The question asked was, “Where is Harrogate?”
45% actually knew where it was (somewhere in Yorkshire)
28% were honest and said they’d never heard of it
19% thought it was a dog-racing track in London
7% (only) thought it was a breakaway African state
But…we know now. We arrived on Monday 11th September 1967 – though Smith (don’t ask us which one) couldn’t read his leave pass and arrived on the Saturday before; we have yet to discover how he spent the interim.
We gazed with awe at the accommodation buildings, and then noted places of interest: NAAFI, WRVS, JRC, Library. Most of the lads conveniently mixed Tech and TG Education and quite a few still swear they couldn’t see the Operator Block.
However, trade training has started, and the instructors now spend their days in two states of mind: they either roar with laughter at the answers to tests or weep salt tears at the results.
We’ve done a little on the sporting side. Rumbold and Martin have thrown the oval ball for the College XV, and Childs and O’Leary have figured prominently in the sphere, if the pun may be forgiven, of Soccer.
Even the Officers have settled down. Major Hunt is OC Penney Squadron, prefers it to Denbury, but still has his problems (like paraffin in the coffee!); Lt Burtt after a short spell in Recruit Squadron and a controversial one as Lecturer in Topography (which a certain Recruit had the gall to tell us is a polite word for Map Reading) is now his Second in Command. Despite all the weekend work he does with his Squadron, he still manages to shin up and down rocks with monotonous regularity. Lt Whitehead is now well and truly married, and is in charge of our trade training (there is not thought to be any connection between these two happy events). He plays at soldiers on Feldon with Recruit Squadron on the odd weekend, leads the Staff Rugby team on Wednesdays, and has something to do with the Cycling Club, we are told.
All in all, we like it; we know the ACC was better, but, apart from that minor thing, we have some super facilities available here.
On the hobbies side, the ‘fly-boys’ have taken the easy way out Model Cars and Railways, Angling and Fencing, but we’ve done them all before.
We look forward to at least a year’s enjoyable and profitable stay here, before we move on to bigger things; perhaps tact demands that we should say to older Harrogatonians. “Thank you for having us”; certainly we wish everybody a very happy Christmas”.
Thanks to John Latter 67C intake from his blog for the following information:
Phillips Squadron (red flashes)
Penney Squadron (blue flashes)
Rawson Squadron (yellow flashes)
Scott Squadron (green flashes)
Recruit Squadron (white flashes) was split into troops each named after one of the other squadrons
A sixth squadron Bradley Squadron was formed towards the end of the 1960s
On arrival at AAC Harrogate I was allocated to Phillips Troop and my room NCO was A/T LCpl Pete Emmett who originally came from the Junior Leaders Regiment Royal Signals at Denbury
The following was taken from the Gate the ACC Harrogate magazine late 1968:
Lieutenant-General Sir Walter Walker, KCB, CBE, DSO, GOC-in-Chief Northern Command was the reviewing officer at the Graduation Parade on Wednesday 7th August 1968 – the first 39 Junior Leaders graduated
The following prizes were presented:
Best Communication Centre Operator – JCpl Barron
Best Radio Operator – JLCpl Kerr
Most improved Comcen Operator – JSig Coulson
Most improved Radio Operator – JSig Ball
Most improved Education – JSig Stabb & JSig Leivers
The following was taken from the Wire March-April 1969:
Air Vice-Marshall Harry Burton, CBE, DSO, Air Officer Commanding No 23 Group, Royal Air Force was the reviewing officer at the Graduation Parade on Wednesday 11th December 1968 – 46 Junior leaders and former Denbury now A/Ts graduated
JSig later A/T PR Neale won the Telegraph Operater prize and special mention for T ‘Paddy’ Reid who was JSgt in his output term
The following was taken from the Wire August-September 1969
Major-General MD Price, OBE Vice-Quarter-Master-General was the reviewing officer at the Graduation Parade on Wednesday 9th April 1969 – 13 Junior leaders and former Denbury A/Ts graduated the last Junior Leaders to leave Harrogate except John Terry who did not pass out due to a broken arm so served an extra term graduating 1 Jul 69
Click HERE for a copy of the Graduation Parade Programme with thanks to John Leonard
There were no more Junior Leaders in the Royal Signals until it was decided to bring them back in September 1971 and they joined basic recruit training parties then in May 1972 came the formation of the Junior Signalman Squadron at 11 Sig Regt Catterick and the rest is yet more history!