Boy Soldiers

I Joined the Army as a boy soldier,15 years old and was at JTR Rhyl. When we arrived at the camp they issued us with our uniforms and packed our civvies into boxes and left them at the QMs stores. After 12 weeks they gave us them back, less those they considered to trendy! The ones we were allowed to keep were listed on a card that had to be shown at the Guardroom prior to leaving camp, we were allowed out only on Sunday afternoons. When we needed new clothes we had to get permission from our OC to draw money from our Credits. We could only buy from one shop in Rhyl which specialized in School clothes. The first time I went to buy some clothes I bought some "trendy" gear from another shop. These were confiscated on return to camp. I was charged and fined £1 = to a weeks pay the rest went in our cedits. From that day on the Army as far as I was concerned was BOLLOCKS. I wanted out. However, I stayed in for 22 years. That another story.

My brother went there. Couldn't stand it because it was too much like school and he said he had just left school and didn't want that kind of life any more so came out. Kinmel camp I believe?

At AAS Harrogate..Uniform only for the first term ,then blazer and flannels with school badge.A/T NCOs and senior term were allowed suits but had to be passed by OC company.We had our own clothing store under the spider floor for the trendy stuff

That was 59 - 61

I was at JTR Troon from 62-64, we weren't allowed out for the first 6 weeks. Thereafter it had to be uniform (No2 dress) or Regimental Mufti, which as Gordon says was Blazer, Flannels and white Shirt with Regimental Tie. We had to fund this from our meagre wage of about 10 Bob a week. We were issued with a variety of uniforms in those days. We started off with stuff from the 1st World War then progressed to BD, along the way we had Canadian BD Trousers and funny KF Shirts with a flap like contraption that buttoned up inside covering your neck. Talking of wages, when I was posted to Germany in 64 we were paid every Wednesday, presumably "they" were working on the assumption that it would all be gone by Friday and there was no risk of you going downtown and inflicting yourself on the Locals!

Hi Tony I did 3 terms in JTR RHYL what they called a "Z" boy jan - dec 1963
enjoyed it , enjoyed this years reunion better !

At Hereford JLRRA followed the same sort of uniform regulation as other establishments.

I joined in '57, as a 16-year old. Everything we arrived in was packed up and sent home. We were paid 10 bob a week, the rest of our pay going into credits. It was also compulsory that we paid money into a Post Office savings account.

We were dressed in WW1 style Service Dress, mercifully they left the puttees out.

Passing out from Recruits meant you were allowed "downtown", wearing SD boots and blancoed '37 pattern belt.
When you passed your 2nd class education you were allowed to wear shoes and a leather belt with SD and you proudly wore a red backed button on your left sleeve.
Like Shelldrake and Gordon we progressed to blazer and flannels, known as "Mufti".
Finally we wore BD prior to mustering out.
On leaving Hereford I was given my credits, 80-odd pounds I recall, it was the first time I'd ever had a 5 pound note in my hand.
It was, though, a long long time ago !

I too joined as a boy at AAS Arborfield in Sep 54. Dress followed the same pattern as in the earlier posts, the policy must have been standard in all Junior Units. Pay in Junior coy was 17/6d a week of which we received 6s in the hand, the balance, after stoppages, went into credits which we were paid when we went on leave, we were also given ration allowance which we were supposed to give to our mothers - never did. Post Office savings were also mandatory, kept mine going and used it to buy my first car some four years later in Germany - a Ford Taunus 15M, reg no HR 60 B.

Bob

I hope we're not boring our Canadian cousins with all this Junior Bleeders reminiscence.

Did the Canadian Army ever have a Junior Entrant setup ?

Yaaaawwwn....huh? Sorry, what?? kidding....not bored at all, find this sort of stuff quite interesting, actually.

Hardrations is probably better at this than I, or any of the more "mature" Canadian ex-soldiers, but as far as I know, DND (Dept of National Defence...aka the bureaucracy responsible, on a host of levels!!!, for the Canadian Armed Forces) never had a Junior Entrant set-up.

The closest we got, again -- as far as I know -- were the various cadet corps, but those were not "regulars" and not full time. Each branch of the military had one (Army cadets, Navy cadets, and I believe Air Force too but don't hold to me to that....Canadian Air Force was always a bit "away" from the rest of us!).

OK, who's going to start the new thread on first cars in BAOR - mine was a VW Beetle BE 706 B. One for Stephen, it seemed to me that in the mid to late 60's around the Soest and Werl area, every Canadian Soldier drove a Volvo P120 - were they standard issue?

Maybe before going down the road of a new thread on cars. Could we move to a different forum heading? I think we have gone off thread really!

Doing it this way, I think new visitors will negotiate the site easier and the site will be better served

'Trying to Find' is placed better for persons sought etc.

How about the General Forum! I'll start it off!


Alan

To my knowledge we never had boy entrants in any service unless they had them in pre-WW2 days.

However we did have the Soldier Apprentice Plan that started around 1953 (The RCN had Sailor Apprentices as well for a time). Applicants had to be age 16 but not 17 on enrollement in either the Artillery, RCE, RC Sigs, RCASC, RCEME, RCOC, or RCAMC although they dropped the latter after a couple of years for some reason.

After signing up for seven years (with an option to leave after five) you got two years of military and trades training as well as two years of secondary school education. Upon graduation at the end of the two year program you were posted to a regular unit. I joined the RSASC and after graduation immediately applied for transfer to the infantry, but many of them stayed on and eventually enjoyed very successful military careers.

We were paid the princely sum of $48 per month (which in those days translated into roughly 13 pounds) until our 17th birthday at which time we drew pay as a "Private, Trained, Basic Rate" which was roughly double the amount.

The plan ended in the early 1970s.

I went to AAC Carlisle in september 1967, i was 15yrs 2 months old, so one of the youngest. We were not allowed out at all for the first half of the first term, known as J company. you then had a passing in parade, cause you could march by then, and started trade training. you were then allowed out, in no 2 dress, i think only on sundays after church. I think after that we could wear civvies, but they had to be smart and tidy and you were inspected on the way out.

I am also an ex Carlisle Boy from 1963. We had much the same dress code as in Steve's time, except it was SDs in those earlier days!

Judging from the number of comments around the the various forums. It would appear there are many ex boys, many of whom are REME.

Arte-Et-Marte (twist to open!)

We never seem to hear from those who were in the Junior Leaders Regiment, even during my service time I never came across an ex JLR. My Passing Out Parade in Aug 1967 was also the JLR's Disbandment Parade.

My best mate was JLR. In REME they tended to be Tech Storemen, (now G1098 Storeman). There were also Clerks, GD now(RD) and some Bandsman.

JUNIOR TRADESMAN'S REG. RHYL OPENED 1962 ,CLOSED 1972-3

A Signaller came to us around '61 from an All Arms Junior Leaders mob at Rhyl.

Would that have been the forerunner of your JTR John ?

POSSIBLE, WE HAVE AN OLD SOLDIER ON OUR SITE http://jtr.forum-free.net/ WHO WAS THERE IN 55 THEN IT WAS ALL ROYAL ARTILLERY, AND I THINK THEY DID SIGNALS TRAINING , BRUM

When I was at JTR Troon we had three different Trade Companys, 1 for Drivers (predominantly RASC) 1 for Clerks (All Arms) and 1 for Signallers (predominantly Gunners). Every Cap Badge was represented at Troon with the exception of the Brigade of Guards, we had one REME guy who was training to be a Signaller.

I am the founder of the JTR RHYL forum and if you served there then you are welcome to come and join us we have hundreds of members and will be having in 2011 the third reunion which includes the camp the girls school hehe and the ACF pop in and have a look you will enjoy it and look in on the not to be beaten Photograph thread
cu there
http://jtr.forum-free.net/

Stu

Oops sorry John I didnt see your post

i was a boy soldier and served at JTR [junior tradesmens regiment ] TROON,sadly the camp at dundonald no longer exsists,it was flatened and turned into another golf course.for any one interested there is a jtr troon site.

The troon site has been spammed out

recce83 wrote:

To my knowledge we never had boy entrants in any service unless they had them in pre-WW2 days.

However we did have the Soldier Apprentice Plan that started around 1953 (The RCN had Sailor Apprentices as well for a time). Applicants had to be age 16 but not 17 on enrollement in either the Artillery, RCE, RC Sigs, RCASC, RCEME, RCOC, or RCAMC although they dropped the latter after a couple of years for some reason.

After signing up for seven years (with an option to leave after five) you got two years of military and trades training as well as two years of secondary school education. Upon graduation at the end of the two year program you were posted to a regular unit. I joined the RSASC and after graduation immediately applied for transfer to the infantry, but many of them stayed on and eventually enjoyed very successful military careers.

We were paid the princely sum of $48 per month (which in those days translated into roughly 13 pounds) until our 17th birthday at which time we drew pay as a "Private, Trained, Basic Rate" which was roughly double the amount.

The plan ended in the early 1970s.

Also at age 17 or 18 they could opt out of the program and go regular army. These young soldier apprentices were known as the best paid, best feed, best clothed, juvenile delinquents in Canada. Mind you many of them made CWO (WO 1) and quite a few made it into high commissioned ranks. The military did have the advantage of picking exceptionally smart lads for this program. Many weren't cut out to be soldiers but were smart as whips. Also many eccentrics in their ranks. I remember one lad in particular in the RC Sigs. Hard to believe he was an ex-apprentice. He's stilled talked about at RC Sigs gatherings.

The members of JTR RHYL forum this year carried for Canada the flag on remembrance day to honour those Canadian soldiers who were killed in the Kinmel Park Camp riots and also those who passed through Kinmel Park Camp to go off to the trenches
here is a photograph from inside the Marble Church in Bodelwydden in Wales




Stu