Memories of Napier Barracks.

Im so happy to find this forum.

Welcome memories...We have a few ex gunners on here who will be interested in your post..

Welcome

If you go to the main page of this site (not the Forum) click on Locations and you will find a list of places including those where you lived in Germany Some include photographs which may bring back more memories.

Hi Memories and welcome to the Site. I served in Dortmund from 1971 - 1976, I was stationed in Ubique Barracks with 24 Missile Regiment RA and lived in Barop, so we must just have missed each other! I visited the area in 2011 and, as you say, it is very difficult to relate to anywhere there now. The houses in Camp 7, where the Families NAAFI was situated are all still there but they look to be in a very run down condition, you probably know that a good proportion of Ex Army Bks and MQs were used to rehouse people from the old Eastern Bloc countries after the wall came down. Don't know if you have discovered this Website but the guy running might remember your Dad?

http://napierbarracksdortmund.blogspot.co.uk/

[quote="MEMORIES"]

Army life meant that I had no roots, so it is hard sometimes when people can point out the streets they lived in when they were young and visit.  Cant do that myself when its all in Germany

It's the same for my two sons.
The eldest was born in North Wales and the youngest in BMH Rinteln.
Both of them spent most of their childhood in BAOR and have nowhere to go back to.
My regiment was posted to Dortmund in the late 70s but after a few months living in Gartenstadt, my family were uprooted again by a posting to UK.

Hello - thank you so MUCH for replying to my thread about my Dad.

Could I just ask how is the best way to look up Dads Army records?

MEMORIES wrote:

Could I just ask how is the best way to look up Dads Army records?

Memories, this would be the best place to start:-

ww.veterans-uk.info/service_records/service_records.html

I would love to know also what happened to the Missile that used to be at Napier Barracks it used to stand on a kind of platform past the guardroom somewhere.  Still hoping someone remembers my dad but realise that as my Dad would have been 81 now its a big ask.



I would imagine when Napier was handed back to Stadt Dortmund the Thunderbird Missile would have gone to either the Royal School of Artillery or the Rotunda Museum at Woolwich.

MEMORIES,can you remember what year your father was in the 12th I was in the old 12th lL.A.A. at celle and herford

Thank you for your replies and 'helps' so very appreciated.. Amazing to see that Missile again, we used to have a pic of that in our family album but it 'vanished'. I will phone my mother this evening and come back with the info about Dad/years in 12th and post it here in a few hours.

In answer to Ronnie French Dad was in Celle in 1961

(edited the other info because its not really needed).

Memories, when you send off for your Dad's Service History it will tell you exactly where he served.

Although I moved to Dortmund in the 80s. Having just read your post about the stables, have to say, Winston was amazing. My parents bought him off the saddle club and he came back to England with us. Do hope you found all the info you were looking for.

Hello Earl73 - been a while since I popped in here but loved your post!! Winston was a very striking horse and such a nice boy. I was given one of his horseshoes and I really dont know what happened to it after a while of moving around but I was so pleased you bought him. Thats so brilliant He had a beautiful nature. When I was there I rode Billy he was a lot smaller then Winston and there was also another smaller horse - Snowy who had a off/on temperament could be a stubborn bugger. ha ha. I rode quite often and enjoyed going to the stables. I have a picture of Winston with my brother/sister on the back of him. I will try to look it out and if possible will post it. He was special so thank you so much for telling me. Its funny really but this forum brings me a lot of joy as its the only place that links to anything in my 'old life'. Anyone born on army camps becomes rather rootless in life - as the camps get shut down ie, Napier and when there is no trace left, it does rather feel like the past has been obliterated. I find that a very strange thing. I guess I must be one of the nostalgic ones. The stables brought me great joy. Thank you for writing x

  I have not 'done' what Shelldrake suggested yet, I think I began the process and then came across a stumbling block - now not remembering what! you can tell Im getting older my brain is defunct!  Anyway to everyone - hope you had a good Christmas and new year and lets hope this year is a good one

Hi Memories

My Dad served at Napier Barracks between 1967-1970 and we lived on Flughafenstrasse too!

I have sent you a PM

Best regards
Alan

Not sure how I missed these series of posts. Heavens, they date back to 2013!!

While I was not terribly familiar with Napier Bks, I did attend Cornwall Comprehensive in 1971 (1970?), which would have put me there at about the same time as Memories. I was put into 6th Form.

As mentioned elsewhere (a lot!! LOL) I was the son of Canadian Army. My Dad was one of 3 Canadian soldiers who remained behind in the old Brigade Area (Iserlohn/Hemer/Deilinghofen/Werl/Soest) to finish closing it out and transferring the various former Canadian holdings to BAOR.

There was a choice to either send me to board in Lahr with someone and attend school there, with my parents up in Iserlohn, or seek admittance to Cornwall. My parents opted for Cornwall.

It was a bit of a challenge as the British educational system is structured quite differently from the Canadian and American ones. Given my age, I clearly belonged in 6th Form, but as the Canadian system is not particularly based on age but rather grades, I had a few 'holes' when it came to curriculum. All of my fellow students in 6th Form had gone through all the pre-requisites needed to finally sit their 'O' and 'A' Levels. I had not. I did take my exams but of course failed miserably!!

Having to wear a school uniform was likewise bit of a shock to me. I hated wearing it!! Same damn thing day in and day out. Ugh. I rebelled slightly by refusing to wear it on Fridays and opted instead to wear a nice beige corduroy sports jacket, tie, coloured shirt, and dress pants (NOT grey flannel -- which I detested). Surprisingly, I got away with it!! Something to do with being a 'damn Colonial' I suspect LOL

My only real memory of Napier Bks was sneaking off across the pitch behind the school, slipping thru a hole in the fence and going into the NAAFI with a buddy of mine (Derek Wilkinson) and purchasing a can of Guinness each and stuffing the cans into the large patch pockets of our blazers.

Of course, this little foray over lunch to the NAAFI cost us some time and so we jogged back across the pitch to one of the --oh I forget what they were called, but temporary trailer-type things that some of our classes were held in -- where we proceeded to pop open our treasure. Yeah....you know what's coming, don't you? :-) The Guinness sprayed EVERYWHERE. All over the desks, the floor, our wool blazers...all you could smell was Guinness. Even requisitioning one of the girls' crème sachet perfume to madly rub into the wood of the desks did little to cover the aroma of stout!

Luckily, our teacher for that particular class (Geography) was a young fellow, actually not much older than I was (I was 18. He was perhaps 21 or 22), who could hardly contain his amusement. Naturally, he immediately knew who the two culprits were! How, I have no idea :-)

Hello Stephen Lock!! Lovely to know you went to Cornwall School.

I knew a few of the kids in 5th Form who were children of Irish Rangers living in Hemer (I lived in Iserlohn at the time I was attending Cornwall) but other than that I didn't have much to do with any of the lower forms.

I suppose a lot of the boys (and some of the girls!!) were a bit rough at Cornwall. I didn't notice it particularly, but again being in 6th and a Prefect I was -- ahem -- 'above all that'. Pretty much just hung out with other 6th Formers and Prefects.

As for antics....not many. As a Prefect I of course enjoyed the privilege of being able to leave school property over lunch and a few of us sometimes would pop off to the small little pub located just inside the front gates of the cemetery across the street from the school for a couple of beer over lunch. Or a couple of beer for lunch!

Speaking of lunches -- the lunches at Cornwall were atrocious!! Foul stuff. It was either some icky, dry, cheese concoction that I think was supposed to be lasagna or this evil beef stew thing that was more sop than beef (although actually rather tasty if one could get past the looks of it!).

My best pal, Derek Wilkinson, and I did come up with an act of political rebellion re school lunches though.

There was a print ad at the time which showed Good Queen Vicky holding a box of After Eights mint chocolates with a speaking bubble coming up over her head in which she is saying "We are vastly amused" (a play on her famous quote of 'we are not amused'). Derek and I carefully cut out the After Eights box with an X-Acto knife and inserted a carefully printed 'card' which read "School meals are delicious" or some such thing. We then posted our completed masterpiece on one of the central pillars in the foyer of the Central Block, just outside Headmaster's offices.

Our timing could not have been better as that was the day some mucky-mucks from London, school trustees or something, were visiting the school and of course as Headmaster is giving them a tour of the school, they spotted this.

"Oh..." said one to an obviously embarrassed Headmaster "I see you have some pranksters amongst the student body!"

"Hmmmm...yes. And I believe I know exactly who!" said Headmaster, shooting a glance towards Derek and I. Whaaa-aaaat??? How come you always think it's us!! LOL

I forget the Headmaster's name now but he used some sort of odd hairdressing on his white/silver/grey hair, slicking it back. Which was fine, except the dressing tended to turn his hair an odd shade of green. Seriously. Green streaks going through it. Quite pronounced green streaks. Very peculiar.

I totally agree with your assessment of how 'displaced' or 'disconnected' many of us are from our roots, moving around so much. By the time I finished high school (secondary school) back in Canada I had attended something like 8 or 10 different schools throughout my school career. Dad rarely was stationed in any one posting for more than 18 months. We lived in Ottawa, Canada's capital, for 5 years and that was probably the longest posting he ever had! So, you are quite right -- none of us have an 'old neighbourhood' we can go back to and touch base at. So many of the places we all grew up in are gone, derelict, demolished, or so altered as to be unrecognizable. That does tend to have an affect on us as adults, I think. Yet, at the same time, it is so completely normal for us I don't really think it is a detriment. A bit sad when you stop and think of it, though.

I remember the first time I went on Google Maps and could do a 'walk through' of my old neighbourhood in Soest, even able to zoom in down on my old residence. I enjoyed it but at the same time it was like a punch in the gut. I was glad to see it all still there but sad I wasn't there still as well. Some other family is living in the unit I lived in. Some other young teen is sleeping in 'my' room. It's a little weird to think of. Many families have passed through that flat by now...40-odd years on. It's a tad disconcerting!! LOL My family was but just one of many many families to have lived there.

Great Post Stephen. Alan reminded me that the Headmaster when we were there was Mr Gane.

Name is vaguely familiar....might have been him, yes.

Hi Memories, your post brought back a lot of , well , memories. My name is Dave Nichols. My father was Ken Nichols , he was in 12reg RA. He is in his eighties now , I sent him the link for this site, he might be able to fill you in with some Qs you may have. I think we must of been there similar time , I remember the afghan ( if it was the same one) we had it in our house at one time. We lived at liemkuhle strasse, no 14 , I think. I was born 1958 too. I also went to the primary school and then Cornwall school, I did 1st and 2 nd year. I remember my friends name, might ring a bell, Anthony and Graham Dixon, Irene and Audrey Roberts, Steven Cole, Wayne Green , David Mandley , teacher called Mr. Bennett.

Valiant106737 wrote:

Hi Memories, your post brought back a lot of , well , memories. My name is Dave Nichols. My father was Ken Nichols , he was in 12reg RA. He is in his eighties now , I sent him the link for this site, he might be able to fill you in with some Qs you may have. I think we must of been there similar time , I remember the afghan ( if it was the same one) we had it in our house at one time. We lived at liemkuhle strasse, no 14 , I think. I was born 1958 too. I also went to the primary school and then Cornwall school, I did 1st and 2 nd year. I remember my friends name, might ring a bell, Anthony and Graham Dixon, Irene and Audrey Roberts, Steven Cole, Wayne Green , David Mandley , teacher called Mr. Bennett.

Hello Dave. Ive sent you a PM.

Hello.
I search for ilona her youth love. He was a soldier at the napier barracks in Dortmund.
His name is Timothy Patrick Johnston. Birthday at 08. april. Year she knows not really sure. But must be 1948 or 1949.
He was at 36. regiment 12. battalion. He was gone at 1974 back to England. Manchester hyde.
She search contact to him.
Please help if anyone can.