REUNIONS
It's taken 40 years, but finally we had our first reunion. It was held at the BellHouse Hotel in Beaconsfield on the 20th September 2003, and was principally held then to mark the 40th anniversary of our attestation (that's signing on the dotted line !!)
Although there had previously been some small get togethers, nothing major had ever been planned. At the 2001 RAFHAA Tri-ennial reunion, 7 of us gathered at RAF Halton, and having first passed each other in the hanger, it didn't take long till we were esconced in the beer tent reminiscing about those "good old days". At the end of the day, a few of us agreed it would be a good idea to mark our 40th anniversary with an entry reunion. At that time, I had contact details for about 30 ex Ton5s. I passed these on to Taff McCarthy and Dave Young, and they began a search for a suitable location, and for more of our men.
Dave came up with several venues, but like all big hotels they want you to commit to quite a high expenditure, a long way in advance of your booking, and with less than 20 promised attendees it was a difficult decision to make. Taff eventually went to the BellHouse and paid a rather large deposit with a contract to pay another large sum, and then we waited with baited breath for all the acceptances (and cheques) to arrive. Thankfully (for Taff, Dave and myself) we ended up with 48 attendees. Taff had originally booked a Disco, intending the evening to be a dinner/dance type of evening, but due to the low numbers , he cancelled the disco and we arranged to bring suitable period music on CD to use as background noise. This seemed to be the best move, as we invited people to bring any memorabilia with them, which was then displayed on a table along one side of the room - AND YOU'D NEVER BELIEVE WHAT SOME APPRENTICES KEEP !!!!!!!!!.
I arrived with my wife on the day before the reunion, and what do you know - so did many others. So effectively we had two reunions, one in the bar on the Friday night and another in the Cavendish Suite on the Saturday night. It says a lot for our entry that for this , our first get together in nearly 40 years we had Brian Jenkins and his wife from Canada, Tony Bush and his wife from Australia, Frank Bowron from Brunei, Barry Jones from North Germany and myself and my wife from South Germany. It also transpired through the evening that some people who had been looking for each other discovered they worked on oposite sides of the same fence (physically, not literally).
You can see in some of the reunion photos that most of the guys are wearing a kind of ID badge - exactly what it was, but it had their pictures from 1963 , taken from the A and B Flight photos. I think everyone enjoyed them, and I really do apologise to Barry Jones for putting Don Warwoods picture on his badge, especially after he specifically told me on the phone where he was in the B Flight picture.
On Saturday the 20th, we travelled over to RAF Halton, where we met up with those who had just arrived, and with Gp. Capt. (Ret'd) Min Larkin who showed us around St Georges Church and then up to Henderson Groves, where we had a good time in the Apprentice Museum. While there we spotted a tool box which had been unearthed in workshops earlier this year, with the service number and name of Goss in it. Min told us he was trying to locate which entry this guy had been in - we told him - problem solved. One main talking point in the museum was the display of ex-apprentices who had achieved Air Rank, and for me it was particularly interesting to see how many of my former COs and Station Commanders had been both apprentices and had subsequently achieved such an exalted position - Congratulations to them all. We did note that the 104th and 106th both had their representatives there, but ours was misisng. Ian has told us he will rectify that situation.
You can see pictures of the reunion in the gallery, not just mine but contributions from others. It's noticeabe that after the dinner, Taff had made the right choice in cancelling the Disco, as most people wanted to chat and catch up on 40 years. For me it was the first time I had seen most of these guys since we graduated in 1966. It musta been a good night as a lot of them didn't get to bed till after 4 in the morning!!!! and since some of us had done that the night before too - it was quite a tiring weeknd.
To round of the weekend we had our association forming meeting and then dispersed to meet again at Halton House, where Min Larkin had arranged for Malcolm Roberts to show us around this wonderful Rothschilds mansion, which for many years now has been the Officers Mess at RAF Halton. The house has been extensively renovated but still retains many of its wonderful features. We patook of lunch in the mess before dewparting on our merry ways with the promise to have the next FULL reunion in 3 year time - to mark the 40th anniversary of our graduation. BIG QUESTION - ANY VOLUNTEERS TO ORGANISE IT? !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We will of course be together again at the RAFHAAA Tri-ennial at RAF Halton in September of 2004 - if anyone needs the details then just contact me