Mémoire - Gerry 'Greg' PECK
(Arborfield
53B/54A)
Foreword
Before delving into the life and environment of an Army
Apprentice, circa the late forties to mid fifties, it would probably be an
idea to look at what sort of circumstances existed then to motivate
young boys to enlist as Boy Soldiers.
Many a long discourse on that
subject took place amongst the lads as they sat with beazing
cloth, polish and boots and ‘bulled’ said boots to a high gloss. Some of the
reasons that I recall being put forward by different lads were as follows:
- To escape from a
miserable home life; usually this was accompanied by horrific tales of
physical abuse by a parent or step-parent - this was the category in
which I belonged.
- Then there were
the lads whose family had a long tradition of Military Service; very
often these boys had come via the Duke of York’s School, a quasi
military establishment for the boarding and education of Soldiers’ male
children.
- Kids who were
bemused by the perceived picture of a glamorous life as a Soldier.
- Boys who were
drawn by the attractions of three square meals a day and a roof over
their heads, plus a bed of their very own.
- Youngsters who
wanted an opportunity to learn a trade and better their lot as a result.
- Boys whose
families wished them to avoid the drudgery and danger of working in the
mines or similar dangerous occupations; these jobs often being all that
was available locally.
- A few simply
wished to travel to exotic places around the World.
- Lastly, but by no
means least in number, were the chaps who had been told by a Magistrate
to provide the Court with proof of enlistment within 28 days or be
placed in a Borstal Institution at the Court’s discretion.
In my own instance, my father was widely known in Luton as a man with a ready propensity for violence. I
learnt very early on to afford him the attention and respect he felt was his
due. He died from a brain tumour when I was eleven and within a month I had a
de-facto stepfather. He was both violent and pig ignorant; on one memorable
occasion he threw me upwards so violently that my head burst through the
kitchen ceiling of the Prefab (pre-fabricated house, designed and
introduced during WW2 to allay the housing shortage due to the Blitz) in
which we then lived. It didn't take a rocket scientist to work out what would
have happened had my passage through the plaster met a roof beam! My poor
younger brother had to endure another six years of exposure to this sort
of abuse before he too signed up and entered Chepstow AAS.
It is probably fair to say that in many instances, the strict and
unrelenting discipline that we Apprentices had to endure was no worse than
that which would have been our lot in our home environments. With the bonus
being that the threat of physical violence was probably somewhat
reduced!
This then was the basic composition of the young chaps that the
Army had to turn into functioning Soldiers and Tradesmen. Armed as you now
are with some background on the ‘WHO’, please carry on through this Mémoire and learn something about the ‘HOW’ and ‘WHY’.
“Collar Dogs Unleashed”
Part 1 – AAS Arborfield
Part 2 – Life After Being An AAS Wipe
Part 3 – The Army Air Corps
Part 4 – Helicopter Flight, Middle
Wallop
Part 5 – Maggie, from this day
forward…
Part 6 – Trouble
and Strife
Part 7 – Out
of The Frying Pan
Postscript - Australia
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