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"ARBORFIELD &
THE SEPTEMBER 49ers"
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A continuation
of, and a tribute to
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“THE
SEPTEMBER 49ers & OTHERS”
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Inaugurated 1st April 2001
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Developed
and Managed by George MILLIE (49B) until 1st December 2006
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on
which date Trevor STUBBERFIELD
(52A) assumed control
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“The Older We Get, The Better We Was”
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Army
Apprentices Schools
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K.C. Pre-1953
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Q.C. Post-1953
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Corps of The
British Army in Which We Served
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R.A.O.C.
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Royal Engineers
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R.E.M.E.
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Royal Signals
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Army Air Corps
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For a taste of the Sounds of Arborfield
Click on each Badge
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Welcome
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Menus
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Archive Content
Use
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Foreword
As a foreword I here record the
observations of T.E. Lawrence (‘Lawrence of
Arabia’) which he made in his book “Revolt
in The Desert”, a work written about the Arab Revolt during World War I:
“And it came upon me
freshly how the secret of uniform was to make a crowd solid, dignified,
impersonal: to give it the singleness and tautness of an upstanding man. This
death’s livery which walled its bearers from ordinary life was sign that they
had sold their wills and bodies to the State: and contracted themselves into
a service not the less abject for that its beginning was voluntary. Some of
them had obeyed the instinct of lawlessness: some were hungry: others
thirsted for glamour, for the supposed colour of a military life: but, of
them all, those only received satisfaction who had sought to degrade
themselves, for the peace-eye, they were below humanity. Only women with a
letch were allured by those witnessing clothes; the soldier’s pay, not
sustenance like a labourer’s, but pocket-money, seemed most profitably spent
when it let them drink sometimes and forget.”
“Convicts had
violence put upon them. Slaves might be free, if they could, in intention,
but a soldier assigned his owner the twenty-four hours’ use of his body; and
sole conduct of his mind and passions. A convict had licence to hate the rule
which confined him, and all humanity outside, if he were greedy in hate: but
the sulking soldier was a bad soldier; indeed, no soldier. His affections
must be hired pieces on the chess-board of the King.”
George MILLIE
(49B)
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“The independence,
the adventures, disciplines, self-reliance and endurance we were taught to
practice at an early age while passing through the Army Apprentices School
made it somewhat easier for us to see and grasp a wider set of opportunities
and responsibilities than others, as they did not have the benefit of our
unique experience.”
“The fact that all we
possessed amounted to little more than a kit-bag full of clothes, suitable
only for living from the back of a truck, a packet of fags, and the ability
to accept being sent off to anywhere in the World, to work inside or out in
any conditions, was our lot for the first years of our working life. Some had
to accept the misfortune of being shot at by unfriendly folk in foreign lands
as being all in a day's work. Were we all really that mad, or just a little
more adventurous than most of our contemporaries?”
“This may have borne
some responsibility, and be the excuse, for leading us on to the vagaries and
achievements that most of us ex-Boys experienced during a lifetime of working
for another day, together with the ability to readily accept pastures new
wherever and whenever they arose. I have never regretted my decision, taken
at the age of fifteen, to join the Army
Apprentices School
and was proud to be part of the life, training and comradeship taught during
my Arborfield years. In retrospect I hated academe
anyway, and it was a relief to start something new and more practical.”
Max WARWICK
(49B)
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Effective 15.09.2006
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Layout Revised
and Contents Updated: 24th October 2012.
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