MEMORIES OF GORDON BOYS SCHOOL

by Reg Millichamp

Reg Millichamp as a Gordons Boy

I started at the Gordon Boys School situtated near Woking in Surrey in 1953, just after my 13th birthday, and was allocated to 'Woolwich' boarding house and given the number 6464 which remained with me throughout my schooldays. I was living in Cornwall at the time and met the local education authority's definition of a 'deserving boy' who would benefit from a subsidised education at a single sex boarding school run on military lines. My case was purely one of educational and familial need - my father had died at the end of the war and mother must have found it a struggle bringing up three sons and a daughter single-handed. However, Gordons also catered for the odd boy with delinquent tendencies, whom the authorities considered would benefit from the military discipline.

SCHOOL DRESS

Our everyday wear consisted of navy blue corduroy short trousers and a matching blouson top with an open step collar, worn with a white shirt buttoned at the neck but without a tie. We wore this uniform daily until the age of 15, when we exchanged our corduroy shorts for long trousers in the Gordon clan tartan, called trews. Older boys continued to wear the blouson top.

For Sunday parades, church and other special occasions, all boys whatever their age, dressed in the traditional Gordon Boys School uniform. This consisted of a Glengarry cap with the Gordon brass cap badge, a dark blue tunic with gold braid epaulettes and brass Gordon School buttons, the tartan trews and army style hobnailed boots. Whenever we left the school grounds, for example on Saturdays to spend our pocket money at the local shops, or when travelling home at the end of term, we had to wear this Gordons School formal uniform. Needless to say, our boots were expected to be highly polished, trews neatly creased and brass cap badge and buttons gleaming. It was a smart uniform and we often drew admiring glances from young girls - as well as matronly women!

Parade uniform (1956)

The school boasted its own tailor's shop where a number of the pupils developed tailoring skills by making, altering and repairing the uniforms. There was also cobbler's shop where our boots and shoes were sent for repair.

If a boy worked hard in the classroom and on the drill square he could achieve the rank of lance corporal, corporal or sergeant - or even attain the ultimate rank of colour sergeant. We wore gold rank stripes on our tunic sleeves together with a a service stripe. This was an inverted silver stripe sewn onto the tunic sleeve just above the cuff, denoting one's length of time at the school, with the maximum of five stripes being achieved by the normal leaving age of 18 years.

THE ARMY CADET FORCE

Boys at the school were automatically enrolled into the Army Cadet Force. It should be noted that there was no Combined Cadet Force at Gordons, as being an army foundation there was no call for Royal Air Force or Navy sections and therefore nothing to 'combine'. The ACF uniform consisted of the standard army issue khaki battledress blouse, worn with a khaki flannel shirt and tie, but we departed from normal cadet dress by wearing our distinctive tartan trews and Glengarry cap and badge rather than khaki battledress trousers and the standard army beret. We wore army boots but without the usual webbing gaiters, although we were issued with a webbing belt. We all attended an annual ACF camp in the summer holidays where we certainly stood out from other cadets in our distinctive uniforms.

EXEMPLARY CONDUCT

Life at Gordon Boys School in the 1950s had a military ethos and we expected to march everywhere in true army fashion - to classes; to the sports field; to the gym; to the dining hall - you name it and we marched there in platoon formation with all the square-bashing determination that the school drill sergeant could instill.

Just before my 17th birthday, in 1957, the school commandant, Brigadier Nottingham, (DSO&Bar) summoned me for a chat about my future. In previous years he would have suggested a career in the army but in that very year it had been announced that National Service was to be phased out and therefore, although ideally equipped for the army by my years at Gordons, I could feel free to apply to join, say, the police. This I did, enrolling as a police cadet with the Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary.

My four years at Gordon Boys School were very fulfilling ones which I fondly look back on to this day. I made some very good friends; was a Corporal of 'Gravesend', my final boarding house; and was awarded the Gordon Medal. This is an award that I am very proud of as only some half-dozen were given out each year to senior boys with an unblemished record of 'exemplary conduct'. I am proud to record that my name was added to those on the Gordon Medal board in the main hall.