Olympic Opening Ceremony

[Pat Holscher]

Regarding the British servicemen, in the Opening Ceremony, what cavalry unit was the soldier wearing riding boots from?

[Pat Holscher]

Berets for the US team hats?

[Centman]

Regarding the British servicemen, in the Opening Ceremony, what cavalry unit was the soldier wearing riding boots from?

I think she was from the Household Cavalry, I did notice her.( You mean the one that was in the Guard of Honour that marched up the hill?) I can hear you gasp now, HER! Yes in the British Army female personel now wear the same uniform as the men.When I joined as a boy aged 15 in 1964 females were in the Womens Royal Army Corps, or as they were known Wracs with a silen W, but they are things you screw to walls, so we wont go there.

Now they are in all of the Regiments and Corps, and I must say that some do an excellent job, the same as my last profession Police Constable, there are several female colleagues that I would rather be in a tough situation with than some of my male colleagues, take Della the Fella, Della Canning who went onto be Chief Constable of North Yorkshire, hard as nails, but a real lady.

If you ever see any footage of The Kings Troop, lots of the Gunners are females.

[Pat Holscher]

Thanks.

I think everyone who saw it knew that the solder was a female soldier, so I'm sure that wasn't a surprise to anyone as I don't think that would otherwise be news here. But I'm a little surprised that the enlistment of boy soldiers was still ongoing in 1964. When did that cease?

[Centman]

Thanks.

I think everyone who saw it knew that the solder was a female soldier, so I'm sure that wasn't a surprise to anyone as I don't think that would otherwise be news here. But I'm a little surprised that the enlistment of boy soldiers was still ongoing in 1964. When did that cease?

It still exists but in a much depleted form, it is now the Army Foundation College based at Harrogate in Yorkshire, where I believe the entry age is 16. After WW11 and with the advent of the Cold War the Army instigated a series of Junior entry units for enlisted personel. There were apprentice colleges for REME RSIGS and RE's, for the teeth arms there were Junior Leader Regts, and for general entry there were Junior Trademens Regt's . Mine was The Junior Leaders Regiment Royal Armoured Corps, stationed at Stanley Barracks Bovinton Camp Dorset, it intially started out as The Boys Squadron RAC but was later upgraded to a Regiment. It took boys from 15, later to be 16 with the raising of the school leaving age (ROSLA) and gave them up to (depending upon age at entry ) 8 terms, based on the school year of three terms. They would have education for promotion, in most cases to WO1, full basic military training, and then armoured trades, gunnery, radio and driving, there was also extensive outdoor adventure training, and initiative tests.

It provided Regiments with high quality soldiers, and was aimed at fast promotion. At one point every RSM in the RAC was an ex JLR. it closed in 1993.

It was in my humble but biased opinion one of the finest systems ever devised for turning boys into men.

I was also privileged to be part of the staff there, and am still in touch with some of the lads from my intakes.

Incidentally when I joined in 64 there were 23 Regts in the RAC including LG and RHG, each had its own band, except the five Royal Tank Regiments which shared three staff bands, Alamein, Rhine and Cambrai. Now, well its just been announced to reduce it in number to 9, the RTR will only have one Regt, there will only be three Regts equipped with Challenger MBT, the rest will use a variety of wheeled and tracked vehicles. the Household Cav have there own bands, for the rest there are just two, The Light Cav band stationed at Bovington in the South, and The Heavy Cav and Cambrai band stationed at Catterick in Yorshire.