Growing Wings – Grahame May (25th)

After the last school cricket match finished I had a discussion with the sports master (who had been PTI in the RAF) about my future. He had once put me straight when my rather childish sole ambition was to follow my boyhood hero, Dennis Compton , and play cricket and football for England.

Now, in late 1954, I was at the crossroads. I saw no point in staying at school because our rather eccentric headmaster had decreed that next term the school would play rugby instead of football. Secondly, my much older brother had re-enlisted and was an Education Officer at RAF Kirton Lindsey in Lincolnshire and he had sent me some literature about the Apprentice Scheme. Not surprisingly the sports master steered me towards the latter and then announced he would be leaving soon to take up another appointment. I felt very down about this because he had always been very helpful to me, and all the pupils, in the gym as well as on the sports field. I suspected he too was against the change from football to rugby, as were quite a number of older boys, but I left this matter until I could talk things over with my dad. He suggested I fill in the apprentice application forms and then see what the outcome might be but, in the meantime, I should stay at school until Xmas. I thought about it and finally agreed, but decided I would not participate in school rugby matches at any price.

Needless to say I was eventually hauled up in front of the headmaster and the new, rather creepy, sports master and given a warning which I completely ignored. Rebellious? Oh yes, rather! I was growing wings and leaving the nest and had just celebrated my sixteenth birthday. I knew I could leave school in a couple of months or so and be in the Royal Air Force early in the New Year, as I had already submitted all the necessary forms to the Air Ministry. Unfortunately it all went wrong! My forms were returned because my School Certificates showed that I did not have a pass in maths. However, there was a note saying I could sit a qualifying RAF exam at school, but it had to be under strict supervision. I managed to achieve all this quite successfully, but I had to creep and crawl and rely on the goodwill of others. (The absence of the headmaster for some reason or other also helped enormously.)

By now time was against me and I soon realised that there was no way I could join up until after Xmas so I left school, without much of a fanfare, and prepared myself for what lay ahead. It came in the unexpected form of a phone call from my brother in Lincolnshire suggesting that I go and stay with him and his wife for a few weeks in their rented cottage in nearby Redbourne village. Looking back I suspect it was a plot to ”toughen me up” but I enjoyed it. I did some morning jogging around the village, did some work in the garden, helped around the house and generally kept as fit as possible. My brother told me what to expect as a recruit, how and when to salute, some basic drill etc and I think it all helped me to cope when I was finally summoned to attend a two day assessment at RAF Halton on the 25th and 26th of April 1955.

I was relieved to be told that I had been successful and thus became one of those keen young lads who all reported to Hereford on the 1st May 1955, ready to train as Administrative Apprentices. (The actual date was supposed to be the 5th of May but it was brought forward by four days due to the impending rail strike. The rest is history!