| An emotional reunion |
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The 2012 reunion on Cader Idris. Pictured is Brian Marjoram, René Dee, Katherine Gale, Richard Gale, Liz Philpott and Fred Philpot. |
| At 9.30am on Saturday, 23 March, a group of ex-boy soldiers, all now in their 60s and 70s, will meet at the foot of Cader Idris for an emotional return to a mountain that was so integral to their lives. |
| For when these men were 16 and 17-year-old boy soldiers, they served as part of the All Arms Junior Leaders Regiment (AAJLR) at Tonfanau, near Tywyn. |
| During the 18-months to two year period of training they received there, they were regularly marched and ran up the mountains around the area in all weather. In particular, Cader Idris. |
| René Dee, a former member of the AAJLR, is project leader for the reunion climb, as he explains. |
| “The association’s 10th anniversary reunion will take place in Barmouth between the 22 and 24 March. |
| “I am the project leader for the reunion climb to the stone hut and summit of Cader Idris that will take place on Saturday, 23 March, with a group of ex-junior leaders who were all based at the All Arms Junior Leaders Regiment in Tonfanau during the early 1960s, including myself. |
| “Accompanying us will be William Powell, Regional Assembly Member for mid and west Wales and Stephanie Price, Duke of Edinburgh Award Director for Wales. |
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Rene ‘Acker’ Dee in February 1963, with the buildings in the background. |
| “A bilingual plaque commemorating the work carried out to the summit hut in the 1960s by talthe ‘boys’ of the AAJLR will be symbolically unveiled and then fixed in the recently opened visitor centre at the base of Cader, together with a photograph of the occasion. |
| “Approval for this has been gained by the Countryside Council for Wales through their senior reserves manager, Paul Williams, at their Dollgellau Office. |
| “The DofE has also pledged to publicise this nationally as the DofE Award Scheme was mandatory for all AAJLR boys at that time and many obtained their Gold Awards. |
| “This climb will, therefore, also recognise the value of the scheme to them at the time, during the successive years throughout their lives and the view that the scheme is as important for today’s youth as it was for them then.” |
| He continued: “One of the passionately-held views among the majority of ex-junior leaders who have re-united since 2003 as a Comrade Association, and are part of only 2,105 who graduated during the time they served at Tonfanau between 1959 and 1966 when it finally closed, is that they fully recognise the value and importance of the time they spent there, tough as it was.” |
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Graduation Day, July 1960 |
| The All Arms Junior Leaders’ Regiment was formed in 1959 and disbanded in 1966. It was inaugurated shortly after National Service was discontinued. |
| Its primary purpose was to provide opportunities for young men of that age to continue to join the Army and train to become the future NCO’s of the British Army. Originally it trained boys as future senior non commissioned officers from five arms of the army but this was later expanded to eight. |
| The year was split into three terms with a fresh intake of boys each term. The first term of each boy’s service was completely dedicated to turning these 15 and 16-year-olds into disciplined soldiers. |
| From the second term, the prime emphasis was on education as all senior NCOs were required to obtain the Army Certificate of Education [Class 1]. |
| Alternate days were spent on military training which included drill, weapons training, driver training, map reading and strolling over the Brecon Beacons. |
| The boys’ final term included specialist training according to the arm or corps he intended to serve in as a senior soldier. |
| Mixed in with all this there was sport, adventure training, outward bound courses and inter company competitions including the Rhyl cup. |
| Every boy also took part in the ‘Duke of Edinburgh’s Award’ and to this end most evenings were spent doing a large number of hobbies. The rest of the time was spent cleaning the barracks or attending to their personal kit. |
| Next week’s reunion will be a time for René to reflect on his time at Tonfanau. |
| Looking back on his time there, he explains: “Having exhausted most other avenues of gainful work and forsaking the opportunity to follow in my father’s footsteps running a hotel, I fell for the romantic notions of a life in the Army in the Intelligence Corps. |
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Tonfanau camp and area, August 1950. |
| “How I got in, I’m not sure, but I soon found myself travelling the lonesome railway journey to Tonfanau Halt from Northampton where I then lived. |
| “That was in April 1962 and I stayed at Tonfanau as part of the exclusive AAJLR in Knightsbridge Platoon, ‘A’ Company until December 1963. |
| “I particularly remember the winter of ‘62, the adventure training up Cader and the red hot stoves in our billets, not to mention the Globe Cinema where many Audie Murphy and John Wayne films were watched in awe. I played the clarinet so was nicknamed, ‘Acker’. |
| “I also finished my D of E Gold Award during my time here and proudly collected it from the D of E himself at Buckingham Palace in 1963. After Tonfanau, I was posted to Intelligence Corps HQ in Maresfield, Sussex. |
| “As a postscript to this, I have to say that my success in life has certainly been down to experiences that I encountered during my time at Tonfanau, in particular. |
| “As a middle-class kid from a ‘soft’ environment, Tonfanau and everything surrounding it, was a shock. However, I learnt how to survive and thrive. I have always, consciously and subconsciously, referred back to those times that told me that, if I could get through those situations, I could get through anything else. It hasn’t always worked but it is still a crutch I rely upon today.” |
