Were you involved in any organizations in high school?

The grammar school that I attended was a very old one, in fact it had its 500 years birthday last year, in 2012. The school was founded by a man called Sir Stephen Jenyns. and the official history of the school has this to say about him: - " Born in Wolverhampton, Jenyns made a fortune in London, and was twice elected Master of the Merchant Taylors' Company, one of the City's great livery companies with whom the school still enjoys close relations.

As Lord Mayor of London he greeted the newly-crowned Henry VIII on the steps of old St Paul's Cathedral, where the young King dismounted and knighted him. Amid his success, Jenyns remembered his modest beginnings and founded a "free school" in his home town for poor boys." The school has been on its present site in Wolverhampton since 1875 and is now a private fee paying school although when I attended it was free, though acceptance was by a fiercely competitive townwide examination called the "11 plus." If you were in the top 90 boys you went to the Grammar School, the top 90 girls went to the Wolverhampton Girls High School.

I went there in 1952 and left in 1957. Whether the school saw itself as primarily an academic institution or whether it was just the time,as there wasn't much money around, but I don't remember much in the way of any outside programs. There was an orchestra, I remember, and I seem to recall a chess club (good for the brain!) but there was also a scout group that was affiliated with the school and that met at the scout hut on the school grounds. This became so popular that a second troop was set up as well.

There was also a troop of senior scouts, that you could move up to at about 15 or 16 years of age. The programs were very good with camps at Easter and the Summer holidays. I remember two camps in Scotland and one in Yorkshire where we went pot-holing. I thoroughly enjoyed that, crawling on my tummy up an underground stream, under a mountain.

I have to say that I was one of the few that did enjoy it, many of my friends were freaked out. The other organization that I was involved in at school was compulsory, in fact it was part of the curriculum. That was the Combined Cadet Force. From 12 years old you were enrolled in the Cadets and every Thursday you went to school dressed in your army uniform.

In the morning was regular school work but in the afternoon it was Cadet force activities that involved everything from drill to lectures on fielcraft, or perhaps shooting at the range with.22 rifles. Besides our army uniforms we were also issued with our own.303 rifle that we had to keep in good order. We would periodically have weapons inspection that would be carried out by the Sergeant Major, an ex-regular army man, who terrified all of us.If your rifle was dirty then you were made to clean it under his supervision and then, as punishment, also given extra drill sessions after school hours.When you were about 16 you had the option to stay in the Army section or move to the RAF section which is what I chose.

You then had a blue uniform and less drill! As a cadet you also had the opportunity to go on a summer camp and I particularly enjoyed those as they were held at RAF bases around England and Scotland. There you would have what was called Air Experience in which you would be taken up in a 2-seater training aircraft and shown how to fly. On the ground were trips to the flight simulators in which you were put and were expected to fly it by instruments only.

The simulator staff loved putting you into a simulated dive and had great fun at your expense when you crashed. On one occasion in Scotland at RAF Leuchars we went up in Chipmunks and had to get all dressed up in flying suit and leather helmet and parachute. When up in the air and out of sight of the control tower the pilot asked whether I was game for a dogfight with another Chipmunk so of course I said yes and away we went for what was probably a five minute fight in which we did all sorts of dives and rolls as the two pilots tried to get the advantage.

I do remember the smell of aviation fuel and felt rather sick and dizzy which of course was what the pilots wanted. I was not sick but my friend who was in the other plane was very sick and got out of the plane very carefully carrying his leather flying helmet that was full to overflowing. Talking of pranks like that I also recall that during the drill sessions at school one of the things you had to learn was how to give drill orders. You would have control of a platoon of 30 cadets and would be expected to march them up and down, stop them, reform ranks and so on.

Of course this could lead to hilarious results if the drilling cadet gave the wrong order or forgot to give an order. Many was the time that the entire platoon would march into a brick wall or into the midst of another platoon. Some of the collisions were caused by the squad conveniently not hearing a command!