Sent in by John Clark. Rod Clarke (gwelfrynL@lineone.net) has the high resolution file.
"This is the Band Hut, minus-three-star accommodation in a wartime Nissen building. What makes the picture special is the Band's own signboard proudly displayed on the door. This sign normally resided outside the Band Room at School but we had taken it all the way to Scotland. I see the same sign on this site, in the picture of the Band "CCF Pipe Band, 1958-59" in which I do not appear!"
The Parents Union Newsletter article about the Cultybraggan camp is below the photograph, together with a rather different viewpoint from Esmond Sanders.
Parent's Union newsletter, November, 1958.
C.C.F. ANNUAL SUMMER CAMP IN SCOTLAND
Cultybraggan, a beautiful spot near Comrie, Perthshire, one of the loveliest counties in Scotland, was the site of the Annual C.C.F. Camp (Army Section) for Harrow County School this year. Other London schools attended the camp, and all returned south with the happiest of memories.
The London cadets travelled north by special train from Harrow and Wealdstone station on the evening of Sunday the 17th July and arrived at Comrie at 5.30 a.m. in the morning. This was an ideal cadet camp. Every social amenity was available in the camp, attended by approximately 1,600 cadets from English, Irish and Scottish schools. Refreshment canteens, television rooms, indoor games room, reading room, rugger and soccer facilities were all available to the boys and full use was made of them.
About 170 cadets travelled from Harrow County and during their stay at camp were divided into two companies. The training areas were excellent, and as the weather was ideal full use was made by the Training Officer, Major Venn, of these areas. Under the supervision of Lt. Wright some good shooting took place on the open ranges, and our hopes are therefore high for the Middlesex C.C.F. Competition next May.
But the highlight of the camp training was the Adventure Scheme in which many cadets took part. This difficult and arduous side of the training was quite new. The scheme involved much climbing, the facing of many difficult obstacles which had to be overcome. The cadets, along with their officers, climbed to the summit of Ben Vorlich, a difficult task over scree-clad slopes and rocks. They first set out with small packs and sleeping equipment, along the southern slopes of the mountain range by the northern side of Loch Earn. Soon the slopes of Ben Vorlich were reached, and then followed the climb up through the glens and cuttings. By the time this was accomplished it was lunch-time and all ate a hearty meal. Following this, much difficult hill ground was covered, not easy to walk on, and for those who reached the top of the highest peak the reward was most satisfying. The view of the southern Grampians and north to Glencoe and Schiehallion was indeed spectacular.
That night the lads slept in specially equipped sleeping-bags with the open sky for a roof, high up in the mountains. An early start in the morning brought them back to camp in time for breakfast about 7 a.m.
Many of these cadets had, of course, been in the Corps for several years, but quite a few were enjoying the first year of membership and for them this scheme was a most difficult and trying task. Needless to say, they survived it well, although many were leg-weary on their return. But for all it was worth while and a difficult task successfully accomplished.
The following day the whole Unit paraded in uniform for a day trip to Edinburgh, organised by the Contingent Adjutant, Lt. D'Arcy. The boys were taken via Falkirk by coach, and Edinburgh Castle was the first to be visited and then on to Holyrood Palace and other famous places in this historic city. On the return journey the cadets had an opportunity of taking photographs of the Forth Bridge, and seeing something of the countryside around Gleneagles and Perth. It was a most enjoyable and interesting outing.
In the pipe band competition, the school pipe band were placed second to Morrison's Academy, Perth. Several of the Harrow County Cadets played in the England v. Scotland rugger International match for cadets-result, a small marginal victory for Scotland!
Before leaving camp we had a visit from one of the officers of the 3/4 County of London Yeomanry (T.A.), the regiment to which the Unit is affiliated in Elmgrove Road, Harrow, together with a past C.S.M. of the Corps, Captain Derek Lobb.
All agreed this was a first-class camp and one to remember.
Memories of Cultybraggen Camp, July 1958.
The sight of that Nissen hut in the recent posting on Cultybraggen camp by John Clark, aroused all kinds of memories of that week in Scotland. The article reprinted from the Parents’ Union newsletter (what was that anyway?), was fascinating, but was hardly a true reflection of the experience, which would have horrified most parents. It certainly horrified me!
I was one of those, aged 13, “enjoying the first year of membership” in the CCF, for whom the camp was, indeed, a “most difficult and trying task”! The idea that “every social amenity was available in the camp” is simply laughable – it was a POW camp, utterly unchanged from the time that the last prisoners had left a few years earlier. There may well have been “television rooms, indoor games rooms, (and a) reading room”, but that is not what I remember.
I remember leaving the HCS grounds on that Sunday afternoon, throwing my kitbag, with everything I possessed, into the 3 ton truck with 150 others, all identical. It was the first time that I had been away from home without family. We marched through Harrow to Harrow and Wealdstone Station, to the interest of the local population. It was a special train, on which we spent the next 10 hours, with 8 cadets to a compartment. In each compartment 2 of us occupied the overhead luggage racks to attempt sleep, and to give the remainder more room. In the dead of night we arrived at Crewe, where the train stopped next to another train headed south and also packed with cadets presumably returning home. The windows of the two trains were at once lowered and multiple food fights broke out from one end of the trains to the other. This was before the days of soccer hooligans, but the effect must have been the same.
We arrived in a cold, grey dawn and marched to camp. We were assigned to huts exactly like the one in John Clark’s picture. (Can you imagine a camp with huts like that having “every social amenity”). The beds were equipped with a straw-filled mattress and a straw-filled pillow. The material covering these choice articles of bedding were stained and holed, and, naturally, the straw poked through – a terrific pillow. Heaven knows what wildlife they harboured. There were two rough blankets, no sheets or pillow cases. The huts were heated by a wood stove, and it was cold during the night, even in July.
The mess “tent” was a marquee open on four sides, through which wind and rain howled. Breakfast was the most memorable meal – one didn’t know whether to eat the bacon and eggs before they got cold and congealed into a solid mess of fat, or eat the cornflakes before they blew off the plate. Meals were served by regular soldiers who didn’t want to be there either; they weren’t exactly friendly, but their colourful language was instructional and largely new to me.
Despite all this, the latrines were the most appalling aspect of the camp. These consisted of a large diameter pipe with holes cut periodically in it. There were no seats as such, and no doors on the compartments. You just walked along the length of the pipe, saying good morning to your friends squatting over a hole, until you found an unoccupied hole. Every now and then the pipe flushed, and it was said that if you were sitting at the time, with a good seal, you would be sucked in – but that may just be apocryphal.
We never knew what conditions the officers lived in, or whether they really knew about ours.
I remember firing rifles for the first time on the range, but most of all I remember more senior cadets discharging blank rounds in the camp, by holding them and sharply striking the percussion cap against a rock. It was incredible that no-one was seriously injured. Needless to say, this didn’t appear in the Parents’ Union newsletter. The day trip to Edinburgh was good, but I slept for the entire journey in both directions – the coach seats were the most comfortable place that I’d been for the entire week.
The Adventure Scheme was remarkable for its rigour. I remember reaching a peak and finding a field strewn with dead sheep – swollen and purple. My thought at the time was that if the bloody sheep can’t survive here, what hope do I have of ever returning alive.
“… a first-class camp…” No. “… one to remember…” Yes.
As it happens, last summer I was in that part of Scotland on holiday, and I decided to try and find the site of Cultybraggen Camp. To my astonishment (and horror), I found that it is still there! It is still a cadet training camp! When I spoke to the regular on guard duty at the gate, he told me that it has not changed in the last 45 years. Certainly the huts that I could see looked the same. The soldier had long hair and seemed a lot more relaxed than the regulars of my memory, so I don’t know if I can really believe that nothing has changed. While I was talking to him I heard rifle fire in the distance and it all came flooding back to me.
I have often wondered whether that week in 1958 had any long-term effect on me, other than to provide some good stories. Probably it did – but the parents’ newsletter didn’t even come close to conveying the experience.
Esmond Sanders, 2003