On becoming a RAF Boy Entrant 1957 - Assesment

 I was not having a particularly special educational experience at Hardy's Grammar School, Dorchester. Having missed most of term due to glandular fever did not help, but academic I was not. Agricultural science was a great subject for me but the specialist teacher left and the subject was dropped by the school, so the end of my ambition to become a farm manager with it; Becoming a policeman was another dream, but a minimum height requirement of five foot ten inches certainly blocked that too (I maxed out at 5 ft 4in).

I think my parents realised that the RAF might offer me a career, so I set off to RAF Cosford for assessment sometime in early 1957. This was my first time away from home and so armed with a Rail pass I was dropped at Dorchester railway station to start what was an "eye opening" experience for a 15 year old country boy. Changing train at Bristol Temple Mead station was interesting then the next leg to Birmingham was mostly through beautiful English countryside. However, the next stage of the journey from Birmingham to Wolverhampton was for me "mind blowing". My memory is of a continuous journey through built up area of smoky factories and no countryside at all. This really was the "Black Country". Then on arriving at Wolverhampton, changing train for the local to Albrighton for the halt at RAF Cosford.

Then  began the testing. Lots and lots of aptitude tests, and physical exams. This all took two days as my memory tells me. And eventually the meeting with a Squadron leader to tell me my result.

My uncle Sidney was an aircraft engineer and Chief engineer of "Aden Airways" having been invalided out of  the RAF at the start of his career, but still going on to have a very interesting life working on all types of aircraft from the early 1930s to modern jets in the 1950s. This had captured my interest in aviation and so the RAF made sense for me. 

My test results, the Squadron Leader indicated, showed that I should go for the trade of Radar Mechanic. "I want to do engines" I said. Can I do that instead of Radar. "Not the best fit for you" he said. This debate continued for a while and he finally agreed that if it was "engines or nothing, I could do that, but Radar was a better fit with my aptitude". So I agreed to enrol for 32nd Entry Air Radar Boy Entrant, starting October 1957. So set myself on an interesting life career.