Page 128 - WishStream Year of 2023

The Academy: Caught Napping
Colonel (Ret’d) Bernard Allen (Intake 12 1952-54)
In 1959, fresh from their triumph of putting an Austin Seven on the Senate House roof, stu- dents of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge,
(known as Caians) decided to ‘borrow’ a Sandhurst gun from under the nose of the Commandant of the Royal Military Academy. [Shades of ‘Singeing the King of Spain’s Beard’]
A group of nine undergraduates (including three Army officers – one serving Regular, one ex-Short Service and one ex-National Service) – planned to steal a gun from the foot of Old College steps and install it in Caius Court, relying on meticulous plan- ning, inadequate intelligence, and more than their fair share of luck (like many an operation). They decided it was achievable, with a raiding party of seven to carry out the dastardly deed and a rear party of two remaining in College to open the gate on the successful arrival of the gun. Two members subsequently became Canons – very appropriate!
A recce party of three, including the serving Sandhurst-trained subaltern, visited the Academy, decided on ‘one of three fine guns captured during the Crimean War,’ and found an ideal spot within the grounds, thick with rhododendrons, where it
could be quietly dismantled and loaded into suit- able transport. These were the days when the grounds were always open; locals brought their children and their dogs in during weekdays, pic- nicked by the lake, and cheered on cadets engaged in running and marching. Security was somewhat more lax then than now.
The serving Sapper officer, Ted Wilmott, (sub- sequently President of the Ordnance Board and DGW (A)) – an undergraduate with access to a chum at Sandhurst – established a suitable date when ‘all would be quiet’ and they chose 22.50 on a night close to full moon so they could see what they were doing.
At the appointed time, they drove in with a Land Rover and trailer and a panel van, to discover that there were floodlights all over the place, a Ball was in progress with smartly-dressed couples, and there were sentries with rifles! Undeterred, they calmly parked next to the gun, (not, inciden- tally a Crimean War Gun, all of which were much too heavy to move by Land Rover, at 2 and 3 tons respectively) only to discover that the towing ring on the gun was not compatible with the Land
126 HISTORICAL