Page 37 - WishStream Year of 2023

Inkerman Company Dinner Night
OCdt Willis
As the final company dinner night of Inter- mediate Term and having heard the tales of opulence and enjoyment from our sister companies, there was a breathless anticipation for Inkerman’s dinner. It has been a long term. Having survived the exercises, we’d successfully navigated (mostly) the remaining testing instances, formative and summative, of the term. Now, with only the looming colossus of Regimental Selection Boards to look forward to, it was our moment to reflect and enjoy our shared triumphs and perhaps quietly relate our occasional tremor. The night began, as all great nights do, with Padre Harding. OCdts and guests arrived in the Memorial Chapel and soon everyone was gently nestled within its Byzantine magnificence. Padre began and gave the cen- tral thrust of company prayers – encouragement. Sandhurst is a hard course; it is meant to be. We as OCdts are tested and, on occasion, fall short. In either instance, encouragement
commanders, it was a privilege being admitted to their inner temple. The space was beautiful, the lighting sympathetic and the conversation genteel. Like everywhere at Sandhurst, in its architecture, paintings, colours and sculptures, we are reminded of those who’ve gone before and the sometimes Herculean standards of courage and leadership we will have to live up to. The influence of family and friends are crucial to helping us do so. Welcome drinks concluded with the splendid piping of Mr Crawford, our resident Company Piper. We thus proceeded to our tables. Ensconced in the din- ing hall, the place had assumed a solemnity usu- ally absent at our regular evening suppers. In the glow of candlelight, centuries of silverware stood guard in silent skirmishing lines up and down each table. Detachments of glassware and cutlery, identically arranged in perfect order, held sentinel at each place, ready to be deployed as the even-
is the moral fuel that keeps us going. And, as any great student of Napoleon knows, the moral is to the physical as three is to one. We as OCdts of course give each other that fuel, but supercharging it is what our friends and families bring. Tonight was to be about them.
We as OCdts of course give each other
that fuel, but supercharging it is what our friends and families bring. Tonight was to be about them.
ing progressed. The deep blue of our number one dress was bracketed by the scarlet and gold braid of mess kit, interspersed with black tie and even- ing dresses. The highest hallmarks of a fine occasion.
To the accompaniment of a superb band, the dinner night proper began. Life stories were shared, anecdotes swapped, and stories retold. Relating to parents the realities of living with their offspring was one of the great joys of the evening. Likewise, putting a face to the names of relatives or friends one had invariably heard so much about –
There followed introductions to
each of our hymns. Miss Foster
related how amazing a tune I vow
to thee is – a constant in our musi-
cal medley. Mr Windley gave his
perspective on the meaning of the
evening and how he had found the experience of Sandhurst. Mr Hellard read the moving letters of Captain Richards of the Royal Artillery to his mother, written at the height of the Crimean War. The time may have been different, the technology infinitely separate and the context considerably altered, but the sentiments expressed could eas- ily have fitted into any correspondence emanating from the muddy trenches of the Somme, the humid foothills of Burma, the windswept mountains of the Falklands or the harsh deserts of Iraq. The charac- ter of war changes, but its nature stays the same.
both within and without the confines of Sandhurst – was again a particular pleasure unique to a din- ner night with guests. Towards the end of the even- ing, Major Catchpole gave an excellent speech on his insightful interpretation of the theme of the evening. Casting through the length and breadth of his career, he related first hand his experience of how important family is. The scene thus suitably set, the loyal toast was drunk and in an exciting innovation from the last dinner night, a fine selec- tion of cheeses was brought out. Retiring back to the officer’s mess, guests, staff and OCdts circu- lated in easy motion, rank or station irrelevant, the only metric good conversation.
Chapel concluded, we repaired to the officer’s mess. The Mecca of our platoon and company
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