Page 52 - The Wish Stream Year of 2020 Crest

This is an article about my role in trying to make the journey for International Cadets at Sandhurst as smooth as pos- sible in the middle of a pandemic.
It can only start with a tribute to Margaret Jones, who looked after ‘her boys’ for 50 years. I only met her the once just before she died in 2016 at the age of 90. She has a fear- some reputation and was well known to tap on the door of all sorts of people up to and including the Commandant. There are apoc- ryphal tales (these always contain more than a kernel of truth). Staff officers would hide under their desks if they heard her footsteps on the flagstones of Old Col-
Maj (Ret’d) Roy Hunter MBE
Leone, Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda, Kenya, across the Indian subcontinent, Maldives and all the way out to Fiji. NATO allies and Cadets from the Middle East from Lebanon via Jor- dan and Egypt and up the Persian Gulf should also not be a surprise. However, the diversity is enormous. Throw in Azerbaijan, Armenia, Bhutan, Ukraine, Georgia, Kosovo, Bosnia, Afghanistan, Iraq, the Palestinian Authority, Ethiopia, Morocco, Montenegro, Mali, Niger, Colombia, Paraguay, and Uruguay. That is not a complete list. Each Platoon has four or five of these people in it and they bring a wealth of experiences to the British OCdts. Some of the Internationals are studying in their third or
A Margaret Jones for the 21st Century
lege, and it is said that those, who knew her, visit the cem- etery next to the Oman Hall at RMAS just to make sure she is still in the grave. OCdts in 2021 still talk about her, because she looked after their fathers and maybe even their grandfathers.
I like to say you can feel the energy in the OCdts and that I leave the building feeling 30 years younger
even fourth language. I encour- age the British to learn as much as possible from them, because in years to come they will be working with some of them.
There’s a great buzz about them, full of youthful energy. In another role I’m a Tour Guide with the Sandhurst Trust. In normal times, many of the visi-
These are the big shoes I have
to fill, even though she was only 5’2”. The post was vacant until the spring of 2020 when I applied. The then Commandant warmed me up by saying (and I paraphrase): “Not many people understood what Margaret did, but when she died there was an obvious Marga- ret-shaped hole in the fabric of Sandhurst.”
So, my thoughts after 8 months. It’s abso- lutely fascinating. I’m a linguist and love the exposure to other cultures and religions. I’m being taught Hausa, Nepali and Albanian by the OCdts. The International Cadets come from almost everywhere. More than 100 from more than 40 countries at the moment.
You would expect the Commonwealth to be here, from Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos, Belize through Malta, Sierra
tors are University of the Third Age coach- loads. By virtue of demographics most of them are ‘women of a certain age’ because their husbands have already died. I like to say you can feel the energy in the OCdts and that I leave the building feeling 30 years younger. Three ladies, on separate occasions, have said: “Ooh! I must come here more often.”
The photo shows just 5 of the International Cadets in their Platoon ‘bubbles’, some see- ing snow for the first time. In alphabetical order you have Azerbaijan, Colombia, Hun- gary, Iraq and Ukraine.
So, the spirit of Margaret Jones lives on. Just in different clothes.
50 SANDHURST