Page 8 - They Also Served

Army trained short service and national service commission officers from 1942 to 1972 at Mons Officer Cadet School in Aldershot, including the television chef Keith Floyd. Other war emergency commission and national service officers trained at Eaton Hall Officer Cadet Training Unit (OCTU) near Chester, including my own father.
During the First World War, officer cadet battalions (OCBs) and, in the Second, OCTUs, sprung up around the country to train the vast number of officers required. These trained the majority of famous names, such as JRR Tolkien and John Le Mesurier. Confusingly, some OCTUs were located at Sandhurst during World War Two and officer cadets wore the Sandhurst badge (100/101 RAC and 161 Infantry), so the graduates of these have been included. Officers could be commissioned into the militia, the forerunner of the Territorial Army (TA) or into the TA, often after a short assessment carried out at district level – one well-known product of this system being Denis Thatcher. From 1683 to 1871, it was possible to purchase a commission – this system was open to much abuse but at least ensured that officers were men of means. Some notables, such as Field Marshal Garnet Wolseley, began their careers in this way. Some were commissioned in the field, especially in times of war, including my grandfather, and some arrived via circuitous means, such as Field Marshal Evelyn Wood VC, who transferred from the Royal Navy. Finally, some, especially in the early days of the Great War, were simply commissioned because they went to the ‘right’ school.
There are some trends running throughout the book. Several were explorers or mountaineers, often permitted to partake in expeditions while still serving. There are also several noted pilots. With the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), the forerunner of the Royal Air Force (RAF), being part of the army, hundreds of Sandhurst graduates served with the RFC whilst still badged to their parent regiment. Some transferred to the RAF and reached the very top of their new service. The difficulty was to pare down the numbers, as again, they would probably merit a book of their own. Thus, there was no space for John Gurdon, who shot down 28 German aircraft in the Great War. Surprisingly, three alumni transferred to the RAF between the wars and fought in the Battle of Britain.
Several alumni became actors. Perhaps this is not surprising as some would say that standing in front of a hundred soldiers and explaining a complicated mission requires a sense of the theatrical. While many people know that David Niven trained at Sandhurst, others will be surprised that Desmond Llewelyn, known to millions as ‘Q’ from the James Bond films and Bernard Lee, who played ‘M’, also followed the same path.
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