examination which my permanent high blood pressure in no way prevented me from passing. So I was sent back to Oxford with the information that I would be called up at their, not my, convenience and that I would receive a direct commission as an Acting Pilot Officer at that time. I was also put in nominal charge, once again, of the small group which had travelled up the day before, a journey which was mainly enlivened by the bitter complaints of our Swiss educated maths genius. He had been turned down because his maths had not been good enough.


So the old school tie, or in this case my OUAS tie, actually did its stuff. Only members and ex-members of University Air Squadrons were, to the best of my knowledge, favoured with the award of direct commissions as aircrew in the General Duties Branch of the RAF. We were, myself and those like me, actually commissioned in the RAF Volunteer Reserve, wearing a small brass VR badge in the lapels of our tunics for the first part of the War, which allowed us to tell the regulars that we didn’t really have to do this for a living! It also meant that, on being called up, I had no need to pass through what was called an Initial Training Wing (ITW) where raw recruits would be taught the elements of drill and the like. I would be posted direct to an Elementary Flying Training School (EFTS) to start flying from day one.


It also meant that I would go to bed, one night in the not too distant future, as a civilian and steelmaker’s representative and wake up, the following morning, as a full-blown officer and gentleman – even if the ‘gentleman’ part of it was only by Act of Parliament! And no-one would have taught me even how to salute.


* * * * * I


doubt if it was fashionable, when I went up to Oxford in October 1931, to be keen on the Forces or on any form of military service. It was not long


afterwards that the Oxford Union passed its notorious resolution about not being willing to fight for King and country. So I am now not at all sure what made me decide to join the Officers’ Training Corps. I had no military background in the family – my father had failed the medical in the First World War – and my school had no OTC. Perhaps some of my friends encouraged me. Anyway, I did join it. It was not a very successful experience. Getting up early to crawl around damp ditches with an eight and a quarter pound rifle was the first disadvantage. Nor was I very good at the rapid dismantling and reassembly of a machine gun. I had a dislike of guns in general and of actually firing them in particular. Killing beautiful birds by filling them full of lead shot was not


14


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