Return of the Corps
ALMOST 50 years ago, 33 young men completed their training in the Army Catering Corps and were posted all over the world.
Last week, 27 of those men were reunited at the Southview Park Hotel in Skegness for an anniversary celebration that had been more than 10 years in the planning.
On January 13, 1961, Dave Button, now of Chapel St Leonards, together with 47 other 15-year-old lads turned up at St Omer Barracks in Aldershot to start 18 months of Boy Service to become Army chefs.
In total, 33 passed out to Man Service and most had never seen each other since. Mr Button said: “Around 15 years ago while I was working in the Middle East I started to see if I could find any of the lads I joined up with. “I put several messages on the Army Catering Corps website and one of the first to pick this up was a lad from Grimsby called John Andrews. We talked about holding a 50th anniversary reunion and another lad Chris Sharp picked it up. Between us we set our sights on rounding up enough people to have the reunion, things were slow and during our search we discovered four of the lads had
sadly passed away. ”The men, now aged 65, came from across the country to be at the reunion and one, Rod Hill, flew in all the way from New Zealand. Together with their wives and girlfriends, the group spent two days catching up on the past 50 years and reminiscing about old memories. All enjoyed dinner at
the hotel and entertainment by Mr Button’s wife, singer Nenita. Mr Button said: “Between us we have around 1,000 years of catering experience, there has been at least one of us in every conflict between 1962 and 1985.
“There were tears and laughter at the reunion. I had butterflies for three or four days before and everyone was very nervous, particularly the wives and girlfriends but it was fantastic and everyone got on.
“One man, Barrie Lawes, begged the hospital to let him out, but he had to promise to be back by 1pm the next day. He said before Christmas he thought he was dying but had to get to this reunion and now feels
like a new guy.”
As a memento of the reunion, they all left with an Army Catering Corps engraved glass plaque and a pen and there has been talk of holding a similar event in two years time.
Re-produced with Kind Permission of Sarah Payne
sarah.payne@targetseries.co.ukwww.thisislincolnshire.co.uk/eastcoast
