CLS International Newsletter

by Alan Robertson

Eaton Hall Officer Cadet School (OCS) was at the Duke of Westminster’s vast eponymous mansion near Chester in England. Between 1940 and 1947, as a war measure, the Royal Navy leased it for the training of midshipmen, evacuated from Dartmouth. In 1947 the Army took over, running Eaton Hall in the rôle of OCS until early 1958. This writer was a member of the last but one Company to pass out there. Although there is no official record of numbers, it is reliably believed that about 15,000 officer cadets underwent the frantic four-month training course prior to being commissioned, predominantly into infantry regiments, for National Service.

Early October 2010 saw me in London for the 15^th Reunion Dinner of Eaton Hall OCS, an event held every other year. Our patron, the present Duke of Westminster, has often attended but with his many commitments was unable to be there this year. Although we are inevitably a dwindling band, the dinner drew about one hundred OEs (Old Eatonians), plus a lady of great age who had been on the RN staff at Eaton Hall pre-1947, one of those charged with the welfare of young teenaged trainee midshipmen.

This year being the 60^th anniversary of the start of the Korean War [1950-1953, in which the British element of the Commonwealth Force included many officers and soldiers conscripted for National Service], principal guests were the Korean Ambassador to London and his Naval Attaché. The Ambassador, born just as the war ended, delivered a most interesting address, speaking of his country’s remarkable economic and social progress, ongoing problems with North Korea, and emphasising Korea’s lasting sense of gratitude to the British Commonwealth and United States forces which saved the south from invasion, sustaining significant casualties, besides the million Koreans from north and south who perished during that war.

As usual, I had put up at the well-appointed Victory Services Club (VSC) in Seymour Street, not far from Marble Arch and the site of Tyburn, where myriad public hangings provided popular entertainment in less enlightened times. report all this because, still at the VSC the next day, I was surprised and delighted to come face to face with our esteemed editor and Kay, whom I hadn’t seen since November 2007 in Hong Kong.