exsailor66

Hello,

Some time ago, I came upon photo(s) of a prank by RAF apprentices in March, 1965. In the photo(s), people were cavorting around Trafalgar Square in mountains of soap suds.

The prank involved the apprentices emptying a can of Tepol concentrated soap in the fountain while it/they were shut down for the night. When the fountain pumps were flashed up in the morning, mountains of soap suds were produced.

I believe "The Sun" newspaper headline read, "The day Nelson got soap in his eye", or something similar.

Can anyone provid me with a link to the photo(s)/article?

Thank you,
Michael Hogan
Savannah, GA

Blacksheep

The Entry Stunt of the 102nd Entry of Aircraft Apprentices, No. 1 School of Technical Training, RAF Halton. Otherwise known as the "Ton-Twos".

I guess you're looking for this page?

There are links to other photos of the event and a written yarn about the stunt on the 102nd's home page. Look under "site map" - its a bit slow so be patient.

I was one of the Ton-Fives. In September 1963 we occupied the 3A Wing blocks vacated by the Ton-Twos in July and on that web site there's a nice picture of the very room that was to be my 'home' for the next two years.

exsailor66

Thanks Blacksheep.

I served 30 years in the Canadian Navy, and pranks were one of the better things we inherited from our British predecessors, but the "Tepol in the fountain" trick is a great one.

It is rumoured that one of our destroyers, while in Charlottetown, PEI, for the Canadian Centennial in 1967, repeated the same prank in a fountain that was built for the occasion. I can't find the 411 on it, but it was a pretty strong rumour at the time.

We Canadians can be "cherry pickers" in a lot of ways by "borrowing" things from other countries...shamelesly...if it is good, it is good.

Did you Ton Fives do anything similar?

Cheers,
Mike

Blacksheep

No, our entry stunt was strictly "in-house". We had been warned not to attract the attention of the civilian press.
The officer's mess at Halton is an old Rothschild mansion that at the time contained many artifacts. The senior entry had their own dining hall.One of our number had a girlfriend who was a mess steward there and she let us in by a ground floor window. We nicked several paintings, two suits of armour and a various animals' heads that adorned the officers mess walls and installed them in our own mess hall.
It took a whole day before the officers mess manager found where his treasures had gone.

You can easily work out what our punishment was...