Using Rank on Retirement
Our eldest had been in seven different schools by the time it came for him to sit his GCSE exams because he didn’t want to go to boarding school and we wanted to bring him up ourselves, rather than put him in the care of others. He’s done very well for himself, as in fact all his three siblings have done.
Join Date: Dec 2007
Location: Huntingdon
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Average move frequency was three years, probably a little less often than serving RAF..
We managed [during married life]: Thirsk, Gutersloh, Doncaster, Yateley, JHQ, Gainsborough, Bridgend, JHQ and S. Lincs. Nine in 36 years. The average stay was held long-ish by virtue of some serious commuting and also some serious Mess living to avoid uprooting the children.
This is not a complaint, we all have had boxes that packed themselves ...........
Not only the military, Oberon Senior was in the Metropolitan Police and by the time I was 15 I was on my 6th. school. The 3 years at Locking was the longest I spent under tuition.
I lived in fourteen houses and went to twelve schools. The shortest school was Solva in 1945. I came back after the first day whinging that I couldnt understand anybody. A few days later I went to St Davids where they spoke English. In 1950 I joined my father at RAF Heany in Rhodesia and we lived in a mission farm 30 miles out of Bulawayo so I had six months off until my father found a house in town.
Coming back in March 1953 I stayed with my grandparents until my father had sorted a house near Moreton in the Marsh. It was nearly the summer holidays so I stayed out until the next term. Rhodesia stated senior school at twelve so at thirteen I went straight into the third form and had to catch up two years work.
Halfway through my fourth form my father was going to leave the Air Force and go back to Rhodesia. The school decided to push me through some O Levels so I had some qualifications so I got Maths English and Science after two years work.
My father delayed by ten months so I had fifteen free periods a week just doing French, Geography and History. I never did receive those certificates but fortunately I joined the RAF in Salisbury on a Direct Commission when only three O Levels were required: two days before the DC Scheme B came in which required six O Levels.
Coming back in March 1953 I stayed with my grandparents until my father had sorted a house near Moreton in the Marsh. It was nearly the summer holidays so I stayed out until the next term. Rhodesia stated senior school at twelve so at thirteen I went straight into the third form and had to catch up two years work.
Halfway through my fourth form my father was going to leave the Air Force and go back to Rhodesia. The school decided to push me through some O Levels so I had some qualifications so I got Maths English and Science after two years work.
My father delayed by ten months so I had fifteen free periods a week just doing French, Geography and History. I never did receive those certificates but fortunately I joined the RAF in Salisbury on a Direct Commission when only three O Levels were required: two days before the DC Scheme B came in which required six O Levels.
Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Often in Jersey, but mainly in the past.
Age: 79
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FED ... forgive my nit-piking, but Dec B was 5. My 6th O-level was a spare!
"Mildly" Eccentric Stardriver
Agreed, 5 O-level, and if you were trying for Cranwell (Permanent Commission) two of those at A-level. I had A in Chemistry and Geography, O in English, Maths and Physics. Luckily for me (in retrospect) I failed the Cranwell, but was offered the DEC B
