Vets visiting a UK Officer's Mess
JHQ RAF Mess was excellent. Great entertainments: jazz curry lunches on Summer Sundays, super Oktoberfest, the usual Christmas and New Year,
Air Staff breakfast at knocking off day before Christmas, The cavalry charge on Fridays on bikes over the field down to the Mess.
Summer balls with survivors' breakfasts ............. nostalgia is not what it used to be.
Also great away games: a coach or two to the Clutch stations for their receptions, never a minute early, never a minute late.
And all this for a very average grammar school boy who had wanted never to be anything but RAF and failed the medicals.
I still have a lot of Mess silver, auctioned to members immediately before the dreadful merger with the army to become Churchill.
I still have the Weber and the lawnmower from the PX.
Golden days, and we who experienced them knew it. Many of us are sad to see the fruits of winning the cold war, squandered.
Thank you to those serving now.
Air Staff breakfast at knocking off day before Christmas, The cavalry charge on Fridays on bikes over the field down to the Mess.
Summer balls with survivors' breakfasts ............. nostalgia is not what it used to be.
Also great away games: a coach or two to the Clutch stations for their receptions, never a minute early, never a minute late.
And all this for a very average grammar school boy who had wanted never to be anything but RAF and failed the medicals.
I still have a lot of Mess silver, auctioned to members immediately before the dreadful merger with the army to become Churchill.
I still have the Weber and the lawnmower from the PX.
Golden days, and we who experienced them knew it. Many of us are sad to see the fruits of winning the cold war, squandered.
Thank you to those serving now.
I agree that the JHQ Mess was excellent but, despite my initial misgivings, the Churchill Mess era turned out to be something of a success, in large part thanks to the closure of the RAFH Wegberg Mess and the move of its PM officers across to Rheindahlen. In fact, the Mess remained RAF-heavy as regards livers-in and I could not have wished for better company throughout my final 3 years of service.
I agree that the JHQ Mess was excellent but, despite my initial misgivings, the Churchill Mess era turned out to be something of a success, in large part thanks to the closure of the RAFH Wegberg Mess and the move of its PM officers across to Rheindahlen. In fact, the Mess remained RAF-heavy as regards livers-in and I could not have wished for better company throughout my final 3 years of service.
Erks mess
The worst,Bahrein 1962 in the summer.No air con long narrow room with murals of cool flowery gardens .Queing for your meal(of course!)you went through a set of batwing doors to the servery and out another pair to the"dining tables".
I remember the walls covered in large stains where the awful food had been thrown at the walls!Never saw a duty officer enter to enquire how your meal was!!
Khormaksar was a 5 star compared to Bahrein!!
I remember the walls covered in large stains where the awful food had been thrown at the walls!Never saw a duty officer enter to enquire how your meal was!!
Khormaksar was a 5 star compared to Bahrein!!
If I may be permitted to enter the discussion by inserting some antipodean thoughts as it seems the RAF and RAAF experiences over time are somewhat similar.
As an ATC Cadet Under Officer in the 60's Amberley was great and then to return as a newly minted ATC (the real sort) in 1973 the memories came back with a vengeance.
Butterworth for the social activities for expats having fun but getting shot at during night flying took some of the shine off the experience.
East Sale as a student was one thing but later on as.an instructor I came to appreciate the finer points of that style of mess environment and interaction with honorary members.
Tindal in the early days when pay night shouts were a bottle of Hill of Grace with the boss.
These days the ex students are too ashamed of the state of the mess life to even invite the old instructor on to the base. Shame really as mess life was a valuable part of the overall RAAF officer training and development - well to my mind at least.
Gne
As an ATC Cadet Under Officer in the 60's Amberley was great and then to return as a newly minted ATC (the real sort) in 1973 the memories came back with a vengeance.
Butterworth for the social activities for expats having fun but getting shot at during night flying took some of the shine off the experience.
East Sale as a student was one thing but later on as.an instructor I came to appreciate the finer points of that style of mess environment and interaction with honorary members.
Tindal in the early days when pay night shouts were a bottle of Hill of Grace with the boss.
These days the ex students are too ashamed of the state of the mess life to even invite the old instructor on to the base. Shame really as mess life was a valuable part of the overall RAAF officer training and development - well to my mind at least.
Gne
JHQ RAF Mess was excellent. Great entertainments: jazz curry lunches on Summer Sundays, super Oktoberfest, the usual Christmas and New Year,
Air Staff breakfast at knocking off day before Christmas, The cavalry charge on Fridays on bikes over the field down to the Mess.
Summer balls with survivors' breakfasts ............. nostalgia is not what it used to be.
Air Staff breakfast at knocking off day before Christmas, The cavalry charge on Fridays on bikes over the field down to the Mess.
Summer balls with survivors' breakfasts ............. nostalgia is not what it used to be.
I wholeheartedly agree with you - staff worked very hard at these events and had to deal with a whole load of (usually) drunken buffoons in the early hours (I include myself in that cohort!).
I was just up the road from JHQ at Laarbruch - we had a lovely German chap called Paul that worked in our mess - had been there for years and years and had seen it all. Chatting to him after the final ball (1998?) he just mentioned in passing that he was hoping to have been invited as a guest as a thank you for all his years of service, but it never happened. I so wish he had mentioned it to one of us before the event - many people (myself included) would have had a word with the Mess Manager and paid for him & his wife to attend...
That said, happy hour on Friday was when a lot of business was transacted, a lot of beefs delivered in both directions, and a very valuable plus for the RAF and the civvy.
Know in the late 90's, Australian army had enough the **** the messes were causing and started to shut them down, one base I know that had about 5K army based there shut down every NCO mess with the exception of 1 SGT's mess and replaced it with an upgraded sports bar / canteen for the enlisted, all the officer messes were shut down with the exception of two.
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I had worked most of the messes in the JHQ area, including the pre and post Churchill era. Some of you may remember "Charlie" the sole pathologist who had been imported from Wegberg. One NYE Charlie had run out of steam, and was taking a short breather in one of the armchairs, resting his eyes and generally unaware of the presence of the rest of us. At this point three very junior Army officers, enjoying their first NYE in the Churchill, considered it would be a jolly good wheeze to move the armchair, plus Charlie, on to the patio via the sliding doors. Bearing in mind it was below freezing out there, I persuaded them to leave him in situ, by asking who would carry out his post mortem if he should perish?
Sleeping in armchairs in Messes can be as dangerous as standing by a window in Russia.
As witness Gutersloh, post lunch [remember decent lunches in Messes?] when an elderly SATCO succumbed to noisy sleep behind his D Tel, and OC Ops set light to it. I learned a few new swear words in the aftermath.
As witness Gutersloh, post lunch [remember decent lunches in Messes?] when an elderly SATCO succumbed to noisy sleep behind his D Tel, and OC Ops set light to it. I learned a few new swear words in the aftermath.
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Heck at Brize you had to be a civi to get a lane at the bowling alley, or it felt like it 
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Sleeping in armchairs in Messes can be as dangerous as standing by a window in Russia.
As witness Gutersloh, post lunch [remember decent lunches in Messes?] when an elderly SATCO succumbed to noisy sleep behind his D Tel, and OC Ops set light to it. I learned a few new swear words in the aftermath.
As witness Gutersloh, post lunch [remember decent lunches in Messes?] when an elderly SATCO succumbed to noisy sleep behind his D Tel, and OC Ops set light to it. I learned a few new swear words in the aftermath.
A intriguing glimpse of the changing nature of life in light blue officers' messes, and good to see that Shawbury seems to have bucked the trend. In the spirit of the OP's original point, submarine officers automatically used to become life members of the Wardroom Messes of HMS NEPTUNE and HMS DOLPHIN, when the latter still existed.
Jack
Jack
