The Tented Camp
1953
Following
the loss of the ship a temporary tented camp was erected on the upper
rugby fields. This camp was occupied until 21st October 1953 when the
new hutted camp was opened. The tents were loaned by the Army in Menai
Bridge, were rather old, not particularly watertight (it rained a lot
that term) and had previously been used in Libya.
Editorial from the September, 1953 The Cadet magazine:
The
day after the loss the brave decision was then taken by Mr.
Alfred Wilson,CBE General Secretary of the MMMSA and Mr. Lawrence Holt
JP Chairman of the Governing Body, that in spite of this disaster Conway would go on. Summer Term was due to start shortly after
the catastrophe occurred, so some little delay was inevitable, but thanks
to the co-operation of many good friends we were only a few days late
resuming training. The Army provided marquees for sleeping, builders
erected additional class-rooms and toilet facilities, and Lord Anglesey
offered accommodation in his home and grounds to resident Staff.
The
previous organisation was maintained as far as possible, Cadets who
would otherwise have been on board living in the camp on Maes y Fran,
where twenty- three marquees and two small tents were erected. Each
division was allotted five marquees to sleep eight or nine Cadets each
and additional marquees were provided for duty Staff, Chief Cadet Captain
and recreation. Two small tents were set up near the camp entrance for
the duty part.
Additional
toilet facilities were rapidly provided and though these were about
400 yards away from the camp they were superior to the ones on board
as there was an adequate supply of hot water. Four new class-rooms well-lit
and heated, were built in the Kelvin Block, and the only really unsatisfactory
item was the dining accommodation, which, having been originally intended
to accommodate shore based Cadets only, had to accommodate three times
that number. This was over- come by having two sittings for all meals
and re- arranging the school time-table so that time should not be wasted,
but none of this would have been possible had it not been for the efforts
of the galley and pantry staff, who, with surprisingly few complaints
either on their part or that of the Cadets, managed to adapt themselves
to the changed conditions.
Although
the weather was most unkind for the greater part of the term the Cadets
seemed to thrive under canvas, and a full month elapsed before the first
was admitted to sick bay, and he had taken too great an advantage of
one of the infrequent appearances of the sun, and suffered accordingly.
After his discharge, browner and wiser, sick bay remained comparatively
empty apart from a few minor accident cases.
Cadets' Recollections
"The tents were on loan from the
Army and were so dilapidated they must have been hidden since the Crimean
War."
"The tents
were bell tents and I seem to remember that they were hired from the
Army. I think that there were about 10 cadets per tent, sleeping on
iron bedsteads, and we had to go to the Kelvin Block to wash or shower.

We were allowed to use bicycles to make
the trip to the Kelvin Block and back, but it was very muddy at the
time, so riding the bikes was far from smooth. Given that there had
been 200 cadets on board, it follows that there must have been tents
to accommodate the same number, that is to say about twenty.
For whatever reason, this is almost all
I can recall about this transitional period, except that J.D.W. Edge
was in my tent, and that uncharacteristically, I smoked a few Four Square
cigarettes while under canvas. I imagine we must have eaten in the Nelson
Block, and I do remember that classes were taken in the Kelvin Block."
"After we returned at the beginning
of the Summer Term and having spent one night in one of the tents the
Captain asked me if I was warm enough with only one blanket as I from
Bermuda and a much warmer climate. I said No! So we had additional blankets
issued that summer term in 1953. It was quite cold in the tents at night
and as I recall we were quite comfortable with the extra blanket."
Water Water Everywhere
"I think that
there was only one term under canvas. It rained like hell all the time
and we used to rig up waterproof hangings over our bunks to keep the
water off. We also had to fix ourselves some kind of duck boards due
to the mud. Every couple of weeks we had to move the whole camp a few
yards one way or another to find fresh grass. The places where the tents
had been before, clearly marked as muddy ovals.”
"One of our greatest
enemies were the sheep who used to scratch their backs on the tent guy
ropes in the middle of the night. Even worse they could get their heads
stuck between the two parts of said guys and someone would have to get
out in the rain and free the offending beast. As I was JCC I could usually
pull rank on the wetter nights but I took my turn when it was drier.”
“I had some ex US army
camouflaged ponchos cum groundsheets which I strung up over my bunk and
a second one made a sort of tablecloth for my chest.They kept the worst
of the rain off”
The Cycle Races & Bill Silvester
Bill
Silvester the Chief Cadet Captain (head boy) asked
to be allowed to have one sent from home as his feet were acting up
after an operation - a lot of the bones were held together with silver
wires –and this was granted. Of course this started a lot of requests
giving reasons from flat feet to dandruff and eventually most people
had one. Things got a bit out of hand when we started dirt track racing
in one corner of the field. The mud was terrific! The staff were not
too worried about the mounting number of cuts and bruises but went overboard
about the destruction of so many bikes. They reckoned they would get
it in the neck from the parents. As the number of bikes reduced each
bike carried more and more passengers from the camp down to the school
block, a lot of them just collapsing on the way so that the path along
by the rhododendron plantation started to look like a rather poor junk
yard - finally they were all banned. Those that had survived, of course."
"The tents
were some way from the dock, Kelvin Block (for classes) and the House
(for food). A large number of bikes appeared from somewhere and cadets
were all soon cycling madly everywhere."
"We
were allowed to use bicycles to make the trip to the Kelvin Block and
back, but it was very muddy at the time, so riding the bikes was far
from smooth. There were no roads then only just muddy tracks
or fields, and these were ordinary road and racing bikes with very narrow
tyres."
"Bill
Silvester enjoyed pranks as well as anyone but when he said "Enough"
that's just what he meant. A case in point. He was more or less the
instigator of the famous bicycle races, run on the dirt-track principle.
Here we hurtled round a small oval track - black mud instead of cinders
- and he was often the winner. However, the number of calls in Sick
Bay for sprains etc. and the growing pile of smashed bikes decided him
to put an end to the racing. When he said "Enough" we all
stopped. No questions asked. He did things like this by force of character
and personality alone."
This term was a
critical one for the ship and the cadets. The ship had been lost and
nothing was certain. Fortunately Bill Silvester was the Chief cadet captain
in that term and he made a crucial difference. The cadets adapted to
the new regime and with his quiet and much valued guidance they made
it through to the next term in the newly opened Hutted Camp.
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