War time memories

Walter Swann, aged 78, and Jim Harrison, who was 67 yesterday, Tuesday, began their whistlestop tour of Londonderry on Thursday afternoon, when they touched down at Derry City Airport. After dinner their itinerary began with a rehearsal for Remembrance Day followed by a reception at the British Legion on Iona terrace.

The pair are the latest in a long line of military men to do their duty, with the 1914-18 boys being taken over by the 1939-45 lads, then Korea, Suez, then Walter and Jim's era with Aden, Borneo, Cyprus, Indonesia, back to Aden again and then Northern Ireland, and the Iraq boys have taken over from where they left off and, of course, at the weekend the County suffered it's first loss of life with the death of an RIR soldier in Helmand Province in Afghanistan.

While both men now live in Chelsea Hospital, Walter is originally from Scotland, and Jim from Cregagh Road, Belfast, and by his own admission he could not wait to leave Northern Ireland and spread his wings. Little did he realise at that tender age that he would end up serving with the Parachute Regiment, First Battalion.

"I left here in 1958 to join up. I joined the, Airforce actually, and signed up at Great Victoria Street. I was coming up to 15, I went as a boy entrant and signed up for a two-year apprenticeship in signals. In all honesty I joined up to get out of here, but they kept sending me back.

Apprenticeship

"I was too young to go abroad, because you had to be 18 at that time, so I finished my apprenticeship at RAF Cosford just outside Wolverhampton, and then they thought they would do me a good turn so they sent me to RAF Ballykelly. But when I came of age I got posted abroad, going to RAF Bahrain. It was abroad and it was warm.

"When I was up there I met the Army, so I transferred," he said, admitting that there was a certain amount of professionally rivalry between the two organisations.

But even the Army sent Jim 'back home' once he had completed course work.

"I was sent out again to the Middle East and to Borneo and Cyprus, and I went to Aden in 1967 to cover the withdrawal. You were there as well, weren't you Walter?"

"I was on the last plane out," Walter responds.

"No you weren't 'cos we were," Jim jibes, before continuing: "After that we came home and regrouped, so to speak, and then, of course, Northern Ireland broke out, so I came back here in 1969 and stayed right through to 1972. That was some of the worst year of 'The Troubles' and we bore the brunt of it. We were stationed mostly in Belfast, but we got called up here on a couple of occasions when things got out of hand and they would station us at either Eglinton, Ballykinler or Ballykelly. Belfast was mainly our area. We went back in 1972, and to be honest I wasn't sorry. I'd had enough of it and couldn't take much more."

Peaceful

The life of a military man is not a static one and Jim, like everyone else, found himself shunted around the world at short notice: "We were never stationary too long. We were involved in conflict and as soon as that conflict was over we were moved on. If I had a choice I think Aldershot was my favourite post, as it was the home of the British Army, and it was peaceful and quiet. Every time we were sent out we didn't know if it was for six days, six weeks, six months, so we never settled."

Asked why he was so keen to leave Northern Ireland as a teenager, Jim confided: "There wasn't a lot to do here and the prospects of getting work for the offspring of a mixed upbringing weren't good. Just to take the pressure off the family I legged it. I had visions of joining The Mounties and all that," he jokes.

The reality was Jim ended up doing nine tours of duty in Northern Ireland. He came out of the Army in 1977, having been made redundant, but he had to wait until two years ago to become a Chelsea Pensioner on March 3.

Jim goes on to explain that the Chelsea Pensioners order their lives on a military basis - hence the striking uniform, and that he is a Long Ward NCO or 'Ward Rep'.

"We operate it that way because we have all been there, we've got the t-shirt and we understand each other's way of thinking," he said.

Walter's home is Lanark in Scotland, and he also signed up for the RAF initially, but jumped ship. He has been a Chelsea Pensioner since 2005.

"I was 18 when I joined the RAF, and what happened was I was posted out to Cyprus, and I was attached to the Army for a period of about five years and at the end of that attachment I decided I wanted to transfer into the Army, so I did that. I suppose I had five years with them and got settled into that routine and rather than go back to RAF and start all over again, I decided to stay."

With a twinkle in his eye, Walter reveals that while he was 'attached' he served as a member of the Military Police in the Military Corrective Training Centre.

"Ask him," he said, hooking his thumb at Jim and laughing: "He was there."

Curiosity gets the better of me and I ask Jim what it was that he did to earn time in 'stir'.

"I got caught," he jokes, adding: "I chinned a regimental Sgt major and you don't do that. I didn't know he was a Regimental Sgt major at the time. He picked a fight with the wrong bloke, so hard luck.

The banter flies but the essence is this: The drink was in, the wit was out, and Jim hit a senior officer. He went down and stayed down and Jim got six months with a scrubbing brush, pail and a bass broom for company.

"He had every opportunity to keep his big mouth shut and he didn't," Jim adds defiantly.

The conversation gets back on track, with Walter revealing that he joined up because he was a miner and didn't like his prospects.

"I was in the pits and that's why I joined up," he says as his phone rings. The ringtone is 'The Last Post'. Later when I ask, he reveals that when he gets a message the phone plays 'The Reveille'.

Walter became a miner at the age of 15 and lasted just three years in the Douglas Water pit.

"It is a pit about six miles away from Lanark. It was dark, dirty and dangerous and it was a wet pit. You were soaking wet all the time from as soon as you came in down came the 'rain' in drips and drabs. I joined up when I was 18, in fact on my 18th birthday I was out of the pit and decided 'I'm out of here'. I was a drill instructor in the RAF, and I was 24 when I got the attachment."

He continued: "I came out in 1973, so I was 23 years in, but nine years of that was in the RAF and the rest was in the Army."

Although he was called on to be strict, Walter stresses that he never lifted his hand in anger, and never gave out humiliating punishments like scrubbing floors with a toothbrush, or painting grass green.

"I was firm but fair. I never gave out any punishment, but if there were any misdemeanours then I put them on report and off they would go in front of the officers. When they came out they were 100 per cent fitter because of the continuation training," he said.

It obviously make it's mark on Jim who can still remember the Sgt major's name: McClearly.

"I'm still looking for him," he quips.