FORMER apprentices at the army college in Beachley gathered over the weekend to remember what was for many of them a formative experience. 

Thousands of teenagers passed through the gates at the Army Apprentices’ College between 1923 and 1994. 

Many returned to Chepstow over the weekend – some from as far as Australia – for the reunioin organised by the ‘new’ Beachley Old Boys’ Assocication (BOBA) which was reformed when the college closed in 1994. 

One of the highlights of the weekend was a ‘heritage trail’ at Chepstow Racecourse with many items of memorabilia from a bandsman’s leopard skins to enrolment records, photographs and the college’s magazine The Robot. 

One of the organisers, Chris Ricketts of Tutshill, said: “.When it closed it  had been the army boys’ school for 70 years and there is a lot that people do not know about IT. 

“The steelwork around the war memorial (in Chepstow), for instance was manufactured by the apprentices at the college and the bus shelter at Beachley, most of that was manufactured by Beachley boys. 

“They were training boys, in the early days from 14 and later 16 to become tradesmen, NCOs and officers of the technical corps. 

“As a Beachley boy you were kept occupied from 6am to 10 pm.” 

“You came out with a trade, a military education and soldiering skills but first and foremost you were a soldier. 

“You might not touch your trade again but it stood a lot of people in good stead.” 

A list of trades on display at the heritage trail showed the wide range of training opportunities that were available from plumbers and brickies to photographic technicians and blacksmiths. 

Mr Ricketts, who was an apprentice between 1965 and 1967, added: “There are lots of people around her whose fathers, grandfathers and even great grandfathers spent three years there but nobody knows what went on there. 

“They weren’t interested because of fences or signs with the Official Secrets Act so they never got involved.” 

Many apprentices went on to be awarded gallantry medals and honours for their work in civilian life and one of the most poignant displays was a long list of Beachley Boys who lost their lives while serving in the military. 

Among the visitors was Mr Tony Winn who was learnt to play the drums for a pipe band while he was at Beachley between 1970 and 1972. 

He said: “You had three bands the corps of drums, the military band and the pipe band – they gave us a hobby and ours was the band.  

“It’s lovely to see this stuff after 48 years – I learnt to play the tenor drum and the bass drum  and I was part of the pipe band. 

“I have very good memories of the place, it was a great college and Chepstow was good,” said Mr Winn who was an apprentice plumber and fitter and now lives in Portsmouth. 

On Sunday there was a service at Beachley led by Rev Joe Rooney of Caldicot who is padre to the association. 

The association also has its own memorial located behind the former St John’s Church ‘outside the wire’ on land accessible to the public where old boys’ can have their ashes scattered. 

The association is planning a special event for 2019 to mark the 25th anniversary of the closure of the college.