Page 66 - Old Ratcliffian Magazine 2017

66 RATCLIFFE’S PAST

CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF THE CCF:

RATCLIFFE’S CCF CONTINGENT

Today’s CCF had its origins as an OTC (Officers’ Training Corps),
affiliated to the Leicestershire Regiment, during the First World War.
Records located in the archives of The Ratcliffian magazine confirm
that ‘The Corps’ of Ratcliffe was then inaugurated on May 5th 1916.
Amongst the earliest recruits was the future Fr Claude Leetham (15),
who, by the end of the war, was old enough to volunteer for the RAF,
formed on April 1st 1918, and was in training as a cadet officer, but
never served; he became President (Headmaster) in 1948. Another
‘original’ was the future Bishop of Nottingham, Edward Ellis (16).

The first senior cadet was William Bowers Thorley (16); he died of his
wounds whilst fighting during the Battle of the Lys, the second of the
German great spring offensives of 1918, in the area of Mont Kemmel
(Ypres/Messines) on April 20th whilst serving with the 8th North
Staffs. He is buried on the coast in Wimereux Communal Cemetery,
a few rows away from Colonel John McCrae - the Canadian doctor
who wrote the poem In Flanders Fields, and who died of Spanish flu The Duchess of Kent inspects the Guard of Honour in 1957
in January 1918. Thorley was also an outstanding student, sportsman
and athlete. He was only nineteen when he was killed - the one and newly-formed Air Training Corps, when the Ratcliffe Aerodrome was
only fatality of the Ratcliffe Corps in the war. ‘alive with aircraft’.

Soon after the war ended, the Ratcliffe College OTC was disbanded CCF was compulsory at Ratcliffe for some years, training on a Tuesday
and (as far as I know) remained in abeyance until a new war loomed. afternoon, although Scouts provided one alternative and the Sixth
The new commanding officer was Captain John Radford (07) MC Form could, in due course, either engage in Adventurous Training or
Royal Artillery, who can be regarded as the first of the Contingent’s become part of an eclectic group that were known as ‘Mon’s Men’. The
commanding officers to have a strong Ratcliffe connection prior to Adventurous Training group would give health and safety aficionados
commanding it. His medals are heart failure, with abseiling and climbing ropes appearing all over
on display outside the CCF the School. ‘Mon’s Men’ (under Fr Monaghan (53)) worked on the
Office. His son, John Godfrey maintenance of the more obscure parts of the College’s estate. A
Radford (38), was killed in May final group was the College’s own Fire Brigade, complete with a hand-
1940 whilst serving with the towed fire pump and great lengths of hose, producing satisfyingly
Wiltshire Regiment as part of powerful jets of water.
Frank Force, the surprisingly
successful mix of units put The CCF was, at some stage, restricted to pupils aged fourteen and
together to disrupt the German over; the College cunningly dealt with the consequent problem of
armoured advance in the area what to do with the Third Form (Year 9) by establishing an organisation
south of Arras in May 1940. He called CALBO, unique to Ratcliffe College and under the command
was left behind with a machine of Captain (Fr) Harwood (44). Kitted out in uniforms and almost
gun as part of a ‘forlorn hope’ indistinguishable from the CCF proper, they engaged in rather less
to hold up the Germans. He was military activities, but included memorable afternoons devoted, for
killed and is buried in Pelves example, to campfire cooking and so forth. At one annual inspection,
Communal Cemetery – rarely, Fr Harwood was quizzed by the Inspecting Officer as to what CALBO
John Godfrey Radford (38) if ever, visited; there are only a stood for. Quick as a flash, Fr Harwood reported that it stood for
couple of British soldiers buried ‘Contingent Assisted Locally Brigaded Organisation’ – utterly bogus,
there. Worst of all, his death was not officially recorded until 1944 – but it seemed to work. In fact, he used to assert that it stood for
one can only imagine what effect this had on his parents. ‘K(C)eep All Lazy Brats Occupied’.

The OTC was, again, disbanded after the war, but it was then revived
under a new umbrella organisation - the Combined Cadet Force -
which had emerged by the early 1950s and replaced the old Junior
Divisions of the OTC. Captain Radford was the first Contingent
Commander, which was cap-badged, once more, as Leicester’s (since
1946, Royal Leicestershire). Radford was then succeeded by Colonel
Wain. As informed by Alasdair Macmillan (58), the first aircraft was
taken by road to Sir Lindsay Everard’s aerodrome at Ratcliffe on the
Wreake, from where it made its first flight on May 3rd 1939, and in
due course, an RAF Section was added to Ratcliffe College, whose
first Commander was Fr Frank Fox (40). Indeed, one of our Old
Ratcliffians, Clem Maginniss (74), recalls his father’s memories of the Ratcliffe College CCF in June 1972

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