98th Entry Halton Apprentices

Dear Members of the 98th:

It is my pleasure to announce on behalf of Mike and myself that our new Mk2 web site will up and running for you all as from 15.00h on the 15th, May which is this Sunday afternoon.

The old Mk1 site will remain open for viewing and reading only; from Monday it will no longer accept new posts or comments. The contacts lists will still remain readable and there is a link from the new site back to the old one.

To make our new site more secure it is configured such that all visitors and members alike need to register. This is a quick and simple process. This new registration allows many features not available on the old site. You can choose and change your own passwords. You can even forget it and get an automatic reminder to your registered email address. For this reason you should ensure it is one you use regularl.

Please be wise with password choice. Do not undermine our new and very necessary security by choosing something obvious like you name or the word password. Try to make it at least eight characters long and a mixture of letters and numbers. A favourite might be a word followed or preceded by your service number. We had to put a letter and a zero in front of our exclusive six figure numbers so you almost have something viable there. And I’ll bet your never going to forget that one. Anyway, the choice is yours, just be cautious. Thank you.

How to register and where? No worries, the new Mk2 will lead you gently down the path. Just click on something when you get there. A side note here is that all members and people associated with the entry and training will have full reading and writing privileges. Visitors, who are welcome to read our stuff, will have just reading and commenting rights - the latter needing to be approved before publishing.

The Mk2 site has many new features. Not just easier and quicker posts but polls, videos, private messaging, subscription posts by email and a whole bunch of other stuff. There are plenty of detailed tutorials on each aspect. But we all know nobody reads the instructions until all else has failed so, our advice is take things easy at first. Get going with simple text only posts, then commenting on other people’s posts then more posts of your own with pictures etc. This was the very successful route of our beta testers, Sue de Claire and Geoff Yalland. It worked well for them and we recommend it to you.

All is now set for the web site to have a long, expansive and successful future. Whether it does or not is entirely up to you, the writers and comment-ers. Without you the whole thing is a white elephant - for which you are paying. Elegant and impressive perhaps but still completely worthless. The more you write and comment, the more others will read and do the same.

Yes, we are interested in grandma’s new chocolate recipe, the fact the postman bit your dog and that new knighthood you’ve just been put up for in the honours lists. So get on it and tell us about it! Nobody’s getting a Pulitzer out of this but we all hope to get a lot of fun and comradeship.

And now the well-kept secret, how to get there. Dead simple really, just add a slash and a v2 after the domain name: www.98thentry.com/v2 In a couple of days I will be switching things around such that just typing: www.98thentry.com will take you directly to the Mk2 home page.

But in the meantime go to: www.98thentry.com/v2

Once last time - welcome - bravo the beta testers - and  let’s be hearing from you.

Best wishes,
Peter deP. [webmaster]

“I reckon we can get another one in this trench if we all squeeze up a bit”

Mr & Mrs Andy Folliard

Please send in your reunion snaps so that we can publish the best of them. I have used my own and have had contributions from Geoff Yalland and Keith Slater so far and it would be nice if some more could be sent in. Ivan lost his camera during the reunion and I know he misses the photos more than the camera itself. So again, if you have some pictures we can share please send them to me and I will forward copies to Ivan so that he has a record of the weekend.

Mr & Mrs Keith Trigg with Graham Wilikinson in the background

All those NOT volunteering - two paces backward march!

The 98th Entry web site Mk2 is coming on a-pace. Not all is done yet but we’re getting there. Most of the ‘mechanics’ are done and now comes the grind of writing the tutorials to make all the swish features simple to understand and use.

The worst person to critique the tutorials is the bloke who wrote them - me! So, I need two volunteers to be beta testers - valiant folks that will read the tutorials and then try to do what they explain. Expertise with things computer is NOT an asset here. In fact the computer novice is a much better candidate. If they can ‘get it’ then all the smarty-pants geeks should have no trouble at all.

So - who’s up for it? 98th members or wives - there’s no misogyny here - all are welcome, but two should be enough, thanks. All you have to do is read the online tutorials then have a go at what they’re on about. It’s quite fun and you sure won’t break anything.

It won’t come all in one big lump. I want to write the tutorial on a section and then test it with the beta testers before moving on to the next section. Max time needed will be about an hour a week at the most.

The carrot, of course, is you get to see and play with all the new goodies before anybody else !!!

Who’s up for it?

By the way - there may be a little confusion where 100+ quid is going from entry funds for the web site. This is NOT payment for my design, work or whatever. Nor is our erudite editor getting any of it. We both work entirely for free - so sorry, no cash for the beta testers either.

No, the cash for the web site pays for the hosting or renting of server space plus server maintenance charges - for a year. The server is located in a professional facility in Maidenhead, UK. It is maintained by professional technicians who keep it up and running 24/7 - holidays included. Regretfully they do not work for free, having families to feed and kids to educate etc. That is where the 100+ quid is going.

For the last three years I have hosted the site on one of my own servers - for which I too pay hosting and maintenance. Up to recently I could squeeze it in along with my other 70+ sites so I was able to do it for free. However, like Topsy it grew, got too big and was taking over the place, which is why it now has a home of its own.

Few of us entered this hallowed place when we were brats but it was nice to see how the other half lived as we snuggled up in our spartan barrack blocks. Now the building, which is still an Officer’s Mess, is the backdrop for many films. Our guide Min Larkin brought tears to our eyes as he told us how inconvenient it was for the officer’s living in the mess with film crews all over the place. So, so sad. We had just one or two inconveniences in our barrack blocks also and they were definitely not film crews!

Halton House was of course the home of our batchelor Flt Cdr, Stuart Musgrove, and he told me that he had learnt a thing or two about his former home from the very knowlegeable Min Larkin. The photo below shows Min and Stuart chatting in front of a portrait of the man who started it all, Lord Trenchard.

The ladies also played a full and important part at our reunion and I am delighted so many joined us for the celebration. Any chance of a 50th anniversary cake in three years time girls?

Halton House is now beginning to show its age and so it is a suitable place to visit by a bunch of pensioners I suppose. The future of the building and its grounds is somewhat precarious, because if a buyer came along it would be sold by the MoD. Fortunately, nobody seems to believe it is a viable commercial opportunity at present and so the officer’s at Halton can continue to be inconvenienced.

Oh dear me!!!!

L to R standing: Geoff Yalland, Paddy O’Leary, Pete de Claire, Mike Mason, Keith Slater, Vic Munro, Barry Owens, Mick Hall,  Bud Holt, Mike Isaac and Boots Ingham.

L to R kneeling:  Ron Gardiner, Brasso Holmes, Jim Coombs, John Hannaford

There I was last Sunday looking around the Apprentice Museum when I cast my eyes upwards to the roof area and saw two entry plaques with 99 on them. A bit flakey I thought! Anyway, what were these ‘rooks’ doing with, not just one, but two entry plaques on show? I nearly had a Victor Meldrew moment because as an entry we don’t have such an adornment. I chuntered about it for some while and mentioned it to Peter de Claire as we ate dinner and he kindly offered to have a go at designing an Entry Plaque. We may be slow getting off the mark but the quality in the end is always better - but no pressure Pete.

The other Pete is busy designing our new website and I must say I liked the logo he came up with. Bright and cheerful I thought. I have asked Peter to include the Entry motto within the logo and we have agreed it will now replace the No1 School of Technical Training wording. At this stage we do not want to go into any detail about the look and capability of the new website but I am sure you will all be pleased with the final product. As Keith Slater jokingly put it to PdeP at the reunion: “We are now paying for this website so we are customers and require a good service”. Bless him, and such a way with words! Seriously folks, I am confident we will soon have a superb site and maybe an Entry plaque as well.

Our Webmaster PdeP in Halton House

Life returns to normal after the reunion. Yesterday I was in London for a meeting. Checked the weather forecast before I left and it was to be sunny except for the odd shower in the West. Arrived in ‘The Smoke’ and caught the tube to Baker Street. On leaving the station the heavens opened. I had started quite a long walk along the edge of Regents Park to get to my destination. On my arrival at the venue, which by the way was the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynacecologists,  I was like the proverbial drowned rat because I had not brought with me a brolley or mack.

At the end of the day when the train pulled in to Donny the same weather conditions occurred and because I had left my car at the Magistrates Court car park it was another long walk from the station. Talk about drip dry. After some tea, drying off and dry clothes I switched on the computer and the new 98th entry website wouldn’t download. Some days just don’t work out do they?

Jim Coombs looking thoughtful at the trenches