Item 04: Memoirs of a Colonial Boy by Robert Joseph Stewart, ca. 1971 - Page 143
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[Page 143]
71
Periodic examinations for promotion to non-commissioned rank were held at Newington College: I was once a candidate, and scraped through the test to become a lance-corporal.
The big occasion though, was the annual six-day camp held on the open grassed area in rear of the fortress at Middle Head. It began in mid-December, a week before the earliest Speech Day. Our officers, invariably, were either masters or school sergeants: Cooke-Russell, who was Sergeant at "Shore" and had been an N.C.O. in the Scots Guards, was one very soldierly and colourful personality. The several bugle and drum bands were massed under a lean lanky second lieutenant from Sydney Grammar School, who was known as "Puppyi dogyyique", alleged Latin for "Pup and dog's body". It was a big change from the confined routine of school classes, and a grand finale to the academic year.
Seven or eight of us slept in a circle on the grass, over and under a blue Army blanket, with our feet inwards to the pole of a big bell tent: there were no waterproof sheets or straw palliasses; our rifles were strapped around the pole. Each of us took a turn at being tent orderly for the day, the main duty being to fetch the meals for the whole tent from the cookhouse in dixies and buckets. The cooks prepared the meals over wood fires in open trenches under tarpaulin shelters.
The day began with reveille at 6 a.m. and an early morning bathing parade to the Middle Harbour swimming baths, before breakfast. The morning parades were devoted to close-order drill, and the afternoons to minor tactics, skirmishing around Middle Head, firing-off blank cartridges. In the evenings we sang around camp fires and enjoyed sing-songs and other musical entertainment. There was keen rivalry between the schools, and the officers had to be on the alert to prevent provocative words leading to blows.
Our company went by special tram to the Navy Jetty at Farm Cove, and embarked on a minelayer which took us across the harbour to Chowder Bay: from there we marched around the foreshore on a winding, red gravelled, military road to Middle Head: after the camp ended we returned to Bellvue Hill the same way in reverse.