CHAPTER 18 - THE SLEEPING POLICEMEN

During my time at Dean Close School, I was keen to embrace a ‘shell’ of a shooting team, comprised of students who had been engaged in shooting both full (.303”) and small bore (.22”). This skeleton of not so able but enthusiastic shooters of the school’s shooting team had done quite well in previous years, but sadly never climbed the ladder to become one of the major shooting schools. Having been a soldier I was asked to take over the role of Master in Charge of Shooting in 1969.

Those were halcyon days and I stepped forward to confront the challenges in a very keen way earning the nickname ‘Ping’. I didn’t really know what that meant at the time, nor did I hear it spoken more than once, and then only in a whisper, until I had left the school. I did receive a card of thanks for services rendered from one member of the team, signed ‘Ping’. One ex-scholar made a comment when he saw the card on my desk in my study and told me it was to do with my enthusiasm and always being keen to do lots of great things with the students. I wondered?

The school bought me the most amazing shooting vehicle, a FCLR (Forward Control Land Rover), a beast of a vehicle that could go across any ground, through shallow rivers and streams and was a reliable steed for my team. It could easily hold the dozen or so rifles and a couple of Bren guns, with thousands of rounds of .303 ammunition, with many magazines filled to the brim in readiness, which were necessary for an afternoon’s full-bore target shooting. I have never seen one of these amazing vehicles since, and I often wonder what happened to it.

We had the choice of many ranges, but Pilning near Bristol, and Tyddesley Wood, were the most favoured. Pilning was a great range, with targets up to 1,000 yards away, and the many .303 bullets that missed the targets were occasionally flying over the Severn Estuary towards North Devon!

The school’s shooting team did very well at Bisley.

In 1970 we won The Country Life Shield for .22 target shooting, because I had a great team. Most were superb shots, and the team was rather like an institution within the school, hiding each afternoon during the shooting season in the school’s amazing miniature range.

In 1971, after the NRA Bisley Public School’s Championships, I was driving home in my estate car packed tightly with .303 Lee Enfield No. 4 rifles and had to stop fifteen miles from Oxford on the A40 to get some fuel. In those days there was no self-service, so I beckoned the petrol pump assistant to “fill her up please”, which he did.

Fifteen miles down the road heading towards Witney I noticed that the heavy traffic we had negotiated from Bisley towards the petrol station seemed to get much lighter.

“That’s strange Ayres” I said to my shooting team member sitting on the front seat. “The roads are empty”.

As I drove towards a small village a mile through Witney, I was flagged down by a Policeman standing in the middle of road, on a left-hand bend, with several Police cars screaming to a halt behind me.

“What the hell is going on,” I said to Ayres.

A plain clothes Policeman came towards our car and asked us to get out. They opened the tailgate and set about thoroughly checking the contents of the car.

There on the back seats were eight Lee Enfield No.4 .303” rifles which we had used for the Bisley competition. It was a time when the IRA were active and the plain clothes policeman naturally assumed I was a gun runner, despite the genteel and young face sported by Ayres.

“Sorry for the inconvenience, sir, but can I have your full details, I just want to check them with my HQ?”

While the Police officers were uncovering the rifles and checking them, I handed the police officer my credentials. Although there were no mobiles in those days, within a few minutes they had called the Thames Valley Police HQ, who were excitedly checking my documents.

“Captain Graham Whiting, 488963, 1 Glosters, Master in Charge of Shooting at Dean Close School”.

“Ah”, said the chief officer, I see, and where have you been?”

“We have just driven from the NRA in Bisley where we have been shooting for a few days” I said as I saw Ayres shaking on the roadside.

“I see. So, you are a shooting team”.

In future make sure that when you are carrying firearms you make sure you cover them up so nobody can see them. Thanks to the vigilance of the petrol pump attendant who saw the muzzle of one of the rifles sticking out from underneath the groundsheet, we managed to pull you over.

“Very sorry sir, and I hope you get back to school safely. We’ll make sure you do”.

Then came the crunch. “Oh, by the way sir, do you have any live ammunition in the car” asked the chief policeman.

“No. I don’t”.

Off we went, rather swiftly, having covered up the rifles and headed along the A40 towards Cheltenham and onwards to Dean Close.

The drive was a pleasant one and every time we passed a junction there was a police car waving us on. The Police had literally escorted us back to school, and when we arrived Ayres opened up the armoury and stacked the rifles in the appropriate rack. I took the magazine key and unloaded a few hundred live rounds from underneath the driver’s seat and stacked them in the appropriate safe place in the magazine!

I will never ever forget that experience, how great the Police were and how lucky I was to have been travelling half a century ago when such things were dealt with as they had been!

“Ayres. You were magnificent. Thanks for not mentioning the live ammo!”