Oct 16 2023 35 mins
This month we welcome old friend of the museum, Mr Bill Jackson to the podcast. Born in Hereford, and founder and chairman of Jackson Property, Bill cut his military teeth with the Lucton School Combined Cadet Force and shares he reminiscences of troop trains to summer camps, bulling boots and progress to the dizzying height of Colour Sergeant.
Poached by Colonel Tom Hill, Bill then became an officer cadet with the Herefordshire Light Infantry, responsible for a platoon across Leominster, Kington and Tenbury Wells. We hear of of his experiences in getting to know his men - many of whom had seen national service in Kenya - mess dinners, regimental balls and being allocated his own transport in the form of a Champ!
Bill was given the honour to carry one of the Regimental Colours in the disbandment parade at Hereford Cathedral in 1967 and he relates his experiences of that momentous and poignant day.
However this was not Bill's end of his connection with volunteer units in the county - being a driving force in the Army Cadet league, Chair of the Trustees of the Museum and being "on parade" again as High Sherriff with his old platoon sergeant, Mick Meredith who was Sergeant-at-Arms for Leominster Town Council.
We really enjoyed chatting to Bill and hope you enjoy listening to our conversation. The chat continued after we'd officially finished, and we hope to bring you this extra material as a bonus episode soon.
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Theme Tune - The Lincolnshire Poacher, performed by the outstanding Haverhill Silver Band.
This podcast generously supported by the Army Museums Ogilby Trust.v