Passing Out Parade Photographs

We hold a large number of passing out parade photographs here in the Royal Green Jackets (RGJ) regimental archive, most of which have no dates, names, or platoon numbers. This means that they are largely inaccessible and not used. We do receive requests from former riflemen for copies of the relevant picture when they passed out at the end of basic training, but without much detail for the items, it is almost impossible for us to track down the relevant image.

Ken Gray, a former rifleman (Rifle Brigade and RGJ), describes the context of his photograph:

‘1961 is a long time ago, however, as I recall, basic training was about 3 months followed by a Passing Out Parade (POP) conducted by a senior officer or a local councillor. Awards were made to the best rifle shot, best machine gun shot and the best recruit (I managed none of these). Like now, a photograph would be taken and given to parents/recruits (mine is in the archives, taken at Bushfield Camp). The parade was a simple affair: an inspection by the inspecting officer followed by a march past. Those parents who attended would be invited to lunch with their sons in the main cookhouse. The word BASIC is important because after I finished basic training I joined the battalion in Cyprus and had a further 6 weeks of what was called CONTINUATION training before joining a rifle company.’

I had wondered if we could use the collective ‘regimental brains’ to help identify men in these images, and therefore possibly the dates and platoon numbers. These details could then be added to the catalogue and would help us answer enquiries about them.

Ron Cassidy, another former rifleman (Rifle Brigade and RGJ), volunteered to help identify individuals and dates in the photographs in the collection for which we hold prints. He reflects on his start in life, joining the regiment and his basic training:

‘Born in 1933, my first recollection was to see Oswald Mosley on his white horse. We lived opposite to where he paraded, and I had been sent to buy a pound of biscuits at the end of the road in Woolworths, biscuits were sold like that in those days.

I learnt to swim in the ponds at Parliament Hill Fields, not too far away. Growing up was great fun and I enjoyed myself enormously, though evacuation to Kettering was no joy, so I ran away, back to my home in Tufnell Park, but the powers that be soon had me on the move again, to Suffolk. A fact of life is that I missed my mum, and my father had gone to fight in World War Two.

I was called up into The Rifle Brigade at the ripe age of 18 and reported to the Depot at Peninsula Barracks, Winchester, where the drill square was second to none. Little did I realise then but all the recruit training I did was so worthwhile, what is more, rifle shooting at Chilcomb ranges and all the exercises in the gymnasium led me to believe what a great life it was. We always marched to Chilcomb, so fitness was not a problem.

I eventually became a regular soldier after a short period in Germany. Soon we were to realise that we were going to Kenya and Malaya for three years and in 1954 sailed for East Africa; Malaya was to follow in 18 months time.’

A large quantity of the passing out parade pictures are photographic negatives, which vary in size, but are mostly 6x6cm or 7x6cm, with some 12.5x10cm. These can only really be viewed by scanning them to enlarge them and produce a positive image.

Another regimental volunteer, Bill Gledhill, (Light Infantry and RGJ), is scanning the negatives. He describes his route to volunteering on this task:

I joined the army in 1968 in The Light Infantry. Then later on, in 1972, I ended up in The Royal Green Jackets. I have lived in Winchester for 17 years after moving from Yorkshire. Since moving here I have had two jobs, as an instrument technician in theatres at the Royal Hampshire County Hospital, and then as assistant site supervisor at King’s School, a job I did enjoy. Then, a couple of years ago, I decided to retire, and now I am doing voluntary work at Hampshire Record Office, transferring old black and white negative photos onto a computer. The work is interesting, seeing all the old photos of my regiment, but can be somewhat monotonous.

We are grateful to Bill for his patience on this task. Since 12 March, he has spent approximately 60 hours and digitised 469 negatives.

With such a large number of images, we are still considering the best way to disseminate them, and also how to make contact with more former members of the regiment to encourage interest from them to help with the identification process. This will be stage two of the project.

To ensure we have the necessary permissions in place to disseminate the images, we contacted the photographer, Andy Sollars, who was happy to help.

He writes:

‘As a child growing up in Winchester, I was aware of The Rifle Brigade which was based in Peninsula Barracks mostly because my father, Bob, took photographs of the platoons and passing out parades.

After the move to Flowerdown and the Light Division Depot, Bob carried on for a few years – including the official opening by Her Majesty the Queen when he was very proud to have been presented to her as the ‘Regimental Photographer’ – and then I took over the business. The Light Division Depot became Army Training Regiment Winchester with the influx of the Royal Armoured Corps and I carried on until I retired in 2014.

I know Bob was extremely proud of his association with the Regiment in all its forms and he made many friends. In his later years, when health was starting to fail him, I took him to see a Sounding Retreat at Sir John Moore Barracks. Afterwards, I was pointing out a few of the ‘celebrities’ and took him down to meet some of his old acquaintances. His eyesight was failing him, but when introduced to General Palmer he looked up and exclaimed, “Why, it’s young Tony!” which of course produced a great deal of laughter all round! (Bob had photographed ‘Tony’ when he was a schoolboy in Winchester.)’

Stage three will involve repackaging the negatives. We will make the digital copies available in the searchroom, to remove the need to handle the originals after digitisation.

We are grateful to all the volunteers helping us with this task, and to Andy for his support.

If you served with The Rifle Brigade, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, or Royal Green Jackets between the 1950s and 1980s, please do contact us if you would like to find out more about the photographs.

Heather Needham, Archivist