I was sent this photo by Chris Thomas, son of George Thomas, who was our Sergeant Instructor and is on the left of the photo. The Cadets are from left to right: Peter Thomas (son of Dr Norman Thomas), Chris Hughes and Michael Kiederer.The occasion was Remembrance Day, 1968 and was our first parade in uniform. We had only just acquired them and I have a suspicion that we'd collected them either the weekend before or even the day before the parade! The day was rainy and wet and when the battledress was exposed to moisture, it gave off a distinctive smell of mothballs! This probably accounts for the distance between George and we Cadets and the glum expressions on our faces!
Click the small images below for a larger image and caption.
In the summer of 1968, the High Sheriff of Merionydd, Lt Col Edward Nanney-Wynne, asked my father to raise an Army Cadet Force unit for the boys of Dolgellau. This was a two-pronged request; firstly, Lt Col Nanney-Wynne was the County Commandant of the 7th (Merioneth and Montgomery) Cadet Battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers and to have a platoon in Dolgellau would fill a void that existed between Tywyn and Barmouth. Secondly, as my father was a member of the Gwynedd Constabulary (as it was back then) he could keep an eye on the local lads who might otherwise be tempted into wrongdoing, due to boredom, and appear at the local Assizes!
So, PC 97 Dafydd Hughes became Mr D M Hughes, Adult Under Officer and Officer Commanding of the Dolgellau Platoon. I was despatched back to Ysgol y Gader at the end of the summer holidays as the "recruiting sergeant" to see if there was any interest. We had to limit the numbers at first, due to a typically military problem - logistics (ie transport) - so I was tasked with recruiting three other lads to get things off the ground.
It didn't take me too long to find the first three and one Tuesday evening, Peter Thomas, Dewi Owen and Michael Kiederer joined us for the drive over to Barmouth. As we were a new detachment, we didn't have anywhere to meet in Dolgellau and the wheeling and dealing to find premises for us was still underway. So, we found ourselves joining in with the Barmouth detachment, commanded by Captain (later Lieutenant Colonel) Peter Crabtree. Our first evening was spent getting to grips with the various weapons then used by the Army Cadet Force!
We were taught the safety drills for the Lee Enfield Number 4 rifle, the STEN submachine gun and, wonder of wonders, the BREN light machine gun. Our first lesson was the very sobering instruction - "Never point a weapon at anyone unless you mean to kill them!". This was designed to put the fear of God into enthusiastic 14 year old Cadets, and was reinforced on numerous occasions, to ensure that we had a healthy respect for the weapons whenever we took them onto the rifle range.
Buoyed up after such a heady evening, we soon put the word around that "Cadets" was well worth joining and that we were going to have lots of fun! Our trips to Barmouth continued for a few weeks, until we finally had permission to use the Dolgellau Drill Hall behind the Court House. By this time, there were a number of new recruits eager to join us. Some names that spring to mind include Gwyndaf Hughes, Aled Thomas, Andrew Wolfe, Victor Morgan, Denzil Roberts, Ian Riches, Eric Reading and Trevor Davies. If there are any other names from the early days, then please write in and I'll add them to the list.
We were boosted by the addition of two more adult instructors, Sgt George Thomas and Sgt Jimmy Parkes. George and Jimmy had both been members of the TA and were instrumental in teaching us drill, fieldcraft and all the other skills required to turn us all into "Cadets".
There was quite a rush to get us issued with uniforms in readiness for Remembrance Day. This entailed a trip across to Newtown, to the Battalion HQ, where we met Major Peter Lumsden and became familiar with the Drill Hall, where we would stay on weekend courses. Our uniform in those days was "Battledress" and "Shirts, hairy". The Battledress was similar to that worn during the Second World War and was made of incredibly rough and itchy serge. Not only that, it had been treated with an anti-moth agent and smelled somewhat strange. The "shirts, hairy" were torture to wear and didn't improve until they'd been washed a couple of dozen times. The sizes were something of a problem as well. Designed for burly Guardsmen, not 14-year-old schoolboys, I recall at least one Cadet wearing a safety pin at the back of his collar so that his shirt would fit! 
So, Remembrance Day 1968 arrived and we made our first debut in front of the public. It rained, only as it can rain in Dolgellau in November. The anti-moth treatment in our Battledress began to give off noxious vapours. If you look at the photo of the Detachment on parade at the top of this article you’ll see that the smell probably accounts for the pained expressions on our faces and the distance between us and Sgt George Thomas!.
We trained hard throughout that winter and by the summer of 1969, we were beginning to shape up as a formidable fighting force! The then-owners of Nannau had allowed us a patch of land behind some outbuildings and we began to build an outdoor rifle range. We had a number of marksmen and our foot drill was worth watching. We drilled on the Marian car park, under the tutelage of Sgt George Thomas, an ex-Welsh Guardsman, who really put us through our paces and had us doing drill that wasn't in the Army Cadet Force drill book! We could do all the evolutions seen on Trooping the Colour and we regularly had an appreciative audience of "regulars" of the Blades Bar at the Lion!
Peter Thomas and myself were selected (names drawn from a hat) to go on the UK Army Cadet Force visit to the British Army of the Rhine over in Germany during the Easter Holidays. We had a memorable time with other Cadets from our Battalion and some Cadets from Kent, staying with the Queen's Regiment in Lemgo. The visit included exercises with the Regulars, including roaring around the German countryside in armoured vehicles, driving Centurion tanks, firing all the modern Army weapons at Sennelager and some "cultural" visits to Munster and Hanover. I have some vivid recollections of the troop trains pulled by huge steam engines, which conveyed us to our host units and the return trip. Continental steam trains were very smoky and the windows in the carriages opened so that one could lean right out - my unrehearsed sooty-faced "Al Jolson" impersonation went down well! Less well received was the mug of cold tea thrown into the slipstream, followed by screams of rage from further down the train!
After the Investiture of Prince Charles as Prince of Wales in July 1969, we all went up to Blaenau Ffestiniog by coach to take part in a Battalion parade and Royal Inspection. We were inspected by Prince Charles, who "looked bigger on the telly" and whizzed by us all at a fast pace, but the highlight of the day was a "blue light" escort into Blaenau, provided by my father in his patrol car!
In July, it was off by coach to Penally, near Tenby, for "Annual Camp". This was a great experience and the first time away from home for many of the Detachment. My father, by now a Second Lieutenant, was able to join us for a few days. Our range-work and field craft was the talk of the Battalion and our keenness and willingness to learn impressed the Regular Army "Cadet Training Team". Perhaps the highlight of the camp was a trip to the Cardiff Tattoo, where we saw the band of the US Air Force and their amazing drill to Glenn Miller tunes!
Throughout 1969, the Dolgellau Detachment, now some 30 strong, had been training to take part in a competition held annually in the autumn, the Kitchin Cup. Six teams from the three North Wales Army Cadet Force Battalions took part in the event, held at Kinmel Park Camp near Rhyl. We were the youngest, newest team in the competition and we gave a good account of ourselves. In fact, we performed above and beyond what was expected of us and won the trophy, beating the veteran Tywyn Detachment and the crack team from Lindisfarne School, Ruabon. Talk about “Band of Brothers”…we were like a well-oiled machine.
Sadly for me, this was to be my swansong with the Detachment. My father was promoted to police Sergeant and posted to Caernarfon and we moved away from Dolgellau in November 1969. T he Detachment was by far the best in the Battalion; the Corps of Drums was forming under Sgt George Thomas; the number of Cadets was increasing and there were strong rumours of getting our very own Cadet Hut, complete with an Armoury, so that we wouldn't have to borrow the Barmouth rifles if we wanted to do rifle drill!
My father continued in the ACF, working with the Penygroes Detachment, where I ended my service as a Cadet in the dizzy rank of Cadet Sergeant Major. Further Police-related moves saw us involved with the Llandudno and Colwyn Bay detachments, my father commanding the former, re-badged as a Royal Artillery Captain and me serving with the latter as an adult Sergeant Instructor before I joined the Regular Army in 1973. My brother Stephen became a Cadet in due course, also ending his Cadet service as a Cadet Sergeant Major. Now a Lieutenant Colonel in the Royal Welch Fusiliers, he recently commanded the Wales University Officer Training Corps and is now doing a staff job at HQ Land Command in Salisbury. I served for 22 years in the Army, retiring in 1995 as a Warrant Officer Class 2 in the Intelligence Corps. A few years ago, I was commissioned into the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve and served with our local ATC unit in Peterborough, but the increasing pressures of the “day job”, working for the MOD in London, meant that I couldn’t meet my commitment and I regretfully had to resign. I really enjoyed working with the Cadets and the added novelty of wearing a blue uniform, having worn khaki from 1969 – 1995! However, I still have my “original” cap badge.
Finally, I have to report that my father, our “Founder”, passed away on 8th September 2004, peacefully after a short illness. He was in great demand in Wrexham as a speaker to local groups and amongst his papers, I found a number of notes on the Detachment and some good stories from those far-off days. Does John Felton still remember losing his false teeth and getting a parcel from home whilst on summer camp? My Dad did, especially John’s reaction on unwrapping a huge set of sugar joke “dentures” bought from one of the “rock” shops in Barmouth! And the raids on some local garden ponds, resulting in goldfish swimming in the fire buckets…I’m sure there are many more stories out there!
If this short article has awakened any memories of the Dolgellau Army Cadet Force Detachment, I would love to hear from you, especially if you have any photos. So far, I’ve had emails from Trevor Davies and Eric Reading, now in Australia and in the TA there! I understand that the Detachment has recently been resurrected and if there are any former soldiers or Cadets living locally, I’d ask you to please give them maximum support!
Email: Chris Hughes (Cjm.Hughes@btinternet.com)