Colonel Mike Bennett OBE, Class of 1958

What are you doing now, and how did you get there after leaving Trinity?

My interest in academic studies wilted, and I left after one year of A levels. I started a career at the lowest office level in a factory on Tyneside, where the family had moved to. One evening I saw an advert in the local paper for instructors in the Army Cadet

Force. I thought that this could be better employment and applied. For a change, I got a prompt response to go for an interview one evening. I learnt that the ACF is equivalent to the CCF for state school pupils to volunteer in. It paraded one or two evenings a week adjacent to a Territorial Army Drill Hall – but it was voluntary, not paid work!

I joined to give it a trial, received the rank of Sergeant Instructor and a full uniform, and was sent to a detachment in the shipyard area of Newcastle. I really enjoyed being involved in the evenings after normal work. The Geordie lads –no girls at that time – were really enthused, and the weekend camps were brilliant, somewhere up the Tyne Valley. Our first annual camp was on the Isle of Man, reached by troop train and ferry. After a year, I was commissioned as an officer – a lowly 2nd Lieutenant.

This was the start of a lifetime second career. The ACF is countybased, and as my work career developed, I was moved around the country. Each move meant joining the local ACF, and so I found myself in Tunbridge Wells, Durham, Grimsby, Preston, and finally Gloucester. By the time I retired, after 47 years’ service in uniform, I had reached the highest rank of Colonel. For my last seven years, I commanded Gloucestershire ACF with 130 officers and instructors and around 500 cadets. I was also involved in regional and national appointments, forming the strategy of an organisation that currently has 45,000 cadets and 11,000 volunteer adults. In 2003, I was awarded the OBE for my service.

The ACF helped me in my civilian career by giving me selfconfidence, leadership capability, and experience dealing with senior figures. After being appointed a Deputy Lord Lieutenant, this included duties with members of the Royal Family.

How would you sum up your experience of the CCF at Trinity – and has anything from it stayed with you since?

Joining the CCF at school for a compulsory two years had a major impact on my personal life. I was a shy loner and only child, and my weekends were spent assisting my father, a keen gardener. My only close friends were fellow train spotters.

Then, into uniform once a week – learning discipline and looking smart. I took to it and formed new friendships. I was not academic, but here was something I enjoyed studying. Annual camp was an eyeopener to a variety of activities I had never thought of doing. Then came the responsibilities of becoming an NCO and being an instructor. Self-confidence grew, and with it, a sense of purpose and pride that has stayed with me ever since.