This Web Page was initially raised by a Webmaster
and the Entry List was based upon data held in the RAF Cranwell
Association Database. It was then checked against the history of the
Entry, “8M3 Then and Now”
Entry Representative: Geof Duggleby
The 8M3 (50th) Entry of Cranwell Apprentices are
probably the best documented Entry ever, thanks to the work by John
Smailes, together with his "collector of photographs"
Gordon Homer, and Entry Members who put together a history of the
Entry entitled “8M3 Then and Now”. The book
has a Foreword by Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Keith Williamson
GCB, AFC, FRAeS, himself a member of the 8M3 (50th) Entry. A copy
of the “Foreword” is repeated below.
Foreword to “8M3 Then and Now” by
Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir Keith Williamson GCB, AFC, FRAeS
“Take a bunch of young adolescent boys, put them in uniform and
subject them to military discipline while training them in the
somewhat esoteric science of radio/radar; get them to commit
themselves for service for twelve years after their eighteenth
birthday and then make sure that the place where you train them is as
far away from civilisation as is possible in these small islands -
You now have the perfect recipe for the Aircraft Apprentice Wing at
No 1 Radio School at Cranwell in the nineteen forties.
When we arrived at Cranwell in the closing stages
of the last war to join the Wing, I think I and my contemporaries
on 8M3 Entry were aware that they were momentous times for the Country,
but I, for one, had no understanding of just how important our time
at Cranwell would be for each one of us personally. For
we were about to start three years of tough, challenging and character-building
training at that very sensitive time of our lives as we emerged
from boyhood into manhood. By the time we left Cranwell
at the end of those three years, we were more mature and resilient
and as a consequence, well able to face the future, wherever it
was destined to take us. For that, we have reason to
be grateful to Cranwell and to Lord Trenchard's Aircraft Apprentice
Scheme.
Looking back at those events of fifty years or so ago, my main
memories are centered, not on the technical training or even on the
unfamiliar rigours of Service Life, but on the friendships formed
during those three years, many of which have prevailed until this day.
It is the memories of the people with whom we served, and of the
comradeship that was part and parcel of life at Cranwell at that time,
that John Smailes has evoked in this Scrap-book, and we should be
grateful to him for reminding us so graphically of a very important
time in our lives.”
In February 1945, 61 young hopefuls arrived at
RAF Cranwell as the 8M3 (50th) Entry to train as Air or Ground Radio
Fitters. During their training they gained 10 from Senior Entries, 6
ceased training, while 10 of their number were re-classed to later
Entries. This left 55 to pass out in March 1948.
The Entry List below is presented in alphabetical
order:
ENTRY ROLL CALL
Key:
KNOWN DECEASED
ASSOCIATION MEMBER
NON-MEMBER
UNTRACED
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