Ashbury College - Ashburian Yearbook (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)

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THE ASHBURIAN 21 Similarly a first aid team of three stretcher crews was organ- ized and progressed excellently under the tuition of Cadet C. Brown, a qualified First Aider . Our first appearance in public was participation in the Ninth Victory Loan Parade March Past on the 2nd of November, 1945, when No. 137 Ashbury College Cadet Corps alone represented the cadet movement in Canada at ceremonies in front of the National War Memorial in Ottawa, and did an excellent job for which we received congratulations from National Defence Headquarters. Shortly afterwards winter closed in on us and placed a severe strain on training generally, due to lack of sufficient room but with co-operative work on the part of the corps and the exercise of much ingenuity on the part of the commanding staff this obstacle, the worst of all, was taken in stride and no break or loss occurred in training. Various allied subjects were taken up and absorbed so that when the weather cleared again we were ready to start pre- parations for the final inspection in May. Unfortunately the Ashburian had to go to press before the final inspection so that a full report on same will not be available until Christmas but as an alternative the following brief outline will give the proposed programme: General salute and inspection in line. March past by platoons. March past in column of route. Advance in review order and general salute. Coy. platoon and section drill. Squad work in Morse and semaphore signalling. Map reading, knots and lashings, aiming instruction, rifle exer- cises, first aid, etc. Massed physical training. Gymnastic display on horse, parallel bars and mats. Tableaux by whole corps — senior and junior. Final address by inspecting officer and presentation of Platoon Cup.

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20 THE ASHBURIAN Major H. J. Woods, M.B.E., the R.C.R. (Retired) joined the school staff as physical director and cadet instructor and supervised the organization parades which resulted in the following slate of officers: — Commanding. Cadet Major J. C. M. Hooper; 2nd i|c., Cadet Capt. P. W. E. Richardson; Adjutant, Cadet Lieut. D. Fair; No. 1 Platoon, Cadet Lieut. G. Read; No. 2, Platoon Cadet Lieut. P. Breithaupt; No. 3 Platoon. Cadet Lieut. I. Elliott; Supy. Pin. Cmdr., Cadet Lieut. L MacGregor; C.SM., J. F. Smith and C.Q.M.S., E. Castello. The junior corps was organized as a separate unit on the same three platoon basis with platoon leaders only and was placed under the charge of Mr. Pilgrim who supervised all its training during the year. Training in the senior corps started in earnest on Sept. 26th and to ascertain the capabilities of the corps Major Woods took complete charge of all activities for the first few parades after which Coy. Pin. and Sec. Cmdrs. were placed in complete charge of their own commands under the supervision and guidance of the instructor. Instruction was given in weapon training, company, platoon and section drill, rifle firing, saluting, map reading, first aid, march dis- cipline, rifle exercises, Morse and semaphore signalling, physical training, knots erul lashings, route marching, range firing, care and cleaning of the rifle and rifle coaching . Informative lecturcttes were inserted into the training pro- gramme here and there and questionnaires frequently held by Pin. Cmdrs. proved quite helpful and instructive. An attempt was made to organize a bugle band but as no quali- fied instructor was available it was decided to disband for the winter months in the hope that a better chance would be afforded in the spring and the instruments were locked away in November. Our hopes in this respect however were not realized and no fur- ther attempt at band training was made. A signal section was formed for Morse training with H. Bulpit, a trained R.C.N, telegraphist, appointed as instructor and succeed- ed in attaining a high standard of efficiency.

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22 [ THE ASHBURIAN At time of writing everything points to an excellent show with all personnel of the corps being keen to hold the leadership among cadet corps in M.D. No. 3 gained a year ago. Viewed in retrospect it has been a good year with everyone working hard in an effort to not only maintain but better a high standard and the corps instructor is indebted to all ranks in general for their willing co-operation and attention to work and in par- ticular to the corps commander, Major Hooper, for an excellent job; his officers and C.S.M. Smith and C.Q.M.S. Castello who formed a- fine team; to Bulpit and Brown for their much-needed help and last but by no means least, Mr. Pilgrim for his unfailing good-humour and patience in bringing along the junior corps very often under extremely and trying circumstances. It is absurd to spend one half of life in struggling for riches or power, and the other half in wondering why you are not possessed of happiness, which has nothing to do with either. A little mouse was running Atop a cereal box. Amazed, out cried her sister: ' You ' re crazy as a fox . To which our friend replied: Stop acting like a fop. It says here clear as day Just tear along the top .