The website of the 99th Entry of Apprentices,
Royal Air Force Locking, Somerset
Click for Ninety-ninth News                                              Site last modified on Saturday, August 21, 2010
(New Faces)


Some people are disappearing from email and the arrival of broadband means many people are changing their addresses - can you please let us know if you change or discontinue your email address?


The Locking Gate Guard Spitfire is now airborne as part of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight - see this link.

2011 is looming - anyone for a reunion ? Let us know if you're interested - Lincolnshire is being proposed as a venue.

99th NEWS

We've received this email from a 'fellow student':
"In 1961 or 62 I was a "student" Radio Scool No. 1 in Locking Weston-Super-Mare as member of German Airforce. We were taught the radar T 80 and a radar for getting the flightlevel. I was young an we had a wonderful time. I like to think about that time.Now I am 71 years old. I was especially astonished that had never the feeling to be hated such a short time after the world war2. After learning the T80 I went back to Germany and worked in a radar station called "Backwash" in Borgentreich Germany. I was also very interested amateurradio.Istill know the callsign of RAF Locking. It was G3IRS. I was just married at that time and I was ollowed to talk to my wife. We had made an arangement. I hope I don't bore you. These are the thoughts of an old man who thinks about youthtimes. Excuse my English I am out of practice. It would interest me if the school still exists.
Good bye Ulrich Rehboch,Hauptfeldwebel (Masterseargent ?") long time ago"

Frank Rawlins has found his signing-on papers and the letter his parents got - setting out his pay, for instance, which was quite startlingly low. You can find them, as .pdf files, from the Photo pages.

Final Exams
Do YOU think you could pass the final exams again? Have a shufti at this, then - courtesy of Tony Lindon of the 100th Entry, who sat it as their mock exam. It's quite frightening - they're OUR final papers! Click here to download them as a .pdf file.

Bob Storey in Spain is still tilting at windmills - and his latest one is pensions. If you left before 1975 you almost certainly missed out on changes that came in afterwards. Click here for more details ....

MISSING PERSONS
There still are some. Have a look at 'Where are they now?' and let us know if you can fill in any details.
Bob Storey is launching a new trawl to find folk ... I suppose that's what living in Spain with too much sun burning all your hair off does for you.

PENSION - WHAT PENSION?
Bob Storey in Spain is still tilting at windmills - and his latest one is pensions.
If you left before 1976 you missed out on changes that came in afterwards. I blame the government.
Click here for more details ...

LOCKING REVIEW
Courtesy of the 104th Entry, who have a terrific archivist, we have a copy of the Locking Review of Autumn 1964 with an article on our own Passout.
For a copy (2.37mb PDF file), click here ...
About the 99th Entry at Locking
Click to find the sprog

The two hundred and one freshly-scrubbed members of the 99th. Entry of Royal Air Force Apprentices arrived, quaking in their grubby civilian shoes, at No. 1 Radio School, RAF Locking, near Weston-super-Mare, in September 1961. We were probably the biggest entry of apprentice wireless and radar technicians at Locking.

One hundred and seventy-two of us passed-out three years later, and through the intervening years we have dispersed all over the world as far as Australia, New Zealans, South Africa the Philippines, the U.S.A and Mexico - and, of course, Weston-super-Mare, where there is still a thriving colony of Apprenti of various species in their native habitat. Doncaster also seems to be a favourite place to live, and there is a growing community in Spain.

To celebrate the fortieth anniversary of the formation of the 99th. a big reunion was held in September 2001 in Weston-super-Mare, and another even bigger-one in 2004, at the Royal Hotel, Weston, to commemorate Passing-Out.

A drive is still on to contact old friends, whether they made it to pass-out or not - there are fond memories of and frequent requests to find those who didn't stay with us until the bitter end in July 1964. Largely through the efforts of Bob Storey and Chris Horn we now have over a hundred and fifty names (Tony Pugh was the Ninety-Ninth to turn up). The full list, with addresses, is available in our secure area. If you are a Ninety-Niner, possibly not known to us, who has just browsed into the site, or if you simply haven't been given a password because of a cock-up, you need to register because the members-only personal pages can only be viewed using a password. If for any reason you can't do this you can call Ken Bowker on 01687 470268.

If you know of any ex-99th Entry Apprentices who have not yet been contacted, then please email us

96th LOCKING APPRENTICES
You'll find their website at http://www.96thentrylocking.net

98th LOCKING APPRENTICES
Mike Rafferty runs the slick 98th website at http://www.98thlocking.co.uk and can be contacted there.

100th LOCKING APPRENTICES
Tony Lindon runs the startling 100th website at http://100th-entry-locking.org.uk/ . You can contact him via the website.

103rd LOCKING APPRENTICES
Over at http://www.103rdlocking.org.uk is the 103rd website.

104th LOCKING APPRENTICES (and the demolition of Locking)
Pete Harry is building the 104th website at http://www.104thlocking.org.uk and can be contacted via that site, which has some splendid and historic photos of Locking being demolished.

99th HALTON APPRENTICES
At exactly the same time as we signed up, another much rowdier bunch of 99th Apprentices joined at RAF Halton to learn different skills. If you're an ex-Halton 99er, and you want to get in touch with them again then click here to go to the 99th Halton website.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW ?
Some 99th Locking Apprentices have been mislaid.
Can YOU help to find them?

CLICK HERE to see a new and detailed list, from Bob Storey, of the folk we're still looking for. Bob used a BT CD-ROM of the UK, plus an endless supply of notepaper and a very good relationship with RAF Innsworth.

Over the past couple of years Bob has put half his life into finding us all, so if you can help, please check the list and rack your brains to see if you can help in any way - a wife's name, a last meeting, an RAF Station, whatever moves us forward. And it does work - three of our recent new arrivals were just such 'finds'.

If you know of anyone we need to know about, please encourage them to email us.


Terl Bryant says "We've found 163"

Details in the Members-Only pages.