The RAF Halton Apprenticeship Scheme has a deserved reputation for
excellence. The brainchild of MRAF Hugh Trenchard, the founder of the
Royal Air Force, it took the 'traditional' idea of an apprenticeship and
interpreted it in a novel way. It allowed teenage boys from any social
background or geography to learn a technical trade that would equip them
for their future lives, within and beyond the RAF. It also gave the best
an opportunity to become pilots and break into the once
public-school-dominated officer class. Of the 50,000 boys trained as
apprentices, seventeen won the Sword of Honour at Cranwell, and more
than 1,200 were commissioned with 110 achieving Air Rank. Eighteen have
been knighted, with well over 1,000 others being honored at various
levels of state. More than a hundred Halton Boys served as pilots in the
Battle of Britain (and many more as airframe/engine fitters and
armorers), including the mercurial Don Finlay, the former Olympic
hurdler. Others like Gerry Blacklock and Pat Connolly flew bombers on
perilous missions over Western Europe or took part in the famous 'Dams'
Raid. Then there were the three men murdered for their part in the Great
Escape, and those who battled and survived years as prisoners of the
Japanese in the Far East. In the jet era, ex-apprentice Graham Hulse
became an 'ace' in Korea, serving with an American fighter squadron, and
Mike Hines went on to become OC 617 Squadron after having first flown
operations during the Suez crisis. Others like Charles Owen became a
pioneer commercial jet pilot, and Peter Goodwin had the misfortune of
being captured in the first Gulf War and used as a human shield. Some
forged successful careers beyond the RAF, like Lawrie Haynes, who was on
the main board at Rolls-Royce and is now chairman of the Board of
Trustees of the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, and Eugene Borysuik -
one of the many Polish apprentices trained at Halton, who enjoyed a
successful career at GEC. And there were many others beyond air and
ground crew including policemen, government officials and even bishops
whose careers started with the Halton family. This is the story of
Halton told through and by the boys who were there and who are still
proud to be called 'Trenchard Brats'.
