A Cavalier Canter: Book Five of the Chronicles of Adam Black the Teenage Time Traveller

By Raff Stuart

In this the fifth book in the chronicles of Adam Black, Adam has joined the Army as a fifteen year old Infantry Junior Leader and while escaping from the restrictions of recruits training to the delights of the Fighting Cocks in Oswestry finds himself transported back to the year 1644 in the middle of an attack on the town by the Roundheads. Adam is captured by them but manages to escape only to end up fighting for the Royalists. However, he finds a good friend in the Doctor who is with the Royalist force and through him meets Annie the scullery maid.

Other Books in the series:

Book 1- A Roman Odyssey

Book 2- A Viking Voyage

Book 3- A Nazi Nightmare

Book 4 - A Voyage to Victory

Book 6 - An Egyptian Escapade

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Feb 10, 2010
• ISBN: 9781504945318

Raff Stuart

The Author, Raff Stuart, grew up in the same time as Adam and many of the things that happened to Adam impacted on him as well. He spent 31 years in the Army joining at the age of fifteen and leaving as a senior Major to take up a career in the commercial and public sectors as a CEO and management consultant. He is married with two grown up children and lives in Aberdeen.

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© 2010 Raff Stuart. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

First published by AuthorHouse 2/2/2010

ISBN: 978-1-4490-6427-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5049-4531-8 (ebook)

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter 1: A Change in Circumstances

Chapter 2: An Adventurous Time

Chapter 3: A Time of Civil Unrest!

Chapter 4: Your in the Army now!

Chapter 5: A Prisoner Again!

Chapter 6: An Escape?

Chapter 7: The Enemy attacks!

Chapter 8: on the move once more!

Chapter 9: Ambushed!

Chapter 10: Back in the Fold!

Chapter 11: Under attack once more!

Chapter 12: Strange Bedfellows!

Chapter 13: Home from Home!

Chapter 14: Back on the Road!

Chapter 15: Prison Break!

Chapter 16: On the run again!

Chapter 17: Back in Oswestry!

Chapter 18: A Joyful Reunion!

Chapter 19: Adam tries Arson!

About the Author

Dedication

This book and the ones that will follow it are dedicated to everyone that have helped me in terms of advice and support, particularly members of my family; Pamela my wife, my daughter and son, Alison and Jamie, and not forgetting their partners Gerrard and Fliss.

Chapter 1

A Change in Circumstances

Adam’s school and social life soon returned to normal following his return from the hospital in Colchester. His best mate at school Jim and he used to meet up after school and go to each other’s houses on alternate weeks. Jim’s dad worked for the city council and they had a large modern house on Crief road. Jim’s mum was an accountant and worked for a local firm often bringing piles of accounts to their home to work on. She smoked like a chimney and had a great sense of humour. Best of all they had a car, a Morris Oxford so after Adam and Jim’s lengthy session of playing Risk or war games at their house she would whisk Adam home to Port Allen.

It was soon after Adam’s return that his mum got a council house. What a contrast! It was a roomy semi detached bungalow complete with electricity, hot water and a bath. It was one of sixteen similar dwellings, which came under the collective name of Leetown and was just across the field from their friends from church that had helped them so much following Adam’s mum’s accident. Adam was under a great deal of pressure at home as his mum was in a good deal of pain, discomfort and frustration at her lack of mobility and her frustration spilled over on to Adam.

Adam’s schooling was not giving him much joy either for despite his best efforts his results see-sawed and it was only his higher marks in mathematics, geography, chemistry, physics and geography that allowed him to keep his position in the class. If he were honest Adam could not see where such a collection of subjects could lead him and of course he had already identified his real calling, one that led him away from his present situation in to the arms of Her Majesty’s Forces. So in 1961 Adam trooped along to the local Army Recruiting Office having left school at the Easter holidays, six weeks before his 15th birthday, and he signed up on the 26th of May 1961. And so it was on the 18th June 1961 Junior Private Black reported to the Infantry Junior Leaders Battalion at Wingate Lines, Park Hall Camp, Oswestry in Shropshire for induction through Recruits Company. Adam’s sheltered life in his own time had ended and a new and challenging one had started that in many ways reminded him of the situations he had been placed in during his time travels.

Adam had fondly imagined that this new life would mirror the life he had seen in the army barracks in Dortmund but how wrong he was. Recruits (Z) Company brought a new meaning to the word punishing. Adam thought the plan was to completely break you down and then rebuild you in the image formed by the drill and weapon-training instructors lurking within its ranks. For a mummy’s boy who had led a relatively sheltered existence in the company of well-mannered citizens in his own time it was mind blowing. All the recruits were collected from the station at Gobowen on the Welsh border and hustled on to 4-ton trucks for their brief journey to the camp, which they shared with the Royal Artillery, mainly national servicemen.

On arrival at the camp they were herded to a set of six single single-story wooden buildings arranged in two rows of three with an ablutions block in the middle, commonly known as a Spider block. Having dropped off their suitcases they were taken to the barber where they were shorn nearly bald. In the sixties long hair was all the rage so the few trendy teenagers were quickly shorn of their locks to leave hair stubble.

Having all been brought to the same level of hairlessness they were then directed to the Quartermaster’s stores where, among other things, they were issued with a few sets of khaki denim jackets and trousers, socks, shirts khaki flannel (KF), green underpants, a dark blue beret and a set of ammunition boots.

The next two weeks were purgatory for there was no release from the barracks. After the initial shock had worn off Adam and his colleagues began to get to know each other. They had been segregated by the Brigade their regiments belonged to as each of the five permanent companies of IJLB (Guards, A, B, C and D companies), were formed up by infantry brigade. The company that Adam found he would be going to was made up of the Highland Brigade, The Yorkshire Brigade, The Fusilier Brigade, the Lancashire Brigade and the Royal Anglian Brigade. On the whole Adam’s thirty odd barrack roommates were good lads but as ever there were always the bullies that made the life of the others hell. One of the worst was a large burly lad from Blairgowrie, who like Adam was joining the Black Watch. If it wasn’t their own bullies that hectored them then it was their permanent staff Platoon Sergeant. He would tip their beds over, empty out their steel lockers and manage to find the dirty socks that were hidden within the lockers and place them on the recruit’s head.

PT or Physical Training was another joy. Despite the best efforts of Adam’s PE Teacher at Perth Academy Adam was still a six stone weakling. So the many heaves to the beam and press-ups were a great trial to him. Having said that he couldn’t have been too bad as their Platoon Commander, a lieutenant in the Queen’s Own Highlanders, in his letter to Adam’s mother on their third week said that Adam seemed to be enjoying himself, progressing well and keen to do well. After an inspection at the end of the third week Adam and his fellow recruits were allowed out of the camp into the market town of Oswestry at weekends for the remaining three weeks before of their recruits training ended.

During the latter part of the training they were taken off to Chirk Aqueduct where they were schooled in the art of abseiling, i.e. being thrown off a narrow ledge some 100 feet above a rock strewn valley floor with only a thin rope over one shoulder and led through a carabena on a rope at the waist. At least that is one thing Adam had never had a problem with particular after his most recent adventure when he was climbing up the rigging of a frigate and a schooner. His Blairgowrie born bully would not or could not climb over on to the ledge and his tear stained face wiped away the hurt he had placed on his fellows. His rapid departure brought a level of peace to Z Company but this short interlude was quickly swept away on the passing out parade and the speedy transfer of Adam’s goods and chattels to Room 1 of 9 Platoon, C Company.

The day began in the normal way with a muster parade then there was the march down to and onto the drill square at the other end of the camp where the RSM was waiting to see all the companies set out before him so he could make his inspection and then have the companies march past him while he was standing on the saluting platform. This was the routine that Adam would take part in over the next two and a half years. What joy! he thought. However, it was soon over then they could tidy all their kit away and after a quick lunch head into town.

Although not as large as Perth it was a pleasant market town with lots of old buildings in it. After his last time-travelling adventure he was determined that he was not heading down any alleys and they were certainly plenty of them in the town. He and his mates toured the town and being free of the restrictions normally placed on them through the week they found a grassy open space and started playing around however they soon tired of that and just sat and chatted. Not surprisingly the main topic of conversation was about what they might do in the relatively short time they had before they had to return to camp to book in before the nine o’clock curfew when the lights in the barrack rooms would all be switched off. What an exciting life Adam thought while considering what might lie before him in the coming weeks and months?

Chapter 2

An Adventurous Time

It was shortly after his arrival in ‘C’ Company that Adam got his first taste of the worst side of Army life. Adam and another new boy were dragged into the drying room in the ablutions block that lay mid-way between 9 and 10 platoons’ barrack rooms. It was quite a large room where their wet clothes were hanging on rails that went round the room from floor to ceiling with large heating pipes and flanges keeping the room at a good drying temperature. However, on this occasion it was being used for quite another purpose. The two of them dressed only in blue PT shorts were pushed into the centre of the room by the junior NCOs and older boys from the platoon that crowded around the room.

They were forced to fight until one of them became the outright winner or were so injured that they could not continue. It was a mixture of bare-knuckle boxing and wrestling and Adam tried to content himself with grappling with his opponent and holding him down unfortunately that was seen as cheating and they were forced to resort to more brutal means of survival while avoiding the kicks and tripping feet of the audience. It seemed to go on forever but in reality it was only a short-term entertainment for their elders and betters between Sunday morning’s church service and lunch.

Regular punishment by their room NCOs was another form of amusement for all. Each room contained between 16 and 20 juniors whose sole possessions were a steel bed-frame, mattress, two pillows, two sheets, four dark brown blankets and a steel locker containing their army kit and a few personnel possessions. At the far end of the room were two small single bedrooms for the two junior corporals and next to the door leading to the corridor was a slightly larger room where the junior platoon sergeant or staff sergeant was to be found. It was the junior corporals and lance corporals that Adam had to watch out for as they were always waiting to pounce on the poor new boys for any infringement in their rules. Normally it was only when Adam was being punished that he found out how he had transgressed.

Punishment could take many forms, the lightest being forced to bump the floor 50 to 100 times. Bumping the floor involved using a bumper, which was a large floor polisher. The room had tan linoleum flooring that required the regular application of thick orange polish and at least daily polishing. The bumper had a long wooden handle and a heavy rectangular cast iron base complete with a polishing pad joined to the handle by a swinging bracket. Every part of the room had to be done and heaven help anyone if he marked the floor in any way.

Other forms of punishment included cleaning the urinals with one’s toothbrush and scrubbing the corridors with a nailbrush. These punishments were considered acceptable being the norm it was the more physical forms of punishment that were the hardest to take. Being held while being punched in the stomach, Chinese burns and being painted with green army Blanco were not unusual. The weakest members of the room were the ones that were most picked on and Adam saw a number of number of them crack under the relentless stress they were being placed under by their colleagues.

One of Adam’s roommates brought a guitar and he was a dab hand at playing the latest hits from the Shadows or the Beatles. Unfortunately this also made him a target as he was frequently commanded to serenade the corporal in his bunk. He was a pretty boy and it may have been more than a musical service that he had to provide. Such things were not unusual! He quickly became very morose and nervous and took to the habit of continually licking his lips until the whole area round his lips were red raw. Thankfully he managed to acquire a couple of the bigger lads to act as his protectors. However, Adam soon found there was another way of avoiding such attention, by being a bit of a head-banger.

An older boy advised Adam that if a bully was pressuring him he simply had to over react, throw a tantrum, lose your head, and do something totally out of the box. Adam soon got the opportunity to put this in to practice as the junior lance corporal whose bed was close by the doorway was starting to wear Adam down with his continual harassment and bullying. So when the right moment arrived Adam jumped off his bed tipped it over so that the frame broke down into three pieces, the bed-head, smaller bed-end and the mainframe. Adam then snatched up the U shaped metal pipe bed-end and hurled it directly at him as he lay on his bed some 15 feet away. By good-luck rather than good judgement the heavy bed-end bounced once before smashing into the wooden wall directly above his head with such force that it shattered a plank and was stuck fast in the wall of the sergeant’s room (thankfully he was not in). Silence followed and Adam was soon accepted as a fully-fledged member of the room having completed his right of passage.

At the time Adam joined there were some 150 juniors in the company and 16 permanent staff. Aside from the company headquarters staff, each platoon had a captain or lieutenant as the platoon commander and two platoon sergeants who took them on drill and weapon training as well as many other handy military subjects such the army housewife. There was great ribaldry when this appeared as a subject for the new boys. However, they soon found this to be instruction on how to use its contents. The housewife was simply a small linen pouch containing needles, thread, wool and a thimble so Adam was soon darning holes in his socks and taking a hem up in his denim trousers.

All the tricks of the trade had to be learned such as the shaving of the inside of his World War One service dress (SD) trousers and soaping the creases to make them more prominent or slashing the peak of his SD cap and soaking and shrinking his beret. Adam was most fortunate in his permanent staff platoon sergeant as he was friendly and helpful, unless someone broke the rules. The drill sergeant was a different matter being a fierce looking chap from the Royal Welsh Fusiliers who would hound Adam and the rest unmercifully. Any false move would have them doubling round and round the square with their rifles held high above their heads.

C Company s company commander was a gentleman with a formidable character and reputation having served with the SAS and the Trucial Oman Scouts in the battles with the communist insurgents in the small Gulf States and he ran the Battalion’s boxing team. He was determined that their Company should be the best company and battalion in the Junior Leaders’ boxing competition and so Adam got his brief claim to fame. Being only seven stone in weight and wiry with it, Adam was definitely considered a featherweight but that only led him into a gruelling slog through the various stages in the competition to the final match.

There was no finesse as basically it was a case of Adam and his opponent both standing in the middle of the ring and punching the living daylights out of each other until only one of them was left standing. Surprisingly enough it was Adam and he received a trophy suitably engraved Inf. Jnr. Ldrs. Bn., Inter Coy. Boxing 1961 WINNER. Needless to say Adam received fulsome praise from the Major but thankfully he escaped being selected for the Battalion’s boxing team.

Actually Adam thoroughly enjoyed the Battalion’s regime, which concentrated on sport and adventurous activities as it allowed Adam to escape from the never ending round of lessons on drill, signals, tactics and weapon training as well as lessons in the Army Education Centre on English, Mathematics, Arithmetic, Map Reading, Geography and Current Affairs.

It was a very busy regime with a run, swimming or PT session first thing followed by a shower, breakfast and then a day full of training periods. Even the evenings were not free as they had a mound of kit to