Long time e-Veritas readers will be pleased to see that we are picking up with the diary entries of 3069 Bill McColl. Lots of cool things happened in his III Year.
Click here to read previous diary entries (I & II Years) from 3069 W.A. McColl
14 Sept 51
This year there was quite a gathering of cadets at Union Station and quite a few of these were strange fellows-those from Royal Roads. Back at the college I found myself once again in the Stone Frigate and this time a Leading Cadet (this actually means nothing but just sounds good). My room is no. 203 on the ground floor; it is smaller than 415; in fact from my chair I can wash my hands, open the window or close the door. The grounds look very trim now and they are laying asphalt on the pier and roads.
15 Sept 51
Reveille this morning brought me widely to the awareness that I was back. Where else do you get up with the sun, shave and fall in before you are awake? We spent the day or morning rather cleaning up, drawing rifles etc. In the afternoon I went sailing with Moon Hall, who is back in spite of his vows of never returning. We went out in a sloop and the speed of the boat astonished me. I’m going to spend the fall sailing. It was very rough and at last the storm flag was hauled up and we had to come in without getting over to Wolfe Island. Spent the evening at Capt. Malone’s house as a babysitter and was well reimbursed with cold ales.
16 Sept 51
Today is Battle of Britain Sunday and we had our first wing parade. The Brigadier presented CWC Williamson with the BSM’s swords which has been hung up since 1942. Then we did a march past after an inspection by Air Vice Marshall Dunlop. Went out in a Whaler with Lt Cmdr Willson who insists they are the best thing to learn sailing. Jimmy Graham and I were at first thunderstruck by the navy lingo he kept throwing at us. The recruits this year seem to be a pretty fair bunch. On the average they are pretty big boys. The seniors have gold braid on their sleeves and collars and we have a little loop on our red piping.
17 Sept 51
Classes started today and my course promises to be a good one. The economics prof, Dr. Maloch and prof Sawyer seem to be very good and the commerce dept. Seems to be O.K. also. I applied for the position of Assist. Mgr. on the senior rugby team but I’m afraid my chances of getting the job are few. We went out with Major McLean in a sloop today and he scared the hell out of Irving and I. Once again it was too rough and we came in early soaking wet and shivering.
18 Sep 51
We are having drill periods each night after classes in anticipation of the royal visit. RSM Coggins is really making us toe the line and it’s easy to see he’s just bursting with joy at the thought of drilling for a “Royal Salute”. Passed my Class C test tonight and “Grabber” Keane and I figure on racing for 1 Sqn in the regatta. They are making a film on the college and the cameramen are bustling around all day taking pictures- funny they haven’t asked me to be leading man!
19 Sept 51
Oddly enough very little of great importance happened today. Drill is getting slowly into shape and each night Brigadier Agnew himself turns out to watch the parade. Fritz and Rev are living in Fort Haldimand in 4 sqn.
20 Sept 51
Got myself charged for not turning in some statistics report before 2200. I hadn’t even heard about this and had hit the sack early. Apparently Joe Devlin came in and got them from me but I can’t remember it today. This kind of thing really gets me mad. But all the bad news is overweighed by the fact that I got the job with the football team. It will mean a lot of work but several good trips this fall. After classes I went out alone in an Ackroyd and got becalmed; it took half an hour to get in and even at that I did a lot of paddling. It is getting dark now but a whaler crew and some skiffs are still out practicing for the regatta – competition will be here this year.
