Twenty-five years ago I joined a bewildered gaggle of officer cadets from universities across the UK as we assembled at the headquarters of the Royal Signals for the two week UOTC Basic Signals course. For a fortnight we lived like kings; the luxury of the officers’ mess was a stark contrast to the draughty transit camps we were used to and the food and drink, (which were taken copiously) were several notches better than student Pot Noodles.
I may have a learnt a little about military communications, but even back then that didn’t seem terribly important. What really mattered was being treated like ‘proper officers’ and members of the club. In the evenings when we gathered under the famous beams in the mess bar, we started a ritual of toasting our good fortune with a rowdy ‘God bless the Royal Signals!’ The phrase stuck – it featured on our end of course T-shirts and for years afterwards whenever I met someone who had been on that course we used it to greet each other.
It is little surprise then that when I arrived at Sandhurst a few years later, I was determined that I was going to commission into the Royal Signals. I was so certain that when I had to submit my mandatory reserve option I was at a loss who to choose. I eventually picked the Royal Artillery as a back-up, but it wasn’t much of a safety net. The first question the senior Gunner officer asked me in the selection interview was ‘why do you want to join the Royal Artillery?’ Slightly taken aback, I replied ‘I don’t, I want to join the Royal Signals’. The interview didn’t last much longer – apparently the Gunners don’t value that kind of honesty!
In December 1999 I did commission into the Royal Signals and I never looked back. I had the best part of 20 incredible years in the Corps during which I travelled the world, commanded soldiers on operations and achieved a Masters degree. In one memorable two-year period I was the operations officer in a Regiment that deployed soldiers on 30 global operations in 24 months. All the while I was fortunate to serve alongside a great bunch of people, born of that same open and welcoming culture I first experienced as a university cadet at Blandford.
Today the Royal Signals celebrates its 100th birthday. Over the last century it has evolved from playing an enabling, almost peripheral role to now being at the very epicentre of modern military operations. With the advent of cyber warfare the Corps doesn’t simply enable anymore, it delivers real effects. The Royal Signals has never been more relevant.
Looking back from my sandbag, I’m incredibly proud to have been part of this tremendous organisation for nearly 20 years. Here’s to the next 100 years.
God bless the Royal Signals!
