Dangle, by Len “Rab” McNab

 

Len McNab remembers Ian Clough and some other Kinloss troops

 

 

I volunteered for Mountain Rescue in 1956 whilst going mad as a Corporal at RAF Cardington marshalling the recruits about and getting them issued with personal kit, and was posted to Kinloss on 3^rd January 1957.

There were three new boys: Ian Clough, Robin Wilkinson and myself. We were taken to the hut by Sam Firth, the storeman. This consisted of two huts joined together by a large drying room and surrounded by a large blast wall from the war days. This was about 4 feet from the outer wooden wall so that the lights were on permanently as it was dark inside. The sleeping quarters held about twenty troops, and each hut had two pot-bellied stoves to keep the occupants warm through the Scottish winters. The drying room was festooned with kit drying and in heaps ready to be repacked into the owner’s very large rucksack and the smell was something never to be forgotten. As you went through the door into the sleeping quarters the sight which greeted you was that of rows of beds some left unmade by their owners who had just got up and gone to work, not to mention the ashes piled around the stoves. For me as a SWO’s man it was a shock. I was to learn later that the team had been out all Christmas and New Year on a well known call out looking for five lads from the Lake District, four of whom died and one made it to the police station to raise the alarm.

Ian had his own rucksack with a few badges on it to show where he had been; he left this on a spare bed, which he hoped would be his. As it was lunchtime we went for our lunch and on our return to the hut an hour later heard much laughter and shouting from inside. As we put our heads round the door the sight that greeted us I could not believe. Ian’s bag was empty, his ropes and pitons being used by two or three troops to do a route over the inside of the roof. Ian never turned a hair but started teaching the lads how to climb using two ropes of different colours. This went down well as everyone expected the owner to do his nut. Not Ian - from that day on he became one of the leaders. It is hard to explain but in those days we only ever used a single rope with a hemp waistline and here was someone using a harness albeit a primitive one by today’s standards. We had to learn all the knots and be able to tie them whilst blindfolded.

Robin Wilkinson was a lad of about 6ft. 3ins and he too was a very good climber with one claim to fame that I know of: he was the climber seen in silhouette in The Guns of Naverone. I did one or two hairy routes with them both, the one which springs to mind being Cioch gully on Skye in the pouring rain. The water was running down my sleeve as I reached up for a hold and then running down my trouser legs, but the worst was having them both laughing at me shuffling across to the Cioch on my backside, too frightened to stand up.

The same dinner hour I met a 17-year-old apprentice with his apprentice wheel still on his sleeve. He was called Ray (Sunshine) Sefton, and I wonder what became of him. Give us ring sometime Sunch.

The team leader was Flight Sergeant D Cook, Chiefy to his troops. He sent both Ian and Robin on the summer course and both of them ended up as instructors, but Chiefy is most famous for once saying to troops about to go on the hill, “You don’t need a compass, I’ve given you the bearing.” It took a while for him to live that down.

 

Pictures from the McNab album

 

Clockwise from bottom left…

 

1: IMR Sqn Ldr Des Cook with Paddy Hannon at the wheel

 

2: Benny Patterson (storeman) leaning on the locker; below him is Ralph (Monster) Stevenson; behind Ralph is er – can’t remember; next to him is Perry Mason, then Alex Alexander; between his legs is Peter (Percy) Drake

 

3: Flt Lt Alex Alexander the O i/c on the left; kneeling, Mick Denton and another officer; next to the lorry, the WOP Ralph (Monster) Stevenson; Lonnie Gilpin in the middle; Halfpenny Buck in sunglasses; I am behind him wearing the hat; next to me is Ian Clough in a peaked cap; in front of him is Pete Hepburn; behind him with his nose in the air is Cakey Parkin; standing in the rear is Alty Alcock

 

4: A very young IMR, Sqn Ldr John Sims