Despite the rather below average sleeping arrangements our apartment was actually quite nice and we had a lovely continental breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant. We then drove to meet up with Grannie and Grandad who were ‘lucky’ enough to have been able to secure rooms in the hotel of the local caravan park (did anyone hear the word Chav?) While I am sure it was quite serviceable, the fact that you could redeem Tesco vouchers was enough for me to stop complaining about my sofa bed (well, almost!)
This morning Grandad was going to take us to visit his old boarding school ‘The Duke of York’s Royal Military School’ about which he has very fond memories and he still keeps in contact with classmates through its Old Boys system. While the school has been in its present location since 1909, it began back in 1801 when His Royal Highness Frederick Duke of York laid the foundation stone in Chelsea. Originally it was an orphanage for children of soldiers killed in battle and was Britain’s first coeducational state funded and state administered school. The school still caters exclusively to sons (and now also daughters) of service personnel and, whilst during Grandad’s time was just Army, now caters for all three services.
We spent some time walking around some of Grandad’s old haunts though we were unable to enter any of the buildings. Unfortunately the weather was not the best with Dover being engulfed in a thick cloud of mist but this did not detract from the atmosphere of the place. You may ask if we saw anything that we thought could have impacted the young Keith. All I can say is that his old dorm house was the closest to the mess hall.
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