I spent 7 years from September 1979 to July 1986 at a boarding school in Dover, The Duke of York's Royal Military School. At times I loathed it, every minute I wanted to be away. At other times it was tolerable, occasionally pleasurable. Looking back to almost 40 years since I first walk through those gate there is one overriding positive from that experience. Friendships made and friendships that have endured.
30 years and more since I darkened these doors
7 years within halls, dorms and classroom trapped
Longing to be out but kept
A military hamster spinning in frustration
March here, march there, march bloody everywhere
By the left quick march, April May June July
How the months would crawl by
Yet holidays flew, lightning quick days
And summer’s play was over
The swift return, time to learn all that we say you should know
Always better out than in
That school on the clifftop in Dover
But what remains of those troubled days
When those thrown together by military fate went separate ways
A curious glue stuck and stayed
Friendships formed on the fields we played
Time never could break that bond, no matter the decades gone
School, bricks, mortar, parades, rugby and dining hall
All contained in thoughts of what lay beyond these walls
Memories to hold for some, but moreover
It’s the friendships that burn the brightest
In that school on the clifftop in Dover
