Allan a Murray

Staff Cadet Allan a Murray

This first book in the Series, From Boys' Brigade to Brigadier, covers the period during Allan's career in the Australian Army associated with Officer training.

This is not a history of the Royal Military College, nor a history of the Corps of Staff Cadets. It is the story of Allan's experience as a Staff Cadet. Allan has written about Duntroon at a time when Staff Cadets were required to be single and live in the provided accommodation blocks. Mostly for four years, but for some it was five years. Allan's experience with a group of young men, aspiring to be commissioned Army Officers - training to be leaders - is the subject of this book; including bishing, bogging and bastardisation.

Allan started writing this book in 1978. Parts of it were written whilst he was a Staff Cadet and much, on a regular basis, in the years between then and now. In January 1998 he wrote ... "I have found stories about the experiences of Staff Cadets are generally of a reminiscing genre, hence they project a more mature, if not mellowed, perspective." In this book he has tried to overcome this, hence some bits are raw, even naive. Some of the subjects Allan covers are not pleasant. Comparisons between life in the Corps before 1983 and Lord of the Flies are not unreasonable. Allan has chosen to be descriptive and minimized being judgemental in hindsight. Others can do that.

During the years of occasionally recording his thoughts on life and events as they occurred in the Corps, Allan adopted an anthropological style and wrote distinct subject related pieces. Looking back now, these pieces offer the raw thoughts of a young man on the events of a society that engulfed him, often perplexingly, in the years between 1978 and 1983. As one reader noted, this book ... "is a vivid record of the good and ill of Duntroon".

The Foreword for this book is by Guy Sandstrom, Allan's first, and most significant, friendship from his time at Duntroon.