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Speak to Me

Throughout June and July, 20 young people aged 14-17 are joining the museum to do their work experience placements.  We are asking those taking part, to help the museum to interview serving and retired Fusiliers about their time with the Regiment.  Recording oral history is a key part of the museum’s mission, to preserve the memory and related heritage of the Royal Fusiliers and from 1968 the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.

Oliver and Milo, pick up the story…

We were tasked with interviewing Private Paul Clark of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers. He had joined the army in 1991 and after his training he joined 3rd Battalion of Fusiliers. He served in Warminster and Catterick, before being deployed to Bosnia in 1995, then shortly after his return to England in 1996; he was deployed to Northern Ireland, both his deployments on peacekeeping roles. He then joined the Royal Fusiliers HQ and Museum on general duties.

Prior to the interview I read several documents on the importance of oral history, and how to conduct an interview in this subject, picking up many useful ideas and tips in doing so.

Before the interview itself we researched Northern Ireland and Bosnia and began to learn the events which Clark may have been involved in or affected by. Then we compiled a ‘theme sheet’ made up of several themes and subthemes which would be good topic areas to guide the interview into and to generally prepare ourselves for the interview ahead.

Clark began by talking about his early life and how school wasn’t for him, his Dad once told him after he had left a job ‘look you ain’t gonna go nowhere in life, try the army’. He was then recruited into the Fusiliers, and he described how the new members of the Regiment often got jokes made at their expense.

‘Jump up and down on the warrior to test the suspension’

He provided a detailed insight on basic training.  Perhaps the most memorable quote of the interview, on the ‘rookie hazing’ that occurred during his joining process, ‘You end up as LSW gunner, a GPMG gunner; you end up with all the crap basically’.  

‘The Army is like school; you’re always learning…just like school but you get paid for it’.

The interview moved onto his Bosnia deployment, including how his time was spent, and his infamous Battalion CO; Col. Trevor Minter or ‘Ming the Merciless’. Fusilier Clarke also explained the limit of what the Battalion could do, and his experiences in the harsh Bosnian winter as well as the inter-battalion relations of the Rank Soldiers, Officers and NCOs.

‘We was actually living in ponchos and all that in minus fifteen weather

We also asked him about his most memorable moments; a friend’s repatriation to the UK and a prisoner exchange.

After his two weeks of leave, called up again to be deployed to Northern Ireland, for what would be 2 years. While in Ireland he said the general mood was mixed, with some people name calling or throwing stones, and others not. After time went by he began to work out who was in the IRA and what positions they held but was not allowed to engage them. He could just use this information to his advantage by keeping an eye on them and remembering to stop and search them if they have a bag.

He described an operation he was sent on once in which the police had discovered a bomb factory and he had to defend the engineers as they made their way through it.  When Clark returned home from Ireland he was not as relived as when returning from Bosnia, because he mentioned that Northern Ireland was like ‘home away from home’, and was very similar to the mainland with him being able to understand everyone, just with a different accent.

This interview provided great detail and insight into a Fusilier’s life, providing information that would have otherwise been lost. This led to some interesting points such as his disappointment on not being sent with his friends to the Middle Eastern conflicts, and the closeness between the serving soldiers, ‘You truly do become a little band of brothers’.

What I found most surprising was Clark’s description of the difference between the attitudes of combatants in the two peacekeeping tours,

In Bosnia, they had no rules, the Mujahedeen and people like that had no rules, they just didn’t care’.

If I was to do this project again, I would have asked some tougher, more probing questions, whilst asking Fusilier Clarke to elaborate on some of his more general points.

About our correspondents

I’m Milo Garner and I go to William Ellis School. Aside from the compulsory subjects, I chose to study German, History, RE, Geography and Music. I am doing a work experience at The Fusilier Museum because I am very interested in military history, and have also considered a career in a museum type establishment.

I am Olly Foster, a 17 year old currently attending Plymouth College studying Biology, Chemistry, Economics and Business, and History. I decided to do work experience at the RRF Museum, as I have a deep interest in military history, and thought it would provide invaluable future skills.