You won’t know his name unless you trained at RAF Hereford or RAF Halton in the Secretarial Training Wing. Terry trained umpteen admin bods. And I wasn’t even one of them. I knew him by reputation alone. So I wrote these memories I had of him.
I was about to write something but I just learnt that Terry Knight passed away. I’m sure a huge amount of the Sec Trg folks here knew him, or knew someone who trained under him. For my own experience, Terry was a chap who inspired fear & awe in equal measures to the boys I was living with in 1990.
I never personally had him as a trainer but those who did said he was both fair & scary. We almost didn’t want to meet him walking down the corridors in Sec Trg because his reputation went before him. I recall Terry being one of the people who let me leave RAF Hereford without properly passing my P&A/Pers Admin course. I REALLY should have been recoursed, at least a fortnight.
Yet, I was sent to my unit. I won’t say I thrived, nor did I die on my arse. I was given a war role, taught it from the ground up, and learnt that job 7 ways from Wednesday until I was literally doing it in my sleep during our 15 hr nightshifts.
Come 1994 and RAF Hereford was close to closing, I was sent off to do my SAMA course. Day 1, walking those old familiar corridors and who did I see coming the other way? None other than the feared one himself, Mister Knight. Who met me with a cheery grin when I said “Hello Terry, I bet you didn’t ever expect to see ME back here again?”
Bless his heart, the man I’d built up in my head to be so scary was GENUINELY pleased to not only see me but to learn I was happy at my unit. He even remembered me! He must have had hundreds of us go past him but he knew who I was!
Terry was a real old school type. I never knew until I came onto Facebook that he’d served himself too. Not only served but was there at the Christmas Island nuclear tests. Suffice to say, he massively rose in my appreciation of him after that.
Heaven better be on their guard, is all I can say. He’ll be checking for shiny shoes and haircuts.
Rest In Peace Terry. You’ve done a man’s job sir.
The RAF is lesser without you.
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