Following discussions at the 1994 Reunion as to who did the most days jankers at Halton, Narcy Burford came up with 109 days, but this was put in the shade by the 151 days, plus a ‘few’ inside, by Del Harris. So Del took the dubious honour of being our worst ‘criminal’.and when he was on jankers, and was also the Duty Trumpeter responsible for sounding ‘Reveille’ and ‘Lights Out’, he made the ‘calls’ from his Barrack Room window! At the same time, it was also established that Ken Savage was the first in the Entry to be awarded jankers and the punishment took place over the Battle of Britain weekend, when there were civilians visiting RAF Halton. While being marched from No.1 Wing to No.2 Wing cookhouse, the Cpl i/c enjoyed giving orders in a loud voice prefixed by “Defaulters”. However, Del Harris, our reputably longest serving janker wallah, recently went on holiday to Tenerife and called on fellow 51st colleague, Roy Studart, who now resides there. During conversation, the subject of jankers came up and it transpired that Roy was a seasoned janker wallah himself. Roy cannot recall the exact number of ‘days’ that he did, but he thinks it was around the 120 mark. He also said that he did two lots of 28 days, plus sundry other days, in the ‘mush’. ‘Mush’ was the punishment for crimes that were more serious than those given for jankers, in that one ‘resided’ in a guardroom cell for the duration of the punishment under the watchful eye of the Snoops, and went to Schools and Workshops under escort. As neither of them kept a Log Book of their punishments, we have decided that from their confessions, we consider that both were as bad as each other, so they tie for first place, with Narcy Burford relegated to third place – unless someone out there knows better!. However, if Chiefy Thomas has a ‘janker’ file tucked away in the attic, perhaps he can adjudicate for us and let us know who did the most ‘days’! ‘Jankers’ was the colloquial name given to the punishment for committing a minor offence in the eyes of the RAF during our training at Halton. We are not talking about serious offences such as murder, grievous bodily harm, drug dealing, burglary etc, but lesser crimes, such as dirty brass buttons, late on parade, caught wearing civilian clothes, untidy bedspace, room job not done properly, caught outside the Block after ‘lights out’ (at 21.30 hrs), absent from parade, smoking etc. If you were caught, then you were charged, marched in before the Squadron Commander and given 3, 7, 10 days (or whatever) CB (confined to barracks). The Apprentice receiving this punishment was called a ‘Janker Wallah’ and he would wear a White armband throughout his sentence. A day in the life of such a person, with reveille at 06.30 hrs, would be:-

06.30 hrs

Reveille

06.45 hrs

Report to the Henderson Square in Best Blue for Roll Call

07.45 hrs

Report to Henderson Square in Working Blue for Colour Hoisting parade

13.00 hrs

Report to Henderson Square in Working Blue for Roll Call

17.45 hrs

Report to Henderson Square in Best Blue for Colour Lowering parade

18.00 hrs

Kit Inspection (Lay out kit on own bed in barrack room)

19.00 hrs

Report in Working Blue for fatigues - usually in cookhouse

20.00 hrs

Report to Henderson Square in Best Blue for Roll Call

21.00 hrs

Report to Henderson Square in Best Blue for Roll Call

21.30 hrs

Lights Out

FATHERS OF THE 51st IN THE RNAS

Don Ellis	243583	Herbert Redvers Ellis
Mike Gill	243585	Clarence Southern Gill
Neil Hull	244139	George Henry Hull
Eric Beale	253856	Arthur John Beale