Unit History: Junior Leaders Battalion

In February 1954, under the direction of the new Commanding Officer Major W R ECCLES, RAOC the Boys moved from both Haslar and Lee on Solent in Gosport to their new Barracks in North Frith Barracks in Blackdown, Hampshire. They were known as the “RAOC Boys' School”, a wing of 1 Regular Training Battalion RAOC. In the autumn of 1954, the Boys' School was renamed “Junior Leaders Battalion RAOC”, and remained as such for the following seventeen years.
 
In November 1955, part of the REME boys joined up with the RAOC and became responsible for training REME boy entrants. Tope House was formed for the REME boys’. The unit was known as the “Junior Leaders Battalion RAOC/REME”, under the direction of the Commanding Officer Major P D AMATO RAOC.
 
In 1957 the Battalion Commanding Officer post was raised to the new rank of Lieutenant Colonel. The first appointment to this new position was Lt Col John W HARLEY – PETERS RAOC Commanding Officer of the “Junior Leaders Battalion RAOC”.
February the 13th 1960, the Junior Leaders moved across the road from North Frith Barracks into Dettingen Barracks at Blackdown, in Surrey post code GU16 6SR