THE recent article in the Times (January 24 issue) about the Ugandan refugees coming to Plaster Down Camp in 1974 has sparked fond memories for a Tavistock man who worked there at the time.

Robin Burnham was a member of the maintenance crew who prepared and looked after the camp for the hundreds of Ugandans of Indian descent who took refuge there, after being ordered out of their country by dictator Idi Amin.

Now retired, Robin, lives in Courtlands Close with his wife Sue.

Robin, 74, told the Times: 'I remember the camp well, I came to Tavistock on promotion from Britannia Royal Navy College, Dartmouth, where I was a carpenter and joiner with the Ministry of Public Buildings and Works.

'My first day at my new place of work was in a new building, the home office on the Wharf, next to Payne's Joinery works; here, all the maintenance of the BBC radio masts was run.

'It was a bit tight on space so eventually I moved up to the cold bleak ex-American GI Army hospital, Plaster Down camp, just below Pew Tor.

'There I met the MPBW permanent staff, Paddy Doherty who was the M and E electrical foreman; an old plumber, Harold who was an excellent tradesman; the sewage plant attendant George Walters, a boiler house attendant, and the water treatment supply attendant, Peter Buckley.

'I was not there long —trying to find out the full extent of my new job — when Stuart Ditcher, a supplies division officer, arrived to tell me that the camp had been allocated to refugees from Uganda in the wake of all the problems in that country.

'I remember the camp had to be made ready for them, fortunately it had been having care and maintenance following the return of the troops from Aden in the late 1950s.

'It was only used for Territorial Army troops as a summer camp and for a short period, a detachment of Guardsmen used it as a base for outward bound training, and also for the Royal Marines on their initial training.

'So not much needed doing to Plaster Down to bring it back up to habitable level; the heating and hot water were all in good order, all that had to be done was to bring in a large number of beds and bedding and suitable furniture for families and some cooking equipment.

'Nursing staff were brought in to assist. A large number of ladies from local and Plymouth hospitals made themselves available after completing their normal day shifts to help settle these poor people in, who had been turned out of of their own surroundings at very short notice.

'So on October 17, 1972, several coaches arrived and decanted all these people with virtually nothing but what they stood up in.

'I remember it was very cold, just getting into winter. We had several minor difficulties, not least the cooking untensils allowed the passage of copious amounts of rice into the sewage system which expanded and promptly pushed up a large number of manhole covers!

'This certainly took some sorting out and, of course, made life very difficult for George the plant attendant, but he was a conscientious man and did a marvellous job in coping.

This was new territory for me, so I had to learn in quick time, but Paddy and George gave me wonderful support.

'I had to test the effluent once a month to make sure it was safe to discharge to the irrigation field. the little works was standard built and worked brilliantly.

'We were lucky to have seconded to us a civil servant from the Foreign and Commonwealth office who had been used to working in India and was well acquainted with all possible problems.

'I cannot remember his name, he acted as camp commandant, but he was brilliant in sorting out all the myriad difficulties that arose.

'Gradually as time went on, numbers began to reduce due to people being resettled elsewhere in the United Kingdom.

'You can imagine it was a great experience for me, a young man, new to Tavistock, and to running what was in effect a small town.

'It stood me in great stead in my career as it began to develop.

'Gradually the camp reduced and eventually a contract was let to demolish and eradicate what had been a great training ground for me.

'To see the area now it is hard to believe there was once a large hutted camp there.

'I was one of the team who dismantled the camp in the mid 1970s, not a job I can say I enjoyed.'