REFLECTIONS OF AN OLD DRUM MAJOR. Dedicated to those Drummers with whom I had the privilege to serve. In January 1980 I had the honour to be appointed Drum Major of the Honourable Artillery Company, the senior regiment of the Territorial Army. The HAC is unique by virtue of its age, having received its Royal Charter from Henry VIII in 1537, its long association with the City of London, its close a links to the Grenadier Guards in particular and other regiments of the Household Division, it’s demanding operational and ceremonial roles and the calibre of the people who join its ranks and make the whole thing work. with the presentation of new colours by H M The Queen, our Captain General, just six months away we set about defining a strategy to ensure that the Corps of Drums played the fullest role in all aspects of regimental life. This strategy had three main threads. 1.Structure. 2.Recruit and retain. 3.standards. Structure. The Drum Major is the platoon commander, supported by the Drums Sergeant, plus stand seniors for the percussion, Bb and F flute stands. Each stand or section is made up of non commissioned officers and drummers reflecting the skills, ability and length of service of each man. To ensure that the administration of the Drums ran efficiently we appointed a senior non commissioned officer, plus a Drummer to run the stores, a clerk to ensure that pay, and documentation were completed effectively and an orderly who looked after my ceremonial uniform and kit. These responsibilities were in addition to their other operational and ceremonial duties. Recruit and retain. To fulfil our dual roles we needed about 30 members with the appropriate dual military and musical skills. Much time was spent on networking through a wide variety of organisations including the Foot Guards, other Regular and TA Infantry Battalions, CCF, ACF and civilian Corps of Drums to attract new blood. In addition we recruited from the HAC recruits course and other sub units of the regiment. Turnover of personnel was, at that time, a big problem in the TA. By providing a range of interesting and stimulating activities to retain the highly skilled people who made up the Drums we kept our soldiers for a remarkably long time. One of our members once worked out that the average length of service in the drums was fourteen years! Standards. We kept a very close eye on the best Corps of Drums in the Army whether Regular or Territorial and were determined to operate in the` premier league’ of everything we did. This was made easier by the total commitment of our Commanding Officers and the regiment’s management team plus the outstanding calibre and skills of our non commissioned officers and drummers. Many happy weekends were spent at Pirbright and the Bisley Hut working on our music and drill plus range work, bounty tests, driving skills, navigation and fitness. The operational role of the HAC in the 80’s was very much focussed on the Soviet threat and BAOR. The regiment provided an important forward observation role with each squadron providing a number of extremely fit, highly motivated and well trained four man sabres. The Drummers became the fifth man, deploying with the sabres to draw our mothballed kit in Germany, carefully loading the heavily laden long wheel base Land Rovers and trailers, driving the sabres to their secret locations, playing our full role in digging in the hides, finishing off the camouflage and returning with the vehicles to our regimental HQ or command post. This was an excellent role for the Drums as it gave us the opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to our wartime role but allowed us good scope to maintain our musical skills. I particularly remember Exercise Lionheart, which I believe was the largest NATO exercise since the war and was truly memorable in terms of scale and excitement. The ceremonial routine was every bit as engaging with, on average, three Guards of Honour every year for visiting Heads of State to the city of London, The Lord Mayors Show, Remembrance Sunday at St Paul’s Cathedral then marching to the Royal Exchange and afterwards to a reception at the Mansion House. These duties were undertaken with our Regimental Band which comprised 46 extremely competent Musicians and some great characters. It was a point of honour that the Corps of Drums never repeated a march on the Lord Mayors Show which meant that we had a minimum of twenty quick marches committed to memory. In addition we paraded for various pass out parades plus Flank Company’s Ball, the Squadrons Winter Ball and Beating Retreat plus a wide range of dinners. Other memorable events included changing guard at Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle with the Grenadier, Scots and Welsh Guards, massing with the Grenadiers Corps of Drums for Grenadier Day at Pirbright and with their Regimental Band to march one thousand Grenadier Veterans from Wellington Barracks to Horse Guards for their remembrance parade. We arranged combined TA training weekends with the Corps of Drums of 5th Queens,5th Royal Anglians 3rd Royal Regiment of Wales and ourselves which were great fun. We appeared at the Wembley Military Music Pageant with fifteen hundred Musicians and Drummers on parade and at Luton Military Pageant parading with five Cavalry Bands with a combined front rank of twelve trombones. In 1981 the HAC were featured at the Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall where the Corps appeared playing our regimental Quick March, the British Grenadiers, resplendent in our bearskin caps and tunics. Any organisation is only as good as its members. We were particularly fortunate in recruiting from the widest imaginable cross section of society. Regardless of our background, education or skills, every single member brought their own unique contribution. For some it was outstanding musical ability, for others basic tactics, for others sheer personality, drive and loyalty but the whole blended in a team dedicated to fulfilling our roles to the best of our ability. The music I recall being in our repertoire included; Quick Marches. The Adjutant, Galanthia, For Flag and Empire, Hazelmere, The Silver Trumpeter, Moray Firth, Gladiators Farewell, New Colonial, Prussian Glory, Household Brigade, Childrens Love, The Scarlet Parade, The Little Drummer, Under The Double Eagle, Coeur De Lion, Cempra, Armoury House, Marche Militaire, The Jigs, King Cotton, Light of Foot, Queen of Battle, The Red Cloak and Viscount Nelson. Retreat Marches.The Ash Grove, Fow Gently Sweet Afton, Mandora, Land of My Fathers, Sweet Polly Oliver and 1st Noel. Slow Marches and Selections. Old Coldstream, Toledo, The Colours, May Blossom, Annies Song, Eileen Allanah, The Sheik of Araby and Funiculi Funicula. I have no doubt that I have forgotten some. The annual Drums Dinner was perhaps an acid test of our popularity within the Regiment and dinners are something that the HAC takes very seriously and do extremely well. Typically, a total of one hundred and twenty people, drummers and guests would attend with the principle guest being the Major General London District on more than one occasion. The thought of hosting such able people and speaking after dinner to such an exalted gathering had a profound effect on my appetite on more than one occasion, however, after the formalities were over the Sutling Room and the PSI’s club fortified me in pleasant liquid form. Well, after a few mistakes, cutting off the music in the wrong place, dropping my staff (mace ) in front of the whole regiment, thankfully on a rehearsal, and nearly taking the wrong route once or twice it was time to move on and hand over the Drums to my successor who quickly established himself as Drum Major. To put some scale to these short recollections I list the Drum Majors of the HAC from 1900 to date. This list may not be compete and there may have been periods when a Drum Major was not in post, however, it would be fascinating to hear their stories. 1901 W. Stanley 1929 G. D. Smith 1930 J. Quinn 1930 W. Godden (Acting) 1934 W. Carpenter 1950 J. Walker 1958 R. A. Ingham Clark 1970 J. Reah 1972 S. M. Sutton 1975 I. V. McCall 1977 S. King 1980 G. Tunesi BEM 1986 S. Mackaness 1990 B. Harrod 1993 K. Hingle 2001 S. Ball In September 1986 I was appointed Drill Sergeant to assist the Regiment in another landmark, our 450th anniversary in 1987. But that, as they say, is a tale for another day. Captain Greg Tunesi BEM