National Service Part 3

I went to the bandmaster and he told me to put my things into the hut and get ready for the band room for 9 o’clock in the morning. I was a little sorry for the rest of the lads as they still had to do all their training. We saw each other during the evening and they didn’t seem to be too bothered. 

It was quite easy in the band but every Friday the captains etc. used to have a dinner and one or two would get a bit worse for wear and used to ask us to play a particular song or wanted to have a go at blowing the trumpet - even though they couldn't get a sound out of it. Sometimes we were very late back especially if they had visitors from other barracks.

It seemed funny to me as several of the soldiers walked back late at night and yet Cyprus was still fighting. One sergeant asked me and another man to come and look after his children as they were going to the Sergeants' party. We said yes but we weren’t too happy about it as there were bombs and guns going off about 3 miles away. Several times soldiers were requested to go and guard the police station for a few days.

There were a few small incidents in the town and a jeep was blown up on one occasion.  When we went out we had to make sure we were in groups of at least four and one of us had to have a gun.

Out and about in Famagusta: Me, Crush, Ray, Reg

Me, David, Baz

I remember clearly one time when we had to parade for the Governor of Cyprus. We went to a large complex which was surrounded by barbed wire for security.  We were all out on the sand waiting for him to arrive.  Finally, when his helicopter landed, all the sand flew up in the air and we couldn’t actually see him for about 10 minutes! He seemed a jolly man and inspected the ranks, going along the lines full of smiles.

Band greets the Governor of Cyprus: I'm somewhere at the back!

Another time we got wind that the Cypriots were planning to make trouble. That came at a time when we were packing up because we were leaving in a fortnight and the Gurkhas were taking over. A lot of things had been packed up including many of our rifles. There was a bit of a panic and soldiers were sent to guard the police stations. What could we, the band, do?  There were about 40 of us plus the conductor but there were only about 30 rifles so the rest of us just had to get knives, brushes, sticks and any other weapon we could improvise.  Fortunately, it only went on for three days and then the Gurkhas were ready to come in.

Everyone was pleased to be heading home again and everything was packed onto the ships. We first stopped at a country that wasn’t on good terms with the English so we weren’t allowed to disembark. We then headed to Gibraltar where we stopped for about 5 days until we were given the ‘good to go’ instruction.  It then took a further three days to get to Liverpool and, thankfully, there wasn’t as much sickness this time.  We were soon off the ship and onto the train and had instructions to return to barracks in 12 days after which the whole battalion would be going to Germany.

On parade back at Glen Parva (at back somewhere!)

It was good to be home and Diane was pleased to see me. 

Me with Diane in London, Sept 1956, the summer before I started national service -
 Diane was 15 here.