Saltus Grammar School - Yearbook (Hamilton, Bermuda)

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13 The new field drill that Sgt. -Major Clarke started teaching us in the Easter term is an interesting departure. The forming of threes took less getting used to than might be expected, for indeed the whole new field drill order is a simplification of the old one. Originally in- troduced in England so that large bodies of troops on field manoeuvres should take up less ' room on the road, it was improved upon and adopt- ed generally with a view to doing away with unnecessary ceremonial and minimising delay in getting troops on the move. We are, as ever, frustrated in our efforts towards real smartness of turnout on parade owing to lack of an adequate supply of uniforms. But this unfortunately is beyond our control. However, if you can use your imagination and picture every cadet in the same attire and the extremities of most of the shorts and stockings about nine inches closer to each other — in fact, if you can forget about the uniforms, perhaps you will find that the drill is not too bad. BAND. The highest degree of excellence that the Band has so far attained was at its first visit to camp last year. When it formed up again at the end of the summer holidays, trying to get it started was like try- ing to sit on a chair that had lost three of its legs. In this case, the legs happened to be particularly stalwart ones; they were Sgt. Emerson, Coad and Evans who had been really the foundation of the Band from the very start and whom we missed terribly. Furthermore, the leading bugler had left temporarily in October, keenness had flagged and the Band was altogether a shaky affair. In fact, one could not help won- dering if it would ever get going properly again. It was not until February came and new instructors were sent down from Prospect that things started to look up. We have already s ' ung the praises of Sgt. Emerson in a past issue. Pie was an extraordinarily capable teacher, partly because he was so exceedingly proficient in everything that he taught and partly because he was liked so much by anyone v ho had anything to do with him. Coad, the personification of smartness and reliability, was so out- standing as ' Drum-Major that the cup that he won for the best senior cadet in camp was a symbol of only part of the praise that he earned. Evans had, at the end, more to show in the way of improvement than anybody else. He kept splendid time, mastered all the double beats, and in the last m.onth or two was swinging his sticks, — if you will excuse the expression — like nobody ' s business. One of his favourite

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12 CADETS. We were very sorry to say good-bye to R. S. M., F. W. Williamson who had been coming to School in the capacity of Sgt. -Major for some years. He was remarkable for his efficiency and good cheer and he was a very good friend to the School. The Corps made him a presentation of a large cedar tray with an engraved silver plate in the middle which he accepted with a graceful speech on his farewell appearance. He left to return to his regiment at the beginning of February. Sgt. -Major Clarke has come out as ' his successor. We welcome him and his enthusiasm, and are looking forward to some success at camp under his guidance. The numbers of the Corps have increased to 84. This must nearly be our optimum strength, but we can still find room for a few more. As we could never expect to build up a full company, we find the or- ganisation into three platoons most satisfactory. Training varies according to the term. During the Christmas term, we concentrate on ceremonial and company drill. At Easter we practise field drill for the Field Day and in Summer we re-organise and make ready for camp. Owing to the size of our numbers, our camp contingent is now- adays being divided into two units which compete against each other. Last year, no. 1 platoon was the Band and no. 2 the remainder. Our greatest rival was no. 5 platoon from the Dockyard with whom we had tremendous struggles in the competitions. Unfortunately we lost the cup for the best platoon in camp to them largely owing to a poor and non-representative turn-out in the sports which, had we won them — and we should have done — would have given us the cup. It is a little upsetting having a house divided amongst itself in this way, but last year no. 1 did very well to win the drill. It was also extremely grati- fying to find that no. 2 was third. This year, if our numbers at camp come up to expectations, we might be able to fill up no. 1 platoon a bit more, and give them a little assistance that way. There has been little in the way of outside ceremonial parading for the Cadets durinp; this last year, in fact, except for one or two performances of the Band, Armistice Day was the only one that can be called to mind. The less said about that parade the better because Krldom, if ever, can there have been such a rabble.

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14 expressions was I ' m a terror, aren ' t I. One was- forced to admit it. He was. The Band was very honoured when the buglers were asked to play the calls on Armistice Day, there being only three regular buglers at Prospect. The Last Post they knew vaguely. The Reveille, a very long call consisting of just over 150 notes, was entirely new to them. The notice they were given was by no means long, but after frequent and concentrated practices they were fairly well up to standard. On the whole, they did very well, and Band-Master Smith of the Sherwood Foresters who came down almost daily said he was pleased with them. Over the rest of our participation in Armistice Day we have already tried to draw a veil . . . Suffice it to say that we were very much the tail end and our marching suffered (as also, no doubt, did that of everyone else near us) owing to the fact that, going down Front Street within 150 yards of each other, three bands were playing different tunes in different times. It was pretty good Bedlam. It was a case of All played fast, but none played faster than we. We were immedi- ately behind the B. M. A. some of whose many admirers very soon fell back and walked as supernumeraries among our ranks. We were brought to a standstill three times and finally, outside the Phoenix, the B. M. A. band stopped, for all intents and purposes, to give an informal and impromptu concert to the sea of appreciative faces that were surrounding them. I think that it was at this juncture that we more or less gave up. VISIT TO B. V. E. CAMP. On two occasions during the winter the Band played in and around Hamilton for the B. V. E.s to march to. The second time was when they were almost at their lowest ebb, when they should not really have gone out and we thought we were not going to be asked again. How- ever, the hospitality of the B. V. E.s came to the fore, and once again they asked us down to St. David ' s for the night. This time, we tried to do a little more to make ourselves worthy of the invitation and, a=t their request, arranged to put on a short P.T. display. This they watched with more attention and less derision than perhaps it deserved, but on the other hand, to be quite fair, the Band did try very hard and going through a complete table without a single command the way they did is possibly a little harder than you might think.