Royal Marines Band East Indies Station
Reflections of HMS Gambia 1957 - 58
by Michael Hutton
The commission started for us on the 15th October 1957 when we joined HMS Gambia
at Chatham, unfortunately without our Bandmaster D.A.Haigh who at that time
was completing the Director of Music Examinations in Deal. Two days later we
sailed to relieve HMS Ceylon, then the East Indies flagship. The usual stop
at Gibraltar brought out the early 'rabbit' collectors, and much to our dismay
there was no stop at Malta to meet up with old friends.
At last, through the Suez Canal and via Aden, we reached Bahrain
and of course had the 'Ceylon' band on board to give us the low down, plus a
few 'big ship' stories, but they left for home the following day so not much
was learned about the dreaded Gulf!
A month was spent there visiting such places as Um Qassar, Abadan,
and Basra where the ships concert party gave its first performance, then back
to Aden for Christmas.
On the 18th December Bandy and Musician Terry Collier, who seemed
to have had a couple of months' extra draft leave, joined us! Over Christmas
we were kept very busy with many concerts of the carol variety, but I think
everyone ate and drank very well over the festive season. Here I must mention
the Bandmaster who has turned out quite a sizeable dance band for the concert
party. A fourteen piece is on stage to open the second half of the show and
seems to be very popular with the ship's company. That's not bad when you consider
there are only 18 of us altogether.
Christmas over, we set sail for Ceylon calling first at Berbera
(British Somaliland) where the band did a rather 'sandy' Beat Retreat on the
beach which went down very well with the locals. Then on to Trincomalee for
three weeks where half the ship's company went on leave. The Band left to do
minor chores, 'colours' and plenty of sport, but more of that later. From Trinco
we did the Indian Cruise consisting of Madras, Vizagapatan and Calcutta with
plenty to keep us busy in each port. On returning to Colombo the ship had to
be in dry dock for a week (minor repairs) and the Band, with some of the RM
Detachment and concert party, packed their bags and thankfully moved to the
mountains for a well earned six day leave. All you ex-East Indies travellers
will of course know the rest camp at Diyatalawa, so there is no need to say
that we all had a rather restful and quiet time! Most of the band were billeted
out with Tea Planters families, but guess what? Bandy, Dan O'Connell and yours
truly had to contend with the Reverend Tom Arnold! He played a mean piano, but
Doug and Dan were a bit short on the hard stuff!
All good things come to an end - so once again we were on the
move. We left Ceylon for the West coast of India and called in to the Maldive
Islands on the way. The ship called at Male, the capital, and the Admiral made
a call on the Sultan who returned the visit. The Band did numerous concerts
and Beat Retreats as this was the first visit by one of HM Ships since the war.
On to Bombay, where we were all disgusted to find the place 'DRY' so ended up
with a very sober concert party and Beat Retreat. That ended the Indian Cruise
so it was back to Aden for Easter, where we stayed for some time due to local
trouble. As it turned out we were rather lucky. The second trip up the Gulf
was cancelled, so after six weeks in Aden we set off for Trinco again for the
annual JET exercises, stopping off for a week in Karachi en-route. Here there
were many engagements to cope with, cocktail parties, dinners ashore at the
High Commissioner's residence and return visits on the Gambia. Once more the
Concert Party was in demand. We did an open air version with the band alongside
the stage where we had a narrow escape. During the first half part of the staging
collapsed and the Bandmaster, a couple of violins and myself found ourselves
fiddling on the grass! A final Beat Retreat occurred and then we set sail for
Ceylon.
J.E.T. was fairly hectic for all concerned. Not much music was
produced, but everyone can honestly say he's an amateur SBA. One must add that
while on exercises the band took part in all activities, mainly as lookouts
on the GDP at defence stations - experts at seeing anything but music! J.E.T.
dragged on for nearly six weeks. The last seven days were spent ashore rehearsing
with the Indian and Ceylon Navy Bands for the combined massed bands Beat Retreat.
We had previously met Bugle Major Eric Close at Diyatalawa whilst on leave.
He was there training the Ceylon Navy Band. This time he came down from the
mountains to do a 'Charlie Bowden' on us, and he and Doug Haigh organised a
very good show. Also Doug had the pleasure of meeting CPO Tex Dhumaratum who
had just returned to Ceylon after his successful 18 months at the RMSM completing
his D of M examinations. Another surprise came on the big day. Bandmaster Smith
and his Band arrived in Trinco to join HMS Newfoundland, one of the Far East
Fleet, so we saw a lot of 'pale' and new faces just fresh from Deal about to
start their commission.
Now we are on the best and busiest part of the year, the East
African Cruise, lots of work ahead but plenty of pleasure too. Mauritius, Seychelles,
Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Mombassa, back to Aden before leaving for Chatham.
The Band's hockey team has been well to the front in the ship's
sporting programme, even Ken 'Shacks' Prince has been dragged out from behind
his moustache to wield a stick. Some of the guys have never played before, but
after learning the gentleman's game of golf whilst on leave in Diyatalawa, they
show certain promise as St Trinian's followers! We have Ian 'hacker' Langford,
Graham 'daredevil' Dench on the wing, and occasionally Clive 'killer' Kesterton
has been among the forward line. While ashore in Trinco we were lucky enough
to receive some tuition from the Pakistan Navy Team (who apparently were most
of the Olympic side!) We actually played a match against them and only lost
14-1. Dan 'lightning' O'Connell (sober at the time) will never forget the day
he scored a goal against the Pakistanis. We managed to get through to the final
of the ship's interpart competition but were just beaten 1-0 by the lucky Wardroom.
Our overall aggregate has been played 10, won 7, lost 2, drawn 1. As for other
sports, a couple of the band have played in the ships football and cricket teams.
Pete Westaway being an up and coming bowler, and yours truly scraped into the
ship's hockey team and an occasional cricket place. The Bandmaster is one of
the ship's star swimmers in both distance and water polo matches.
Time is running out and we shall soon be on our way home, the
ship sails from Aden on the 4th September so should arrive in Deal in time to
catch up the winter concerts and MGRMs! For some of there will undoubtedly be
the usual drafts to other bands around the world. We are now looking forward
to an early reunion with wives and sweethearts. For some there will be the first
sight of 'additions' to the family, while two of our members are to be married
in October. Roll on FS Leave.
1 September 1958 B/Cpl MG. Hutton.
 |
