FIDDLER ON THE MARCH

A Review by Captain Peter A G Sumner MBE LRAM ARCM RM

I cannot remember exactly when it was that I heard a voice from the distant past on my telephone one evening. It was Derek Oakley who, in the mid-fifties, had been my OCRM when I was Bandmaster in HMS Newcastle in the Far East, and a firm friend during my later years. He told me that he was writing a biography of Sir Vivian Dunn and asked if I would be kind enough to let him have any reminiscences I might recall from all the years for which I had known the great man - a request I was very pleased to comply with. I now have a copy of that biography, and a splendid book it really is.

The author writes in a free-flowing, narrative style which makes this book much more than a catalogue of events in a man's life - it is informative without being boring, and contains many amusing anecdotes (and moving ones as well) which offer an insight into the character of a man who left an indelible stamp on the Royal Marines Band Service of today. The author has tapped many sources from the past who, like myself, have memories which might otherwise have been lost for ever, and which have a well-defined bearing on the general history of the Service of which we were a part. The book is splendidly produced, well researched, and contains many photographs, some of which have never been published before. It also has some interesting and very informative Appendices.

One of the lesser known aspects of Sir Vivian's life - his devotion to his family - becomes apparent early in the book, as (later) does the effect that his wife Mike had upon the lives of the Junior Musicians of the time; she did indeed come to be regarded as a 'mother' figure to many of them, and I am sure that there must be many fond memories of her among those (now grown up) men.

The author has been scrupulously fair in his narrative; critical of his subject's failings where necessary, and this makes his work the more authoritative, for no great personality was ever without such failings. Overall, however, the book provides a deep and revealing insight into the personality of a man who was utterly devoted to music, to his family and to the Corps of which he was so proud to be a member. Those readers who knew him will recall many memories of a man who had a profound effect on their lives, whilst those who did not will be given an insight into the history of the past ninety years - a window on a lifestyle long since past, yet with an important bearing on the lives we lead today.

"I commend Derek Oakley's book, not only as a valuable piece of Band Service history but as `a good read' too".

Peter Sumner