- Author
- Letter Writer
- Subjects
- None noted
- Tags
-
- RAN Ships
- HMAS Melbourne II
- Publication
- March 2000 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)
Dear Sir,
I read with interest in the last edition of your magazine the articles on the history of RAN bands. I knew quite a few of the bandmasters from 1946 to 1975. It was good reading. I’ve often mentioned to ex naval types the fact that in addition to the service band in HMAS Melbourne we also had a “Bluejacket” Pipe Band which, after 12 months practice was sounding quite good.
BRIEF HISTORY
I had spent 10 years in pipe bands before I joined the Vengeance for its return to the U.K. I met a Chief ERA named Eric Donaldson who was a Pipe Sgt with a Melbourne band and another PO Mech. named “Jock” Hare from the Geelong Pipe Band and the ship’s butcher, Jack Thompson, a good piper from Wollongong.
We decided to call a meeting in Fremantle. About 30 of the crew attended of whom about 15 had previous experience so we decided to form a band. Sailors, being what they are, were hard to get together for practice in harbour, although we did a bit in the lunch hours. At sea we practised on the flight deck, the hangar or the forecastle, wherever we could get room.
As the Melbourne started to “work up” the Canteen Fund bought the band a set of new drums in Edinburgh, and we had eight pipers who owned their own pipes. Captain Gatacre, who had a Scottish mother, was very supportive and got us to play when we sailed down the Clyde for the last time. We did a lot of practice on the trip home and halfway across the Indian Ocean we played on the flight deck as the Iberia sailed close past with a lot of the crew’s wives onboard.
We had a couple of days solid practice on the wharf at Fremantle prior to leading the Anzac March together with the ship’s regular band. When it stopped, we started. One problem; pipe band tempo is a lot slower than that of a military band. Our Gunnery Officer was in charge of the march and he had a stop watch on us all the time, trying to increase the tempo; but 110 paces per minute is about as fast as a pipe band can go. The two Bandmasters, Frank Lunn and Don Coxon, were both friends of mine and they agreed to bring the tempo down and this made the change overs fairly reasonable. We were only volunteer “bandsmen” and after leave and draft we lost most members. After 15 months existence we disbanded in July 1956.
We were a mixed lot consisting of 1 Ch. ERA, 1 Stoker P/O, 1 Seaman P/O, 3 Stokers, 2 Cooks, 1 Butcher, 4 Naval Airmen, 1 Signalman and a Store’s Assistant.
Norm Vaughan, Ex – CPO , “Drum Major”