Dear Richard,

I have just returned from the Adelaide 2008 R.M.B. reunion, that was mentioned in the news section. Both Sylvia & I had a good trip over from our home in NSW, it took 3 days as we did not rush.

We had a good meeting at the Watermark hotel in Glenelg, it was great seeing the new faces that had not been before and we spent the evening catching up with the folks, some who we had not seen for almost 40 years!

On the Saturday we went to lunch at the HMS Buffalo (restaurant) and as mentioned in Eric Haywards' account was a special time of honouring Ted Jones, we had a great lunch and then went for a drive to see some friends.

On Sunday we all went to the Buffalo Motel for a BBQ, while there I did some audio interviews for my Muso’s program on SWRFM in Sydney, when I have edited them and sent them to the guys it maybe possible to get their permission to put them on the site as MP3 files so that people could listen. [Ed. That would be great!]

(My service started in Deal in about 1954 at 16 and 10 months, at 18 when I became a Musician I had to do about 6 months extra practice as I only started playing the T’Bone then I spent about 6 months in the Staff Band at RMSM but got sent to Lee on Solent and then the 3rd Commando Band in Malta, after that I was transferred to HMS Phoenicia, while there I flew home to Marry Sylvia Anderson (Still together 50 years) we spent about 15 months there, then we went to BRNC Band and from there to HMS Lion but at that time I had decided to go to Australia to purchased my discharge then we came to Oz, that was in 1965 and we have been here ever since).

All the best for 2008 and beyond.

Yours Faithfully William (Bill) J C & Sylvia J Matthews. (RMB/X3242)