Rear
row l to r: D. Hutchins, C. Chandler, D. Ivemy, K. Richards, A. Glass, M.
Greenwood, J. Minns J. Tombs, S. Smith.
2nd. Row: F. Derry, B. Mindham, Cpl Sullivan PTI. Capt. Smith, W. Officer
Lang. C/sgt Thompson, W. Bailey, R. Reynolds.
Front row: J. Clarke, M. Smeed, P. Schmid, L. Schmid, A. Rowett, J. Williams,
K. Tyler.
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The
Schmid's were brothers, and joined up in London with about six others
including myself. I think they came from an Orphanage or some such place
as they wore some sort of uniform. Paul annoyed us all on the way up
to Scarborough by playing a mouthorgan non stop!! He did really well
in his career, but not sure what rank he rose to, but I'm sure Terry
(Freestone) will know. I think somewhere on the web site there is a
photo of him. Never did know what happened to his brother Louis. B/Sgt Paul Schmid was assistant Librarian to BMr Jim Bearman in the early 60s, in L Block East barrack, but Louis Schmid was long gone, as I never heard of him while I was serving. I came across B/Mr Dave Ivemy in Vanguard in 1953. Basil Mindham was a bass- player trained soldier in “B” (Boys`) Company at Burford in 1948-9. Terry Freestone. |
I
just find the whole subject fascinating and realise the need ever more
to recall and record things as they were at the time; mundane stuff such
as the hours spent every evening cleaning polishing, etc, as well as the
routine we used to undergo as Boys. It occurs to me further to my last note you have attached about the Schmids, that modern viewers might read the date on the board,viz: 79 Squad Passed for Duty 27-7-42 as meaning all the people then went off to sea. Such was not the case; Ken has told me he joined on 1 Feb 1942; 79 squad would then have spent the next 5 months doing their basic RNSM training, i.e. drill, PT, quite a lot of school lessons, Wednesday afternoons at sport, but probably very little practical music This date 27 July 1942 would then have heralded the Passing for Duty of the members into the general Boys Company of 200-300 all concentrating on attaining an acceptable standard by the age of 17 and a half on the standard instrumental categories needed to make up ships bands between 12 and 16, few ships had many more. Ken went off to his first ship in February 1945 with a band under B/Mr Vic Hardy for the new aircraft carrier GLORY, the majority of the band stayed together until October 1947. This ship sailed for the Far East to join the British Pacific Fleet assembling to join the Yanks on the final assault on the home islands of Japan, which no-one expected to be other than an extremely bloody showdown. Fortunately, the dropping of the two atomic bombs in August obviated that and probably saved countless scores of thousands of Allied lives. A commission of 2 years and 10 months was nothing particularly unusual in that era. Most of the remaining years were spent repatriating surviving PoWs (guests of the Emperor !) to Canada and New Zealand. Terry Freestone. |