Mark Jango Warren

Mark Warren was born in 1945, he originated from the Northampton area, where he met his future wife Pat. He joined the Royal Marines Band at RM Deal in June 1961 as a cornet player..

Better known as Jango Warren, he completed training in J Wing in April 1963 and was given a short draft to HMS Ganges, leaving in July 1964.
Jango and Pat Simson were married in Brixworth Northamptonshire in August/September 1964, before he moved on to the Band of HM Royal Marines C in C Western Fleet based at Chatham.

Jango then returned to Deal in preparation for sea-time with a newly formed band onboard HMS Eagle.. he was the owner of a Heinkel bubble car and went for a jolly to Ramsgate in it one evening with Paddy Higginson and Ginge Deary... Paddy, who was in the front decided he wanted to comb his hair and turned the rear-view mirror to admire himself. He and Jango got into a bit of a tussle over the mirror.. Jango subsequently took his eye off the road and they collided into a traffic island. The Heinkel rebounded and Paddy was ejected from the front opening door tearing his suit in the process. The low axle was bent by hitting the kerb of the island but Jango managed to get the car back to Deal.

He travelled on the Tiger in either August or September 1964 from Plymouth on a trip circumnavigating around South America and in 1965 he was on a grand tour of the United States.

Jango was afforded the luxury of an overseas posting with the Royal Marines Band St Angelo in Malta around -1966/67.. Runs ashore on the island were commonplace for the band.. Jango was card sharp... he was an expert player and earned many a beer showing card tricks. While he was stationed in Malta, it’s understood that Jango stated that he and Pat would both die together in a boat...
The Royal Marines Band left Malta in November 1967 when the then prime minister Dom Mintoff authorised the withdrawal of UK Military forces from the Island.

Jango was subsequently drafted to the Band of HM Royal Marines Britannia Royal Naval College at the beginning of 1968, where he gained a reputation as a superb trumpet and solo cornet player, Taff Ruffle remarked that Jango played the best Post Horn Gallop he’d ever heard.. he also excelled in the popular BRNC Dance Band of the early seventies.

Jango was an excitable character and mechanically minded... away from band duties, he would enjoy spinning around town with other lads from the band in his mini.. crashing on at least one occasion in Victoria Road and doing a runner! He enjoyed turning his hand to other various ventures... one particular project was building the BSA Gold Star sourcing out the original parts, the motorcycle was made by the company from 1938 to 1963. They were 350 cc and 500 cc single-cylinder four-stroke production motorcycles, known for being among the fastest bikes of the 1950’s. Jango later swapped his Gold Star for a Triumph Combination.
Taff also reflects with great memories and the laughs he, Bart and John Lusher had with Jango during their fishing/camping trips to Badgers Holt at Dartmeet, a popular tourist spot in the centre of Dartmoor.
In 1970.. he accompanied two other ranks on a twenty-five mile sponsored walk, raising £7 in the process for the charity Shelter.

Many of other bandies at the time would have secondary jobs to supplement their beer money, Jango joined some of the other lads working in the afternoons at a nearby daffodil farm, also potato picking and hay making..
Jango and Pat opened up a little shop in Victoria Road selling cigarettes and sweets.. next to where the former Woolworths shop used to be, Pat made her own fudge and pasties to sell in the shop too.
Jango was also good friends with Michael ‘Bart’ Bartholomew, he would always enjoy taking the mickey out of Barts’ old Rover 60 that he owned, referring to it as an old mans car, but he would often borrowed it to pick up stock for his shop, he would normally return it with a complete different look.
Bart always treated Pat like an older sister, she was a great character and one day in the shop.. a girl walked past that he liked the look of.. she kicked him out and told him not to come back in till he’d asked her out... the rest is history as they say and Mr & Mrs Bart have been married forty-eight years..

Jango & Pat went to live on a houseboat in Kingswear Creek named ‘Water Gypsy’, one day they lost their keys so had to wait for the tide to go out in order for them to go underneath the boat and come up through a hatch in the bedroom.
Pat unfortunately had a condition called ‘elephantiasis’, the enlargement and hardening of limbs or body parts due to tissue swelling. She also suffered with kidney problems and her life expectancy was only forty, her illness however didn’t prevent her from riding their motorbikes.

Jango teamed up with ginger haired crabber Edgar Holden in order to earn a living in the run up to his impending discharge on 9th April... unfortunately it never happened...
Musician Mark ‘Jango' Warren sadly died on 14th February 1972. They were crab fishing off the coast of Dartmouth. Mark aged 27, his wife Pat aged 32 and Edgar 28 who was the Skipper and the owner of the 38ft boat named ‘Dorothea’ all perished. The alarm was raised by Edgar’s wife after he failed to return home at Raleigh Close, the coastguard was informed and a search was instigated.
Engine failure was the apparent reason for the boat to crash onto rocks... the following day, wreckage of the blue coloured boat were sighted coming in with the tide at Newfoundland Cove near the mouth of the River Dart.

Police had to go and find Bart as the Jangos’ collie dog Dax would not let them on the boat.
Following the tragedy... Bart took on the role of looking after Dax and had to access the boat in the same way through the hatch to get to him..
Jangos’ kit was later auctioned off and £121 was raised by the Band & Ships Company.

The bodies of Jango and Edgar were never found.. missing presumed drowned, but Pats’ body was discovered on nearby Thurlstone Beach on 5th March.. nearly three weeks after the tragic event.
The coroner was unable to be certain of the cause of Pats death as her body was so badly decomposed, she was identified by her dentist from Dartmouth who was able to verify that it was her after matching her dental records.
The inquest into the death of Patricia Ileen Warren recorded an open verdict.
It is thought that a memorial service may have been held in Northampton.

RIP Jango, Pat and Edgar.

Paul Foley