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IT REALLY GOT ME THINKING |
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Anyone
wishing to acquire a copy of my book: "From Boy Bugler to Bugle
Major", My e-mail address is pgrtips@aol.com All
the very best to all serving and former members of the Buglers Branch.
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| [Editor] Tex Rickards has sent me a CD ROM with over 150 pages of his honest account of a career which spanned from joining as a young boy entrant and continuing through the decades to become a Senior NCO. I urge any of you (particularly the Corps of Drums section) to read his account. You can obtain a copy of it for your own reading by sending Tex an E-mail and he will surely send you a copy for the mere cost of the CD and postage. A commendable effort and a very interesting read. Well done Tex. |
A while ago I had a phone call from a former Drum Major, Royal Marines,
who I had served with and in later years had got to know as an equal.
He had phoned to tell me that a mutual friend had passed away and wanted
to know if I would be attending the funeral. As this sort of phone call
had happened a few times in the past when one of my old chums had passed
away and gone to that Massed Bands parade in the sky, I confirmed that
I would attend the funeral but, "It really got me thinking".
The reason it got me thinking more than anything else was because the
old chum who had passed away was none other than a former Bugle Major,
Royal Marines, by the name of 'Tex Rickard'. The only difference in
our surnames was that mine is finished off with 's' making me Rickards.
This still didn't stop some neighbours looking surprised to see me walking
around after reading the obituary in the local paper. Well…. since
that funeral I have been thinking quite a bit about the future and,
as we all know, "One thing to be sure of in life is that we are
all going to die sometime". So, with that in mind I have decided
to write a few chapters on my life. I think some of it is quite funny
and I hope it will at least prove to be interesting. My prime thought
is to make a recording of my life so that my adult children, and anyone
else who might be interested in my existence might read this in days
to come and get to know the life I have lead. If as a result of this
effort I hurt anyone's feelings I am sorry, but I will try to relate
how things happened and I will try to keep poetic licence to a minimum.
I make no apologies for the content, spelling or layout of what is to
follow as I did not have a very advanced education and as with most
things in my life, I taught myself