I was recently handed by one of my sisters my father’s Army red book, (Regular Army Certificate of Service).
I knew my father had been in the Army, but being the youngest of seven children of which only five survived and my parents having me late in life I never really knew that much about his army career.
Only that he served in the 1st Battalion North Staffs Regimental band, had won the War medal and General Service medal and had at some time served overseas, the Sudan I think.
I don’t even remember what became of his medals (he probably sold them at some time when times were hard).
My father was music mad, he could play just about any instrument that he laid his hands on it was a natural ability.
My eldest sister Audrey played the piano and was a very accomplished player, my elder brother Ken was a drummer when he was younger but is now a keen home organist.
My mother Sara well she claimed that she could play “Bloody hell, with all that racket going on”.
My father tried in vain to get me to play the clarinet which was his favourite instrument, but I just made it sound like a banshee on heat. It caused no end of arguments that eventually created a rift between us.

So to spite him I joined an Army Cadet band at Booth Street drill hall in Stoke opposite the old Victoria ground football stadium, it was one hell of a walk from Bucknall to attend twice a week a six mile round trip.
There I learned to play the drums under tutorage of a half Chinese guy called Ray Young. The band itself was run by a chap called Bob Smith (Bob Smith was I think the North Staffs Regimental Band Drum Major & RSM many years before).
The band was originally the 1st North Staffs Army Cadet Force Band, later to be badged to the 16th / 5th The Queens Royal Lancers. Here we learned to read drum scores which was a rarity in those days. Our claim to fame was that the band played on the Victoria ground the day Sir Stanley Mathews came back from Playing for Blackpool to Play for Stoke.
It was at Booth Street drill hall that Derek Taylor the band master of the 16th / 5th Lancers, auditioned me for the regular army band with another lad by the name of Phillip Partington, who actually went to the Cambria Tanks Band instead of joining the 16th / 5th.
Derek had said when you’re old enough let me know if you wish to join up which, when I was I did.

During the thirteen years I served with the 16th /5th I made a name for myself as a good Hockey player playing regularly for the Regimental Team.
This was a game I really enjoyed and it was a bit of a surprise when I saw written in my father’s army book, “Clean & hard working has been with the drums, a useful footballer & Hockey Player.”
I never knew that my father played Hockey or if he knew that I did. Apparently he not only played Hockey for the North Staffs Regimental team but was also the Regimental football team's Goal keeper. I later found out that my father had a trial for the position of goal keeper for Walsall FC.
I have been informed that in the museum at Whittington Barracks he is on one of the Regimental football team’s photos, I must one day see if I can get a copy.

It has made me think how very strange it was that I should have mirrored my father’s Army career, and not to have known it.
I was never very close to him and we never really talked about much apart from arguing over music. I only ever once played music with him when he asked me to play in his old time dance band. Being a young bloke it was music which, at that at the time I hated, much preferring heavy metal or rock and roll.
His era being the thirties & forties playing with a well known local dance band called the “Modernairs Run by Dave Price from Abbey Houlton” his favourite piece on the Alto sax was “Red Roses for a Blue Lady” with a vibrato that made your teeth fallout.
Even more coincidences have come to light, I recently found out that my father served with the North Staffs Regimental band in Southern Ireland during the Sinn Fein uprising. Here that the band boys suffered injury from a booby trap, as they marched the regimental football team to a match in which my father was playing.
I also served during the troubles in Northern Ireland in 1972 and we were also to suffer from an ambush in which a member of the band was wounded.

My Father never really got to know how much my musical abilities had grown, and knowing this makes me realise how much was missing from that relationship. So I made myself a promise, a promise I have kept.
That was not to make the same mistake with any of my own children if they had any musical talent. That promise was to play music together without any parental pressure and leave a record of the event for posterity.
Hence my youngest daughter and I have made a CD-ROM of some of our favourite songs singing together for my wife Kay’s 50th birthday. It’s a CD-ROM that she cherishes, and used to play regularly in the car when she drove to work.
Hopefully this is something I can leave for my offspring who will know more of their father / grandfather, his career and his successes, than I did of my own father.

PS I have put two of the tracks from the CD below hope you enjoy them (remember I was 54 at the time no young rocker)