N o .125
T he T rusty S ervant
Vox Senum
Inspired by Win Coll Music…
Charles Orange (K, 55-60): James
Macdonald reminds us (TS 124) of Mr
Jackson and his teaching the saxophone,
wind instruments and the Wind Band.
Does he remember the small smoke-
filled room in which he taught? I think
he believed that if he smoked a pipe he
would not then get a cold.
Michael Pike (G, 54-60): I thought you
might be interested to see a photograph
of the Phil’s House Orchestra in 1958:
it has six of Mr Jackson’s pupils and the
leader of the orchestra is Sir Thomas
Beecham’s grandson John, who had
to show me how to play the timpani
‘off-beat’ in the Pomp and Circumstance
March that we were playing. Playing the
double bass is Francis ‘Buckie’ Cowan,
son of the Master of Music. Needless to
say, with such talented musicians to lead
us and housemaster Francis King, who
was extremely keen, we won the music
cups for a number of years.
Andrew Gordon Clark (G, 48-52): a brief
addendum to Patrick Stables (TS 124)
on the 1951 Messiah (when surely Glee
Club were reinforced by Music Club, or
vice versa). At the blowing of the fuse (I
imagined a great strip of lead, about two
inches wide, melting away), the organ,
presumably having electric action, cut
out cleanly; the chorus quickly subsided
into a shambles; the orchestra, how-
ever, went on playing as if nothing had
happened, until HMH tapped his music
stand to stop them. It was five years
before I sang in a finished performance.
John Roskill (D, 48-53): further to Patrick
Stables’ memory of Glee Club’s 1951 per-
formance of Messiah, I too was amongst
those singing when the lights went out,
but for me the abiding memory was that,
for a few precious seconds before the first
cigarette-lighter flame was struck, the
only light penetrating the darkness was
that of the moon through the stained
glass of the West Window. Magic.
15
Three OWs in the same battalion…
On noting that Christopher Van der Noot
had written (TS124) that it was unusual
for any regiment to have three OWs serving
in the same battalion, quick as a flash
Brigadier Andrew Myrtle (D, 46-51) wrote
back: Not that unusual, sir! Lieutenant
Colonel DW McConnel (I, 26-31) was
CO 1 st Bn The King’s Own Scottish
Borderers in the 50s with me as his
Regimental Signals Officer and later
his Adjutant, and Major AM Thorburn
(A, 33-38) as a Company Commander
in Malaya and Singapore. All three
played for the Free Foresters in a match
in Singapore with Captain HE Webb
RAMC (G, 40-45) playing in the home
team.
Major Tom Bird as ADC to Jumbo
Wilson…
Simon Toynbee (D, 57-62): Lady Wilson -
‘The Alligator’ (TS124) - was a fearsome
beast. The wonderful Countess of
Ranfurly, whose husband the Earl was a
POW, was Jumbo’s private secretary in
the Middle East and he asked her to go
to Washington, which she was happy to
do. Lady Wilson got it into her head that
Jumbo and the Countess were having an
affair, which was absurd, but Hermione
was forbidden to go. She wrote a very
amusing account of her war life called
To War with
Whitaker,
who was the
Earl’s batman
and looked
exactly like Mr
Pickwick. It
would be hard
to find a more
unmilitary
figure. Well
worth buying if
you can find it
on Amazon.