RUM, BUM and BACCY by Bernie Howard

Author:Bernie Howard
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780755216505
Publisher: MY Books
Published: 2015-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13 – The Bugler

At about seven o’clock in the morning two Scottish friends called Nick Whelan and Jock Strachan and I wandered into the China Fleet Club in Hong Kong. The bar was empty apart from a soldier sitting on his own. He had his cap and a bugle on the table in front of him. As he looked lonely we did the proper thing and joined him. He was pleased with this as he said he was “pissed off” and had been playing his bugle at some memorial and it had taken hours.

The draft Tiger beer in the Fleet Club was fantastic; ice cold with slithers of ice that melted on your tongue. Sixteen dollars to the pound and a pint was one dollar – how could you beat that? Anyway, we did justice to the rate of exchange and the great beer, cheered our new friend up and settled into a good session. About five in the evening he fell asleep with his head on the table, so on our way out we decided to relieve him of his cap and bugle. On the way back to our ship HMS Ajax the bugle was our first fascination, but no way could any of us get a noise out of it, never mind a tune. We blew it, banged it, kicked it but silence remained. Fed up with our musical talent, the cap now became our focus of attention and an argument ensued over who was to wear it. Back on board, the bugle got its attention back. Everyone in our messdeck had a go and then it did its rounds of the ship; eventually it found a player who bought it back to our messdeck where we must have heard Reveille a hundred times before he was told to “shut the fuck up”. The next day all hell broke loose as apparently the bugle was solid silver. It had been played in numerous famous battles. It was the Regimental Bugle and was insured for thousands of pounds. I was called to see my Divisional Officer who told me he knew the culprits, but if the bugle was intact and put in his cabin within the hour, that would be an end to the matter. The bugle was returned although it had more dents now than after all the great battles in which it had been played, but was intact. I later found out that the soldier had been picked up by the Red Caps, taken back to the Barracks and charged with improper dress (no cap) and the loss of the Regimental Bugle and received ninety days in detention. Sorry Mate!

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