DLI Buglers - Brian is 5th from the right
1st BTN DURHAM LIGHT INFANTRY 1953-55
As Remembered By Brian Holmes
About 20 of us were flown into RAF Fayid in 1953 to join the 1st Battalion of the Durham Light Infantry, who had just been ‘dropped off’ in the Suez Canal Zone following their Korean War tour of duty where they had served with great distinction. At Fanara Camp, the following week or so was a shock to the system, for while our respective documents and appraisals were taking place, several of us were detailed to take part in a latrine-hole digging exercise, still kitted-out in our thick BD clobber, but it did save us from bad sunburn so I suppose we had to be grateful for that and, of course, we were all regular contributors to those toilets in the forthcoming months and years when dysentery occasionally paid you a visit! However, we were soon to get acclimatized to the heat and the flies and, dressed in newly issued khaki kit, we were ready to get started on our first regimental assignments in our stand and new surroundings,
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DLI Buglers - Brian is 5th from the right |
I had been fortunate to meet up with an old acquaintance from Birtley, Harry Sanson, now Corporal and CO’s bugler, and organizer of the Bugle Section, made up mostly of regular soldiers, just out of Korea. “When you do your interview with the Adjutant, tell him you know me and that you’ve had some bugling experience” (which I hadn’t of course and didn’t even know one end of the bugle from the other) This favour (a nepotism first) went well with the boss, I’m glad to say, and in next to no time I was learning quickly and in no time doing Regimental calls.
Cookhouse and pay calls were, I recall, the most popular (for
obvious reasons!), Reveille could be met with some hostility (for obvious reasons
as well!) and Jankers Parade (always at the double) was another call which could
make some of the lads sweat a bit. Usually it was the same regular faces who
turned up! Of course, as well as the bread and butter daily bugling duties around
the regimental perimeter, we had to perform at weekly Officer Mess evenings,
doing bugle fanfares in our white or green dress uniforms for visiting senior
officers from adjacent regiments. But really top spot on our duty bugling agenda
was to be on the parade square with 1st Battalion DLI Band, who were simply
brilliant.
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Because of our slightly different occupational situation in the regiment, apart from our other daily guard duties with the Infantry riflemen of B, C, D, S and my own company HQ (no A Coy), we also worked fairly closely with the Regimental Police within the confines of the guardroom, who had to sort out any potential troublemakers. Within the guardroom confines there was an old style clink, in which the naughtier lads would be kept (temporarily) perhaps to await a forthcoming court martial offence, eventually to arrive at Moascar Garrison (the glasshouse!) for a period of time. However, those sort of cases were minimal and concerned mostly men who had some old score to settle and then later on it would all be forgotten about the next time they met one another in the NAFFI for a couple of Stella lager beers!
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We also had to perform regular security guarding and patrolling tasks. Usually these extra-curricular activities were carried out on a spot check basis and could entail you having to accompany an armed NCO on a night patrol and being driven into the nearby Sweetwater Canal villages where things could get a bit scary to say the least, especially when you had to get out of the vehicle to do a foot patrol with a guy who maybe had already had a few pints before going out, and was also feeling a bit trigger happy – which could make you wonder whether you had chosen the right vocation! We were also expected to do a number of (fully armed) perimeter patrols, around filtration plants in our vicinity, with large German Doberman dogs and handlers.
As fit and young red-blooded squaddies, we also made good use of the few recreational
periods that we were allowed to take part in during our two year stint in the
sand and the sun - the most popular pastime being swimming at nearby Fayid Village
in the cordoned-off area of the Great Bitter Lake but I think it is fair to
say that the 1st Battalion of the DLI that we served with in 1953-55 must have
out-boxed, out-footballed, out-played (and certainly out-dutied!) everybody
else in the Middle East. We even managed to produce a championship winning hockey
team in the shape of the Regimental Band. What a successful winning combination
we were.
