…AND THE BAND PLAYED ON

Bandmaster Harry Johnson
Bandmaster Harry Johnson

During the very early part of the war, the bands of the British Army realised that their raison d’etre was changing… their main function was no longer leading parades of troops through nearby towns or playing at military tattoos. They came to recognise they were there to add a little light relief and entertainment to what promised to be a very long and very unpleasant war.

The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) Band was in the forefront of this development and, by 1940, it had put together a very formidable and professional variety orchestra. Whether by luck or design I don’t know but my father, Bandsman Harry Johnson, was very successful in bringing into his band a group of brilliant musicians who had been leading lights in the civilian musical world before the outbreak of hostilities.

I remember some of their names:

• Oscar Grasso – anyone who remembers the beautiful music of Victor Sylvester and his orchestra will recall the wonderful violin playing.

• Arthur Wilkinson – a leading composer and arranger and, I seem to recall, was particularly well-known as a jazz trumpeter.

• Wolf Philips – played a lovely trombone.
• ‘Shako’ Sharpies – was the

band’s drummer. I don’t know where he got the nickname ‘Shako’ (a type of army hat), maybe it was something to do with his being as bald as a badger!

By the time of the Dunkirk evacuation, the RAMC Band was ready to bring a little much-needed entertainment and light relief to the demoralised troops who had just escaped the fearsome Nazi trap in France.

Elizabeth Parry brews up a cuppa during a rest stop in the Iraqi desert
Elizabeth Parry brews up a cuppa during a rest stop in the Iraqi desert

I remember concerts given on Twesledown Race-course, near the RAMC Depot at Crookham in Hampshire, where tens of thousands of
troops were in tented encampments. There were Moroccan Ghoums in their magnificent French Colonial uniforms mixed with British squaddies who were near naked, having stripped off their uniforms to swim out to the fleet of little ships waiting in the Channel to bring them home to safety -and to fight another day.

Probably the most popular part of those concerts was the show put on by ‘The Two Eileens’, a pair of lovely ATS girls who did a very creditable rendering of the hits made famous by the Andrews Sisters.

After Dunkirk, the band was continually on the go, playing all over the south of England and particularly at military hospitals to raise the morale of the wounded during the grim winter of 1940/41.

The Garrison Theatre at Crookham was the scene of many variety concerts in which amateur talent was invited from the audience. My mother dreaded the act put on-by one soldier – he would eat razor blades, light bulbs, NAAFI cups and drinking glasses with his mouth so close to the microphone that every ghastly crunch was amplified to a nauseating level!

My dad loathed military music… which was pretty good for an army Band Master! But he loved classical orchestral music and, about once a month, he would put on a classical music concert at Crookham which would normally pull in an audience of around fifty.

Much to my father’s chagrin, however, jazz concerts put on by trumpeter Arthur Wilkinson and a small group of enthusiasts were always a sell-out,
turning away hundreds at the door!

Anyone who had any doubts in those dark days as to whether Britain would eventually vanquish its enemies needed only to attend one of my Dad’s concerts and hear the audience sing Land of Hope and Glory to be assured of the final outcome. At the ripe old age of nine, the hairs on the back of my neck danced a jig as they do today at the memory of Britains finest hour and the spirit which kept the flames of freedom burning brightly.

In 1942, the RAMC Band had the kind of good fortune that normally only happens in Hollywood musicals. It found a star.

Her name was Elizabeth Parry – a tall, blonde, young and beautiful English rose with the singing voice of an angel.

Sir Harry Lauder and the RAMC Band in their concert uniforms at the Garrison Theatre, Aldershot, in 1940.
Sir Harry Lauder and the RAMC Band in their concert uniforms at the Garrison Theatre, Aldershot, in 1940.

It was love at first sight – not only with the band but also with the audiences. Miss Parry was everything that young soldiers far from home dreamed of and thought of as epitomising England. And far from home the RAMC Band and Elizabeth Parry – now given the catchy title of ‘30Men and a Girl’- were headed.

In 1943, ‘30 Men and a Girl’ sailed for the Middle East to bring their polished, sophisticated, professional show to the troops in some of the harshest and most remote parts of Persia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.

British troops guarding the oil pipelines of the Levant were knocked out by the fact that a top-quality variety show -including a real English girl! -would risk life and limb to bring them entertainment so far from home.

Risk life and limb they did. I can remember my dad telling me that the convoy he was on going through the Med was the first to be attacked by the Luftwaffe’s new wire-guided Henschel 293 flying bombs. A troopship next to the one he was on was hit and went down in minutes with horrifying loss of life.

On their return from the Middle East, the RAMC Band and my father were selected in 1944 for a task that many would consider to be the ultimate achievement for a military band.

The RAMC orchestra was to become the nucleus of The Army Orchestra. The idea was that my father could select (enlist!) any musician in any British Army Band to supplement the RAMC band musicians to form an orchestra of seventy of the top musicians in Great Britain at that time.

So my father’s love of classical music was eventually to come to fruition that few musical directors would even dream of.

The Army Orchestra was magnificent! Its main task was to record a series of concerts for broadcasting over the British Forces Radio Networks throughout the world.

The ‘Two Eileens ’ and the RAMC Orchestra entertain the troops of the BEF after their return from France via Dunkirk.
The ‘Two Eileens ’ and the RAMC Orchestra entertain the troops of the BEF after their return from France via Dunkirk.

One series was given over to the music of different parts of the United Kingdom with a commentary by a famous personality native to the area for each district. I recall that Sir
Harry Lauder was the voiceover for the Scottish sequence and I believe Barbara Mullen did the Northern Ireland commentary.

The Army Orchestra was the first ever to play The London Fantasia by Ralph Vaughn Williams. While this marvellous work was played on British Forces Radio around the world, it was banned in England until after the war. Why? Because the sounds of the air raid sirens as created by the massed strings of the Army Orchestra was so realistic it was feared it would cause panic in the streets.

Having served some thirty years in the army, Band Master Harry Johnson chose to take his demob at the end of the war with a pension of six shillings and threepence a day!

He firmly believed he had proved himself to be a consummate, talented and highly-pro-fessional artist in the area of music which he loved so dearly – classical.

He thought the civilian musical world would be waiting for suchproven talent.

But it was not to be.

An ex-army Bandmaster just didn’t fit into the post-war civilian musical milieu. My Dad died in 1949, aged 46, before the advent of the tape-recorder made it feasible to prepare a musical memorial of his work.

But I am sure there must still be many – like me – who have fond memories of the beautiful music and great entertainment created by The Army Orchestra, ‘30 Men and a Girl’- and BM Harry Johnson.

MauriceJohnson

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…AND THE BAND PLAYED ON

Bandmaster Harry Johnson
Bandmaster Harry Johnson

During the very early part of the war, the bands of the British Army realised that their raison d’etre was changing… their main function was no longer leading parades of troops through nearby towns or playing at military tattoos. They came to recognise they were there to add a little light relief and entertainment to what promised to be a very long and very unpleasant war.

The Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC) Band was in the forefront of this development and, by 1940, it had put together a very formidable and professional variety orchestra. Whether by luck or design I don’t know but my father, Bandsman Harry Johnson, was very successful in bringing into his band a group of brilliant musicians who had been leading lights in the civilian musical world before the outbreak of hostilities.

I remember some of their names:

• Oscar Grasso – anyone who remembers the beautiful music of Victor Sylvester and his orchestra will recall the wonderful violin playing.

• Arthur Wilkinson – a leading composer and arranger and, I seem to recall, was particularly well-known as a jazz trumpeter.

• Wolf Philips – played a lovely trombone.
• ‘Shako’ Sharpies – was the

band’s drummer. I don’t know where he got the nickname ‘Shako’ (a type of army hat), maybe it was something to do with his being as bald as a badger!

By the time of the Dunkirk evacuation, the RAMC Band was ready to bring a little much-needed entertainment and light relief to the demoralised troops who had just escaped the fearsome Nazi trap in France.

Elizabeth Parry brews up a cuppa during a rest stop in the Iraqi desert
Elizabeth Parry brews up a cuppa during a rest stop in the Iraqi desert

I remember concerts given on Twesledown Race-course, near the RAMC Depot at Crookham in Hampshire, where tens of thousands of
troops were in tented encampments. There were Moroccan Ghoums in their magnificent French Colonial uniforms mixed with British squaddies who were near naked, having stripped off their uniforms to swim out to the fleet of little ships waiting in the Channel to bring them home to safety -and to fight another day.

Probably the most popular part of those concerts was the show put on by ‘The Two Eileens’, a pair of lovely ATS girls who did a very creditable rendering of the hits made famous by the Andrews Sisters.

After Dunkirk, the band was continually on the go, playing all over the south of England and particularly at military hospitals to raise the morale of the wounded during the grim winter of 1940/41.

The Garrison Theatre at Crookham was the scene of many variety concerts in which amateur talent was invited from the audience. My mother dreaded the act put on-by one soldier – he would eat razor blades, light bulbs, NAAFI cups and drinking glasses with his mouth so close to the microphone that every ghastly crunch was amplified to a nauseating level!

My dad loathed military music… which was pretty good for an army Band Master! But he loved classical orchestral music and, about once a month, he would put on a classical music concert at Crookham which would normally pull in an audience of around fifty.

Much to my father’s chagrin, however, jazz concerts put on by trumpeter Arthur Wilkinson and a small group of enthusiasts were always a sell-out,
turning away hundreds at the door!

Anyone who had any doubts in those dark days as to whether Britain would eventually vanquish its enemies needed only to attend one of my Dad’s concerts and hear the audience sing Land of Hope and Glory to be assured of the final outcome. At the ripe old age of nine, the hairs on the back of my neck danced a jig as they do today at the memory of Britains finest hour and the spirit which kept the flames of freedom burning brightly.

In 1942, the RAMC Band had the kind of good fortune that normally only happens in Hollywood musicals. It found a star.

Her name was Elizabeth Parry – a tall, blonde, young and beautiful English rose with the singing voice of an angel.

Sir Harry Lauder and the RAMC Band in their concert uniforms at the Garrison Theatre, Aldershot, in 1940.
Sir Harry Lauder and the RAMC Band in their concert uniforms at the Garrison Theatre, Aldershot, in 1940.

It was love at first sight – not only with the band but also with the audiences. Miss Parry was everything that young soldiers far from home dreamed of and thought of as epitomising England. And far from home the RAMC Band and Elizabeth Parry – now given the catchy title of ‘30Men and a Girl’- were headed.

In 1943, ‘30 Men and a Girl’ sailed for the Middle East to bring their polished, sophisticated, professional show to the troops in some of the harshest and most remote parts of Persia, Iraq, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon.

British troops guarding the oil pipelines of the Levant were knocked out by the fact that a top-quality variety show -including a real English girl! -would risk life and limb to bring them entertainment so far from home.

Risk life and limb they did. I can remember my dad telling me that the convoy he was on going through the Med was the first to be attacked by the Luftwaffe’s new wire-guided Henschel 293 flying bombs. A troopship next to the one he was on was hit and went down in minutes with horrifying loss of life.

On their return from the Middle East, the RAMC Band and my father were selected in 1944 for a task that many would consider to be the ultimate achievement for a military band.

The RAMC orchestra was to become the nucleus of The Army Orchestra. The idea was that my father could select (enlist!) any musician in any British Army Band to supplement the RAMC band musicians to form an orchestra of seventy of the top musicians in Great Britain at that time.

So my father’s love of classical music was eventually to come to fruition that few musical directors would even dream of.

The Army Orchestra was magnificent! Its main task was to record a series of concerts for broadcasting over the British Forces Radio Networks throughout the world.

The ‘Two Eileens ’ and the RAMC Orchestra entertain the troops of the BEF after their return from France via Dunkirk.
The ‘Two Eileens ’ and the RAMC Orchestra entertain the troops of the BEF after their return from France via Dunkirk.

One series was given over to the music of different parts of the United Kingdom with a commentary by a famous personality native to the area for each district. I recall that Sir
Harry Lauder was the voiceover for the Scottish sequence and I believe Barbara Mullen did the Northern Ireland commentary.

The Army Orchestra was the first ever to play The London Fantasia by Ralph Vaughn Williams. While this marvellous work was played on British Forces Radio around the world, it was banned in England until after the war. Why? Because the sounds of the air raid sirens as created by the massed strings of the Army Orchestra was so realistic it was feared it would cause panic in the streets.

Having served some thirty years in the army, Band Master Harry Johnson chose to take his demob at the end of the war with a pension of six shillings and threepence a day!

He firmly believed he had proved himself to be a consummate, talented and highly-pro-fessional artist in the area of music which he loved so dearly – classical.

He thought the civilian musical world would be waiting for suchproven talent.

But it was not to be.

An ex-army Bandmaster just didn’t fit into the post-war civilian musical milieu. My Dad died in 1949, aged 46, before the advent of the tape-recorder made it feasible to prepare a musical memorial of his work.

But I am sure there must still be many – like me – who have fond memories of the beautiful music and great entertainment created by The Army Orchestra, ‘30 Men and a Girl’- and BM Harry Johnson.

MauriceJohnson

More Stories

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