Notes From the archives: 2LI Buglers & Platoon Competitions, by Martyn Horton, Light Infantry Archivist
In our last newsletter we dusted off an old photo of soldiers from 1LI in Korea in the late 1970s. We had a wonderful response from those actually featured in the shot, so thank you. (If you missed it, you can view it here).
In the spirit of equality, this month I have picked two photographs from the vast collection supplied by 2LI. When compared to all the other battalions, 2LI, has three or four times the number of images to trawl through.
Both photographs were taken in 1988 when the battalion was based in Deilinghofen, West Germany, having recently returned from a tour of West Belfast in 1987. The two images contrast nicely some of the aspects of battalion life at the time; the first shows winners of the bugles competition including the late ‘Tom’ Brown. Competition to be either the commanding officer’s, the adjutant’s or the RSM’s bugler was fierce and only after the buglers had been inspected and tested were the three winners decided.
Our second photograph shows 14 platoon D company, the winners of the platoon competition. 1988’s competition was, as I recall, a particularly wet event with 15 platoon, my platoon, not doing particularly well but having a really good laugh in the process. 14 platoon under Sjt. Paul ‘Ambrose’ Rice rose to the challenge and our photo shows them after receiving the Bevan Bucket from the CO Lt. Col Parker. I can remember most of the faces but some names have been lost in the mist of time. This is where we’d like help to name all those pictured, so any of the ’old and bold’ pictured or anyone who was in battalion at the time please get in touch and name names. My aim is to catalogue all the photographs in the archive and put names to faces, so any help is gratefully received.
If you recognise anyone, or have anything interesting to tell us about these photos or their content, please get in touch, we’d love to hear from you. Email info@bodminkeep.org
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