8th Belfast HAA Photos 2

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8th Belfast HAA Regt. Band

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John Simpson - Jimmy McKittrick - ? - ? - Bob Biggerstaff - Jimmy Beggs - Sammy Olphert - Geo. Knowles

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8th Belfast H.A.A. Regt. Band

Jim Lennon, back row, 3rd from right

(front row) 1. ? 2. Bobby McQuiston 3. Jimmy McKittrick 4. ? 5. ? Biggerstaff 6. Ronnie Scott 7. Sammy Gowdy 8. Sidney Cowan 9. Bobby McCartney
middle top Bobby Morrison. middle centre ?
(back left) 1. Leonard Larkin? (standing left) 2. Sammy Larmour 3. Bobby Campbell 4. Lewis Houston 5. John Simpson 6. Sammy Watson 7. Jim Lennon 8. Sammy Alphort?
9. Geordie Bulla 10. Bobby Johnstone (standing right)

click here for pictures of Banner and Skins which are still in pretty good condition and were on display at Fernhill Museum until recently (I'm photographing them at the moment 16th August 2008)

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Pipers and all.
About 150 men were on parade, and proudest of all were the band of 15 pipers and drums who headed the contingent. Thirteen of the pipers never blew a note until they went to India, and the pipes they and their two "mentors" - Pipe Majors John Simpson and Herbert McCullough - played were all brought in the Punjab.
"Those Indian reeds gave us a lot of trouble at first," Pipe Major Simpson told a "Northern Whig" reporter afterwards, "but we mastered them and I think we're not bad now." "Not bad" is just the Army way of putting it. The tunes they played were "Bonnie Dundee," a great favourite, "Bon Awee" (the phonetic spelling the band gives to a French air they like) and the regimental march "The O'Neill's War March,"
At the City Hall the music was taken up by the combined bands of the Royal Ulster Rifles and the R.U.C., "who played the "ack-ackers" by with the quick march of the Royal Artillery, "The British Grenadiers." One of the tenor drums in the Burma band was played by an old Rifles man, who also served with the Inniskillings in the 36th (Ulster) Division in the 1914-1918 war. He is Gunner George Armstrong, who was "demobed" three months ago, and when he heard the band was to parade, came along to claim his old job at the drums.
Mace-pole with a history
There is a lot of history attached to the mace-pole carried by the drum-major. It is embellished with a series of Ulster "Red Hands," was made by the boys themselves, and included among its raw material a rice-bowl, the sleeve-arm of the cloth trailed by aeroplanes at target practice; an inkwell top and a 20 mm "ack-ack" bullet.
But none of this was known to the cheering crowds, who only knew they were hearing a hometown band with a difference playing really stirring music. Members of other Forces on parade - including a R.?A.F. "kiltie" band who would have stolen the show any other day - were not allowed past uncheered, but they knew it was the Belfast Regiment's day. They wouldn't have wanted it any different.

Belfast acclaims its H.A.A. Regiment 19.9.45
Belfast acclaimed the men from Burma on Saturday
Denied the opportunity of seeing the 8th (Belfast)
Heavy H.A. Regiment, R.A., march ceremonially through the streets when they arrived at the L.M.S. station two weeks ago, huge crowds lined the route of the Thanksgiving Savings Week parade from May's Market to the City Hall. They had one big purpose in mind. It was to give the Belfast chaps with the bronzed faces and the "digger hats" a real welcome, and cordons and wooden barriers could not hold the crowds when the men swung into view from May's Market, led by their Commanding Officer, Lieut-Colonel J. G. Cunningham, O.B.E.
Handshakes and pats on the back were showered on the marching soldiers. All the way up Chichester Street it was a case of "cead mile failte," and only the formality of the occasion at the City Hall prevented a demonstration there.

8th Belfast HAA Regt. RA
Pipes and Drums
23rd Battery - Madras 1945

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"The Twelfth" India 45 21st Hy.A.A. Battery Band, 8th (Belfast) H.A.A. Regt. R.A.

"The Twelfth" India 45, 22nd Hy.A.A. Battery R.A., 8th (Belfast) H.A.A. Regt. R.A.

"The Twelfth" India 45, 23rd Hy.A.A. Battery R.A., 8th (Belfast) H.A.A. Regt. R.A.

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8th Belfast HAA Regt. - Marching in Burma

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^
Jim Lennon
Durban South Africa