Drumming up support for the WCoMC Charitable Fund....

Liveryman Simon Chapman showcases the newly-trained marching drummers, using the kit the Company funded....

Liveryman Dr Simon Chapman is a man of many parts – a medical doctor and a company doctor in his several corporate governance roles, to say nothing of his role as Commandant (sounds intimidating but actually very much in keeping with the youth-focused, educational values of the Company!) of the South West London Army Cadet Corps.

During my year as Master – which seems a very long time ago now, I must say – Simon proposed that the Company’s Charitable Fund might fund the purchase of a set of marching drums for his Corps and my colleagues on the Charitable Fund Committee and I were delighted to accede to the request.

The rationale was that the marching band would add hugely to the activity of Simon’s unit, combining our Company’s interests in education and development of young people with an important musical component.

The drums were duly bought and then decorated in Unit colours after which they were formally “blessed” in a ceremony at the Corps annual camp 18 months ago. At that point the hard work started to train the drummers!

Melanie and I were honoured, on November 26 last year, to be invited by Colonel Chapman to his Regimental Dinner in the Officers’ Mess of the London Scottish Regiment in Horseferry Road to see the newly-trained drummers and their kit being formally welcomed into the unit.

The photos of the event in the Drill Hall at Horseferry Road show the cadets, their Drum Major and their Commandant at the drums’ first formal occasion.

I’m confident that these drums will stir the souls of these young drummers, and their marching listeners, to excel in an important area of military training and I hope that Company members will share my delight and satisfaction in having been able to make a real difference to the SW London Army Cadet Corps.

Past Master Geoff Llewellyn