CHANGED ITS TUNE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21980, 15 June 1933, Page 9

CHANGED ITS TUNE

A BRITISH REGIMENT Not often does a British infantry regiment change its special march, and the announcement that the Leicestershire Regiment has dropped “ Romaika ” in favour of “A Hunting Call,” a tune more suggestive of the county’s fame as a hunting centre, is the first official notification of this kind for some years. Since regiments adopted territorial designations in place of numerals over 50 years ago, most of them have kept as their marches old songs associated with their counties or districts, such as “The Lincolnshire Poacher ” of the Lincolnshire Regiment. Some regimental inarches, however, have less homely origins than these. The Border Regiment, for instance, combine with their own “ John Peel ” the march of the French 34th Infantry Regiment, the band parts of which, together with the French drummajor’s staff and the drums, were captured at Arroyo dea Molinog in 1811 by the Ist Battalion Border Regiment, then tlio 34th Foot.

The French revolutionary song “Ca Ira ” has been played by the West Yorkshires ns their quickstep ever since the day in 1704 when, as the 14th Foot, they recaptured a position from the French “to their own damned tune.” as their colonel put it. The War Office, a _ year nr two ago, with a view to an official publication on the subject, asked musical directors and bandmasters throughout the army to trace the origin of their regimental marches. The result has been the accumulation of a great deal of interesting historical evidence of the long association of certain tunes with particular battalions,'but in many cases the association is of such long standing that it is impossible to truce its origin. ,