The major events for 1977 are listed in the Officer’s Handbook as:-

 The actual dates I have gleaned from Joan’s diary. There is no mention of Market Harborough, but there is of:-

1978

The Official list is:-

And also from Joan’s diaries I find the following,

I can find no mention of Lyme Park or Market Bosworth, and I think the dates in the official lists must be wrong.

I have very little documentation or photographs of this period, and memory is fickle, as we shall see.

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Whitehall Parade

 We made the press with this one

Coombe Abbey 1977

 This was the second of three musters at this site organised and run by my son Dave and the Coventry Lunsfords. The first one a three day Battle over the Easter weekend, and it was bitterly cold with snow. So cold, in fact, that they built a huge fire at the guard tent and our Sergeant, a Coventry Lunsford named Lloyd, fell asleep too near the flames, and next morning the rubber soles of his boots had melted away.

This one was completely different in that it was warm and sunny

There was a long winding path from camp site  to battle field, through woods and shrubberies, and one of the Coventry Lunsfords had the bright idea of persuading Coventry Council, who owned the site, to fund some displays along this path--the first time I remember living history being suggested. A big battlefield, and the RA far away at the beginning and refusing to move. I took Lunsfords out as a skirmish party to try and get a bit of action going.

Mattishall.

 This one is well documented, but personally I remember nothing because I was working in Scotland at the time, and Joan records in her diary that we were on Skye on that day!

Farrington

 This was apparently a one day event. I think it must have been at Farrington Gurney near Midsommer Norton in Somerset, because Joan records that we went on to Taunton afterwards.

I remember one event in that part of the world that could possibly have been this one. We were supposed be the principal attraction in the town fete, joining in a massive parade through the Town, and having a small skirmish in the market square. We waited for ages on the outskirts of the town, and were at last taken on a route march for a couple of miles only to return to our start up point. It turned out that this was only to keep us occupied until the organisers got the parade sorted out and underway a couple of hours late.

When we did finally reach the market square there was no time for our display, and the whole event was very disappointing.

Lyme Park, Disley

 This was a three day muster over the special bank holiday to celebrate the Queen’s Silver Jubilee. June 6^th was also our wedding anniversary, and we treated ourselves to a posh hotel instead of the normal B&B.

The battle took place in a steep sided narrow valley, a considerable distance from the campsite. Across the bottom end of the valley was a wood, behind a high stone wall, and I think that the script envisaged this wall as being the wall of a local town being attacked by the Parliamentarians. I had to take Lunsfords into the valley as an advance party—possibly we were supposed to be the garrison or something, it is all very vague. But what is quite clear is that on the Monday we had just got into place in the valley when there was a sudden short and very severe thunderstorm. We were a very wet body of troops when the rest of the army arrived in lovely sunshine.

Market Bosworth

 Another Coventry Lunsford effort, I imagine. There was a big house that had been turned into a hospital, and we got accommodation with a woman calling herself Lady Dixie, who claimed to be a descendant of the owners of the hall, and who was living in what had been the Dower House.

Since writing that, I have picked up this bit of information from the web

In 1608, an elegant manor house - Bosworth Hall - was built by Sir Beaumont Dixie and the family occupied it for generations. Situated in elegant parkland it was later a hospital but is now a luxurious hotel.

So my memory on that one wasn’t too bad.

 Lady Dixie had turned an annexe into a self contained flat, and there was a large living room big enough to hold all the Army Council and other meetings—very luxurious.

Lady Dixie wasn’t really her Ladyship at all, but she was carrying on a long running campaign to enable her to take the title that had fallen into abeyance when her father died and there was no male heir—I often wonder how she got on.

Of the battle itself I remember nothing. The diary records “Good battle, Hywel-hospital”, and that calls to mind the image of a pub on the corner of a crossroads. There was a narrow pavement, with extensive guard rails on all four corners, and one lad, climbing over this rail, fell and cut his head open and was carted off to hospital in Coventry. Now whether this was Hywell, or whether Hywell was hurt on the battle field I do not remember, but I do remember a soldier turning up just before closing time with his head all bandaged, he having discharged himself from Hospital and hitched out to the pub. No way was a Lunsford going to miss the party!

Frome

 Joan and I had booked into a pub/hotel in the centre of Frome. What a lovely old country town we thought when we arrived. We were somewhat surprised when the landlord told us that they were expecting trouble over the weekend because of the forthcoming Battle. We explained our involvement in said Battle, and that there was nothing to fear from our people. Apparently it wasn’t us they were afraid of but their own youth who had a reputation for extreme violence and unlawfulness. Now it happened that one member of the society was making his way back to the campsite, alone, when he came across a group of the local yobs wrecking his car, and I mean wrecking it, breaking the windows, slashing the tyres and so on. When he remonstrated they started to attack him, so he grabbed the nearest thing to hand, a metal fence pin, and lashed out with it.

He put the yobs to rout, but unfortunately not before one of them got a blow on the head, with the usual outcome that our lad, the victim, got done for GBH, whilst the assailants got off Scot free. We had several meetings with the police, (who were sympathetic, it was the magistrates who were weak,) and in the end we agreed to confine everybody in costume to the camp site. Fortunately there was a big beer tent, and the entertainment laid on was the popular West Country folk singer, Fred Wedlock, so we had no further trouble.

Of the battle itself I only have the memory of three ex Bristol Lunsfords, who had gone over to the RA with Mike Warman, asking if they could join us for the day, so I had three bright red costumes in a sea of bluecoats.

And why do I clearly see a line of electricity poles across the middle of the battlefield?

Shibden Park, Halifax

 Now I am lost. I can remember staying in a pub overlooking the railway station—much changed since I boarded a train there for Italy during WW2—and a sympathetic landlord with flexible hours, but of the battle or the site, nothing!

It could have been the one I described earlier as Lyme Park, or it could have been another one that we did in the North where we were skirmishing in the woods for hours—more like a campaign than a battle really. Wherever this one was, I remember coming across one of our chaps who had been tied to a tree by the roundheads. Good job we found him. He had been there for some time, and could have been there till this day otherwise.

Cheriton

 I think that this was an RIE by Winchesters. Lunsfords were not invited, on the basis that we were too scruffy for a garrison regiment. Then for some reason it was upgraded to a major and they would have been glad of our participation. Such is life!

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 And now we come to the banquet season.

 Just a few Norfolk Lunsfords went to the Pennyman’s do in York. This was held in a mediaeval hall in the town centre. Quite interesting but not as boisterous as a Lunsford banquet, and when they ran out of beer early on we retired over the road to the ancient pub where we were staying

 The Norfolk Banquet was once again held at Park Farm. There was a lot of work involved in getting ready for this do and it mostly fell on Big John, our standard bearer and myself. I used to take the day off on Friday, borrow the company van, and we would drive to Yarmouth to collect trestle tables, get benches from the scouts in Norwich and set the whole thing up.

 Fortunately I have a few pictures of this event. I had just made a speech off a balcony in which I had told them that John and I were fed up with doing it all ourselves, and in future they could do it themselves. I didn’t really mean it, but as it happened it turned out to be a prophetic speech, as you will see.

I have talked about the wig before, and this was probably the last time I wore that wig to a function.

For the Norfolk Banquets we always had a formal high table, and when we employed outside caterers we had a centre piece of a boar’s head to replicate the Lunsford Coat of Arms. For some reason, during my after dinner speech, I held up the platter with the head on it, and showed it round the room, swinging from right to left. Unfortunately, when I stopped swinging the head didn’t, and it finished up in Beryl’s lap,  gravy, grease and all!

 The Nunney Revel was a small do. Joan and I went to support them, because as you have heard, half of them were ex Lunsfords. A good little party, and at least some of the weekend was spent in the famous George Inn at Norton St. Philips

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 Now we come to 1978, and on 2^nd January, just as I was leaving for work after the holiday, I got a phone call from a friend of mine:-

Hello, David, are you still interested in an overseas job?

No, never have been. I saw all I want of overseas during the war, thanks, and it’s England for me from now on.

Pity, this job is in Kuwait, and it pays………(and he mentioned a figure two and a half times my then salary) and it’s tax free

I’ve changed my mind, I’m interested !

I got that job, so of those items listed for 1978 I can only comment on the early ones.

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Whitehall 1978

 Joan’s diary says “poured with rain all day” and “good attendance”.

She doesn’t mention it, but in those early days we often went to Mill Hill in the afternoon and had a drill session/skirmish. It made the trip to London worthwhile for those from the provinces.

Later on we would organise the AGM for the KA to coincide with the parade, but I think this must have been after I moved to London, because I got involved in finding the venues.

Oxborough training weekend

 There was a chap in Norwich called Chris Llewellyn. He was a member of the Knot, and one day way way back he had invited half a dozen mates round for a 17C banquet. This was where Dee and Plunket first got involved with the knot, so in some ways you could say that Lunsfords really was conceived at that party.

Chris, as a young man, had inherited a fair sum of money, which was spent on various ventures, one of which was the Bedingfield Arms pub at Oxborough. For those unfamiliar with Norfolk, Oxborough Hall is a wonderful moated manor house, and so we had a good venue for a training weekend and a little skirmish on the village green. Chris was an active member for some years, but I am told that he died in early 2002

C.O.W. meeting, Saturday 28^th Feb

 I mention this one to show how times have not changed. The meeting was somewhere off the King’s Road in London and was supposed to finish at 6.00pm.The car was parked in a multi-storey park which closed at 7.00pm. The meeting was still going on when Dave and I excused ourselves and rushed to the car park five minutes before seven. Unfortunately it had closed early and the car was locked in till 8.00am on Monday. We stayed the weekend with a member in Hampstead, and a good time was had by all, although it was a bit difficult to explain all this when one turned up for work in Norwich on the Monday afternoon.

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 And that’s it!

 On 10^th April I went to work in Kuwait for four years. Son Dave became CO of the regiment. I offered my resignation, but for some reason the COW would not accept it. I did get back for one months leave each year, and tried to arrange this so that I always made one major muster.

Joan stayed on in England for another six months, and did do most of the musters. It is amazing to read her diary and see how the Regiment rallied round. Hardly a day goes by when she does not record some member or other staying for the night or taking her out. A wonderful spirit!

And I never did have to organise a banquet again!