Addendum to last blog - Memory Lane

This blog will probably only make sense if you have read the previous one😉

There are some pieces of music that take me immediately back to a point in history…..the Frog Chorus is one of them and as it is such a bad song thought I ought to explain why I inflicted it on you in my last blog…


It is a tradition in the French Army that following Regimental Dinners the assembled Officers sing heroic songs often telling tales of former victories…(mainly very historical as they haven’t had many recently 😜).  When therefore we discovered at Sandhurst that our final exercise prior to Commissioning was going to be hosted by the Officer Cadets of the French École Militaire at Saint Cyr we decided in the best traditions of maintaining the ‘entente cordiale’, that we, the Officer Cadets of New College, should also learn a song which we could sing in response……. For no other reason than McCartney’s musical talent, we chose the Frog Chorus 😉.

The song was received as intended and following the formalities of dinner, the ensuing rough and tumbles, food fights and drinking contests resulted in yet another magnificent British victory🙉🙊🙈

I genuinely have nothing but great memories of Sandhurst, best reflected in the following two pictures, one demonstrating my reaction to being photographed after a tactical swim across the Sandhurst Lake in early Feb and the other of the moment my Second Lieutenant’s ‘pips’ were finally revealed at midnight on the day of my Commisioning.


PS My God I look young….. as do Pam and Lesley Crompton, my guests at the Commissioning Ball who did the honours of ‘unmasking’ my rank😍


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