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| DRUMMER D R SAFE
Dave SMITH his Section Commander remembers: - ‘Bob
came from Salisbury and his first introduction to the Regiment was when he saw
the Corps of Drums performing at Salisbury. At that point he made up his mind
not only to join the Regiment, but also the Drums. Bob
was one of my Section in the Battalion Defence Platoon (Corps of Drums), as they
were known in those days in Minden. In
the lead up to Bobs death we were busy getting our AFV 432 fleet ready for the
Annual Inspection when we ‘The Drums’ were caught ‘Acquiring’ bits from
a Battalion spare vehicle which had been parked behind the M.T., as a result of
this act of folly we were nominated to get it ready for the inspection in
addition to our own vehicles. With
one week to go before the Battalion had its big Annual inspection it was all
hands to the wheel and on the Friday evening 8th November 1968, I
asked for volunteers to help finish this vehicle off on the Saturday. Next
morning we set to work, I was sat in the office completing the Vehicle Log book
when I heard the starter wind the engine over, as I looked up it burst into life
moving backwards at the same time ‘Gear Linkage Fault’…Well the rest is
sad history. Bobs
body was returned to England where he buried at the London Road Cemetery,
Salisbury with full honours. As
the Colonel in Chief was to visit the Battalion in December Mr & Mrs SAFE
were invited by the Battalion to be our guests, but Mrs SAFE was still in poor
health following the death of her son so Bobs older brother came out to Minden
with his Dad. They spent some time with the Drums seeing what a drummers day to
day work was and how they spent their spare time, they were also introduced to
H.R.H. Prince Phillip.’ Bob
was a close friend of the family, spending some of his time baby-sitting; we lay
flowers on his grave each year. A Soldier serving in ‘C’ Company at that time remembers;
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‘I
remember being woken up in the Middle of the night by the Drums as they played
the Regimental March ‘The Farmers Boy’ I seem to remember they we playing
out Drummer SAFES relations, as they had been guests of the Drums for a few
days. Although the Drums had had a few pints, the Regimental March never sounded
better, which was a tribute to Bob.’
He was buried in his home town Salisbury.
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