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Drummers Of The Pennisular & Napoleonic Wars

Barry Roy Turnbull-Burchmore ooooooooooobrturnbull@btinternet.com oooooooooooBack to Country Index
British Drummer - Fifer - Bugler
Calls & Signals
The Drum

Drill

Musical Instruments
Uniforms
History
Gear & Equipment

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The Drum

The sound of the drum, and to a lesser extent the fife, being the background to the events of daily life, and in the case of the drum alone, the voice of command on the battlefield, it was but a short step to invest the drums themselves with a certain mystique.
They were therefore prominent among the household gods of the regiment, second only to the colours in symbolism. It was again but a short step to illustrate the veneration in which they were held by adorning them with the symbols of the regiment which appeared on the regimental colour.
The drums were therefore painted in the facing colour, which appeared on the collars, cuffs, and lapels of the red coats, and was the field or background of the regimental colour.
Murray David, MUSIC OF THE SCOTTISH REGIMENTS, The Pentland Press, Bishop Auckland Durham 1994.(P21)

Jo Brome becoming a drummer boy at eight was not exceptional but the more normal age was between ten and twelve.
He must after all have been able to carry a regulation side drum—there were no ‘boy’s sizes’ like cricket bats. They were not mascots but functional members of the regiment.
Barty-King Hugh, THE DRUM, Horse Guards, Whitehall, London, 1988 (P 73)

Generally by the last quarter of the eighteenth century a reduction in size took place to an overall size of 18 inches x 18 inches, the hoop size being down to 2 inches. Around about the Waterloo period, the size of the drum decreased again to roughly 16 inches x 16 inches overall, though the drums carried by the Guards and some other regiments at Waterloo were of the older, larger size. It was probably about the time of this reduction that the shells were changed to brass.

http://royalyorkers.ca/drums.htm

 

The Fife

In the search of a fifer, any of the finest children can be an extremely good choices; for this duty, since a fifer has little or no laborious duties.
Cutherbertson, System for the complete Interior Management and economy of a Battalion of infantry pg. 12-13

 

The Bugle

By the 1800's, the bugle was beginning to look like a modern-day trumpet. It did not, however, have the valves. The length of the horn was wrapped around once, to give more handling ease. In 1810, the new key bugle was invented and patented by Joseph Halliday, of the Cavan Militia. This keyed bugle or the Royal Kent Bugle, could be played with military marches because it could play all the notes in the scale. By 1812, this was the official bugle shape.

http://www.shenvalfarm.com/bugle/brief.htm