| Drummers Of The Pennisular & Napoleonic Wars |
| Barry
Roy Turnbull-Burchmore ooooooooooobrturnbull@btinternet.com
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British Drummer
- Fifer - Bugler |
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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. Jo Brome becoming a drummer boy at eight was not
exceptional but the more normal age was between ten and twelve. 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 |
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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. |
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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 |