Corps of Drums in The British Army
The British Army maintains a corps of drums in each infantry battalion except for Scottish and Irish battalions, which have pipes and drums. In regiments with more than one battalion, each battalion will maintain a corps of drums which may be massed up on occasion.. Rifle regiments such as The Rifles and the Royal Gurkha Rifles, whose original method of fighting was not conducive to carrying a drum, may instead form a bugle platoon. All corps-of-drums soldiers are called drummers (shortened to 'dmr') regardless of the instrument played, similarly to use of the term "sapper" for soldiers of the Royal Engineers, Members of pipes-and-drums units are called "pipers".
Unlike army musicians who form bands and will usually be limited to medical orderly duties in wartime, corps of drums drummers are principally fully trained infantry soldiers, with recruitment into the corps of drums coming after standard infantry training. A corps of drums will deploy with the rest of the battalion, and will often form specialist platoons such as assault pioneers, supporting fire or force protection.
Historically, the drum was used to convey orders during a battle, so the corps of drums was a fully integrated feature of an infantry battalion. Later on, when the bugle was adopted to convey orders, drummers were given bugles, but also maintained their drums and flutes.
Read more about this topic: Corps Of Drums
Famous quotes containing the words corps of, corps, drums, british and/or army:
“Many a woman shudders ... at the terrible eclipse of those intellectual powers which in early life seemed prophetic of usefulness and happiness, hence the army of martyrs among our married and unmarried women who, not having cultivated a taste for science, art or literature, form a corps of nervous patients who make fortunes for agreeable physicians ...”
—Sarah M. Grimke (1792–1873)
“Ce corps qui s’appelait et qui s’appelle encore le saint empire romain n’était en aucune manière ni saint, ni romain, ni empire. This agglomeration which called itself and still calls itself the Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.”
—Voltaire [François Marie Arouet] (1694–1778)
“With drums and guns, and guns and drums
The enemy nearly slew ye,
My darling dear, you look so queer,
Och, Johnny, I hardly knew ye!”
—Unknown. Johnny, I Hardly Knew Ye (l. Chorus.)
“You British plundered half the world for your own profit. Let’s not pass it off as the Age of Enlightenment.”
—Paddy Chayefsky (1923–1981)
“I thought when I was a young man that I would conquer the world with truth. I thought I would lead an army greater than Alexander ever dreamed of. Not to conquer nations, but to liberate mankind. With truth. With the golden sound of the Word. But only a few of them heard. Only a few of you understood. The rest of you put on black and sat in chapel.”
—Philip Dunne (1908–1992)