Volunteer bands support Basingstoke St George's Day Parade

The HMS Heron and HMS Collingwood Volunteer Bands recently joined forces to support the Basingstoke St George’s Day Parade of the local Scouting Groups of Basingstoke and the surrounding area.

The organiser, Scouting Leader Mr Philip Hawkins, got in touch with HMS Heron Volunteer Band Instructor Band Sergeant Tom Griffin to arrange the event, but as the day drew closer Tom found that his numbers were insufficient to support such a large parade.

He called upon the HMS Collingwood Band for help and fortunately 14 members were available to bolster their ranks to make up a substantial sized parade band for the event.

The two bands met up in Basingstoke to form a joint marching band which paraded through the streets of Basingstoke and finished in the local park with an outdoor church service.

Hymns were selected by the scout group leaders and expertly arranged for the band by Sgt Tom Griffin, but they couldn’t end the proceedings without playing Kum Ba Yah with the massed Scouts singing along in full voice.

The event was a resounding success with comments coming back to Tom Griffin and the joint band saying that it was the best yet.

Scouting leader Philip Hawkins said, “Thank you so much for providing such excellent musical accompaniment to our proceedings on Sunday. We have received so many positive comments – including 'the use of the band made it the best St. Georges Day Parade they could remember'.”

Photographs courtesy of Philip Hawkins.