Page 25 - Sirmooree Digital Book

Appreciations by Lieutenant Colonel Stuart Watts, OBE, LRAM, psm
[1987-88]
R.I.P. Dinty Moore and Rodney Parker
I want to recognise and remember two special musicians who, whilst a
generation apart in their service careers, started as boys and ended as
commissioned Directors of Music. Major Dinty Moore and Lieutenant
Colonel Rodney Parker passed away in June and July respectively, both
had been DOM of the Brigade of Gurkhas; Dinty for ten years, Rod for
four years. I had the privilege to know both of them well and shared
with them the unforgettable experience of service with the Brigade of
Gurkhas.
Major Ernest James Houghton “Dinty” Moore MBE LRAM ARCM ,
(1916-2012)
Born during WW1, Dinty was the eldest of six in an Army family; he
was sent to the Duke of York’s Military School in Dover aged 11
coinciding with his father’s posting to Khartoum and, like so many
youngsters at that school, learned a musical instrument, cornet in
Dinty’s case. He enlisted as a boy in 1931 into the 1 st Battalion The
Border Regiment and came under the influence of his bandmaster, the
great Owen Geary. He attended the Pupils’ course at Kneller Hall in
1937, was placed top cornet and third best Pupil of the course.
In 1939 on mobilisation, the Border Regiment was part of the British
Expeditionary Force. After many days withdrawing to Dunkirk, he was
evacuated with the help of a Royal Navy Destroyer after the Dutch
barge in which he was rescued was sunk. On landing at Dover, the
survivors were transported by train to Newbury Racecourse from
whence they were kitted out and returned to their units. Dinty
sometimes made mention of the sheer mental and physical exhaustion
of all of the survivors and added that he was able, at last, to remove his
socks for the first time in six weeks!
Between 1941/43, his Regiment became part of the 1st Airborne
Division and were trained as Glider Troops but for once his musical,
rather than airborne, skills prevailed as he was selected to undergo the
Bandmaster’s course at Kneller Hall (which had been evacuated to
Churchill House in Aldershot). Subsequently he was appointed
Bandmaster, 1st Battalion the East Lancaster Regiment, in which post
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