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Bandmaster Kenneth R MacDonald, LRAM, RMB X425It is with regret I have to inform you of the death of Bandmaster Kenneth R MacDonald, LRAM, RMB X425 on 23 February 2006 in St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth.
I commissioned HMS Gloucester in January 1939 with Ken. We served together at action stations in the 6” TS.
This Band was one of the youngest to go to sea at that time, but we were fortunate in having a few old soldiers like Ken to show us the ropes. We enjoyed the pre-war halcyon days visiting exotic places like the Maldives and Seychelles virtually unknown to lads of those days.
This period came to an abrupt end on the 3 September 1939 when war was declared and we soon found ourselves in the Eastern Mediterranean Fleet.
The fate of HMS Gloucester is well known, Ken being the only survivor of the Band when the ship was sunk in May 1941. He was picked up by the Germans and spent four years as a POW in Marlag Camp.
By a twist of fate I missed the ship when she left Alexandria for the last time, this was deemed as an Act of God. I went on to serve on HMS Nigeria until the end of the war.
I next met up with Ken in Burford in 1947. From then on we attended the RMB Reunions together every year, also the ex Gloucester’s Club (Fighting ‘G’ Club).
After caring for his wife, Mary, through her three years of illness, she passed away in 2004 and sadly Ken’s health deteriorated.
My wife, Anne and I were fortunate to be living near enough to support Ken through his last years as he had no close family. We were at his side when he peacefully passed away after enduring a long illness. I knew Ken for 67 years and in the last few years, as close as brothers. He was a man of deep faith that sustained him throughout his life.
We will sadly miss him sharing our lives.
Obit by F B Brisley MBE RMB X772
Ken was born in Lees Lane, Gosport on 22 July, 1917 and at the age of fourteen years and three weeks, joined the Royal Marines Band Service.
After training at the Royal Naval School of Music in Deal, he commissioned his first ship, the aircraft carrier HMS Courageous in July 1933. He later served in HMS Hermes, HMS Resolution and HMS Royal Sovereign before commissioning the cruiser HMS Gloucester in January 1939. HMS Gloucester was sunk during the Battle of Crete in 1941 and Ken was one of the 86 survivors from a ship’s company of over 800 and the only survivor from the ship’s Royal Marine Band.
All HMS Gloucester’s survivors were picked up by the Germans and were POWs for the next four years. During this time, Ken was instrumental in forming an orchestra, dance band and marching band in the Naval POW camp, Marlag.
After the War he served in the Band of HMS Daedalus for 18 months before being drafted to the Royal Naval School of Music in Burford, Oxfordshire, where he met his wife, Mary, who was then serving in the Women’s Land Army. They were married in 1948.
He next served in the cruiser HMS Bermuda, flagship of the South Atlantic Station. During this commission he was accompanied by Mary.
After qualifying as a Bandmaster he again served in HMS Daedalus from 1954-1957. His last ship was HMS Eagle. When discharged to pension in 1958, Ken and Mary emigrated to Rhodesia where Ken served in the Rhodesian Army as a Director of Music.
After serving in that part of the world for over twenty four years, Ken, by then a Major, was discharged from the Zimbabwe National Army and returned to this country, to Gosport, were they first lived in Seaward Tower before moving to Raglan Court in 1994.
Ken died on 23 February 2006 in St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth.\0\0
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