The Buglers Association is fully affiliated to the Light Infantry & Rifles Association, the Royal Green Jackets Association and the County Regimental Associations. We are fully endorsed by The Rifles RHQ and our President is Colonel (Retd). Rex Stephenson CBE.
The Association was formed by a group of veteran buglers in order to carry on our proud traditions and maintain our bugling heritage by providing buglers to attend events all across the UK.
Over the years, the number of serving buglers within the British Army has been considerably reduced. It is therefore, more important than ever that we work together to maintain our heritage and provide buglers for their traditional role. Our members are Veteran Buglers and Bugle Major’s with many years experience and are drawn from all arms of the old Light Division as well as The Rifles and adult ACF. Since our formation in 2013, we have attended many hundreds of functions across the UK, from Weddings and Funerals to Civil and Military events.
Our “Blazer Rig” has been accepted by all as our official dress, and we regularly perform with the Waterloo Band for concerts, as well as supporting the entire Regimental family for functions and engagements when the Rifles buglers are unnavailable. In particular, we have had the immense privilege of attending the funerals of well over 100 veterans since our formation. Many of these were from our own regimental family.
The Last Post,”
I heard this tune in the key of E
They played it oh so sweetly
As always my shoulders went back my stomach in, my feet were drawn together.
It raced my blood, and swelled my heart, my mind was filled with faces.
As it flowed on the wind an endless tune, pride and honour filled me.
Oh endless times in foreign places shared with those so distant faces.
The tune returned… Tears well up and there’s a dryness in my throat.
There’s a place…..a face…..a memory for each and every note….!
Chesty 2016
The Sliver Bugle DVD
DVD by Memorial at Peninsula Ltd©
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am writing to update you on the Buglers Association bookings procedure and current charges.
I am sure you will agree, our buglers have done a fantastic job in supporting our entire regimental family at numerous events across the country. In fact, since our formation in June 2014 we have attended over 500 events, including some 286 funerals to-date.
For some time now, we have been attending anything up to 6 or 7 funerals per week as well as various other regimental events per month. Most of these events are for our extended regimental family and often, our buglers have to travel some distance to attend. Most of our activities to-date have been funded from our own pockets, but for our services to be sustainable in the long term, we have had to implement charges where we can. Some people think we are funded by the military and are therefore a free resource, sadly that is not the case.
Funerals – We have a handful of buglers who are self-employed and therefore have the flexibility to re-arrange their week at fairly short notice to attend funerals, but of course, their lost income and travel costs will have to be covered in future if we are to remain sustainable. We will therefore ask for £75 towards their lost wages, plus petrol, but we will always use the closest available bugler in order to keep the travel costs down. It is rare that we will need to ask for more than £100, which we think represents great value. If ever we are able to send more than one bugler, we will only ever charge for one.
There are often times when we feel it is inappropriate to charge – for instance, where someone has taken their own lives (and tragically, we’ve had quite a few of those), or if we are attending the funeral anyway. In the past, our buglers have refused to accept payment under these and many other circumstances, but wherever we can, we will in future cover their expenses from our association funds. We have had a number of very kind donations made over the past two years, which have been a great help in this regard, alongside our own fundraising efforts. One point to be very clear on – we have never, nor will we ever, refuse to provide a bugler for a funeral because the family members cannot afford our services.
Other Events – There will always be many events that we attend voluntarily, such as the main Regimental Reunions and Remembrance & Memorial Services and of course this will remain the case. In future, we will endeavour to cover our buglers travelling costs at other events wherever we can, either by charging the organisers or from our association funds.
As former regimental buglers, our regimental pride will always remain our motivation for what we do, however, any donations made for our services will always be gratefully received as they will help us to sustain the service we provide. Full details of our charging policy can be found on our website as well.
Booking Process – We have a tried and tested system that has worked well for us thus far, and we urge everyone to please follow this process as it makes it easier for us.
All requests generally come in through me via telephone, email or via our website or Buglers Association Facebook site. Within the regions, some requests also come in via our regional coordinators.
Once we have the event details, we post them onto our online events calendar, and every member receives an immediate alert. Our buglers can simply press a button to show if they are available, rather than us constantly having to make numerous phone calls to check availability. It is a quick and efficient system that allows us to react quickly to requests. Indeed some funeral requests have come in the night before the event and we have still been able to attend.
Requesting buglers via a friend of a friend on Facebook is not something we advocate but alas, we do get it from time to time. Hopefully, this email will help to make the booking of a bugler easier for those that were previously unaware of our booking process.
My telephone number and email address are listed below, as is the link to our website. Please note, our website is a work in progress, but we have a new ‘webmaster’ who will be transforming it over the coming weeks.
I would ask you all to share this information across all the regional regimental offices and antecedent associations, and should anyone have any questions or queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Best regards
Alan Tamblyn
Chairman
We are Veteran Buglers of the Light Infantry, Royal Green Jackets and The Rifles Regiment who have come together to preserve our heritage and carry forward our proud traditions by forming”The Buglers Association of The Light Division & Rifles”. We are fully affiliated to The Light Infantry & Rifles Association, The Royal Green Jackets Association and The County Regimental Associations. We are fully endorsed by The Rifles RHQ and our President is Colonel (Ret’d) Rex Stephenson CBE. We support all arms of our regimental family and our motto is “Together We Are One”.
Trumpeters & Buglers for Funerals.
We recently received this information which some may find of interest;
A veteran is entitled to a trumpeter/bugler provided by public money if they have completed pensionable service or completed an operational tour (NI, Iraq etc). If this was not the case then they would be required to pay for the costs.
The army has a process so that trumpeters and buglers can be allocated appropriately.
To apply for this service individuals should contact the Army Music Tasking authority at LONDIST-SSTAArmyBandsMailbox@mod.gov.uk
Trumpet Major, Kings Troop:
KingsTpRHA-TptMaj@mod.gov.uk
The RHQ Winchester has also got a contact ( Andy Spalding ) 01962 828527
