In 1946 fourteen-year-old Basil King from Farnham in Surrey, enlisted as a boy soldier, eventually joining the Royal Armoured Corps and then the Band of the VIII King’s Royal Irish Hussars stationed in Pinnenberg, Schleswig-Holstein, where he acquired two characteristics which were to remain with him during his very long life: his nick-name – Baz – and an outstanding expertise on the trumpet.
Twelve years later he was Trumpet-Major of the newly formed Band of the Queen’s Royal Irish Hussars, once again in Germany. When the strange decision was made by the powers-that-were to leave the Band in England while the rest of the regiment embarked for Aden in 1961, Baz and his fellow musicians were attached to the Headquarters of 44 Home Counties Brigade.
By this time the Band had acquired a sporting reputation, and members were frequently drafted to play for the headquarter in a variety of teams. In that year a hockey eleven made up of two officers from the Brigade HQ and nine members of the band, including Baz, won the Army Hockey Cup – an extraordinary feat for such a small unit.
In 1962 the Band rejoined the regiment as it sailed from Aden to Malaya to be based at Ipoh. Hundreds of musical engagements later in Malaysia and Singapore, including two tours of Sarawak and Sabah under active service conditions, saw the Band qualify for campaign medals before the regiment returned to Germany to be stationed at Wolfenbüttel close to the inner-German border.
It was here in early 1965 that the regiment learned of the death of its Honorary Colonel, Sir Winston Churchill. Irish Hussars played notable roles during the subsequent state funeral and its processions, but none stood out more than the Reveille sounded in the dome of St Paul’s Cathedral by Staff-Sergeant Basil King. In the same year at the Edinburgh Tattoo he stood on the battlements every evening for three weeks sounding the call ‘Sunset’.
Four years later Baz retired and in June 2021, having tutored pupils of Marlborough College in various instruments for over thirty years he joined the Royal Hospital in company with, at one time, five other retired Irish Hussars. An assiduous attender at Association Troop dinners and regimental events he never missed Shamrock Troop weekends organised by Bill Hurley – one of his successors as Trumpet-Major – where he continued to play the trumpet at the evening concerts and take his turn to conduct.
He died in his 95th year but because he was born on the 29th of February 1932 he would claim until the end that he was only 24! To Baz’s family and huge circle of friends we send our deepest sympathy at the end of a distinguished life well lived.
