Original Item. Only One Available. This is an incredible drum from a legendary regiment of the British armed forces in World War Two! This is a beautifully painted Regimental snare side drum made by DALLAS of England, with a Broad Arrow stamp above the maker’s mark dated 1961. The body of the drum is painted a deep paratrooper purple scarlet with the WWII battle honors picked out in gold, black and green as well as the parachute regiment insignia. The drum measures 15 inches tall with a circumference of 13.5 inches. The drum is not marked with a regiment or battalion but is certainly for the Parachute Regiment.

The drum reads:

BRUNEVAL        NORMANDY LANDING
BREVILLE        ARNHEM 1944
RHINE        SOUTHERN FRANCE
OUDNA        TAMERRA
PRIMOSOLE BRIDGE    ATHENS

There is heavy wear and scratching to this finish with some of the battle honors unreadable now. The phrase under the parachute badge reads UTRINQUE PARATUS, Latin for "Ready for anything". 

The drum measures 15½” tall and is roughly 15” in diameter. The bare brass side is stamped:

1961
(BROAD ARROW)
DALLAS
MADE IN ENGLAND

This drum would have been used during the Kuwait, Aden, and Malaysia conflicts, as well as the conflicts in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. 

A wonderful drum that is still fully functional, ready for further research and display.

The British Army maintains a corps of drums in each infantry battalion except for Scottish, Irish, and Rifle Regiments (The Rifles and the Royal Gurkha Rifles) which have pipes and drums and Bugles respectively. Each battalion of a regiment of line infantry maintains a corps of drums which may be 'massed' together on certain occasions. All corps-of-drums soldiers are called drummers (shortened to 'Dmr') regardless of the instrument they play, similarly to use of the term "sapper" for soldiers of the Royal Engineers.

Unlike army musicians who form bands and will usually be limited to auxiliary duties in wartime, drummers in a Corps of Drums are principally fully trained infantry soldiers, with recruitment coming after standard infantry training. A Corps of Drums will deploy with the rest of the battalion, and will often form specialist platoons such as assault pioneers, supporting fire or force protection.

Historically, the drum was used to convey orders during a battle, so the Corps of Drums has always been a fully integrated feature of an infantry battalion. Later on, when the bugle was adopted to convey orders, drummers were given bugles in addition, but maintained their drums and flutes, except in rifles regiments where the lighter instrument was more conducive to the skirmishing form of warfare.