Height: 39cm (15.5in)
Hand painted rope tension side 1st Battalion drum emblazoned with the Gibraltar Castle & Key flanked by Battle Honours from Louisbourg to Burma 1943-45 on brass cylinder stamped ‘Hawkes & Sons, Makers, London’ & ‘Renovated & Heraldry by George Potter Aldershot’.
The present drum dates to before the amalgamation of Hawkes with the rival music firm of Boosey in 1930. The emblazon dates to the postwar heyday of the Aldershot drum maker established by George James Ravenscroft Potter (1881-1968) who, following service in the First World War, opened the well known shop at the intersection of Aldershot’s Queen’s Road and Grosvenor Road, aka ‘Potter’s Corner’ in 1918. His firm continued the hand emblazoning of band drums in the traditional manner until the introduction of rod tensioned and transfer decorated drums in the 1960s, and as presentation pieces until the 1990s.