3 RAR Blank Page

3rd Battalion
Royal Australian Regiment

Regimental Band

Forward: 9/3/2020 This site page has been quickly developed to complement my written request for Battalion assistance to introduce a museum site page to the www.3rar.com.au internet site. The intention to display the history with museum visual display (photographs) items applicable to the 3rd Battalion.
Additional benefits may be the opportunity to complement 3 RAR history research.

EXAMPLE BELOW

Kure Japan,15th August 1950 - 3rd Battalion RAR
Kure, Japan, 1950-08-15. The band of the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment (3RAR) plays a tune, while marching on parade. The parade is being held in honour of the Prime Minister, the Honourable Robert G. Menzies, who is making an official visit of inspection to Australian units serving with BCOF in the Kure area. At right, marching at the head of the band and holding a mace above his head is the bandmaster, NX135280 Sergeant T.M. Murray. (AWM Public Domain Photograph)

3rd Battalion Regimental Band
1950 - 3rd Battalion RAR Regimental existed in Japan in 1950. 1951 - The band was used as stretcher bearers from Kapyong onwards in Korea and only six returned alive. The band was reformed in 1955 but disbanded in 1967 prior to service in Vietnam. The present Scottish pipes and drums were raised in 1969. Royal Assent was obtained in 1974 for the 3RAR Pipes and Drums to wear the Royal Stewart Tartan, and band dress similar to the Scots Guards. 3rd Battalion Pipe Majors: (Unknown source)
Ross, Desmond Angu	1969 – 1970 Born 1938 Adelaide SA
Elliott, David	1970 – 1981 see 5/7th Bn
de Grussa, Norman Peter	1981 – 1990 Born 1953 Dalwallinu WA
Lambert, Steven	1990 – 1996 Born
Ferguson, John George	1996 – Born ? Scotland
Iverson, Andrew	2004? Born 1968

RSM's Piper
10. The senior pipe corporal is appointed RSM's piper and as such plays at all Sergeants' Mess functions and other functions as directed.

Regimental Marches

11. The Battalion regimental march is 'Our Director'. It has always been with the Battalion although the official march from 1955 to 1960 was 'Kapyong', written by the Australian composer Alfred Hill. Company inspection tunes (Brass Band) were introduced in 1960, and company pipe tunes were introduced with the raising of the Pipes and Drums in 1969. 'Highland Laddie', the quick march of our allied Regiment and Scots Guards, is played to march on the colours. Other marches are:

	Brass Band	Pipes and Drums	Slow Time
RAR	Our Director	Our Director
A Coy	Skye Boat Song	Green Hills of Tyrol	Westering Home
B Coy	With a Little Bit Of Luck	When the Battle's O'er	Skye Boat Song
C Coy	By Land and Sea	Cock of the North	>My Lodgings in The Cold, Cold Ground
D Coy	Oh! What a Beautiful Morning	Bonnie Dundee	My Home
SPT Coy	Greensleeves	Black Bear ; Horn Pipe	Road to the Isles
Admin Coy	Toledo	Wi’ a Hundred Pipers	Wi’ a Hundred Pipers

Unofficial Battalion Song

We Are A Pack Of Bastards
(Popular 3rd Battalion soldiers unofficial Battalion song dating Korea 1950's)

We’re a pack of bastards,
Bastards are we,
We come from Townsville,
The arseholes of the Royal Australian Infantry.
We’re a pack of bastards,
Bastards are we.
We’d rather LOVE (f**k) than fight for liberty.

They say that Townsville is a wonderful place,
The organisation is a fucking disgrace,
The Colonel, The Captains, the Lts too,
with their hand in their pockets with fuck all to do,
they stand on the parade ground,
they scream and they shout
they scream about things they know nothing about.

The song apparently originated in Korea and had nothing to do with Woodside or Holsworthy or Townsville originally.
Location were added per campaign period such as Woodside for the Vietnam era, Holsworthy post Vietnam and now Townsville for Afghanistan and Iraq.

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