Through the Ranks: More of the Early Days

Previous posts of Through the Ranks explored the history of the Colonial Williamsburg Fifes and Drums. John Harbour, Colonial Williamsburg’s first fifer, discussed the inauspicious origins of the ensemble. As a teenager in the winter of 1957-58, Harbour and his father figured out a handful of fife tunes and the corps was born. A few years later, George Carroll, founder of the United States Army Old Guard Fife and Drum Corps, came to Colonial Williamsburg and the Fifes and Drums took shape as a respected and cherished part of the museum’s programming.

In 1972, John Moon replaced Carroll as the group’s director. Moon served as drum major of the band of the 1st Battalion Scots Guards, an esteemed British infantry regiment of the Household Division, before moving to Virginia’s colonial capital. He ushered in some changes that remain today among the Fifes and Drums’ most recognizable traits.

This week, join Moon as he talks with Tim Sutphin, also a former director of the corps. Moon recalls some of the transformations that occurred during his years of leadership while snapshots from those years offer a peek into a bygone era of the Fifes and Drums. Some of the faces and hairstyles may have changed, but those quintessential traditions have carried through the ages.