*

My father always had wonderful anecdotes about our family's past and of his adventures travelling the world in the Royal Marines Band Service. We never tired of hearing these stories and I was worried that they would be lost. At my urging he started to type out our family history on his old typewriter, using carbon paper to get additional copies.

He died in 1987 before it was complete and before the internet as it exists today, came into being. I was able to scan his original pages into the computer and using optical character recognition, convert them into html format for posting on the web. It required very few corrections - most were caused by Dad using the 'X' key to delete typing errors! I just chose a suitable font and added the pictures...

He would have been thrilled to have known that his project would become something that would be read by many people world-wide, including many of his friends, colleagues and family.

The Banning Family History Part One: written by Raymond Banning
The Banning Family History Part Two: written by Robert Banning
The Banning Family History Part Three: (draft) written by Robert Banning

Links of interest relating to our family's history:

The Royal Marines Band Service: (official Royal Navy Page)
The Royal Marines: Ex-Royal Marines Bandsmens' Page
The Royal Marines Band Service On Line:
H.M.S. Gambia:
H.M.S. Nelson:
Gallipoli: The drama of the Dardanelles:

*The picture above shows Dad on a Royal Marine Recruiting poster from the 60's - many thanks to Noel Crook for sending this to me.