“Col Bogey ” march
January 2nd, 2009 From
>Date: Tue, 23 Sep 1997 09:46:21 -0700
>From: Mike Potter
>Organization: Artecon, Inc.
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01Gold (WinNT; I)
>To: mahan@microworks.net
>Subject: “Col Bogey ” march
>Precendence: bulk
>Sender: mahan-owner@microworks.net
>Reply-To: mahan@microworks.net
>
>These web pages give the origin of the whistling march from =The Bridge
>over the River Kwai” and also give its title’s connection with golf.
>Evidently whistling was always the expected musical instrument or
>technique so any lyrics must have been added later.
>
>http://icons.net/~hjoneit/featured/featured.html: Identifies “Colonel
>Bogey” composer as Kenneth J. Alford – pseudonym of Major Fredrick
>Joseph Ricketts, Royal Marines.
>
>http://www.magic.ca/~lanced/kja-mrch.htm (This page created by Lance C
>Dutchak, Secretary of The IMMS of Canada):
>COLONEL BOGEY (1914) One of the most probable explanations for the
>creation of this march was that Alford was a keen walker and regularly
>took his walks on the golf course at Fort George in North-East Scotland
>nine miles from Inverness. During this time, Alford was serving with the
>93rd Highlanders preparing for the call to arms in mainland Europe. In
>May of 1958, Alford’s Widow wrote a note to the Publishers of the march
>in question: “While playing golf on the Fort George course, one of the
>members whistled the first two notes (B flat and G) instead of calling
>’Fore!’, and with impish spontaneity was answered by Alford with the
>next few notes. There was little sauntering – Moray Firth’s stiff
>breezes encouraged a good crisp stride. These little scraps of whistling
>appeared to ‘catch on’ with the players, and from that beginning the
>Quick March was built up.”
>
>Another Alford tune was used in the movie “Lawrence of Arabia.”
>
>–