Major Max Maloney BEM

"Major Max Maloney, who has died aged 70, joined the Army as a boy soldier drummer and was decorated for gallantry.


Michael Daniel Maloney (always known as Max) was born in Stepney, east London, on August 15 1942. He was only 12 when his father, a cloth porter, died; meanwhile, his mother’s health had been badly affected by the Blitz. With no friends or relatives to look after them, he and his brother came under the care of the London County Council’s social welfare department; later they were looked after by foster parents.







In 1958 Max enlisted in the Army as a boy soldier, looking to the Service for the family upbringing he had not enjoyed. Blessed with some musical aptitude he became a junior drummer, filling a role steeped in centuries of tradition. In Elizabethan times, for example, Sir Ralph Smythe noted: “All captains must have drums and fifes and men to use the same should be faithful, secretive and ingenious.” Drummers not only rallied troops, but also administered corporal punishment to miscreants and – also making use of the bugle from the 18th century – communicated orders and signals on the battlefield. Only from 1914 did they fill an exclusively ceremonial role.


Maloney served with 1st Battalion the Queen’s Royal Surrey Regiment in Aden, Hong Kong and BAOR. In 1968 he joined the 1st Battalion the Queen’s Regiment in Bahrain, where he was quickly promoted to drum major.


Drum majors, who trained drummer boys, were assigned to most infantry battalions about 200 years ago, and ranked as sergeants. Over full dress uniform they wore coloured belts embellished with a pair of miniature drum sticks and the cypher of the Sovereign.


By 1972, however, when Maloney accompanied the 1 Queens to Belfast, drum majors were judged more by their military skill than their musicality. As the commander of one of the finest drum platoons in the Army, Maloney took charge of its transition from ceremonial duties to active service, leading it with great panache.


Maloney’s platoon patrolled openly during the day and at night engaged the IRA and were exposed to constant danger. One man escaped death by inches when a sniper’s bullet removed the tip of his ear. Yet Maloney’s courage, resilience and lively sense of humour kept up the spirits of his men.
His sustained leadership and bravery were recognised in 1973 by the award of a BEM."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10313550/Major-Max-Maloney.html