[Guzzman]

Hello everyone. Many thanks for your replies.

Here is a potted history of Deal which may be of interest.

In 1861 the RM Depot was established at Deal - at first in the East Barracks, then subsequently taking over North and South Barracks as well. The barracks had all previously been used by the Army. The takeover was completed by 1869 and the depot was used to train recruits to the RMLI.

In 1930 the Royal Naval School of Music moved into the East Barracks. The RN School of Music had been founded in Plymouth in 1903 but moved to Deal in 1930 and replaced the original depot band formed in 1891. It became the Royal Marine School of Music in 1950.

Deal was the main place of training for Royal Marines until Lympstone took over the training role during the Second World War. However Junior Marines continued to complete the first 12 weeks of training at Deal before moving to CTCRM - 229 (Junior) Troop were the last, in the Summer of 1977.

Deal was a prime candidate for closure at that time and a local campaign "to keep the marines in Deal" was launched. What they really wanted was to keep the RM Band/School of Music but in addition to them they also gained 41 CDO, who had recently left Malta and were reformed at Deal (there was apparently then another local campaign to have 41 CDO REMOVED from Deal!). They were based at Deal until disbanded in 1981. That left just the RM School of Music in residence until closure in 1996.

Pete