Unfortunately in August 1940, due to the outbreak of World War 2, Bob had to transfer to Nottingham to go on War Work and Roy Horabin, who had been Songster Organist during Bob’s leadership, became Songster Leader and I was asked to be the organist. At 15 years of age this was quite a responsibility but something I soon came to enjoy.

The instrument I played was I suppose a kind of harmonium, it was called a ‘Triumph Organ’, it had six lever stops and was pedal driven, and it folded down into a carrying case. Believe it or not this organ was carried to all open air meetings and I actually sat at the Wheatsheaf corner and pedalled away every Sunday night. I know it cost £34.00 when it was bought from Salvationist Publishing & Supplies because it was purchased during my father’s time as Songster Leader and I well remember my mother making toffee cakes and selling them, and other people raised money in various ways in order to purchase this organ which gave loyal service for many years.

As the war progressed, Roy Horabin was called up for military service, and Bob Noble who was the Bandmaster, also took on the leadership of the Songsters. If he was unable to attend because of his work in the shipyard, his father Andrew Noble was called into action, and so the Songsters survived the war years. During that time and in the early post war years we enjoyed much fellowship with our neighbouring Corps and quite often had massed songster festivals with our own brigade, Millfield, Sunderland Citadel and South Shields. They were all large brigades at that time and we had some great times together.

Travelling was quite an experience, especially during the black out, and of course we had to use public transport, and to go to South Shields we took the train from Monkwearmouth Station ( now a museum) to High Shields and we walked the rest, but it was good to get together during those dark days and enjoy good Salvation Army fellowship.

On his demob from the army, Roy again took leadership of the Songsters. At that time the membership numbered about 50 and played a very valuable part in the life of the Monkwearmouth Corps. In addition to Corps activities and as travel restrictions due to the war were lifted, the songsters took on more engagements both local and further afield.

Quite often on these occasions because of the increasing number of songsters, we travelled in double-decker buses, (no one had cars in those days) and ordinary single-decker coaches were too small. On one Sunday visit to Gateshead Teams Corps and another evening visit to Seaham Harbour, these buses were slightly taller than the railway bridges they quite literally came into contact with, thus damage to the buses on both occasions, but thankfully no one was hurt and our meetings went on as planned.

Another problem as the number of songsters increased was the seating on the platform, some of the younger songsters had to move out into the sides of the gallery, and when the songsters sang they actually stood on the back seat of the platform. Quite a height!

When Roy Horabin became Bandmaster in 1952, Bob Hutchinson, who had returned home from Nottingham, became Songster Leader for the second time and many more weekend visits to Corps around the country were undertaken. These events always prove to be a time of good fellowship and blessing and some of the friends that are made on these occasions remain our friends throughout the years. It was during Bob’s tune that I was asked to be Songster Sergeant, a position I didn’t accept lightly but one which gave me much satisfaction and helped me in my own spiritual experience. I was the third generation of my family to hold that position, the first being my grandmother, Auntie Katie Glansfield and then myself.

When Bob took on the responsibility of Corps Sergeant Major in 1961, Alan Laing who had been the Deputy Songster Leader was commissioned as Songster Leader. Alan who himself was an accomplished Bass singer, was very interested in choral singing and especially music from Handel’s Messiah so of course after much practice, Messiah choruses were included in most of our programmes.

One outstanding weekend during Alan’s leadership was our visit to Regent Hall, right in the heart of London. We could hardly forget the huge open air meeting in Oxford Street when people of all nationalities stood around and listened to our witness and then also the march of witness through Soho and Carnaby Street. The whole of our Sunday was spent at Regent Hall where our meals were amply provided for us, the reason being that the people who billeted us lived too far away to be able to take us to their homes and back again in the time available between meetings. We have always had a good male voice section so on these away weekends the men would take their instruments and form a band for open-air work.