The years after the Great War were unsettled and there were hints of national coal and rail strikes and even rebellion in the air. Royal Marines battalions were raised from time to time and Portsmouth Marines took their fair share. In 1922 the 11th Battalion was raised for service in Asia Minor, where Greek and Turkish encroach­ments were causing problems, while an RMA company was sent to the Dardanelles. They manned the same heights that had seen the sacrifice of so many Royal Marines' lives seven years earlier. But the Corps was facing a grave crisis of its own. its strength had fallen from a wartime 55,000 to 15,000, and the Treasury was now demanding more cuts. They suggested a ceiling of 6,000, but the Corps fought to retain 9,500. In order to achieve this, one Division would have to be given up, and the decision was made in 1923 to amalgamate the Royal Marine Artillery (the Blue Marines) with the Royal Marine Light Infantry (the Red Marines). Forton Barracks at Gosport was the Division to go. The Corps would in future be known as The Royal Marines.

The RMLI Marching from Forton to Eastney in August 1923

There had always been some rivalry between the two branches of the Corps with the Royal Marine Artillery considering them­selves rather superior. indeed a story con­cerning one very well known and respected Corps family, whose forebears had always been in the RMA, relates that a certain young man had not passed high enough to get into the Royal Marine Artillery, but had had to accept a commission in the Royal Marine Light Infantry. His father had, as a result, refused to give him anything but the minimum compulsory allowance until the amalgamation, when he relented!

After the amalgamation in 1923 the Corps was once again looking for a new role. Down at Fort Cumberland, the beginnings of amphibious warfare as we know it today were being formulated. There were trials of the first experimental landing craft in 1926, craft which look hilariously basic today, ferrying horses and men across to Hayling Island. In tandem with the development of these craft, was the formation of an organ­isation for setting up mobile naval bases abroad to allow the Royal Navy to use and defend ports. This became, along with sea service, the prime occupation of the Royal Marines in the 1920s and 30s, and when war came again, the Mobile Naval Base Defence Organisations provided a major role for the Corps. Most of the initial development was done at Fort Cumberland. They also experimented there with methods of landing guns over scaffolding piers, described as 'by extemporisation, brute force and guts'.

However there were more ceremonial events taking place at Eastney, one such occurring on a misty afternoon in December 1928 on the Main Parade, in front of a representative party of officers, NCOs and Marines from all the Divisions. The Royal Marines had always had strong ties with their American counterparts, the United States Marine Corps, since the defence of the Peking Legations at the turn of the century. The Major General Commandant of the USMC, John J Lejeune, had previously written to the Adjutant General wishing to perpetuate the bond of friendship between the two Corps by offering to the Royal Marines an Association Football Trophy for competition amongst Royal Marines only. It was therefore with much pleasure that Captain Gene Tunney, US Marine Corps Reserve, the former heavyweight boxing champion of the world, came to Eastney to present the magnificent trophy. It was received by Lieutenant General Lewis Halliday VC. Although officially known as the United States Marines Corps Challenge Trophy, it is always referred to within the Corps as the 'Tunney Cup'.

The Tunny Cup

Disturbances abroad were once again to have an impact on Portsmouth Division, when the Shanghai Defence Force required reinforcement and the Royal Marines formed the 12th Battalion for that purpose. The Army had said they would take several weeks to provide a force, whereas the Corps were able to offer a composite battalion within a matter of days. On 14 January 1927 1,000 Marines embarked in the transport Minnesota and two months later were in the Whampo area of China. Their calming influ­ence, much the same as that being shown by Royal Marines Commandos recently de­ployed to the Kurdish regions of Iraq, did much to restore the situation. They were relieved by the Army later that year and arrived home after nearly 12 months away, reflecting once again on a job quietly and efficiently done.

On 1 October 1930, the Royal Naval School of Music moved to the Depot at Deal in Kent. 250 musicians marched to Fratton Station, led by the Divisional Band under Capt R P O'Donnell, one of three brothers who were at one time Directors of Music in the Corps. At the head of the column was the ageing figure of Major Lidiard, the Father of the Band Service. It was just a year later, in

1931, that O'Donnell left the Royal Marines to join the Royal Air Force as Director of Music of their Central Band, and a unique Corps appointment took place. For the last time in our history, a 'civilian' was appointed as the new Director of Music of the Portsmouth Divisional Band. His name ‑FrancisVivian Dunn. Atthe tender age of 22, he came direct from the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and. as is history today, he became the first Principal Director of Music Royal Marines, and the first musician in any of the Services to knighted for his service to military music. He served with the Corps until retiring in 1968 at the age of 60. It was three years after his appointment that the Corps was seeking a new Regimental Slow March. Commander Lord Louis Mountbatten offered the Preobrajensky March, but the committee did not recommend its adoption and the offer was politely refused. The Directors of Music of the three Divisions and the School of Music were invited to submit original compositions for audition. Captain F J Ricketts of Plymouth, better known as the prolific march composer Kenneth Alford, offered a very fine slow march By Land and Sea. However when performed on parade, the Guard Commander found great difficulty in giving the order 'Break into Quick Time' and the change was marred by indecisive drill. The Alford march was therefore dropped in favour of Vivian Dunn's arrangement of Early One Morning under the title Globe and Laurel. This was adopted as our Regimental Slow March and first per­formed at guard mounting duties of Bucking­ham Palace when the Royal Marines performed Public Duties in London for the first time in 1935. It remained our regimental slow march until 1964.

The RN School of Music in 1903. Band Master Lidiard Centre

It was in 1936 that King Edward VIII, during his short reign, paid his only visit to the Corps to inspect Portsmouth Division; indeed it was the first time a reigning monarch had been on parade at Eastney. Accompanying him was Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes of Zeebrugge fame, who was to become the first Chief of Combined Operations and Commander Lord Louis Mountbatten, his successor in that post, who was to have such an enormous influence on the Corps, particularly in the post war years.

In December 1939 King George VI visited Eastney and became the only reigning monarch ever to present the King' s Badge (awarded to the best all‑round recruit in the senior squad, the King's Squad, if he is of a sufficiently high standard) when Recruit F E Woods of 353 Squad received his badge. In the next few years air raid shelters were built all round the Parade Ground, others on the greensward overlooking the sea front, whilst wooden huts were erected to house extra officers. The Barracks became over full and the first 400 Special Reservists arrived at Eastney on 12 October. 1939 for training. They were later transferred to the new camp being built at Exton, now the Commando Training Centre.

Mne FE Woods receives his King's Badge from King George VI in December 1939

But other, more unusual, Royal Marines parties were being housed privately in Portsmouth. One of these was the innocu­ously named 'Royal Marines Boom Patrol Detachment', a misleading title that hid the true identity of the Special Boat Section, or 'Cockleshell Heroes' as they became popu­larly known. Under Major 'BIondie' Hasler, specially selected Royal Marines trained in the Eastney and Fort Cumberland areas, pounding the sea front, using the assault course and firing on the rifle range. Their job was kept secret from others at Eastney, but their task was clear in their minds. One November evening in 1942 twelve of them left their billets along the Southsea seafront to embark in the submarine Tuna to carry

out a most daring raid on German shipping 70 miles up the Gironde river at Bordeaux, where they sank four large merchant ships. The story is now part of Corps history, but it is pertinent to say that only two returned home alive, four being drowned and six captured and executed by the Germans. It was the beginning of the Special Boat Service as we know it today.

The "Cockleshell Heroes" training off Southsea

The Barracks escaped the war compara­tively unscathed by a sudden‑ enemy air .attack, though several bombs fell on Fort Cumberland on 26 August 1940, killing eight officers and men in one of the casemates. it was ironic that most of those at Fort Cumberland were outside the Fort digging trenches. if there had been enough warning they would have taken shelter in the case­mates, the only place hit. A plaque outside the Museum records this unfortunate incident. The Barracks was always full and many Marines had to be billeted in local houses. This may account for the fact that in 1945 there were 29 pubs within 400 yards of the Main Gate! Mostly the men were between drafts to HM Ships and it was always a sad day when a Portsmouth ship was sunk as, in those days, ships were manned by Marines from individual Divisions: such losses as the battleship Royal Oak, sunk in Scapa Flow a month after the outbreak of war, when 92 Royal Marines were lost; the battleship Barham in which 136 Royal Marines were lost; and the Battle­Cruiser Hood, when 164 Royal Marines went down, including the whole of the Royal Marines Band. Other Portsmouth ships lost during World War 11 included Aurora, Fiji, Berwick, Cairo, Dunedin, Indomitable, Manchester, Penelope and Suffolk. At action stations the Royal Marines Band worked in the bowels of the ship in the Transmitting Station, and were thus more liable to suffer than the upper deck crew. Indeed the Royal Marines Band Service suffered the highest percentage of casualties of any other individual branch of the three Services: 225 Musicians.

                                  
Bomb Damage at Fort Cumberland