RNGB History


	Royal Naval Guild of Bellringers	History

The Guild can trace its origins back to the 14th January 1948 when a group of Royal Naval ringers from Portsmouth based ships and shore establishments got together at Saints Peter and Paul, Fareham, Hampshire to ring a peal of 5040 of Bob Major. The group consisted of 2 Schoolmasters, a Radio Electrical Mechanic, 2 Writers, a Chief Petty Officer, an Ordinary Seaman and an Engine Room artificer.

A second band came together in celebration of the Queens Silver Jubilee and rang a peal of 5086 Plain Bob Major on the 28th June 1977. This resulted in the founding of the Guild on the 14th January 1978 at HMS COLLINGWOOD when the inaugural meeting of the Guild took place exactly 30 years from the first recorded peal of naval ringers.

There was a flurry of firsts in 1979 commencing with a peal at Saint Michael's, Southampton, Hampshire, of 5039 Grandsire caters on the 10th February 1979. This peal was conducted by one of the members of the 1948 peal, Ernest Salmon. A Quarter peal of 1259 Grandsire Caters was rung at St Mary, Wareham, Dorset, on the 19th May 1979 and a Trafalgar weekend outing took place in October when the second peal was rung. In the following month the first joint meeting with the RAF Guild, now an annual event, took place.

Over the intervening years Guild membership has built up from 54 in 1980 to over 100.