The Royal Marine

The previous page was: "The Commando"

The Commandant of The Royal Marine training unit was walking across the barrack square, The Regimental Sergeant-Major had dismissed the parade. The recruits were dispersing to their meal. The Commandant stopped one of them. "What is the motto of the Corps?" he asked.

Given a little notice of the question the man would, no doubt, have produced the answer his Commandant expected, for the motto which the Corps has proudly carried through the centuries, 'Per Mare Per Terram'-By Sea, By Land-is prominently displayed in every Royal Marine establishment.

After a moment's hesitation his face cleared and he rose to the occasion, as marines are trained to do.

"Esprit de Corps, Sir," he said.

The answer was true in spirit if not correct in word. It is a clue to The Royal Marine.

It shows his attitude to life.

The Commando

Esprit de Corps has its roots in history

To the Royal Marine there is nothing new in this.

George Forster, the botanist, who sailed with Captain James Cook on his second voyage around the world, has described how, one evening in august, 1774, a marine in the Resolution fell overboard while drawing water on the ship's side. The ship was brought-to and he seized a rope that was flung to him.

When he had been hauled aboard he was taken below by his comrades, who "shifted his clothes, and gave him a dram or two of brandy to revive his spirits, treating him with peculiar tenderness, the result of an esprit de corps, to which others are at present utter strangers."

"We're not a Corps, sir, we're a family,"

To-day this sentiment is something more than pride of regiment alone, for it is the human bond which unites a scattered brotherhood.

A quartermaster once said to the Adjutant-General Royal Marines, "We're not a Corps, sir, we're a family."

Daughters as well as sons are now eligible to carry on the family tradition, and the Wrens of the Royal Marines (unofficially known as "Marens") wear the Globe and Laurel badge on their caps.

In spite of the varied commitments, the normal function of The Royal Marine remains constant.

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Rich Experience of Pensioners in War

Not all marines are born in the Corps, but few die out of it, and in wartime it makes good use of its pensioners' rich experience, gathered afloat and ashore in every corner of the globe.

On the outbreak of World War II the pensioners were called back to the colours up to the age of 55. They may volunteer to return after that age, and many do.

One who was accepted for service again in September 1939. He was then 72. A retired officer who wears the South Africa ribbons spent a year commanding a battery in Iceland.

The pensioners and retired officers served the Corps well by passing the torch of tradition to the younger generation, and by instilling into the recruits that habit of obedience we call discipline, which regulates their lives and sustains them in the face of adversity.

Young marines learn as much by example as by precept, until they come to take a pride in the Corps. And so, as members of it, as much pride in themselves, as their predecessors did before them.

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