Page 125 - RSDG Year of 2021 CREST

hard won while a restrained but chastening word was often close behind any error or a lack of effort by any rank! Therefore, when he was impressed - which was sometimes difficult to spot - its value was undoubted.
Born on the 22nd June, 1946 in Peebles, Scotland, as the eldest of three children, Tony Crease was imbued with a military ethos from an early age with his father James serving in the Territorial Army during the war and his mother Doreen in the WRNS. He joined the cadets affiliated to the Royal Suffolk Hussars when the family moved to Lowestoft and he learned to ‘tag along’ with the adult soldiers to watch training and rifle shooting. His father’s work took them to Beccles, Yorkshire and he moved schools to the Sir John Lennon School. But, while he enjoyed his studies, the Army was always his chosen career. He enlisted with the Junior Leaders when he was 14 and in September 1961, aged 16, he caught the train to Bovington in Dorset to join the Royal Armoured Corps Junior Leaders Regiment. Assigned to the Drums Squadron as he wanted to become a piper, he was seconded for a year to Fort George, the bleak garrison near Inverness. Here he learned to play the bagpipes to a good stand- ard before returning to Dorset to complete his tank trades, ready to pass out in 1964. He chose to join The Royal Scots Greys and staging through Belgium, he was posted to Fallingbostel in the then West Germany. After a year in a tank squadron to earn his spurs, he was transferred to the Pipe Band - his real ambition. Remarkably, aged just 22, he was sent to the Army’s Piping School (then in Edinburgh Castle) and quali- fied as a Pipe Major with a ‘Double A’ grade awarded by the Piobaireachd Society.
In July 1971, The Royal Scots Greys amalgamated with the 3rd Carabiniers and earlier that year, the Bands came together to prepare for the Amalgamation Parade. A recording took place for the album Farewell to the Greys consisting of the new regimental music including an arrangement of the famous hymn Amazing Grace - a project inspired by Tony Crease with and arranged by the Greys Bandmaster, Stuart Fairbairn. In1972 it was played by BBC Radio 2 just once and caught the national mood, taking it to No.1 in the charts for 6 weeks with international sales top- ping 11 million. Under his remarkable leadership, the Pipes and Drums along with the Band became celeb- rities, playing live with superstars, resulting in many further recordings and touring the world. If this was not success enough, Pipe Major Tony Crease took The Pipes and Drums to the coveted Grade 1 Status at the World Pipe Band Championships in 1977 - a rare hon- our for a military Pipes and Drums. In the same year he was awarded the British Empire Medal.
To progress his promising career, he was obliged to return to the military mainstream and as a Staff Sergeant and then Warrant Officer, he was responsi- ble for the regiment’s Motor Transport Troop, before taking over as A Squadron Sergeant Major and then Regimental Sergeant Major.
It is a mark of the man that he progressed swiftly through the ranks and any visitor to any one of his responsibilities would find the place and the people “gleaming”. He set the highest standards for him- self and expected others to follow his example. So, it was unsurprising that he was selected for a commis- sion to serve as an Assistant Adjutant, responsible for the soldiers’ career planning, as a Quartermaster (Technical) for the Regiment during the Gulf War and then Quartermaster, responsible for huge scales of stores and infrastructure. The latter earned him an MBE marking him as uncommon in holding the two honours (BEM and MBE).
Tony retired from the Regular Army to live near Bedale and manage the swathes of rugged military training area that serve Catterick Garrison and the wider Army. A passionate ornithologist and conserva- tionist, in 1992, he created the Foxglove Covert Nature Reserve on the boundaries of Catterick Garrison. This phenomenal project started with just 28 acres and is now over 100 acres and has hosted more than 500,000 visitors. This project was one of the winners of the prestigious 2021 Queens Award for Voluntary Service. These awards are made to charities, social enterprise and voluntary groups from the United Kingdom for delivering exceptional service within their communi- ties over the past year and beyond. Sadly, Tony did not live to hear about this award. An expert bird-ringer Tony also specialised in the care and management of the local owl population and in counting seabirds on the cliffs and shorelines of the North coast of Scotland, drawing in many others to share his interests and his enthusiasm.
Major Tony Crease was one of a kind, his professional- ism was admired widely, he was held sometime in awe, his advice was often sought, his praise, friendship and respect were cherished and for many he will simply be remembered as a regimental legend.
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