In 1975 I was stationed at the Military Hospital in Colchester as a Theatre Sister. One lunchtime in the dining room, Matron (Lt Col Val Cavey) asked if anyone could do Scottish Country Dancing. I nearly choked on my lunch and shot my hand up as I had done competitive dancing while growing up in Edinburgh. That was the beginning of my road to The Royal Tournament and The Festival of Remembrance. The Tournament was from the 16th July to the 2nd of August.
In early July I went to RAF Stanmore in Middlesex. This was to be my home till the Tournament finished. There I met the rest of the display team and the person in charge. There were 32 of us, all female from the 3 services. we had a team for each service and a mixed team. Each team had a different tartan skirt . The person in charge of the display was Lt Col (Rtd) S Storm , he had come from Scotland to teach us the dance which had been especially arranged for the Tournament. Over the next 2 weeks we learnt the dance. It was very hard work as none of us had danced for years! Col Storm had brought bottles of horse liniment for us to use on our sore calves!!
The week before the start of the Tournament we went to Earls Court to meet the band we were accompanying and to rehearse.The band was The Pipes and Drums of the Australian States Police Forces.. We were given a large room as our dressing room; it had a few chairs and tables but I had to go to the QM to request a lot more that we needed such as mirrors, racks for our costumes and a lot more. The behind the scenes support for the Tournament was the 1st Coldstream Guards. Their QM was very supportive of us and got me all that I needed!
After the week of rehearsals, Col Storm left us and I was left in charge as I was the senior officer. I had to go to the daily briefings and represent the display in the Royal Box to meet the dignitaries after each performance. Because the floor of the arena was earth, it was very difficult to dance on. We were on after the Polo competition so, the poop had to be scooped before we went on but, sometimes some got missed! We then had very smelly ballet shoes when that happened.
After every performance I went with the other officers in charge to be presented in the Royal Box. This was daunting at times but made me feel very proud. The Queen Mother said how difficult it must be to dance on the earth and how well we all did. There were 29 performances. As we were the only females, we were invited to quite a few parties .I eat in the Officers Mess and as it was a Guards Mess it was very grand and I was well looked after .
During the Tournament, I was approached by a member of the Festival of Remembrance planning team to see if I was willing to Choreograph a dance suitable for the Festival. I agreed to do this with trepidation. The Black Watch were stationed in Colchester and they had already agreed to play for the display. I bought some Scottish Country Dance books and went to work. For the 1st half of the dance I chose a reel and the 2nd half a strathspey. I liaised with Allan Dippie the Pipe Major and we decided on the tunes. A week before the Festival I went back to RAF Stanmore this time with the Black Watch Pipes and Drums. There were just 2 teams this time. I had to dance and teach the new dance as I was part of a team. We had one rehearsal at the Albert Hall then 2 performance on the day. All went well on the day and the girls did me proud. At the end of the displays when we were all in the arena and the popppies came down, I couldn't stop crying.
Major(Rtd) Dot Ritchie TD
Reg service 1972-1980
TA service 1980-2003
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