Jonathan Yates RMB 3905 Principal Trumpet   Jonathan Yates was born in Shanklin, Isle of Wight, the second son of Alan and Lily Yates, in April 1948. He was educated at the Sandown C of E. School and the Fairway Secondary Modern School. He joined the Royal Marines as a violin and cornet player in 4/62 Squad in June 1962. During training, he represented the training wing at rugby, boxing, diving and water polo. He also gained the education prize and the cornet progress prize. During his four years at the School of Music, he gave up the violin to concentrate on cornet/trumpet, encouraged by Captain Peter Sumner. Jon circa 1996   In 1966, he joined the Home Fleet Band at HMS Pembroke, Chatham, visiting Russia, Finland, Poland and Sweden on HM Ships Devonshire and London. Over the following seven years he served with the Bands of 43 Cdo RM (for the youth activities tour), HMSs Victorious, Hermes, Excellent, Daedalus and Eagle, during which time he travelled to North America, The Mediterranean, North Africa, France and Spain. In 1973, he moved to the Staff Band at the School of Music in Deal where he met his wife to be, Wendy, who was studying at the Teacher Training College, Nonnington. In 1974, he was appointed as the Principal Trumpet/Cornet of the Staff Band, a position he held until the closure of the Barracks in 1996. His time in the Staff Band was completely varied involving major state ceremonial, broadcasting, recording, even giving away large chunks of the Empire! He is indebted to Princess Margaret for her help on several of these occasions. The relatively stable time that Jon had at Deal gave him time to bring up his family; Daniel, Joanna and Natalie, free from the turbulence that a life in the service generally has to offer. It also gave him the opportunity to develop as a musician at the highest level available to service musicians. He is indebted to Lt Col Paul Neville for giving him these opportunities and to Warrant Officer Bandmaster Sidney Rose for his encouragement at a time when he was not as confident as he may have looked. On reflection, Jon feels very privileged to have been so stimulated throughout his career, also to have the opportunity to work with such an interesting and talented group of people. He still manages to enjoy himself in the company of these special people in the RMA Concert Band, where he is able to play with his wife in public, as she is also a member of the RMACB (Wendy Yates). Jon today, the Band's principal trumpet [Jon’s modesty above doesn’t reveal that he is Professor of Trumpet at the RM School of Music and undoubtedly one of the finest players in this country, certainly considerably in demand. He is an ARCM and was awarded the Meritorious Service Medal in 1996 - Ed]