Making History at the Parade

On Saturday 27th September, Omodele proudly stepped forward as Drum Major — the first female to hold this role since 2014.

We were also delighted to welcome back Amanda Ellis, both the last and the first female Drum Major, who watched the parade with pride and offered Omodele words of encouragement and advice.

It was a wonderful moment of tradition and achievement, hopefully inspiring other female drummers of the future.

Sadly, Omodele wasn’t able to parade with the new Drum Major’s staff — currently with the engravers. The staff was generously donated by an alumnus, and I’ll share more on this later in the term.

As for the first parade of the year, the drill was already an improvement on last year, and the band sounded fantastic. Number One Guard very nearly marched clean off the square after their march past, but the JUO saved the moment with a sharp (if slightly hair-raising) right wheel that skimmed a little too close to the building to the side of the parade square. Safe to say, that particular maneuver won’t be repeated in a hurry!