Roy W. Kaighin composer / arranger

Roy W Kaighin was born on 15th July 1951, he was adopted and raised by Annie Ellen and William Kaighin in Peel on the Isle of Man. When he was just five years old, young Roy began playing the piano and violin. The family moved to Fleetwood in Lancashire when Roy was nine and as a pupil at Chaucer Primary School in the town he began learning to play the trombone and trumpet.

Sixteen years old Roy travelled to Deal and joined the boys of 3/67 squad Royal Marines Band Service on 5th September 1967 as a flute, piccolo and piano player.. he was an extremely talented pianist. On completion of training in 1970, Musician Kaighin’s first draft was to the extremely busy Royal Marines Band Commander in Chief Western Fleet, based at HMS Pembroke, the band was extremely well travelled and amongst many other places in 1971 under the renamed RM Band CinC Fleet, they visited Stockholm, Helsinki and Kiel. It was at Chatham where Roy was awarded the nickname Alf!

Roy was then drafted to the Royal Marines Band Flag Officer Scotland & Northern Ireland (FOSNI) at the latter end of 1972. His first step towards promotion came in 1974 when he was selected for the Junior Command Course at the Commando Training Centre.
He was drafted away from FOSNI in 1976 and went on to perform at the 1977 Royal Tournament. In addition to his Band Service role he generated a bit more beer money when he was a member of the JG Seven group of the 1970’s that played in the local pubs around Deal.