Derby Carnival: Mace-bearer at the last pre-war carnival

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The Osmaston Hussars in 1938. Bob Barbsy’s brother, Hibbitt “Sonny” Barsby is the mace-bearer at the back

Bob Barsby (73) of Chaddesden today with his grandaughter

FOR years carnivals have provided happy times and great memories for families. Probably because children from a very young age were taken along to their local one, lasting impressions of the music, the laughter and the fun they experienced with those they cared about have stayed with them all the rest of their lives.

Even when money was desperately short, the carnival provided parents with the opportunity to take their large families along to share in all the fun.

Derby Carnival was an annual event which became the highlight of the year for families who would walk miles following the bands and parades to Markeaton Park.

Bob Barsby (73), of Chaddesden, was there in 1938, just before the Second World War began, but he can still remember the thrill of walking alongside the band to which his elder brother, Hibbitt, belonged.

Back then, Hibbitt, nicknamed Sonny after the popular Al Jolson song, Sonny, was the pride and joy of his family because he was the mace bearer with the Osmaston Hussars, a well-known brass band in Derby at the time.

Bob was only six but clearly remembers the bright, midsummer day that he and his parents, Robert and Gertrude Barsby, walked alongside the Hussars, as they marched and played their way from the town centre, up Friar Gate and Ashbourne Road on their way to Markeaton Park.

Nearly 70 years later, he recalls: “It was a huge parade with lots of rousing music and crowds everywhere, quite an event for the local people in the town.”

Like all small boys he was proud of his older brother and totally mesmerised by the sight of the 18-year-old stepping out, deftly throwing the silver mace in the air.

“I watched in awe as my brother marched in front. He threw the mace so high in the air. He would walk three paces and then, without looking up, he would put up his hand and catch it. I was so proud and so envious, too.”

Once the parade arrived at Markeaton, the families would watch and listen while all the bands took part in a competition, many sitting around, picnicking on the grass.

“I was with my mother and father and we spent the whole day listening to the bands in the competition ring. I was really excited when it was the Hussars turn. Then, as the contest finished, I remember a young lad sat on the drum and the band played Little Drummer Boy.”

At the end of a long, tiring, but happy day, the families began their long walk back into town alongside the bands.

“Only then, we were not as quiet as we had been before. In fact, we were very frisky,” said Bob.

That happy day, which Bob has never forgotten, was the last carnival to be held for several years as the Second World War broke out the following year.

“No-one realised that the next time those young men and women would be marching like that, it would be to a different tune and in a different coloured uniform, for they were off to war,” said Bob.

Sonny, who had been desperate to join the Navy, was disappointed. He had a hearing problem, caused by the noise when he was working with riveters inside engine boilers at the Loco Works, and had been judged medically unfit to fight.

“Sadly, they didn’t want him. He saw so many of his friends go off to fight and, sadly, many never came back.

“I often think of that special day and shed a tear for all the years and the people who have gone.”

Sonny, who was the eldest of six children, has since died but Bob still remembers his talent for throwing up the mace and never dropping it.

“He used to practise all the time with a broom stick in the yard at the back of our house in Chambers Street, near Alvaston Lake. He also practised at work which caused a lot of interest.”

Bob was 12 years younger but in later years the brothers shared a drink and would chat about the good old days.

When he was 18, Bob went into the Navy and later had several jobs, including working at Royal Crown Derby, the Carriage & Wagon works and the Barlow Taylor store in the Market Place.

His excellent memory has helped him with his hobby of researching his family history which he has traced back to around 1700.

He is curious about his grandfather, Hibbitt Barsby, who came to Derby from Leicestershire in 1902 to get a job on the railways.

“I never knew him but I remember going to his house where there was always a wooden leg hanging above the fireplace. I was told that it was his and that he had lost one of his legs when it got stuck in points and a train chopped it off.”

But he later heard the official story from the railways that his grandfather had been working at Tamworth where a lorry hit him, breaking his leg and fracturing his thigh so badly that it had been amputated.

“It’s strange how stories pass through families. Maybe a Bygones reader may have heard about the leg above the fireplace. He was quite well-known in the area near Alvaston Lake. ”

Bob and his wife, Brenda, have five children, 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

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