In 1947 Boscombe was awarded the singular honour of being the first SA Band to campaign overseas after World War II. Realising the enormity of the task in front of them the band devoted much time in its final rehearsal to prayer and meditation. Band-Sergeant Guy Hewitt asked that every bandsman would re-dedicate himself for service. As a result spontaneous prayer flowed ceaselessly and the climax of each petition was that the campaign be crowned with spiritual success.
As the clock of a nearby church began to strike eight on Thursday evening (June 19th) the Hook of Holland continental train slid casually out of Liverpool Street Station carrying Boscombe Band on the second stage of its journey to Holland.
For the 48 men comprising the touring party it was no casual departure. Theirs was the first British corps band to visit the continent of Europe in this new post-war era and whilst Major George Baker (the Boscombe CO accompanying the band as IHQ representative), BM Herbert Mountain and the bandsmen were in excellent spirits, keenly anticipating the campaign, they were humbly conscious of a heavy responsibility resting upon them.
By the time the last stroke had sounded the train had become swallowed up in the distant cloud of engine smoke and as the small company of well-wishers, headed by Major Saywell, quietly dispersed it was difficult to realise that, if everything went 'according to plan', the band would have arrived on Dutch soil before the friendly clock again struck eight.