Area Staff Officer
Name: Ali Bowen-Davis
Occupation: Professional Musician
Sea Cadet Unit: Windsor & Eton
What a CV! Trained in Cardiff and Chicago, Ali Bowen-Davies is a professional musician with 20 years’ orchestral experience who has been working with the Windsor & Eton Sea Cadets for the past nine years. After finishing her Masters degree in Music, Ali was asked if she could help out at the local Unit. Little did she know that what started out as a favour to a colleague’s sister would turn into a veritable passion.
“One of the biggest kicks is helping young cadets with absolutely no experience to become accomplished musicians,” she says. “Some of them go on to achieve great things. Even if they don’t, it’s so rewarding just to be involved and to see them develop.”
For the past three years, Ali’s worn the uniform of a Sea Cadet Petty Officer and has assumed the role of Area Staff Officer Bands (Southern), reporting to Director of Music, Lt Commander Derek Payne. During that time, they have worked together to develop a grading system for cadets with musical aspirations.
“Those cadets who want to take their music further – to join the Royal Marines School of Music, for example – need official grades. We’re working on a system where they can achieve those grades.”
Qualifications aside, Ali says that one of the highlights of her career so far was the 1999 Royal Tournament. “I was a member of the instructional staff at Earls Court. It was a wonderful occasion. We played in the last ever run-out before the tournament was stopped.” It’s moments like this, she says, that make all the hard work worthwhile.