Ricketts joined the Royal Irish Regiment in 1895. He was enlisted as a Band Boy. He was a good cornet player and was put into the regimental band. The band went with the regiment to Limerick in Ireland, and then to India. In his free time, Ricketts learned all the other band instruments. When he was 15 years old, he wrote his first piece, which was called "For Service Overseas". It has never been published. In 1903, he was recommended for entry into the Student Bandmaster Course at the Royal Military School of Music, in Twickenham, Middlesex. Musicians who were as young as Ricketts were not nominated very often, but Ricketts was very skilled.
Ricketts began a two-year course at Kneller Hall in the summer of 1904. This course was very difficult. He graduated in 1906.
In 1908, Ricketts became Bandmaster to the Band of the 2nd Battalion of the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders. He went to the Orange River Colony (formerly the Orange Free State) to lead them. This colony is now the Republic of South Africa. The colonel asked him to write a new march for the Argylls, so Ricketts wrote "The Thin Red Line". It was not published until 1925.
Ricketts wanted to compose music. However, it was not accepted for officers of Ricketts's rank to be engaged in commercial activities in the civilian world. Because of this, Ricketts decided to compose and publish under the pen name Kenneth J. Alford. The first march written under the new pen name was "Holyrood".
A few weeks before the start of World War I, Ricketts composed his most famous march, called "Colonel Bogey". No one knows exactly how Ricketts began composing it. Ricketts's widow claims that it came from a game of golf. She says that during the game, Ricketts and another member of the Argylls started whistling the notes that would become the march's melody.
Shortly after World War I started, Ricketts and the Band Boys of the Argylls were sent to the 3rd Battalion (Reserve) in Edinburgh. They stayed there through the whole war. During the war Ricketts wrote several marches dedicated to the British military: "The Great Little Army" (1916), "On The Quarter Deck," "The Middy," "The Voice of the Guns" (1917), and "The Vanished Army (They Never Die)" (1919).
In 1921, Ricketts applied to become a bandmaster for the Band of the Plymouth Division, which was part of the Royal Marines. He was interviewed and was offered the position. However, the old bandmaster, P.S.G. O'Donnell, was trying to apply for a position with an Army band, but members of the Royal Marines were not allowed to become members of the British Army. Because of this, Ricketts could not take the position, since O'Donnell remained with the Band of the Plymouth Division.
In 1927, Ricketts applied again to become a bandmaster with the Royal Marines. This time, he was approved. He became a lieutenant in the Royal Marines Band Service on 4 July 1927. He was posted to the Band of the Marines' Depot at Deal in Kent. In 1930, Ricketts was posted to the Band of the Plymouth Division.
On 5 September 1907, Frederick Joseph Ricketts was married to Miss Annie Louisa Holmes. This was while he was on staff at the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall. Annie (Nan) Holmes came from a musical family. Her brother was a partner in the London music publishing house of Walsh, Holmes and Company. Nan often gave Ricketts ideas and helped him make decisions about compositions. They had six children, Kenneth (March 1909), Leo (April 1911), Sheila (May 1913), Paula (October 1916), Gordon (October 1918),and José (October 1922).
Ricketts retired from the Royal Marines on 1 June 1944 because of ill health. He died at his home in Reigate, Surrey, on 15 May 1945, after an operation for cancer. He had given almost 50 years of service to the Crown.
Yordy Reyna
Yordy Reyna (born 17 September 1993) is a football player from Peru. He plays as a striker for Red Bull Salzburg, in the Austrian Bundesliga.
Reyna started his career for Alianza Lima, where he played in the youth teams. In March 2011 he was promoted to the first team after scoring seven goals in the reserve team and in the 2011 Under-20 Copa Libertadores. In that season he won also the award for "breakthrough player" of the 2012 season.
In 2013, Yordy Reyna signed with the Austrian club Red Bull Salzburg for a fee of 2 million euros. Yordy Reyna played his first game for Red Bull Slazburg in a friendly match where he had a great performance and scored the game-winning goal.
Reyna played for the Peru Under-20 national team seven times in 2012 and 2013. On 22 March 2013, Reyna played his first senior match. It was to qualify for World Championships, and Peru won against Chile by scoring 1-0.
Halton Arp
Halton Christian "Chip" Arp (March 21, 1927 – December 28, 2013) was an American astronomer. He was known for his "Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies", published in 1966. Arp was also known as a critic of the Big Bang theory and for helping a non-standard cosmology to create an intrinsic redshift.
Arp was born on March 21, 1927 in New York City. He studied at the California Institute of Technology. Arp was married three times. He had four daughters.
Arp died on December 28, 2013 in Munich. He died from a stroke, and he was aged 86.
Wojciech Kilar
Wojciech Kilar (17 July 1932 – 29 December 2013) was a Polish classical and movie composer. He was known for his composing in "Bram Stoker's Dracula" and "The Pianist". He received many awards throughout his fifty years of composing.
Kilar was born on 17 July 1932 in Lwów, Poland (present-day Lviv, Ukraine). He studied at State Higher School of Music and at State Higher School of Music.
Kilar married Barbara Pomianowska in April 1966. They had no children. Their marriage lasted for almost over forty years. Pomianowska died in November 2007.
Kilar composed many movie compositions. He composed the trailer music for "Schindler's List". He also composed the music for "Promised Land" and for "Dracula". He composed his musical works during a festival for Pope John Paul II.
In 1991 Polish filmmaker Krzysztof Zanussi made a movie about his life titled "Wojciech Kilar".
Kilar, who was suffering from brain cancer during his final years, from which he died on 29 December 2013 in Katowice, Poland at the age of 81.
Mary Wibberley
Mary Wibberley ( – 29 December 2013) was an English romantic fiction writer. She wrote over 48 romance novels. Her first novel, "Black Niall", was published in 1973.
Wibberley died after a short illness on 29 December 2013. She was aged 79.
Eero Mäntyranta
Eero Antero Mäntyranta (20 November 1937 – 30 December 2013) was a Finnish skier. He has won several medals and the Winter Olympic Games.
Mäntyranta was born in Pello, Finland.
He competed in four Winter Olympics from 1960 to 1972. He won seven medals at the first three of them. This makes him one of the most successful skiers in Finland. His success at the 1964 Winter Olympics earned him the nickname "Mister Seefeld". The Finnish Ministry of Education honored him with the Pro Urheilu letter of recognition in 2000. There is a museum called Mäntyranta in Pello.
Mäntyranta died on 30 December 2013 from a heart attack. He died in Pello, aged 74.
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an Indian-American author and poet. She writes for both adults and children. In 1991 her first collection of poems, "Black Candle", was published. In 1995 she won the American Book Award for "Arranged Marriage: Stories". Her 1997 novel "Mistress of Spices" was made into a movie.
Junot Díaz
Junot Díaz (born December 31, 1968) is a Dominican-American writer. His first novel "The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao" was published in September 2007. In 2008 it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. It also won the John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize. His next novel has not been published yet. It is called "Monstro".
Díaz was born in Villa Juana, a neighborhood in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. In December 1974 he moved to New Jersey.