So it’s now a ceremony? No doubt involving the Holy Toilet Seat of Antioch.......
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/family-piano-given-to-raf-base-burnt-in-military-ceremony-by-mistake-drl508t3c
Family piano given to RAF base burnt in military ceremony by mistake
A mahogany piano given by a couple to a secretive military base was wrecked in a ceremonial fire “by mistake”.
Retired diplomat Saleh Rebdi, a father of six, and his wife Suzanne “thought it would be nice for the officers” to have a piano in the mess at Boscombe Down, an aircraft test site with the UK’s longest military runway. They handed over their beloved piano as they prepared to downsize from their £3.5m listed mansion at Winterbourne Dauntsey, near Salisbury, Wiltshire. They later learnt it had been destroyed at a Battle of Britain night supervised by firefighters. Now the station commander has apologised “for this mistake”.
Yesterday Rebdi, in his mid-seventies, said they believed the piano “was going to a good home”. His wife had refused to give it to a local family for children to play so it could go to the base, and was “very upset”.
“I even helped [local airmen] load it onto their van and tied it down to make sure it was secure. We thought it would be nice for the officers,” Rebdi said.
The RAF said: “Pianos at the end of their life are sometimes ceremonially burnt on special occasions by RAF personnel. Regrettably on this occasion a mistake was made and a viable piano was used. The station commander at MoD Boscombe Down has written to Mrs Rebdi apologising.”