Trafalgar Band Upper Lydbrook, George & Harold WILLIAMS. (General)

by Jefff , West London, Middlesex, Sunday, May 21, 2017, 01:28 (2743 days ago) @ cmfenton

Maurice Bent's book "The Musical Traditin of Dean. Vol 1" has a short section on the Trafalgar Brass Band including a photo that is not dated but includes the bandmaster, Mr A Wilce.
There is also a longer section on the Lydbrook Silver Band.

This particular book was dedicated to my grandfather (George Williams) and my uncle (Harold Williams) so is of particular interest to me as far as my Forest connections are concerned !

Hi cm fenton,
Sorry for my slow reply, I wanted to as soon as I read your post, but I then suffered a rather severe computer failure so have been off line.

It seems your Uncle Harold Williams was the same kindly gentleman who was our headmaster at Bilson School Cinderford in the late 60s / early 70s. If so then please accept my best wishes, Mr Williams was a lovely man who we all thought very highly of, me and my older sisters have many happy memories of our time at Bilson. We lived just yards from the school in Parragate, overlooking their playing field, my mum's still there and she remembers Mr Williams as a nice gentleman who loved his choir music.

I don't know if your saw my post a few years ago about the Cinderford Scrapbook produced by Bilson WI in 1965.
It took me a while wracking my memory before I remembered where I'd seen mention of Harold Williams as a choirmaster, and it was in the Scrapbook, which I have a pdf copy of on my PC.
The Scrapbook has a couple of pages devoted to the Choral Society, including photos of Mr Williams and the choir's pianist Mr Cliff Bonsor, who was also one of our teachers at Bilson School. This section's author is a choir-member who writes that the “Genial and happy” Harold L Williams was son of "reputed and revered musician George Williams of Ruardean".

Out of interest I've found what you'll already know;

Births Dec 1913
Williams Harold L Meek Westbury S. 6a 510

Surname First name(s) District Vol Page
Marriages Sep 1909
MEEK Alice Westbury S. 6a 576
WILLIAMS George Westbury S. 6a 576

1911; Ruardean Hill, Drybrook, East Dean, Gloucestershire, England
First name(s) Last name Relationship Marital status Sex Occupation Age Birth year Birth place
William Williams Head Widower Male Coal Porter 68 1843 Hope Mansell Parish Herefordshire
George Williams Son Married 1 yr Male Blacksmith, Trafalger Coll’y 29 1882 East Dean Township Glos Ruardean Hill
Alice Williams Daughter Married 1 yr Female - 30 1881 East Dean Township the Morse Drybrook Glos

Finally, I did a quick search of the old newspapers on the BNA site and found an article from June 1931 which describes in detail the annual FoD Band and Choir Contest held at Ruardean, where George Williams is conductor of Ruardean Hill Choir, and Lydbrook Band is conducted by Mr M.Child.
Sadly that year George's Choir didn't win, but I'm sure they were still very good indeed.

Best wishes, Jeff.