Obituary - Lt Col George E Evans OBE ARCM psm

 

Colonel George Evans was born on 6th January I926 at the small mining town of Pontypool. He began playing the cornet at the age of seven, his elder brothers playing trombone, euphonium and tenor horn, and he played his first solo at a Festival in the Methodist Central Hall, Newport, at the age of eleven. He later became assistant solo cornet in the Coventry City Salvation Army Band. He considered a career in army music and made applications to join the bands of The Life Guards, Coldstream and Scots Guards but for various reasons decided to remain a civilian. The audition for the Life Guards was taken by Major Thornburrow of the Royal Horse Guards, whose position he was to take some thirty years later.

 

George was conscripted in December 1944, joining the Somerset Light Infantry at Colchester. At the end of his initial training he was detailed by the platoon sergeant to perform at the company concert, playing Post Horn Gallop, Zelda, and a ballad Trees, accompanied by the Band of 2nd Bn The Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry under the Bandmaster, Mr Pat Taylor.

 

Private Evans was due to be posted to India but returned from embarkation leave to find that Bandmaster Taylor had arranged for him to be drafted to the band. This period included a six month tour of Palestine where he spent his 21^st birthday on railway guard duty.

 

He left the army for a while and happened to see a concert advertised in Oxford by the Band of the 3rd Carabiniers (Prince of Wales’s Dragoon Guards) by now conducted by his old Bandmaster Pat Taylor. Mr Taylor persuaded him to re-enlist into his band and he joined them at Tidworth. He played rugby for the regiment and eventually became Trumpet Major. He also at this time occupying the solo cornet chair with Morris Motors Band under Harry Mortimer, as well as taking on various big band work.

 

The band’s Kneller Hall Inspection led him being asked to become a Student Bandmaster much earlier than he had planned as the Director of Music was keen to swell the course with the best trumpet players in preparation for the forthcoming Coronation. Student Bandmaster Evans took his place with the Kneller Hall Trumpeters on the organ loft in Westminster Abbey on 2^nd June 1953 for what must have been an unforgettable musical experience with one of the best views of the whole ceremony. He later became Band Sergeant Major at Kneller Hall

 

On 12^th September 1956 he was appointed Bandmaster of The Royal Dragoons (1^st Dragoons), joining them in Germany and later serving with them in Malaya. He was commissioned on 25th January 1966 as Director of Music of the Royal Artillery Mounted Band, serving with them in Aldershot, Germany and eventually Larkhill. One of the highlights of this time was a series of “Harry Secombe and Friends" concerts.

 

Capt Evans was appointed Director of Music of The Blues and Royals (Royal Horse Guards and 1^st Dragoons) in 1973, thus returning to his earlier regiment following amalgamation. He said it was like coming home as he knew half the regiment already. He spent a month with The King's Troop, Royal Horse Artillery for some individual equestrian tuition prior to joining the Household Cavalry riding course and, on completion, took part in Beating Retreat on Horse Guards Parade later that year. He was promoted to Major on 25th July 1975.

 

This was at the time when there were regular concerts in the London parks and the band became particularly popular with audiences, in no small way due to George's informative and amusing patter (and awful jokes!) particularly at the Embankment Gardens where he would often get into entertaining dialogue with the down-and-outs who would wander in to heckle. One of the highlights with The Blues and Royals was a band concert in the Royal Festival Hall comprising all Austrian music. He had a long association with the Luton Musical Pageant, being Musical Director for each pageant from 1973 up to his retirement and then returning as the commentator in 1985 and producer in 1989.

 

Early in 1978 Major Evans was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed Chief Instructor and Director of Music at The Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall. Amongst the high-profile engagements in this appointment was conducting the Kneller Hall Trumpeters in St. Paul's Cathedral in 1981 at the wedding of The Prince and Princess of Wales. Another royal occasion took place at Westminster Abbey with one of the trumpeters being deputed to take George's uniform. It was only after they began to get changed at the Abbey that it was realised that an item had been left behind - George's trousers! This led to him conducting the Trumpeters in the unusual order of dress of frock coat, sword – and grey pin-striped trousers, fortunately up in the organ loft where he could not be seen. The erring trumpeter lived to fight another day and eventually became a Lieutenant Colonel.

 

He was Musical Director for the great Military Musical Pageants at Wembley Stadium in 1979 and 1981, conducting massed bands numbering well over a thousand musicians in such works Capriccio Italien and 1812, as well as a musical representation of the Battle of Rorke’s drift to mark the centenary.

 

Colonel Evans was appointed OBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1982 and received his insignia at an Investiture at Buckingham Palace on 4^th November 1982. He retired from the army on 6^th January 1983 but remained at Kneller Hall as Assistant Director of Music, Professor of Conducting and Curator of the Museum until his final retirement at the end of 1990 but continued very much as one of Army music's revered elder statesmen.

 

He was appointed as a Vice President of the International Military Music Society on 1st January 1980, becoming the first Branch President of the Society's United Kingdom Branch in 1998. The society benefited enormously from his valuable experience and he would regularly host the reception on the eve of the Shrewsbury Flower Show as well as always managing to secure an invitation to conduct at least one of the bands during the show itself. The dates of the show would generally coincide with his wedding anniversary so My Fair Lady was often his choice, with an appropriate dedication to Joy. Another important aspect of George's life was his numerous golfing successes including winning the Army Golfing Society's Championship Medal, the Royal Artillery Prize and the Guards Golfing Society Cup.

 

George and Joy had two daughters, both of whose husbands have been knighted, one in medicine and one in the Church - or as George put it: “One to look after my body and one to look after my soul': George died on 2lst March 2011 but will be long remembered by all who knew him.

 

Colin Dean (International Military Music Society)

 

Citation for George Evans' OBE:

 

Lieutenant Colonel Evans holds the Senior Director of Music appointment in the British Army, and as such he exercises great influence on musical training policy in the Army. He has no sewing peer in military music, and his responsibilities for wise direction and sound organisation are heavy. Lieutenant Colonel Evans works unremittingly from early morning to late at night to maintain the very high standards, both at Kneller Hall and among bands in the Army. His flair as a musician and a Director makes him well-known in musical circles both in this country and overseas. This was particularly demonstrated by the brilliance with which he organised and directed some 1.500 musicians at the Wembley Musical Pageant in June 1979 and again in 1981, when he was particularly complimented by The Prince of Wales. In July 1981he directed the Kneller Hall Fanfare Trumpeters at the wedding of HRH Prince Charles at St Paul’s Cathedral, and their performance was magnificent. As a member of DASD’s 1981 working Party during the Army Band Review he contributed wise technical counsel during a difficult review.

 

Lieutenant Colonel Evans’s 26 years as a Bandmaster and Director of Music, culminating in outstanding service to Army Music in his present unique and very responsible post, deserve special recognition.

 

Recommended by Colonel D T L Beath. Commandant, Royal Military School of Music. on 9th Sept 1981.

 

Very Strongly Recommended by Major General Langley (Major General Commanding London District) 27th Nov 1981 and General Sir John Stanier C-in-C UK Land Forces 27th Jan 1982.

 

From National Archives ref W013731178

 

A memorial service will be held on Thursday 15th September 2011 at 12.00 noon in the Guards Chapel at Wellington Barracks

 

(Re: International Military Music Society Newsletter No. 88 June 2011)