Household Troops Band - History

History

In the early Summer of 1885 there was a "Great Kent March" by Salvation Army Officer Cadets. They were known as "Life Guards" and the march was headed by a band of 25 brass instrumentalists, each wearing a white pith military helmet (the normal military headgear of the day), a red guernsey, blue trousers and gaiters and carrying a knapsack and water bottle. Later it was suggested that a permanent band might be established. A War Cry (Salvation Army newspaper) advert called for volunteers; it read:

If you're young, if you're saved, if you're physically fit, if you can play a brass instrument.....are prepared to leave home and family for six months active service for God and the Army...then be at Clapton Congress Hall on 12 March 1887.

The Household Troops Band was formed with Staff-Captain Harry Appleby as bandmaster. No salary was offered and no guarantee was given apart from food and clothing. On June 1, 1887, the pioneer 25 members of the Household Troops Band left Clapton Congress Hall to march into Salvation Army history. Their first tour lasted six months. The next year, in October, the band left for Canada as the first British Salvation Army band to cross the Atlantic. The tour was a tremendous success and led to Canada's own Household Troops Band being formed.

Whilst they were away a second group of players was inaugurated under the leadership of Samuel Webber and the tradition continued. On October 14 1889 in the country village of Whitchurch in Hampshire, it is reported that the Household Troops Band lead a march of over 1000 Salvationists in a great march for liberty. The local Salvationists had suffered persecution and injury in the Whitchurch Riots and over 800 had been imprisoned for conducting open-air services. As a result of this demonstration and others led by the local Corps, The Salvation Army won a landmark legal case and with it, the right to play and preach in the open-air.

The first Troops band returned home to Britain in 1891 and later members of both bands amalgamated. Then six years after it all started, in 1893, the band was dissolved to make way for a new band, and it was from the ashes of the Household Troops Band that the International Headquarters Staff Band (now known as the International Staff Band) was formed.