Our Band

The 2nd Edgware Scout Band has always managed to be of a high quality when compared with other Scout Bands. Even when it first started, when I was a 9 year old Cub, it always attracted about 75% of the boys and young men in the Group.

I think that Arthur Pitcher is the only Surviving member of the original Drum and Bugle Band, started in 1932. Arthur was a good bugler and played alongside my brother Joe, Sid and Fred, Bill Martin, Norman Barnes, the Ryall brothers, Ernie Soden on Bass Drum, and many others whose names I have forgotten.

The Band consisted of Scouts and Rovers only, and having trained as a reserve drummer, I duly took my place in the Band, and was the first Cub to do so.

The instruments were donated by Mrs Whitehouse, a wealthy lady who lived in The Drive. She also paid for the erection of the brick wall of the church yard. The instruments cost £100, a lot of money in those days.

Towards the opening of the Second World War, the Band became reduced in numbers and was run by the Assistant Scout Master, Dave Edgar, who came from the North East of England. When war came, some had to go off to join the forces but, when on leave on the last Sunday of the month, continued to turn out for Church Parade.

Contrary to the expectations of the pundits, the Group, under Arthur Pitcher, went from strength to strength, and the Band was run by my father [Ernest Wade], who never went into uniform or on to parade with the Band, but was very ably assisted by many senior boys such as Peter Burr, Les Pepperall, Les Williams, and many more besides.

After the War, my brother [Joe Wade] took over from my father, and he, unbelievably persuaded the Group Committee to give him £50 to purchase some brass instruments so that the Band could play marching tunes, instead of the four notes of the bugle.

Six instruments were procured from the secondhand department of Boosey and Hawkes, in Deansbrook Road. They were four cornets, tenor horn and euphonium. Two other cornets were privately owned and eventually we went on parade with these eight instruments as well as the bugles.

Simultaneously the Group was attaining it’s great expansion into two Packs, two Scout Troops, a Senior Scout Troop and a Rover Crew. This helped the Band as there were more boys willing to get their parents to purchase cornets to play, and the Group bought the larger bass instruments from tune to time.

By this time I had taken over from my brother and apart from our Church Parades and District St. George’s Day Parade, we were being asked to appear at all sorts of other engagements and functions. These were numerous and I cannot mention them all but they included parades through London’s Hyde Park, the Royal Mews, Potters Bar, Barnet, St. Albans, Dunstable, Fleet in Hampshire, Skegness in Lincolnshire, Gilwell Park, the Royal Exchange and Borehamwood.

Eventually we came to the notice of Ralph Reader and subsequently appeared in six of his London Gang Shows, one of which was chosen as an item in the Royal Variety Concert before Her Majesty the Queen, at the London Palladium.

All of this could not have been accomplished without the weekly grind of practice night. To all those who know what that means, my grateful thanks.

So many have been members of the Band. Messers Bowles, Welsh, Simpson, Story, Mallard, Culley, Sone, Jarvis and Mallard; the Johnson brothers, the Tighe brothers the Colebrook brothers, the Gallagher brothers the Purves brothers, the Sterry brothers, the Hoskins brothers, the Hutchinson brothers, Joanne and Nicky Wade, my son Stuart, Bob Boulter Harold Shepherd, Robert Sankey, David Pitcher, Richard Hart, David Reed. I’m sure those ex-members here today can add to this list.

As the numbers in the Group declined, the Band was very glad to recruit from our own Guides and Brownies and we have had a Brownie playing side drum on parade. Tough girl. We only have one of the Guides with us flow, Beverley Parker, a Band member for many years, but we remember Martina, Elaine, Joanne, Gayle and Debbie.

There are some members of the Band who deserve special mention. Chris Pollard, still going strong from Cub days; Ken Gammon on the trombone; Chris Hoskins on the bass drum after periods on the side drum, cornet and tuba; Roger Colebrook, who came to us from the 15th Edgware, playing the euphonium and sometimes the trombone; and the other veteran, Stan Fellow, our Drum Major, who still turns out to lead the Band on parade, anywhere and everywhere it may be required. What an example and inspiration to us all.

Some three years ago I very willingly handed over the reins to Alec Gallagher. He took to the Bandmastership like a duck to water. Having gained considerable experience in playing the euphonium with some leading brass bands, he is able to bring the knowledge he had gained to help us all.

The Group must be very grateful to our Heavenly Father for Producing a Band with so many good achievements over the last 50 years.

Sam Wade was Bandmaster from 1951 – 1984, one of our longest serving volunteers at 2nd Edgware. Discontinued in the early 2000s, the Band leaves behind an impressive legacy, not just in big performances but in its regular work of encouraging Scouts to pick up an instrument and hone a musical skill. Today Scout Bands are rare. But who knows, perhaps one day a future member will revive the 2nd Edgware Scout Band – for better or for worse…