Bay Harbour: March 16, 2022

Wednesday March 16 2022 Bay Harbour News
NEWS 13
Treasures from the past:
Lyttelton Marine Band
ON THE night of
February 19, 1902, the
Lyttelton Marine Band,
friends, and supporters
gathered in the Naval
Artillery Orderly Room for
a ‘Smoke Concert’.
A strictly mens-only
concern, much tobacco
and aperitifs were
consumed with the
musical accompaniment
and toasts to the King,
the Governor and his
Parliament, and the brave
Volunteers of the Lyttelton
Naval Corps.
Founding bandmaster
Mr George E Collins was
also well toasted before
presenting the Drum-
Major Mr W Toomey
with the gold medal the
band won at the recent
Christchurch marching
competition.
Mr Collins was then
himself presented with a
‘silver-mounted travelling
bag’ by the assembled band
members in appreciation of
his good works in getting
the band up to a national
standard of practice.
George Collins would
go on to lead the Lyttelton
Marine in taking a very
respectable fourth place
in the 1903 New Zealand
National Championships
(A Grade) that were held
that year in Timaru.
In the years before
World War 1, the Lyttelton
Marine Band would continue
to delight audiences
in and around Canterbury
under the steady hands
of conductors Mr J Cummins
and then Mr W S
King. The 1910 era band
are seen here in our first
photograph in full pressed
uniforms, instruments in
hand alongside their lady
admirers and a chap in a
bowler hat.
That year the band took
fourth place in the New
Zealand National Championships
(A Grade) playing
Wagner at His Majesty’s
Theatre in Dunedin.
Two years later, the
Lyttelton Marine easily
overcame rivals Oamaru
Regimental to take out
first prize in the 1912
New Zealand National
Championships (B Grade)
performing Rossini in
front of a local audience at
the Christchurch Showgrounds.
Then in October of
that same year they took
third prize in the A Grade
Championships at the
Caledonian Grounds in
Dunedin with Puccini’s
Madame Butterfly.
After a break during
World War 1 the Lyttelton
Marine Band reformed
and in 1925 performed for
The Lyttelton Marine Band and women friends
(1910)
Young woman with
cornet and wearing
the Lyttelton Marine
Band uniform.
the 75th anniversary of
the 1850 arrival of the first
four ships carrying the
Canterbury Association’s
settlers – as pictured here
in our second photograph
and including band members
Messrs Demicelli and
Claude Plimmer. The band
would continue on playing
for some decades to come,
being a fixture at town
events such as the 1932
Lyttelton Harbour Festival
of Lights, before reforming
yet again after World War
2 in 1946 with its long
serving bandmaster Mr F J
Oakley at the helm.
The Lyttelton Marine
Band marched on valiantly
through the 50s until their
last known performance
in the National Championships
on March 7,
1960. In front of a home
crowd at Lancaster Park,
Christchurch, conducted
by Oakley, the Lyttelton
Marine came in at 11th
The Lyttelton
Marine Band, 75th
anniversary of the
arrival of the first four
ships (1925)
place in the D Grade
Quickstep March of the
New Zealand National
Championships, and well
behind the first placed Upper
Hutt Municipal Band.
Following this denouement,
the Lyttelton Marine
continued playing on the
regional stage and included
a junior band with Graham
Rich conducting, with
the juniors continuing
after the senior band went
into recess in 1968.
Bob Hopkins conducted
the junior band from 1971
to 1973 at which point it
also went into recess.
Finally, Stan Carson
reformed the Lyttelton
Marine Band and
remained conductor
through to 1980 when the
band’s assets were vested
with the Lyttelton Borough
Council.
After the council mergers
and a number of years,
the band’s music library
and musical instruments
were purchased by the
New Brighton Silver Band.
The glory days of the
Lyttelton Marine Band
and its Smoke Concerts
are now long gone, as is
the band itself, but its
spirit lives on in the still
very musical port town it
proudly represented for so
many decades.
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