LIEUTENANT SIDDALL.

Southern Cross, Volume 1, Issue 34, 18 November 1893, Page 6

LIEUTENANT SIDDALL.

This member of our group of volunteer officers is a familiar figure at all our public functions in which music has a place, and is of course best known from his connection with the band which he has once more led to victory. Educated at the Duke of York’s School in London, Mr Siddall afterwards joined the band of the Donegal Artillery in the North of Ireland, with whom he remained for five years. .On leaving, he was presented with a handsome cornet in recognition of the esteem in which he was held both as a player and a member of the band. He subsequently came to X- ew Zealand, and in 1877 joined the Invercargill Garrison Band, of which the late Captain Heywood was then honorary conductor, and which had ouly been reorganised about a year before. lie was engaged as instructor, and in 1882 took entire charge of the band. A few months before this a contest was held at Oamaru, and the Invercargill Garrison Baud there scored its ' first

win. In the following year, on the occasion of the review at Makarewa, the Oamaru and rr.vercargi.il Garrison Bands had a trial of skill in Invercargill, victory this time resting with the Oamaru instrumentalists. The next contest was held at Oamaru in 1885, when the Invercargill Garrison had again to yield first honours to their Oamaru rivals by three points. In 1886, another meeting took place at Oamaru, and on this occasion, when fo' the first time a set contest selection wa played, the Invercargill Garrison Band secured the championship. The Exhibition in Dunedin in 189 U was marked by another musical tournament, in which the Oamaru Navals’ Baud came first, the Invercargill Garrison Band second (one point behind), and the Oamaru Garrison third. In Dunedin in 1891 the bands had another struggle for supremacy, the result being—Oamaru Garrison Hand, 1; Dunedin Garrison, 2;'Christchurch Garrison, 3 ; Invercargill Garrison, 4. The 1892 contest was held at Wellington, Invercargill being unrepresented. It resulted in a win for the Oamaru Garrison Band. At last week’s gathering in the City of the Plains the Invercargill Garrison achieved a brilliant victory. Its old opponent, the Oamaru Gar-

rison Band, was not present, while the Christchurch Garrison Band ranked sixth, the Kaikorai band, which lias been working hard for years, coming second. In addition to the honour and glory attaching to their victory, the Garrison Band obtain £75, while Mr A. F. Lithgow, who has for the second time carried off first prize in the cornet solos, wins a handsome instrument, and Messrs A. Fergus m and R .Jenkins have secured medals as winners of the second prizes in the euphonium and trombone competitions. We have somehow drifted away from Lieutenant Siddall, but after all he is the life and soul of the Garrison Band, as well as its official head, and is inseparably connected with its history, its victories and its prestige.