GUARDS’ MUSIC CHIEF

Greymouth Evening Star, 9 February 1938, Page 13

GUARDS’ MUSIC CHIEF

BAND BOY WHO ROSE TO FAME LONDON, Dec. 11. Maj. Andrew Harris, Director of Music, Welsh Guards, and for the past eight years Senior Director of Music of the Brigade of Guards, is to retire, after more than 50 years’ service in the Army. For 37 years Major Harris has been a conductor. His last appearance with the Welsh Guards Band will be at 10.30 a.m. to-morrow for the changing of the guard at St. James’s Palace. His last public engagement will be at the service at St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Trafalgar-square, at 3.30 p.m. to-mor-row. Major Harris joined the 43rd Light Infantry—now the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry—in 1887 as a band boy. He became band-' master of the Prince of Wales’s Volunteers and, in 1910, bandmaster of the Roval Artillery, Gibraltar. Tn February, 1915, the Welsh Guards regiment was formed, and Major Harris was appointed. Director of Music and raised the band. “I took the band out to France,” Major Harris said yesterday, “and we had some remarkable experiences there. “Standing on duck-boards in a s.e-con'd-line trench at the Battle of the Somme, we provided music to cheer the Irish Guards. Before we had finished the first part of the programme we were up to our knees in mud and water. The trench boards had sunk. QUEEN VICTORIA’S SURPRISE

When Major Harris was a band boy his regiment was stationed in the Isle of Wight, and provided the guards of honour at Osborne during the residence there of Queen Victoria.

The Queen noticed the little band boy, and calling him to her, asked him how he came to be a soldier. Her Majesty was surprised to see so small a boy in her service. During the reign of King George V. Major Harris was ordered to Buckingham Palace. The King hoped it might be possible to shorten the Royal Salute. The band was in the Quadrangle and the King commanded the Royal Salute to be played. Later the General Salute and the Admiral’s Salute were played. Meanwhile, said Major Harris, the changing of the guard was taking place and there was naturally some confusion. When the Royal Salute was played the guard prepared to “present arms,” believing that the King must be about to leave the Palace. The General Salute followed, and the guard came to attention.” When the band played the Admiral’s Salute the guard was non-plussed. The King, who had noticed the confusion, walked up to Major Harris and smilingly observed: “We seem to have disturbed the ceremony of changing the guard this morning.”