H. G. Amers

'Harry' Henry Gallon Amers (1875-1944), the son of John Hall Amers, started as a chorister in St Georges’ Newcastle and as a youth he played a solo by command before the Princess of Wales and several times before King Edward VII. He was in the Northumberland Hussars and saw service in the 1914-18 War in which he was wounded in action, later being given command of a prisoner-of-war camp. After the war he became a Captain in the Reserve. The Eastbourne Municipal Orchestra was founded in 1898, to play in Devonshire Park as an orchestra – and on the seafront as a military band. In 1919 the Corporation decided to engage its own separate Military Band, which was formed in December 1920. It appears that an agreement was made with Captain H.G. Amers to conduct both the Municipal Orchestra and the Band throughout the 1920s and 1930s, until he was forced to retire in 1935 through ill health. As an aside, he was the younger brother of Flight Lieutenant J.H. Amers (1866-1946) conductor of the RAF Band from 1920 to 1931, see: John Henry Amers