A Brief History of RAF Music Services

In 1918 shortly after the forming of the Royal Air Force, Major Walford Davies, who later became Master of the King's Music, was invited to become the first Organising Director of Music for the Royal Air Force. He quickly established the RAF School of Music but due to restrictions on manpower the only Bands established at this time were the School of Music Band and a Band based at RAF Blanford. The emphasis was placed on providing trained Bandmasters for the many volunteer Bands which had been inherited from the Royal Flying Corps and Fleet Air Arm. With the signing of the armistice many of the musicians returned to civilian life, with the remainder being formed into a band at the School of Music to await further developments.

Walford Davies left the Service in 1919, but not before composing the Royal Air Force March Past with the 'trio' section of the march being added later by his successor, Major George Dyson. It was Major Dyson who, in 1920, reorganised RAF Music Services on a more permanent footing. The School of Music was disestablished and The Central Band of the RAF and the Band of the RAF College were formed at Uxbridge and Cranwell respectively with a small training cell being retained along side The Central Band of the Royal Air Force.

During the 1930s Royal Air Force music became well established with the two bands gaining a reputation for innovation and musical excellence. In the lead up to World War II there was a huge expansion of RAF Music Services with many civilian professional musicians being drafted directly into the new ensembles. Additional military bands were provided initially on a Command basis, with the RAF Symphony Orchestra and the famous 'Squadronaires' Dance Band also being established. The new groups included some of the country's finest musicians such as Dennis Brain, Norman Del Mar and Gareth Morris. In fact no theatrical agent of the time could possibly have afforded such a stunning array of talent, making The RAF Squadronaires and the RAF Symphony Orchestra in particular the 'super groups' of their day.

Following the end of World War II, under the direction of Wing Commander George Sims, the bands were reorganised on a geographical basis, having been largely referred to by number since the end of the war. On his retirement in 1960, RAF Music Services boasted ten established bands, including the Central Band of the WRAF, bands in the far and near east, numerous voluntary bands and a School of Music with it’s own functioning Band.

Since then, Royal Air Force Music Services has gradually been reduced in size to reach today's establishment of: Headquarters Music Services, the Central Band of the Royal Air Force (including The Salon Orchestra of the Central Band of the Royal Air Force), the Band of the Royal Air Force College and the Band of the Royal Air Force Regiment.

In 1990 the most seismic change of recent times occurred and the Royal Air Force became the first Service to recruit women into mixed bands. Today females are recruited on the same basis as their male colleagues and now form a significant proportion of the personnel with some bands being almost half female. This event has proved an extremely important innovation as it not only secured the Bands recruiting needs, especially but not exclusively in the high wind instruments, but also allowed us to maintain and improve the exceptional standard of music now expected of RAF Bands.

Each of the bands is capable of providing many different ensembles including saxophone quartets, woodwind and brass quintets, jazz groups, fanfare teams, reception bands, small cabaret marching bands, dance bands and big bands, full size parade bands and complete symphonic wind bands.

While our primary role is to provide music for State and Service events, a considerable amount of the musicians' time is spent travelling, whether on tours in the United Kingdom or much further afield in other, more exotic parts of the world providing music for charity concerts and many other events.

In addition to their musical role RAF musicians are also trained to provide support in times of war. During the Gulf conflict of 1991 musicians were deployed to various locations in the Middle East, where they undertook a variety of tasks, ranging from medical orderlies to guards at hospital sites. In 2003 the Royal Air Force began deploying individual Musicians to support operations around the world. These roles include aircraft guards, watchkeepers, packet or convoy commanders, air cargo and passenger handling. The theatres currently being covered are Afghanistan, The Balkans and the Falkland Islands with many Musicians having served in the now complete Operation Telic in Iraq. In addition to these individual roles the Bands retain their connection with medical duties as each band is trained to support field hospitals as casualty de-contamination teams. In a more recent development is that Musicians are now being detail to provide short term admin back-up to exercises in the United Kingdom.

From the history detailed above we can see that RAF musicians are now and have always been;

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