William Worsley – A Forgotten Talent

Early Life

William Worsley was born in England in approximately 1845. While his exact records and movements before 1880 are unknown, from a personal advertisement posted in The Argus in 1876 the following information can plausibly be deduced. Worsley joined Her Majesty’s 62nd Regiment Band some time before 1869, after attending the Military School of Music in London. On the 31st December 1868, the HMS Serapis, an Indian transport vessel, departed Plymouth for Alexandria en route to India with the 62nd Regiment, and presumably Worsley, onboard. While in India Worsley became a member of the Governor of General of India’s Band, before eventually immigrating to Victoria, Australia in 1876 in hopes of attaining an appointment as bandmaster with an ensemble.

1880 Intercolonial Juvenile Industrial Exhibition

From 1876 there is no record of Worsley until 1880 when he became heavily involved as a B-flat tenor slide trombonist in the Intercolonial Juvenile Industrial Exhibition (IJIE) held in Melbourne. Worsley regularly performed solo or with orchestral accompaniment at the popular evening concerts, frequently playing trombone standards such as The Village Blacksmith, The Death of Nelson, Sonnambula, and Foscari’s Solo on Slide Trombone; the first two of which recur throughout his career. From these appearances to the end of his life, Worsley was noted as a particularly skilled trombonist of whom encores were regularly requested. Below are some excerpts from newspapers praising Worsley’s abilities at the IJIE:

‘gave great satisfaction by the manner in which he played the air of “The Village Blacksmith”. This was rendered with that purity of intonation which can only be produced from the slide trombone at the lips of a skilful player and with good musicianly feeling… the audience applauded the whole performance very heartily’

Fri 13 Feb 1880, The Argus

‘… and speaking of instrumentalists, I must not forget to mention a Mr Worsley, whose performances on the slide trombone, combined for sweetness and effect, have never been excelled in this City.’

Fri 9 Apr 1880, Alexandra and Yea Standard, Gobur, Thornton and Acheron Express

Bandmaster Worsley, South Australia 1881-1886

Military Band

On the 15th April 1881 Worsley made his South Australian debut, performing a solo with the Military Band, before replacing Lt. Oughton as the ensemble’s bandmaster on the 30th July. In the Evening Journal Port Adelaide Shipping News, a W. R. Worsley is listed amongst the arrivals by steamer on the 4th April. As such it is plausible that Worsley arrived in SA very close to his first appearance with the Military Band. In today’s musical circles, such a short time frame between arriving and playing is indicative of an invitation to perform. Thus, it is likely Worsley’s talent was recognized at the IJIE and he was subsequently requested to come perform in SA, though this cannot be proven, nor is it known if he was positioned to become the Military Band bandmaster before he arrived or not

Under his direction the Military Band performed at, amongst many others:

Military sports events held on Adelaide Oval
Funerals for military personnel
A series of open-air evening concerts on the Exhibition Grounds
Parades at Government House
The swearing in of Governor Sir William Robinson – 20 February 1882
The opening of the Elder Park Rotunda – 29 November 1882
The opening of the Norwood Town Hall – 24 July 1883

At these concerts the band performed selections chosen by Worsley, which regularly included his own arrangements and original works. It is by these works, that he performed with every group he conducted, that we are assisted in tracking Worsley’s movements around Australia, in addition to his success, as they were played by other ensembles before and after his death.

Originals

S. S. Orient, galop – first recorded performance 16 Feb 1882
Rotunda, march – first performed 29 November 1882, dedicated to Sir Thomas Elder
Advertiser, march – first recorded performance 24 November 1883, dedicated to Thomas King Esq., Mayor of Glenelg
Sealkote – first recorded performance 16 June 1884
May, quick march – first recorded performance 26 September 1890
Railway, march – first recorded performance 26 September 1890
Fairy Whispers, waltz – first recorded performance 26 September 1890

Arrangements

Knights of the Round Table, march
Hands all Round by Tennyson, national air
Maritana, selections
Wait Till the Clouds Roll By
Jock o’ Hazeldean

Locomotive Band

In early 1884 Worsley, simultaneously bandmaster of the Military Band and employee of the locomotive shops, suggested to the Locomotive Engineer Mr. William Thow, that a band should be started. In June, concurrent with Worsley’s last known Military Band performance, a meeting to gauge interest was held, and in July a brass and reed band of approximately 40 members was formed with Worsley as bandmaster. Their first public performance was on 1 September 1884 as part of an eight-hour procession. On the 26 December of the same year the Locomotive Band, as it was then known, presented Worsley with a silver-mounted ivory baton to thank him for his dedication and hard work. Apparently this was the sixth such present he had received from the different bands he had conducted, though the location of them now is unknown.

Worsley officially resigned as the Locomotive Band’s conductor on 13 May 1886 and was replaced by Bandmaster Onghton. Over the next century until present, the Locomotive Band changed its name multiple times, with some considerable variation inconsistencies in existing records:

S.A.R Locomotive Band – 1884 – 1911
South Australian Railway Band – 1911 – ?
South Australian Railways Institute/Australian National Railways – ? – 1977
Australia National Institute Brass (SA) – 1980 – 1993
TransAdelaide Brass Band – 1998 – 1999
Metropolitan Brass (SA) Inc. – 2003 – present [making it one of South Australia’s longest running ensembles]

1888 till Death

Worsley’s movements for 1887 are unknown, but his next recorded appearance was in June 1888 as a trombonist in the orchestra for the Melbourne Centennial Exhibition. His participation in this event spanned until the end of November 1888, as both an ensemble member and soloist.

In 13 February 1889, William Worsley is listed under ‘Passengers by Intercolonial Trains’ and it is likely he spent portions of this year organizing his and his family’s affairs before moving to Tasmania in 1890. Regarding his family, it is known that he had orphans, two of whom could potentially have been born while Worsley was in SA; William Garnet in 1882, and Albert Edward in 1884 by May Robinson. However, concrete records concerning these individuals are sparse and thus they cannot be tied definitively to Bandmaster Worsley.

On 13 March 1890 Worsley appears in newspapers once more, this time as bandmaster for the newly formed Railway Band in Tasmania. Throughout 1890 this group performed serenades for officers of the Tasmanian Main Line Railway Company, private concerts at local residences, and public affairs at the Town Hall and Theatre Royal. At the latter venue one finds the first tangible mention of Worsley’s family, with his wife performing two mezzo-soprano solos; Beloved Again and When Other Lips. It was at one of the Town Hall concerts that Worsley was ‘acknowledged to be one of the finest trombone players in the colonies’.

Records of Worsley are absent from November 1890 till 12 March 1892, when his death notice was posted in The Mercury. According to this newspaper, Worsley died at the Hobart General Hospital on 7 March 1892 from consumption, aged 47 years. He is buried in section c, site number 161 of the Cornelian Bay Cemetery. It is commented that he left his widow and orphans penniless, a trend that followed his entire career and supports why there are no wedding or birth notices applying to him in any newspapers spanning 1876 to 1892. Various fundraising concerts were held for Worsley’s family until around mid-1892, and the last mention of them is of Mrs. Worsley singing in a concert held at the Mechanic’s Institute on 14 September 1892. Unfortunately, the Tasmanian Railway Band endured a messy dissolution in May 1892, where upon the 14 members sold the band’s property to the Trades and Labor Council and distributed the money amongst themselves. With their disbandment, the Metropolitan Brass (SA) Inc. band’s clearance of old documents, and an inability to determine what became of the Military Band or Worsley’s family, it is nigh impossible to locate any copies of Worsley’s original works other than a piano arrangement of S.S. Orient held by the National Library of Australia.