Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria including the collection to Naval Artificers formed by JH Deacon

Army L.S.G.C., V.R., small letter reverse (Charles Godfrey, Bandmaster, Coldstream Guards 1860) together with related Crystal Palace Handel Festival bronze medal, June 1857, the edge impressed ‘A. F. Godfrey, Performer’, good very fine (2) £80-120

Charles Godfrey was the noted Bandmaster of the Coldstream Guards for some fifty years. His eldest son, Daniel, born at Westminster in September 1831, also joined the army and was appointed Bandmaster of the Grenadier Guards in 1856. He went on to become even more famous than his father, being the first bandmaster to be commissioned in the army and with the reputation of being England’s leading bandmaster. He was also an accomplished composer and, after retiring from the army, formed a private military band with which he twice toured America and Canada. Charles Godfrey’s second son, George William Godfrey, was well known as a playwright.