The Jerome Gatehouse Collection March 20 2013, 1 Comment

Contributed by: Anne Gatehouse

The Jerome Gatehouse Collection is a unique Military Band Archive of more than forty thousand items; Jerome spent twenty seven years of his life collecting it all together.  Although Jerome couldn't play a note and was only in the TA for a little while he loved Military Music and Bands.  Whilst working as a store man at the Ebbw Vale Steelworks in his early twenties he was looking for a hobby and decided to collect photographs of Military Bands.  This was the start of a lifetime’s passion and the "building up" of a unique international archive of Military and Police Bands of the World.

The Collection contains the history of two thousand Bands of the world and comprises recordings, photographs, programs, videos, books, and artifacts in fact anything to do with Military Bands Jerome collected. In 1988 Anne met Jerome who knew very little about the military and even less about Bands, but she quickly learned and they spent the next six years visiting Bands and attending events including Tattoos, Beating Retreats, and Presentations of Colours the highlight being the Welsh Guards at Buckingham Palace. Jerome had Heart Disease and Epilepsy when he met Anne and their happiness was to be short lived as during the 1994 D Day Commemorative weekend Jerome suffered a fatal Heart attack at the age of 49.

Since then Jerome’s widow, Anne, continues to collect items, carry out research and write articles on many of the fast disappearing Bands which once played such an important role in the Military way of life both at home and overseas. Fortunately Anne realized that this collection needed to be preserved as many of the bands were being disbanded and their histories lost. The collection is now a charitable trust and is listed in the National Archives; Anne with the help of trainees and volunteers is now undertaking the mammoth task of archiving and digitizing this vast collection so that eventually it can be made available through the trust website.

The Trust now receives copies of the following publications: Soldier Magazine, Fanfare, Blue Band, Blue & Gold, Royal Edinburgh Tattoo and Shrewsbury Flower Show Programs and Band Notes from USMC “President’s Own” Marine Band The Trust also receives Books and CD’s to review.

PRESIDENT Jessica Morden MP

VICE PRESIDENT   Philip Mather

CHAIRMAN Vacant

SECRETARY Anne Gatehouse