LAUNCESTON Town Band is celebrating its centenary this year.

The Launceston Municipal Band was formed in 1919 after the soldiers and military bandsmen (who acted as stretcher bearers) had returned from the Great War, as it was then known. A Victoria Cross was won by Thomas Rendle, a bandsman in the Duke of Cornwall’s Light Infantry (DCLI), for conspicuous bravery as a stretcher bearer.

There will be a centenary concert at Central Methodist Church on April 27 with special guests Shelley Coulter-Smith (mezzo- soprano) and former player Joanne Baker, now Texeira, (flugel horn).

If any former players are still playing and would like to play in the concert, they should contact Ann Brown on 01566 86700.

The band hopes to put on a ‘Proms in the Park’ during the summer and will be holding a former players’ reunion at Trethorne Leisure Farm on October 5 when it is hoped that as many former players as possible will attend.

The band will be playing at its now traditional carol concert in the town hall on December 8 supported by Launceston PopChoir.