Wes Johnson sadly passed away on 2nd December 2015. He was a loyal and very well liked member of the band, playing 3rd cornet, and was named Bandsman Of The Year in 2012.
The band attended his funeral held at St Matthew’s Church in Surbiton, playing Nimrod, several hymns and one of his favourites, You’ll Never Walk Alone.
Wes was a fan of the church organ and donations were given to St Matthew’s Organ Fund and Liverpool Cathedral Organ Fund.
The band returned to the Menuhin Hall for the annual Autumn Concert on November 14th.
A very varied program was played starting with Entry of the Gladiators and included Sullivan Fantasy and Rule Britannia. Solos were played by Mat Baker on cornet (My Old Kentucky Home), James Simpson on trombone (The Acrobat), Julie Beaven on xylophone (On The Track) and Beryl McMillan on Flugel (Loves Old Sweet Song).
During the evening the award for the Bandsman of the year was presented to Dan Byrnes
The band entered the annual scaba Autumn Contest on Sunday 13th September at The Hawth Theatre in Crawley and came away with a number of prizes! The Adjudicator was Nick Garman and the competition required the playing of a march, hymn tune and ‘own choice’ test piece.
The Cobham Band performed the following:
Test Piece : Rule Britannia
Hymn tune : Fewster
March : Black Dyke
Three prizes were awarded:
Best Instrumentalist went to James Simpson (trombone)
Best Bass Section
Overall we came 2nd in the section
