Mexborough and Swinton Times February 3, 1939

Youngest Bandmaster?
Wombwell Band’s Confident Claim

Bandmaster of 17, bandsman of 71. You would think it ought to be the other way about but apparently age limits and the ordinary rules of seniority do not apply in bandwork. Wombwell Town Band claims to have the youngest bandmaster in the country; they have also a member who must be one of the country’s oldest bandsmen on “active service.”

The young bandmaster is Maurice Thompson, aged 17, of 34, Gill Street, Hoyland; the septuagenarian bandsman is Mr. Thomas Timberlake, of 67, York Cottages, Pitt Street, Low Valley.

Maurice Thompson, who lives with his grandmother, attended King Street Council School, Hoyland, and won a county minor scholarship on which he went to Ecclesfield Grammar School. But his mind has always been on band-work and from an early age he has practised assiduously on his cornet. His grandmother told cur reporter that he “lives for music.” Employed by a firm of builders at Wombwell. he was appointed to his present position as bandmaster when he was only sixteen. The members of the band realising his skill as a musician and the efforts he has made to pull the band round, have no compunction about bowing to his authority.

The First Bandmaster

Mr. Timberlake joined the band fifty-one years ago when it was called the “Wombwell Subscription Band” and by many years is the oldest member. He has an impression that the band originated at Wombwell Main. The first bandmaster he remembers was William Crossley, and the first President the late Mr. John Robinson. It was then a brass and reed band and its services were in demand over a wide area. Mr. Crossley was succeeded by the late Mr. Elijah Reeves

Mr. Timberlake has a photograph of the band taken about forty years ago and he knows by name every person on it.

The band consisted of Elijah Reeves, Fred Nuttall, Herbert Vaux, Sam Bradley, George Broadbent, Sam Bishop, Fred Drabble, William Turnbull, Jack Stocks, George Burkinshaw, Arthur Copeland, Jack Bowskill, Ernest Eyre, Herbert Eyre, Arthur Lindley, Jim Bladen, Tom Timberlake, George Rush-forth, George Dakin, William Harrop, Dick Jones, Ernest Stocks and Albert Smart. He even recalls the colour of the uniforms—blue tunics and trousers with white facings. And a smart lot they look on the pictur.!

Mr. Timberlake was born at Cuddington, Bucks, and came to Yorkshire when he was 22 to work in the building trade. When the building trade fell on a slack period he got a job with the local board and later went to work at Darfield Main Colliery coke ovens where where he spent most of the remainder of his working days.      He and Mrs. Timberlake have lived in York Cottages 38 years.

He goes out with the band in the coldest weather and never feels any ill- I effects. So that he will not annoy the neighbours, Mr. Timberlake practices his cornet playing in a shed down the garden.

Here surely is a record: Mr. Timberlake has played band music at three jubilees and three coronations, starting with Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887

When our representative called he was studying his “National Service Handbook” to see if there was anything else he could do.