David Spendlove

David was until recently playing second cornet in the band.

He was born into the Salvation Army, his parents being in Southsea Citadel Corps where his father was the Corps Secretary and played first baritone in the band.

David started to play a cornet at about the age of seven, playing in the junior band with present SFB colleagues, Derek Dunn and Mike Todd. He Well remembers his three Y.P. bandleaders, John Diffey, Stan Thomas, and honorary SFB member George Mortimer, now sadly promoted to glory.

He attended national music schools at Hadleigh Farm for several years, and David says ‘they were good fun and informative times’. Meanwhile in the senior band he played first cornet, solo cornet and finally soprano cornet , (which he says he thoroughly enjoyed). David says he cannot remember exactly when he left the band, but guesses it must have been about 1959.

While at the Municipal College he learnt to sail dinghys in Langstone Harbour and eventually progressed to keelboats. He has owned several sailing boats and was the secretary at Hornet Naval yacht club having spent many years in the Royal Navy Reserve. Although He still occasionally sails, his leisure activities are mostly confined to their Motorhome in which, at the time of writing, David and his wife have just completed a tour of Spain including Gibraltar.

During Davids working career most of his time has been in the area of surface coatings of paper and film for the reprographics and fine art industries. He has been fortunate to have travelled in many parts of the world, in particular the Far East, Australia, Middle East and Scandinavia.

He also spent several years as the Sales Manager for the Pharmaceutical division of Johnson and Johnson.
In the year 1997/1998 he was working as sales and marketing director for a multimillion dollar Asian company in Dubai.

During Davids absence from the Army the love for Army music was never lost and it was in June 2011 when he attended the SFB concert at Hayling with renowned Bass Trombonist Alan and Beryl York that his desire to play an instrument was rekindled.

He says he had not played a cornet for fifty plus years so it was a process of starting from scratch, he said “good job I remembered some theory (probably due to band camp)”! It certainly sounds as though he’s doing alright to the rest of the band anyway!

David says “I do very much enjoy playing second cornet in the SFB and thank my wife for her encouragement (and forbearance during my practice sessions)”... long may it continue!