FEW institutions are as old and esteemed in Newtown as the town's silver band.
The band has served the community since 1880 but several generations of its members had also served their country.
Sixteen members of Newtown Silver Band, by then known as the Battalion Band of the 7th Battalion, Royal Welch Fusiliers, served in the Great War in 1914.
These men served in the traditional role of military bandsmen, that of medical orderlies and within a year they were acting as stretcher bearers at the Gallipoli landings.
Scenes from Gallipoli. Pictures: Wikipedia.
When the Band went off to war they didn't take their instruments with them but the following year they were home on leave in time to get them out to give a memorial recital and play at a memorial service to Lord Kitchener in June, 1916.
At least 13 Newtown men are commemorated on the Helles Memorial at Gallipoli, which lists almost 21,000 casualties who had no grave.
It is entirely possible that members of the band carried their fellow townspeople from the field of combat during the Turkish campaign.
Newtown children at a past Remembrance day.
Among the Newtown men who never came home and named on the Helles Memorial are Alfred Astley, Edmund Buckley, Franklin Gillespie, Charles Green, Harold Harper, Harold Jenkins, Trevor Jenkins, Albert Jordan, Thomas Owen, Osborne Price, James Roberts, Charles Sapple, Frank Sykes, John Williams and Ernest Williams
Many Newtown men who survived Gallipoli moved to Egypt and at least 10 died in combat in the Jerusalem and Gaza areas.
Not all had been men and the story of Hilda Jessie Downing, who worked as a nurse and died of influenza shortly before the end of the First World War, is also most poignant.
Newtown Cenotaph. Picture: Geograph.
Several other well-known Newtonians died during the Great War, including pianist Pedro Phillips was killed by a shell while working as a stretcher bearer on the Western Front in Belgium in 1917 and his brother Thomas died the following year.
Following the end of the war the Royal British Legion was formed to care for those who had suffered as a result of service and Newtown Silver Band has ever since played an important role in Remembrance Parades and services in Newtown every year, leading the parade and playing the Last Post.
Of course history tells Newtown, like the rest of Powys and the UK, would suffer further when the Second World War broke out in 1939.
By the outbreak of the Second World War the band no longer had collective military duties but nevertheless most its members were called up into the armed forces.
Newtown Silver Band's base on Back Lane. Picture: Geograph.
The bandroom was also taken from them "for the duration", becoming the town's Food Office.
Newtown Silver Band will be commemorating the Centenary of The Royal British Legion with a short concert and dedication at Bear Lanes, Newtown on Saturday, November 6 at 2pm.
Newtown Silver Band in a past Remembrance Parade.
Members of the public are welcome to attend. A collection will be made for the local Newtown RBL Poppy Appeal.
On Sunday, November 14 the band will once again lead the Remembrance Parade through the town and will play the Last Post at the Cenotaph.
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