Rugby honours its 'Mr Music' with a plaque at the bandstand where he played

Rugby has honoured one of its best-loved musicians, Tom Ward, known in his home town as "Mr Music", with a plaque at the bandstand where he once played in Whitehall Recreation Ground.

The plaque was due to be unveiled on 28 October, after a decade-long campaign by his son, Keith Ward. The current Lawrence Sheriff School band was to perform in tribute to the man who founded the school's first band.

From school band to "Mr Music"

Born in 1913 into a family with no musical background, Tom formed his first band, The Harmo Boys, at 16 while a pupil at Lawrence Sheriff School. He became best known as a saxophonist, though he played several instruments.

After leaving school, he joined the Rugby electrical engineering firm British Thomson-Houston as an apprentice in 1935, rather than going into music full time. But his love of music endured. He opened a music shop on Regent Street and led the Tom Ward Band, earning his reputation as Rugby's "Mr Music".

For four decades he played big-band dance music across Warwickshire and beyond, at venues from Jersey and Great Yarmouth to the Dorchester in London, and closer to home at Coventry's Leofric Hotel and the Laurels in Rugby.

On the BBC

After winning a regional National Dance Band competition in the 1930s, he was invited in 1947 to play on the BBC radio programme Industry Entertains, hosted by the comedian Kenneth Horne. He travelled to the GEC Club in Coventry to perform a three-minute solo for £6, about £187 today.

"In those days that was a lot of money," said Keith.

A lasting legacy

Tom was also a co-founder of the Rugby Theatre and started the town's RAG (Raise and Give) Festival, which still runs today. "The first £500 they raised went to the local hospital, and I was told that the first collection was in coppers," said Keith.

He played until the early 1960s, with one of his last gigs a dinner dance at the Leofric Hotel in 1962, before retiring to the south coast. He died in 1977. Rugby Art Gallery and Museum has a display about him, including the saxophone he played while leading his band.

Keith said he began campaigning in 2017. "After a lot of hard work... [the council] finally agreed to put a plaque on the bandstand where he played with his BTH band," he said. "He'd be very proud of the memorial."

Stories like Tom's are a reminder that the Midlands' musical history is not only about the famous names. Local bandleaders who played weddings, dances and dinner dances for decades brought music to thousands of people, and deserve to be remembered.