He was on top of his game as his city’s greatest cornetist, but privately he would face a debilitating tragedy. I told a version of this story live on Ipswich’s West Bremer Radio.

In the 1920s, William Tedford was commanding headlines with his mastery of the cornet. Tedford was a member of the great Ipswich City Vice-Regal Band, and in the bass cornet solo section of the Queensland Band Championships, he was considered unbeatable.

Brass bands were in their golden age and the Queensland city of Ipswich was winning trophies and attracting attention across the country. The president of the Ipswich City Vice-Regal Band was Joseph Bearkley who would also be chief marshal for a record three royal visits. 

In the 1925 Queensland championships cornet competition won of course by Tedford, Arthur Ryan of Queensland’s great cornet Ryan family and member of the Ipswich Railway Band, was beaten into fourth place for an honourable mention. Arthur’s father was an Ipswich bandmaster and a famed cornetist, and his uncle was the Dalby bandmaster and publican until he was burnt to dust after his spirits storeroom exploded, only his gold ring was found in the ashes the next morning.

The champion Tedford was descended from good bandsmen stock. His father came from Northern Ireland and was prominent in Maryborough as a bandsman with the old Town Band, Military Band, and City Band, and was honoured by being named the Father of Bandsmen.

William Tedford and his brother Thomas served together in the First World War with the 31st Battalion and both were in the band. In 1916 they entered battle together during “Australia’s worst 24 hours” at the Battle of Fromelles in France. William was shot in the leg, and Thomas was never seen again.

Tedford returned to Ipswich and in 1927 claimed his record seventh successive Queensland cornet solo championship. It was a record that he held alone for twenty-two years, and it took the greatest cornet player in the world to equal it.

In 1949, Norman Henstridge was the conductor of the Toowoomba RSL Municipal Band. During the Second World War he’d been conductor of the Australian Imperial Force band in Egypt, and a Prisoner of War of the Germans.

It was at the Ipswich Town Hall for the Queensland Band Championships that Henstridge claimed his seventh successive win with his soprano cornet to equal Tedford’s record. In the audience was Tedford himself who that day was adjudicator in the drill contest.

It was bitter-sweet for Tedford listening to the maestro Henstridge. Henstridge’s performance that day showed many artistic touches and again proved his superior ability as a soprano cornetist. As well as the seven consecutive Queensland titles, Henstridge went on to win a number of Australian championships and was remarkably twice named Champion of Champions. He was regarded as one of the greatest soprano cornet soloists in the world.

As for Ipswich’s cornetist Tedford, there was tragedy to come.

In 1954 when Tedford was working as a railway fitter, he sued his nephew Eric Felmingham for the colossal sum of £3,000 which is up towards $400,000 today. Felmingham was a career aviator, having flown with the Royal Australian Air Force in the Second World War and won an air race in North Queensland. In “Top Gun” fashion, Felmingham drove a sports car, however one day it stalled on a steep incline at Bardon in Brisbane, and Felmingham asked his uncle for a push.

When Tedford tried to push, the car rolled backwards and crushed him against a fence. He suffered injuries to his hip, and both legs, necessitating a bone graft in his hip. His leg was shortened by threequarters of an inch, he could bend his knee only halfway, and he walked with a limp. Tedford was in hospital for eight weeks and out of work for more than a year.

But worse than that is that the injuries prevented Tedford from carrying out his duty as a bands judge, which he said required a lot of running.

So the real tragedy for Ipswich’s greatest cornetist was not the loss of his brother, or the loss of his championships record, but that because of his nephew’s sports car, Tedford never judged a bands competition again. He died just a decade later.

CLICK HERE TO LISTEN TO A VERSION OF THIS STORY TOLD ON WEST BREMER RADIO.

Photo credits:
Representation of William Tedford playing cornet in the 1920s – ChatGPT Image.
Ipswich City Vice-Regal Band at Government House, Brisbane, 1924, W. Tedford back 2FL – Picture Ipswich.
W.E. Tedford. band member. The Queenslander Pictorial supplement to The Queenslander. 1916 – State Library of Queensland.
New Air Crew Trainee Eric Felmingham – Telegraph, Brisbane, 7th November 1941, page 3.