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Webmaster Peter McCarthy BEM
"Drum Major William H. Turpin"
Drum Major William H. Turpin.
Major Richard Powell.
William H Turpin Another of whom little is known, it appears that William Turpin lived in Holborn working as a carter for a railway company. A contemporary of his tells that he practised in a hall behind St. Pancras railway station. If so, this was very much in the style of the large number of London based corps of drums, both civilian and military, though they were all based on men of either the Regular or Territorial Army. There is also a belief that Turpin was a trombone player in the Covent Garden opera band but Covent Garden could find no evidence of this. We hear he often composed his marches sitting in the corner of a pub (not far removed from Mozart's sometime way), and his chirpy little Dinah’s Delight may have been dedicated to barmaid Dinah, when to a, "What do you think of my new march?"; gave the obvious retort, "I think it's delightful Bill".
More recent researches found a photograph of the Wapping Catholic Boys Brigade dated 1906. Could these be the "Boys of Wapping" and "Children’s Love" children? It seems that his last march may be Hotspur, dated about 1915. In 1915 a WH Turpin of the London Irish Rifles was killed at Loos and, as Turpin wrote a march called Wiry Willie, might this have been for a son? The disastrous influenza epidemic of 1918 that killed 18 million people included a WH Turpin of Holborn. So, Turpin may have died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. Among his work, the bold march Galanthia is certainly the best known and a hand-written part inscribed in manuscript, "To the 2nd Tower Hamlets Volunteers 1903" exists to this day. Of his more than one hundred published works, these remain popular: The Bank Guard, The Boys of Wapping, The Borderers, Broadway Hustler, Children's Love, Danny from Bandon, Controversy, Dinah's Delight, For Flag and Empire, Guards Review, Hotspur, Household Brigade, Galanthia, Le Tambour Major, La Festive and Roehampton.
More recent researches found a photograph of the Wapping Catholic Boys Brigade dated 1906. Could these be the "Boys of Wapping" and "Children’s Love" children? It seems that his last march may be Hotspur, dated about 1915. In 1915 a WH Turpin of the London Irish Rifles was killed at Loos and, as Turpin wrote a march called Wiry Willie, might this have been for a son? The disastrous influenza epidemic of 1918 that killed 18 million people included a WH Turpin of Holborn. So, Turpin may have died in the 1918 influenza epidemic. Among his work, the bold march Galanthia is certainly the best known and a hand-written part inscribed in manuscript, "To the 2nd Tower Hamlets Volunteers 1903" exists to this day. Of his more than one hundred published works, these remain popular: The Bank Guard, The Boys of Wapping, The Borderers, Broadway Hustler, Children's Love, Danny from Bandon, Controversy, Dinah's Delight, For Flag and Empire, Guards Review, Hotspur, Household Brigade, Galanthia, Le Tambour Major, La Festive and Roehampton.