LCO HISTORY

When our Webmaster asked me to compile a short history of the Orchestra, I naively thought that it would be a relatively straightforward matter. However, it has actually been quite difficult.  The problem is that our records are manual, and old minute books, past programmes and other such material tend to have disappeared into the various lofts (or dare I say it - dustbins?) of Committee members over the years.  We are, therefore, left to piece together the LCO’s origins from patchy records and from our collective memory.

We are extremely lucky in this respect to have with us one of the LCO’s founding members, Mrs Marie Gardner, who has dug deep into her memory to come up with one or two facts.

The Orchestra was founded by the Rev. Ian McLaughlin, who, himself, played cello. The first conductor was James Melvin, the principal music teacher at Holy Cross School, Hamilton. Rehearsals took place in St Brides Hall. In the early days, the membership was almost entirely made up of male players. The first female musicians to join the Orchestra were Marie Gardner (see  Personnel page) and her sister, who played piano. When James Melvin was forced to give up as conductor, he was succeeded by a Mr. Montgomery, a viola player with the BBC.  He, in turn, was succeeded by Harry Watson in 1978, who is still with the Orchestra today.

The Orchestra celebrated its 40th anniversary at the end of session 1996-97 so on that calculation we are due to celebrate our Golden Anniversary at the end of session 2006-07 (i.e. May 2007).

We rehearse on Thursday evenings from September through to May and have been based in both North and South Lanarkshire in venues including:  Motherwell Library; Motherwell College; Clyde Valley High School; Hamilton Grammar School and Earnock High School.  We are currently on the move again - temporarily to a primary school in Hamilton. We are

looking now for a new permanent home with storage for music stands, timps and our library of music. If anyone has any ideas please email us at info@lanarkshirececilianorchestra.org.uk.

We welcome input from past members and if you have any stories of the good old days or wish to suggest any changes, additions or clarification then please feel free to email us at webmaster@lanarkshirececilianorchestra.org.uk.

Angela Gibb - LCO President