George Anderson

Ian Craig remembers 'One-Man-Band' George Anderson

John Glasscock's reference to George Anderson as the"sales and publicity one-man-band" is more pertinent than many may think.

When I joined HSA in May '67 I had been living in Wells, Somerset after my Hunter time in the RAF. On my second day at Richmond Road, not yet settled in or launched on my first assignment, a rubicund stranger arrived busily at my desk and announced bluntly "I'm told you sing bass; I badly need a good bass. We rehearse on Thursdays at the Friends' Meeting House in Kingston at 1930 hours. Come for an audition. OK? See you there." There was no discussion and certainly no time for argument!

I afterwards discovered from Jack Collings that George was conductor and musical director of his own choral group, the Kingston Orpheus. (It was Jack who had let slip to George that I had recently been singing in the Wells Cathedral Oratorio Chorus.) There followed many happy hours under George's skilled baton and, in the best tradition, not a few Farnborough tickets and chalet luncheons by George's kind arrangement. What a good chap he was.