Alfred E. Zealley

Zealley, Alfred E.

Alfred E. (Edward) Zealley. Bandmaster, french hornist, writer, b Bristol 10 Jun 1878, d Agincourt, near Toronto, 15 May 1961. At 16 he became a bandboy in a military band and in 1898 he attended the RMS Kneller Hall. He lived 1908-14 in Boston, playing in bands and theatre orchestras and leading the Cambridge City Band. During World War I he led the 75th Battalion band of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and became music director of the RCN. After the war he led the Belleville Kilties Band 1918-20 and in 1923 on US tours and lived in Toronto, playing french horn and contributing to Musical Canada, the Etude, and other periodicals. With J. Ord Hume he wrote Famous Bands of the British Empire (London 1926). In 1939 he was asked to form in Halifax the first permanent RCN band, which also was Canada's first active service band of World War II. In 1943 he was appointed Lieut-Commander and music director of the RCN School of Music, Toronto. During the war years he supervised and trained 19 navy bands. He retired in 1945. Autobiographical notes, 'From bandboy to director of the music; memoirs of a musical career,' appeared in the Canadian Military Journal (January, February 1948).