WE know quite a lot about Whitehaven’s famous sons so it was intriguing to learn of George Byng, conductor, composer and musical director who worked in the theatres of London’s West End during the late 19th and early 20th centuries and for many years conducted orchestras for early HMV recordings.

George Wilford Bulkley Byng, to give him his full name, was born in Whitehaven in 1861, the son of David and Jane Byng and showed early promise. At the age of seven he entered the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin, one of Europe’s oldest music conservatoires.

When he was just 11, George joined the orchestra of the Theatre Royal in Dublin and remained a member for six years.

He was to go on and play with orchestras in Edinburgh, Manchester and London, including the Empire, Leicester Square and the Prince of Wales Theatre, where he was appointed musical director. He stayed as MD with London’s Alhambra for 15 years and composed, arranged and conducted the music for around 30 ballets and operatic solos. He was later musical conductor at the Gaiety Theatre in London and continued to compose scores for several other theatre companies.

Byng had conducted for Thomas Edison’s recording studio for a number of years before he joined HMV as a staff conductor in 1915. He worked at their recording studios in Hayes, Middlesex, on many early acoustic sets of the Gilbert and Sullivan operas, in co-operation with the D’Oyly Carte opera company, starting in 1917 with The Mikado. He was on occasion assisted by Arthur Wood (1875-1953) who became famous for composing Barwick Green, the signature theme for the BBC Radio 4 series The Archers.

G&S lovers could, for just under £4, buy the complete Mikado recorded on 11 double-sided records and billed as “an epoch-making event – among the greatest achievements of recording yet seen or heard in the gramophone world”.

Byng stayed with HMV till 1930 and with his own George Byng Orchestra would conduct Harry Lauder in the Scotsman’s popular renditions Roamin’ In The Gloamin’, Stop Your Tickling, Jock and I Love A Lassie.

Byng married Alice Ford in Chorlton, Lancashire, in 1885 and lived and worked in Halifax for a time as Professor of Music. The couple moved to London and had two sons, Wilford and David, but were divorced by 1911. In June 1932 George died, from self-inflicted wounds, in an asylum in Gloucestershire. He was 71.