Entertainment / Early Westville Bandsmen / History of Theaters in Westville / I remember when.. / Dunvegan Girls Pipe Band
Early Westville Bandsmen
As early as 1883 Westville had a brass band. In that year it played for the Brigade Camp then held at Brown’s Point where the 78th Regiment was in training.
In 1891, at the age of 17, one of the members of the Westville Band was Charles A. MacDonald (Purvis Avenue). The bandmaster was David Wilson, father of the renowned cornetists, Robert and Charles. The Wilson boys were also in the band.
Mr. MacDonald, a tuba and cornet player was a member of the 78th Regimental Band from 1910 and went overseas with the ‘famous” 85th Battalion Band in the First World War.
The other band members were David Wilson, Charlie Wilson, Dunc Cameron, James White, Thomas (Pat) Roy, Semple Quigley, James Roy, J.H. Roy, W.J. Wright, Mark Connors and J.J. Dooley
The Westville Band, under MacDonald’s leadership, delighted skaters at the Westville rink for some years, and townsfolk will remember him at the head of Orange Lodge Band in numerous local parades. He died October 6, 1943.
Mr. Macdonald’s two eldest sons, John George (died January 2, 1915, aged 18) and Charles were also musicians and soldiers. John George, who was the first Pictou County boy to die in World War I, played tuba, and at his death was the bugler for the 17th Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force.
Charles MacDonald was a bugler, a trombonist, and a noted regimental drummer. He served with the 85th Battalion in France and Belgium. He died at Holyoke, Massachusetts, March 14, 1954.
A third son, Raymond, also played tuba in bands and orchestras. In World War II he was a member of the Aldershot (Camp) Band, under the direction of Charles B. Wilsor. He died at Stellarton, October 25, 1965.
Other members of the MacDonald family active in the entertainment life of the town were Redvers, Leonard and Jeanie (Hawboldt).
Redvers, a harmonica virtuoso, possessed a deep bass voice, together with the late Charles Braine were in demand on every stage in Pictou County for their harmonical duets and natural clowning abilities. Leonard also played the harmonica.
Jean MacDonald (Hawboldt), a choir member and a talented comic actress, was likewise in demand as an entertainer from her early youth until her death in 1972.
The Wilson Family Band