George Arnold Haynes Safroni-Middleton, also known as Count Safroni (born in Kent

Kent

Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...

 on 3 September 1873, died in Streatham

Streatham

Streatham is a district in Surrey, England, located in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is situated south of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London.-History:...

 on 7 November 1950) was a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 composer, director, violinist, harpist, writer and amateur astronomer. For several works he used the pseudonym William H. Myddleton.

Biography

Safroni-Middleton studied violin with Pablo de Sarasate

Pablo de Sarasate

Pablo Martín Melitón de Sarasate y Navascués was a Navarrese Spanish violinist and composer of the Romantic period.-Career:Pablo Sarasate was born in Pamplona, Navarre, the son of an artillery bandmaster...

 and afterwards started performing as violinist. He played the violin in the Orchestra of "Her Majesty's Theatre" in Sydney

Sydney

Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...

, the Orchestra of the Opera House in Auckland

Auckland

The Auckland metropolitan area , in the North Island of New Zealand, is the largest and most populous urban area in the country with residents, percent of the country's population. Auckland also has the largest Polynesian population of any city in the world...

, the Providence Opera House in Providence (Rhode Island), het Tokyo Orchestra, the Government House (Sarawak) Orchestra and the Government House (Hayti) Mexico Orchestra. Als solo performer he toured around Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

, South Amerika, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

 and Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

.

Later he became bandmaster of the Orchestra of the Carl Rosa Opera Co in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

.

Hij married on Alice Elizabetta St. John on 27 Juli 1910. Together they had five children: Alice Pauline, Gabrielle, Hugh, Joan and Mary M A.

As a writer he wrote many novels, travel guides and poems. He explored Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located north of Java Island, Indonesia, at the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia....

, Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea

Papua New Guinea , officially the Independent State of Papua New Guinea, is a country in Oceania, occupying the eastern half of the island of New Guinea and numerous offshore islands...

 en Malaysia.

As a composer he is mainly known for his marches and dance music for the harmony orchestra. His best known piece is probably Imperial Echoes

Imperial Echoes

Imperial Echoes is the title a piece for solo piano by Arnold Safroni that was later adapted as a military march and became well-known through its frequent use on BBC radio during the Second World War and beyond.-Original composition:...

(1913), which for many years was the theme of Radio Newsreel

Radio Newsreel

Radio Newsreel was a news programme produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation between 1940 and 1988. The programme, which eventually had four 15-minute international editions as well as a nightly 30-minute domestic version , broadcast in the BBC Light Programme, was composed of taped...

on BBC

BBC

The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 radio.

Works for harmony orchestra

• American President, march
• Boys of The Old Brigade
• By Imperial Command, march
• By Order of the King, march
• Call of the Empire, march
• Chanson de la Nuit, entr'acte
• Down South
• Firenze, waltz
• House of Hanover, march
• Imperial Echoes
  Imperial Echoes
  Imperial Echoes is the title a piece for solo piano by Arnold Safroni that was later adapted as a military march and became well-known through its frequent use on BBC radio during the Second World War and beyond.-Original composition:...
  
  , march
• Imperial March, march
• King's Cavalier, march
• Light of the Regiment
• Men of the Mist, march
• Negro dream
• Salute the Standard, march
• Samoan Love Waltz
• Sierra Leone, march
• The Dashing British, march
• The Last Tryst, concert waltz
• The Monk's Dream
• The Night Riders, march
• The Phantom Brigade, march
• The Relief, march
• The Shamrock
• The Scottish Thistle
• The Stronghold, march

Publications

• Bush Songs and Oversea Voices - Songs of the South Sea Islands, Australia, London, John Long, 1914, 159 p.
• Sailor and beachcomber : confessions of a life at sea, in Australia and amid the islands of the Pacific, Grant Richards, London, UK, 1915, 304 p.
• A Vagabond's Odyssey Being Further Reminiscences of a Wandering Sailor-Trou Badour in Many Lands, Dodd & Mead, 1916, 328 p.
• Gabrielle of the Lagoon. a Romance of the South Seas, The Solomon Isles. J. B. Lippincott Co. , Philadelphia/London, 1919, 286 p.
• South Sea Foam: The Romantic Adventures of a Modern Don Quixote in the Southern Seas, George H. Doran, 1920, 350 p.
• Sestrina; a romance of the South Seas, George H. Doran, 1920, 256 p.
• Tropic shadows, memories of the South Seas, together with reminiscences of the author's sea meetings with Joseph Conrad, London: The Richards Press, 1927, 302 p.
• Tides of sunrise and sunset : the fourth dimension of romance, London : Heath Cranton, 1932. 219 p.
• In the green leaf. A chapter of autobiography, London: Fortune Press, 1950, 199 p.
• Tropic Shadows, New York, Barse & Co.
• Two Faces in Borneo
• Australian Bush Lyrics

External links

• Biographical website
• William H. Myddleton at the Internet Movie Database