William Rimmer was a Lancashire

Lancashire

Lancashire is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in the North West of England. It takes its name from the city of Lancaster, and is sometimes known as the County of Lancaster. Although Lancaster is still considered to be the county town, Lancashire County Council is based in Preston...

 composer and conductor of brass band

Brass band

A brass band is a musical ensemble generally consisting entirely of brass instruments, most often with a percussion section. Ensembles that include brass and woodwind instruments can in certain traditions also be termed brass bands , but are usually more correctly termed military bands, concert...

 music who was particularly well-known for his march

March (music)

A march, as a musical genre, is a piece of music with a strong regular rhythm which in origin was expressly written for marching to and most frequently performed by a military band. In mood, marches range from the moving death march in Wagner's Götterdämmerung to the brisk military marches of John...

es.

Rimmer was born in Southport

Southport

Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...

 in 1862 into a musical family. His father was bandmaster

Bandmaster

A bandmaster is the leader and conductor of a band, usually a military band, brass band or a marching band.-British Armed Forces:In the British Armed Forces, a Bandmaster is always a Warrant Officer Class 1 . A commissioned officer who leads a band is known as the Director of Music...

 of the Lancashire Volunteer Rifles and encouraged both Rimmer and his brother Robert in their musical studies. At the age of 15 Rimmer joined the Southport Rifle band as a side-drummer and then moved onto the cornet

Cornet

The cornet is a brass instrument very similar to the trumpet, distinguished by its conical bore, compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. It is not related to the renaissance and early baroque cornett or cornetto.-History:The cornet was...

, eventually becoming the bands principal cornet soloist. As a young man he made himself into one of the finest cornet players in the country under the eye of Alex Owen at Besses o' th' Barn

Besses o' th' Barn

Besses o' th' Barn is an area of Whitefield within the Metropolitan Borough of Bury, in Greater Manchester, England. It lies between Radcliffe and Prestwich....

. His prowess on the instrument became well known, and he was engaged as a soloist by many of the best bands of the day. He eventually gave up playing to concentrate on training and conducting bands, and at the height of his fame conducted every winning band at both the Crystal Palace and Belle Vue competitions between 1905 and 1909.

On 29 July 2007, Phillip Hunt devoted his weekly "Sounds of Brass" radio programme on BBC Radio Devon

BBC Radio Devon

BBC Radio Devon is the BBC Local Radio service for the English county of Devon. It began transmissions on 17 January 1983, replacing a previous breakfast show for Devon and Cornwall broadcast on the local frequencies of Radio 4....

to Rimmer and his works.

Selected works

• "Punchinello"
• "Ravenswood"
• "Slaidburn"
• "The Cossack"
• "Cross of Honour"
• "The Hailstorm (Cornet Polka)"
• "Irresistible"
• "Honest Toil"
• "The Black Knight"
• "The Australasian"
• "The North Star"
• "Viva Birkenshaw"
• "The Commonwealth"
• "Blancathra"
• "The Northumbrian"
• "The Victors Return"
• "Marathon"
• "One of the Best"
• "The Cycle Parade"
• "Red Gauntlet"
• "The Carnival King"
• "The Cavalier"
• "Dawn of Freedom"
• "Grenadier"
• "Honour the Brave"
• "The Kings Cavalier"
• "The Royal Trophy"
• "La Russe"
• "Sons of Victory"
• "Sons of the Wild"
• "Viva Pettee"
• "The Wizard ?"
• "Knights of the road"
• "Orion"