Director of Music:

Lieutenant Colonel Graham Jones, Senior Director of Music, Household Division, originally started his military career studying the harp under the world renowned Harpist, Maria Kachinska, whilst serving as a musician in the Royal Artillery Band.

In 1981 he was selected to become a Bandmaster, attending the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall, for three years. His efforts were rewarded with prizes for composition and orchestration.

His first appointment upon leaving Kneller Hall was that of Bandmaster to The 16th/5th The Queens Royal Lancers. Options for Change within the British Army in 1991 saw many regiments amalgamated, of which The Queens Royal Lancers became one. As a result of this, he was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his outstanding services to that Regiment. He was then posted as Bandmaster to The Royal Highland Fusiliers.

In 1994 he was commissioned in the rank of Captain, and with it, an appointment as Director of Music, The Lowland Band of The Scottish Division.
In 1997 he moved to the Band of The Light Division which provided musical support in Bosnia, and was later to command the Band through its deployment to Kosovo.

Three years later, he was posted to Headquarters Army Music, as Officer Commanding the Training and Development Team. Whilst in charge, he was instrumental in pioneering the Army Accreditation Programme, linked to Trinity College of Music London.

Having received his Master of Music degree from the University of Reading, Lieutenant Colonel Jones went on to gain his Doctorate of Music Arts (DMA) with the University of Salford graduating in the summer of 2006.  Lieutenant Colonel Jones is the first Army Director of Music to gain a DMA.  He is much in demand as a lecturer, adjudicator and conductor both in Europe and the United States and he has recently been guest conductor at Leigh University, Pennsylvania, USA.

In August 2001 he was appointed Director of Music, Coldstream Guards, a position unequalled in British Military Music.  In May 2008 he was appointed Senior Director of Music of the Household Division with promotion to Lieutenant Colonel.

Bandmaster:

Warrant Officer Class One Gregory Machin joined the Army in 1991 and served with the Peninsula band of the Royal Green Jackets as a flautist based at Connaught Barracks in Dover, Kent.

Early in 1992 he was posted to the Royal Military School of Music, Kneller Hall to attend a musicians course where he studied the flute under the tutelage of Graham Mayger and the piano under Veronica Clayton. Early in 1993 he was posted back to the band in Dover and took post as principal flautist until the bands disbandment in April of 1994 when he was posted to the Band of the Light Division.

In September 2000 Gregory was selected to attend the Student Bandmaster course at Kneller hall graduating in August 2003 with an upper second class honours degree in music and two competition prizes.

In September of 2003 Gregory was appointed as Bandmaster to the Prince of Wales's Division (Lucknow) Band where he served until August of 2006 before being appointed as Bandmaster to the Band of the Coldstream Guards.

 

 

Band Sergeant Major:

WO2 Peter McErlean joined the Army in September 1984, and on completion of his training was posted to the Band of the Coldstream Guards. WO2 McErlean has been fortunate to have served with the same band for the whole of his career, under the direction of five different Directors of Music.

He started to learn to play Percussion at the age of 11, under the guidance of Jim Beryl, a former  musician in the Grenadier Guards Band. Between the ages of 15-17, Peter studied at the Royal College of Music in London as a Junior Exhibitionist under Heather Steadman.

In 1985, he attended the Pupil’s Course at Kneller Hall where he studied under John Cave. On completion of this course he was awarded the `Dennis Brady Memorial Prize` for the Best Percussionist of that year.

WO2 McErlean has been very fortunate to have travelled to many places  over his long career, such as Japan, South Korea, Australia, USA, Canada, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Sarajevo, Kuwait, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland.
He was appointed Acting Band Sergeant Major in April 2008 and is due to promote to Band Sergeant Major in April 2009. Peter has completed 25 years service as of this September .

Peter currently lives in Crawley, West Sussex with his wife Claire and their two sons, Thomas and Joseph.