Radio folk musician to perform remembrance show at museum

Tomorrow (Saturday) at 2pm, Sam, a member of the bands Bellowhead and Leveret, will be in the Oak Gallery for a special performance of talks accompanied by music.

He will tell the fascinating story of how, several years ago, he bought what he thought was a new violin from a shop in Oxford.

Only when he got the instrument home did he find the internal markings, detailing that the violin was made by Richard S Howard in Leeds, in 1915.

After further research by Sam’s father, they found that Howard was killed in 1917 while serving with The Duke of Wellington’s Regiment, leaving the instrument unfinished for nearly 100 years.

Sam played Howard’s fiddle in his successful touring show Made in the Great War, even travelling to Howard’s grave in Belgium.

Now, he and his father re-tell their story and that of the violin.