Debroy Somers

Debroy Somers (born William Henry Somers, on 11 April 1890[1] in Dublin[2] and died on 16 May 1952 in London[3]) was a twentieth-century big band bandleader. [4]

He had trained as a musician at the Duke of York's Royal Military School in Chelsea[5] and having left the school at 15 he joined the 2nd Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment as a boy bandsman in 1905, before retiring in 1913[6]. He rejoined his old regiment in 1916 retiring as a sergeant musician in 1918; being demobilised in Wiltshire[7].

He married a widow Doddy Payne (nee Watts) on 9 September 1912 in Fulham London[8]; she already had three children from her previous marriage[9]. The family home would remain in Twickenham, Surrey for many years[10].

His period of celebrity stretched from the 1920s to the 1940s.[11] He appeared in numerous films, including Second Choice, Stars on Parade and Aunt Sally,[12] and founded the Savoy Orpheans. On 15 June 1925 Somers conducted the first British performance of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue from the Savoy Hotel with the Orpheans, alongside the Savoy Havana Band and Gershwin himself on piano. The performance was broadcast live by the BBC.[13]

His band, the Debroy Somers Band, was also known as the Midnight Minstrels.[14]In 1930 they covered Amy, Wonderful Amy, a song about Amy Johnson. [15]