Historic Cannock choir to sing its final notes on Armistice Day
The Cannock Ex-Servicemen’s Club Male Voice Choir is the longest standing choir in Cannock and is sadly closing its music sheets after 77 years of singing.
It was formed in 1948, at the Cannock Ex-Servicemen’s Club by demobbed servicemen, who started out singing around the piano. Unfortunately, the choir has been unable to recruit enough new members to keep going and will give its last public performance on Armistice Day in Chadsmoor.
The choir’s first and longest serving Musical Director was Howard Benton, leading the 40+ strong choir to success in Music Festivals and establishing an annual celebrity concert, featuring leading brass bands and soloists. In more recent times, the choir has sung in many churches, clubs, retirement homes and, of course, our home base, the Cannock Ex-Servicemen’s Club. At the National Memorial Arboretum on the first ever Armed Forces Day, in June, 2009, the choir performed and contributed at the same event for the following five years.
In 2015, a new war memorial was inaugurated in Chadsmoor thanks to the great efforts of the late Derek Davis OBE - county councillor and president of the choir for many years. The choir has sung every year since at the Armistice Day service in Chadsmoor and will be doing so for the last time on November 11.
We shall be dedicating our music to Derek and his late wife, Muriel, both of whom have given so much support to the choir over very many years.
