Malcolm Arnold (1921 - 2006)
The Padstow Lifeboat

Northampton born composer Malcolm Arnold studied at the Royal College of Music in London, and played first trumpet in the London Philharmonic Orchestra until 1948. He was awarded a CBE in 1970, and knighted in 1993. He died last year (2006). His output includes several film scores of which Bridge over the River Kwai won him an Oscar. His orchestral output is considerable, including 8 symphonies, 18 concertos and 5 ballets.
In 1965, Malcolm Arnold and his second wife settled in St Merryn, near Padstow, Cornwall, where he entered fully into local musical life, even becoming a bard of the Cornish Gorseth. His compositions of this period included the Cornish Dances and this Padstow Lifeboat march, which introduces the lifeboat's claxon as a jarring dissonance.