Tributes to well-known Swindon musician who has died aged 97

Francis 'Fran' Cowley, 97, has been an enduring figure in the town having founded several bands and taught hundreds of musicians - his own music has rung through various events for decades.

This year was the first in 58 that Fran did not perform the last post during the town's remembrance Sunday events, due to ill-health

Francis Cowley is helped on his very last journey to the Cenotaph in 2023 (Image: John Stooke)But in a testament to his character, he refused to be beaten and was still able to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph on Armistice Day, helped by his wife Cheryl. 

He died eight days later.

Fran was born on May 30, 1927, in Wroughton, which is where he lived for the next 96 years. 

He began playing the cornet at the age of 9 with ‘Wroughton Silver Band’, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. 

In the early 1940s, he spent time in a number of concert brass bands, but this was cut short in 1945 when he was conscripted into the Army where he became principal cornet for the Wiltshire Regimental Band.

Fran Cowley conducts his last session of the Swindon Brass Band In the coming years, Fran would be pivotal in setting up and being part of a number of local bands, including Swindon Big Band which he was part of until its demise in 2017, Swindon's GWRSE&U band, Swindon Concert Brass which was renamed to Swindon Pegasus Brass which he was with for fifty years, and Swindon Brass to name just a few. 

In 1966, he began work as a peripatetic music teacher in Swindon and was influential in founding a club for young and aspiring musical talent in the Swindon area, known today as ‘Swindon Young Musicians’ which he was a part of until his teaching retirement in 1994.

Fran enjoyed a lot of success and led many of his bands to win contests. He played on the Royal Albert Hall stage and conducted the Youth Brass Band he had previously founded there.

Until lockdown in late March 2020, Fran had been in attendance, either playing, conducting, or both, at the West of England qualifying rounds of the National Championships of Great Britain for a remarkable seventy-one consecutive years.

Read More: Swindon Brass Band conductor, 94, retires after 48 years

Francis Cowley from Wroughton who celebrated his 90th Birthday and still playing and conducting an Orchestra

The musician's final appearance on stage was in March 2022, when the championships resumed, as principal cornet, before retiring from brass banding in July 2022 at the age of 95.

At this time, Francis said: "I've had a pretty active life, met some exceedingly good people and taught some great young players who could hold their own with the best around the country.

"I had quite a good go at it, it was a lot of work but I enjoyed every minute."

Francis was described as a calm and unassuming man, yet at the same time professional and driven, someone who had devoted a long life to music, either performing, leading or teaching.

His friend, John Stooke said: "Fran was one of the legions of great Swindonians who beaver away quietly in the background, his reward being no more than the enrichment of our cultural life and experience.

Fran Cowley conducting at the Town Gardens bandstand "You may not have known Francis personally but you will have enjoyed, at some point, the hundreds of local musicians he both trained and inspired, in a long and busy life."

He is survived by his second wife Cheryl, two sons Ian and Nick and their wives Jackie and Anne, his three granddaughters Suzanne and her husband Will, Abbie and Tamara and his two great-grand-daughters Isabelle and Lucille.

A celebration of his life will take place at St John and St Helens Church Wroughton at 11am on Thursday, December 12.