Laurence Henry Hicks

Laurence Hicks was born in 1912 in London to a father who was a clarinet player in the British Army.[1][2] At the age of 14 years he was a band boy for the Cameronian Scottish Rifles.[2] The following year he attended Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall learning the clarinet and cello.[2] He subsequently joined the Cameronian Scottish Rifles as a clarinetist and toured Egypt for two years and then India.[2] He returned to study at Kneller Hall undertaking a bandmaster course and graduated in 1938.