My old concertina

About the year 1827, Sir Charles Wheatstone - the famous inventor of the electric telegraph and other  scientific and engineering appliances invented the Wheatstone concertina. Quite a number of our Salvation Army officers in the early days of The Salvation Army here played the concertina. The one who gave me my first lesson on the concertina was Lieut. Colonel Frederick Harvey. Other officers able to play it were Lieut. Colonel Herbert Lord,  Mrs. Captain Cottrill, Major Stanley Gordon, Major Will Price to name just a few.

My present concertina was given to me while we were stationed in London. It has given me good service. It's my fifth one. I use it every week at Peacehaven Nursing Home. It is light and portable and has served me well for at least for the last 18 years!

I leave it at Peacehaven, but last week I brought it home and tried to repair the leaking bellows at one of the folds. I succeeded to an extent.Never mind this should do for the moment and hope it will last till I am called Home.

I had my first concertina 60 years ago. It was given to one of the delegates who attended the International Youth Congress in London. He could not play it and it was left to gather dust and rust. One day his children brought it out to fiddle with it, but none could play it. One day I was doing my pastoral visitation, when Tan Khia Fatt offered it to me. I had a new set of reeds put in and it lasted for a number of years.

My wife when she was still single was given a concertina by New Zealand friends. I taught her to play it. Well she succeeded in playing a few tunes Well it became my second concertina.

I bought my third concertina from Lieutenant Irene Holden, nurse at Batang Melaka for a token sum of $30.00! Some friend had given her the concertina, but she could not play it. She needed a medical book which cost $30.00.

In one of our visits to New Zealand an officer Captain Terence Heese gave me my fourth instrument. It used it till it till I got the present one. I left it in London for my secretary to give to someone who might need it. In fact it needed some repairs.

Our humid climate is not good for the reeds of the concertina. I leave it at Peacehaven, because of the air conditioning in the office. Anyway it saves me lugging it around.