Coming of age in uniform: The Foundling Hospital and British army bands in the twentieth century

Abstract

This article examines the experiences of former pupils at the Foundling Hospital who served as British Army regimental bandsmen. It is based on interviews conducted by the author, published written accounts and documentary evidence in the Foundling Hospital Archives. The formative experience of institutionalisation at the Foundling Hospital is considered in the first section. The second section describes the transitional process of leaving the Hospital and enlisting in the Army. The final section discusses institutional experiences in the Army and how these affected the former pupils' life choices. It will be argued that the Hospital's authoritarian regime placed significant limitations on the children's social horizons and produced a strong orientation toward institutional life. It will be shown however, that the experience of serving in Army bands at a time of tremendous social change allowed former pupils featured in this study to make alternative life choices which short circuited this institutional bias.