A Dictionary of Music and Musicians/Wandering Minstrels

WANDERING MINSTRELS. An amateur orchestral society, founded in the year 1860. It is probably the only purely amateur full orchestra in existence in this or any other country. Capt. the Hon. Seymour J. G. Egerton, 1st Life Guards (now Earl of Wilton), was the first president and conductor, which post he held until 1873, when he was succeeded by Lord Gerald Fitzgerald, who in 1881 resigned in favour of Mr. Lionel Benson. The society has devoted its efforts chiefly to charitable objects in various parts of the country, a nett sum of nearly £15,000, the result of concerts, having been handed over to various charities up to the beginning of 1887. The meetings of the society for the first twenty years took place at Lord Gerald Fitzgerald's house, to which he added a concert room with orchestra for the exclusive use of the Society. The first 'smoking concerts' in London were instituted by the Wandering Minstrels.

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