Almost two years ago LSO Discovery was approached by a team from Big Mountain Productions who were developing a programme working with a number of recovering addicts, using music.

Big Mountain Productions had encountered LSO Discovery’s work and wondered whether its inclusive way of working could be used to inspire and support the participants throughout the project, culminating in an orchestral performance with the London Symphony Orchestra.

On 4 August 2014, 100 years since the entry of Great Britain into World War I, we are remembering trumpeter Sydney Moxon.

Sydney was the first member of the LSO that we began to research as part of our project. We knew from the minutes of the AGM of London Symphony Orchestra Ltd, held on 27 July 1917, that Sydney had sadly been killed in action whilst serving in France:

In the second of our series of blogs remembering the service of LSO members in World War I we tell the story of horn player Harry (Harold) Jackson.

Among the names listed in the minutes of the AGM of 27 July 1917 was the name H Jackson. We knew very little about H Jackson - not even his first name. A convention of the times was to refer to men only with their first initial, particularly in official documents such as concert programmes and our register of share certificates for the Orchestra. So although we knew from concert programmes from the time that H Jackson played the French horn, we could find no reference at all to his full name.

One hundred years ago today on 4 August 1914, Britain declared war on Germany and entered what was to become one of the deadliest conflicts in history. Today, along with the rest of the world, the London Symphony Orchestra remembers the sacrifices made on all sides so that we might have a future.

The LSO is one of very few orchestras today that was operating during World War I, and the only London orchestra. Formed in 1904, the LSO had just celebrated its tenth anniversary when fighting broke out. We will be marking the centenary of the war in several ways throughout 2014–2018, both in our artistic programme and online.