When Llandudno Town Band was formed in 1910, it was decided that a bandstand was needed on the promenade. The hoteliers were not happy to have the noise outside their hotels, so the council procured a mobile bandstand (top picture) on wheels. Nicknamed “The Juggernaut”, it could be dragged by horses to any part of the promenade, and the band could perform anywhere from the Happy Valley to Craig y Don. It was in disrepair by 1925 so the council built a permanent bandstand. It was inaugurated in 1926 and remains in use today.
Llandudno Town Band was a huge success under its first bandmaster, Francis Traversi, and became a principal attraction in Llandudno. The band was one of the few in Britain which kept a full programme going through the First World War, when several band members volunteered for the army.
One member who died in the war was Sidney Edwards, 21, of Cwlach Road. He was apprenticed to a local plumber before enlisting in 1915 in the Welsh Horse Yeomanry. In April 1916 he was part of a detachment sent to quell the Easter Rising in Dublin. He was later transferred to the Royal Welsh Fusiliers and sent to the Western Front, where he was killed in action on 29 October 1918, less than a fortnight before the Armistice.