Alexander Frame Lithgow was such an esteemed conductor, musician and composer that Launceston has three memorials in his honour, all paid for by public subscription.
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Mr Lithgow was born in Glasgow in 1870, moved to Invercargill, New Zealand when he was six, and came to Launceston in 1894 to conduct St Joseph’s Band. He had a natural talent for music that he loved to share with others.
In Launceston, he worked by day as a compositor at The Examiner and then The Daily Telegraph and conducted bands and orchestras in the evenings. He was a prolific composer as well.
When he died on July 12, 1929 the citizens of Launceston felt that the city had ‘sustained its greatest musical loss’.
His funeral procession left from the Lithgow home at 136 St John Street, with six bands playing Dead March in Saul by Handel as the lengthy cortege marched to Carr Villa.
On the homeward journey the combined bands played two of Lithgow’s most popular marches, Queen of the North and Invercargill.
Soon after his death a movement to erect a memorial over his grave to perpetuate his memory raised money by public subscriptions. On September 14, 1930 Mayor RM Osborne unveiled the red granite obelisk in the Presbyterian section at Carr Villa.
The inscription reads: ‘Erected by his many friends as a tribute to his musical genius and life-long sincerity as bandmaster and conductor and composer’.
Twenty-three years later Thomas Stancombe suggested to the 12th Battalion Old Comrades’ Association that a memorial be erected at Paterson Barracks as a tribute to the memory of Lithgow, ‘who for many years was the battalion bandmaster and held the rank of warrant officer’.
An appeal was launched and because of the generous response the committee decided to erect a second plaque.
Brigadier Hurley unveiled the first plaque at an impressive ceremony held at the barracks on the evening of September 1, 1953. Massed bands played Invercargill and other Lithgow marches.
On February 1, 1954 the Mayor HG Pitt unveiled the second plaque on the bandstand in City Park. Hundreds of people gathered to enjoy the ceremony, bands marching through the streets and a concert in the park.
Claude Atkins expressed the hope in August 1929 ‘that there will be a big musician pilgrimage to his grave on the Sunday nearest July 12 each year to pay homage’.
Perhaps this does not occur, but the memory of Alex Lithgow does live on in his music, which is still played throughout the world today.
