International Focus on Smith-Watkins
Instrument maker, Smith-Watkins, has found itself in the centre of the royal wedding media frenzy yet again
UK national media interest in the North Yorkshire-based instrument-making Company, Smith-Watkins, spiralled into a global media feeding frenzy after a Ministry of Defence announcement that Household Cavalry State Trumpeters, which have used Smith-Watkins instruments for years, would sound at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on 19 May, in St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.
The regiment recently took delivery of a set of 20 new fanfare trumpets, crafted by Smith-Watkins, which uniquely bear the Royal Coat of Arms, prompting ABC Australia to record and broadcast a piece to an audience of around one million throughout the day on 29 March.
In the run-up to the wedding, interviews with the Company’s founder, designer and Managing Director, Dr. Richard Smith and his technician, Richard Wright, were featured by numerous media outlets worldwide, including: the online celebrity magazine, People; National Geographic in a behind-the-scenes documentary celebrating the unsung heroes of the royal wedding; Channel 9 Australia; American channels CBS (including material for the popular daytime show, This Morning) and PBS; Sky News (on the eve of the wedding), the BBC Breakfast Show and The One Show.
With America and Australia already key markets for brass instruments bearing the Smith-Watkins name, the duo was thrilled by the global brand interest, though neither are newcomers to media attention. The Company’s fanfare trumpets flanked Robbie Williams on stage outside Buckingham Palace to open The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Concert of 2012 and also featured during the same year’s London Olympic Opening Ceremony. Neither is next week’s wedding the first royal marriage at which they have sounded. When Britain’s future King, Prince William, married Kate Middleton at Westminster Abbey, the signing of the register was marked by 28 trumpeters of the Central Band of the RAF playing a fanfare. Quite simply, Smith-Watkins fanfare trumpets are the sound associated with all significant occasions across the World - something in which Richard Smith takes more than a smidgen of pride, enthusing: “Some of our proudest moments have been seeing and hearing our fanfare trumpets played on national television, including at major events such as the Olympics, The Queen’s Jubilee and royal weddings, so we were excited that they were heard again at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding.”
The exquisite craftsmanship of the 20 fanfare trumpets heard at the royal wedding are, as Richard Smith terms it, “a bit more blingy than usual,” with more silver rings and the aforesaid Royal Coat of Arms so that, he says, “the instruments will last 20 years, irrespective of which monarch is on the throne.” Each of the 20 new trumpets also bears a unique serial number to honour each of the Trumpet Majors who have led the gold-jacketed State Trumpeters of the Life Guards and Blues and Royals since The Queen’s coronation.
One ponders how a small North Yorkshire business has emerged to design, make and export world-beating fanfare trumpets, particularly since natural fanfare trumpets date back to the 13th Century and were traditionally used as a signalling call to troops on land and at sea. The answer lies in handcrafting processes based upon scientific research. Richard Smith started his career with an HND in applied physics and a placement at Marconi, where he learnt about electronics and metal work before eventually teaching physics, and doing a masters and a doctorate in the subject. He was also Chief Designer for Boosey and Hawkes, and responsible for the enduringly successful Sovereign Bb Cornet design, so he knows a thing or two about acoustics and is happiest in his trumpet lab, opposite his workshop.
He reflected: “I think I’ve been slightly different from others who have gone into instrument design and making, in that often people go into it because they’ve come to the end of their professional playing careers and need to find a new prospect, or started as repairers. I started as a scientist and then gained a Certificate of Education to supply teach part-time whilst I developed the Company very slowly. Then the RAF and the Royal Marines asked me to make natural fanfare trumpets, so I developed prototypes to test with both services and, at about the same time, I was asked to make Coronation Trumpets, which have valves. Twenty years later, every military band in the UK plays Smith-Watkins’s fanfare trumpets along with military units in New Zealand, Australia and America, so it’s gone extremely well.”
So what’s next for the two darlings of the international royal wedding media circuit? “Hopefully, getting back to making some instruments,” said Richard Wright, whilst Richard Smith quipped: “Enjoying the new greenhouse that I gave my wife for her 60th birthday!”
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