Music a lifelong love for WWII veteran trumpeter

Trumpet player Doug Kelly was the last surviving member of the World War II Royal New Zealand Air Force Band and continued playing until a short time before his death at 101.

Squadron leader and director of music for the RNZAF Band David Gallaher said Kelly was a leading aircraftman and was enlisted from the army into the band, which included musicians from all three services at the time: army, navy and air force.

In contrast with the current band, the WWII band members were trained in operating light machine guns and antiaircraft guns for airfield defence roles.

‘‘During the war the band toured throughout the Pacific theatre performing for Allied service personnel,’’ Gallaher said.

‘‘They also performed in New Zealand during the war and Australia post-war – predominantly to sell war bonds to support the funding of operations.’’

While the band was in Guadalcanal, Kelly arranged a piece titled I’ll be Thinking of You written for his future wife, Joy.

‘‘The encouragement Doug received from his band colleagues nurtured his love of arranging music, which would become a significant part of his later music involvement. The band included Doug’s song in every concert from that point on, throughout the Pacific tour and later through Australia after the end of the war,’’ Gallaher said.

The song was published by Chas Begg & Son, a New Zealand publisher based in Dunedin, in 1946.

Later in life, Kelly attended RNZAF Band concerts in Christchurch, often mentioning a particular fondness for the Jazz Orchestra, Gallaher said.

The arrangement that Kelly created for the band in 1942 had been lost after the war, but was rediscovered by the current RNZAF Band in a box in its bandroom in recent years.

RNZAF Band arranger Sergeant Andre Paris re-scored it, with Doug’s permission, and the musicians flew down to Christchurch in 2020 to perform it especially for Kelly and members of his family.

In 2019, Kelly featured in a Stuff article where he said keeping himself busy was the key to his long life and independence.

His daily routine included apple cider vinegar and honey, two-hour walks and practising the trumpet for 30 minutes every morning.

He continued to drive, attend concerts, play the keyboard and document his family history, which he included in an autobiography he completed in his 80s.

Kelly was born in 1922 in Christchurch after his parents, Lilian and Walter Kelly, emigrated to New Zealand from Adelaide.

His grandson, Richard Greenfield, said when Kelly joined the Christchurch Boys’ High School Band in 1937 it started a life of dedication to the trumpet and addiction to jazz music.

He went to teachers’ college at 17 and met his future wife, Joy Tulloch, at the Freshers Ball in 1941.

‘‘He described this as the greatest event of his life and the beginning of a lifelong relationship,’’ Greenfield said.

Greenfield said his grandfather joined the 1st Battalion of the Canterbury Regiment in 1942, which dug trenches on the Port Hills and manned barbed wire fences along the coast north of Christchurch after the attack on Pearl Harbour.

He was part of the 1st Canterbury Battalion Dance Band, and later joined the RNZAF Central Band in Wellington and toured New Zealand camps and

Pacific war zones including Guadalcanal, Bougainville, and Fiji, entertaining American and New Zealand servicemen.

He wrote many arrangements for the 70-piece band, 20-piece symphonic swing stage band and 12-piece dance band.

Joy and Doug were married in 1947, and they went on to have three children. They were together for 69 years until her death in 2016 aged 94.

In 1949 Doug became the leader and music arranger of a 13-piece radio broadcasting band and over the next 40 years he wrote all the arrangements and led the band for hundreds of local, national and overseas exchange radio broadcasts.

He continued to work full-time as a teacher at New Brighton, Woolston and Beckenham schools and became district school music adviser for Canterbury and the West Coast with the responsibility of co-ordinating music teaching in 450 schools.

He published a textbook, Music for Classroom Instrumental Groups, in 1969 and rejuvenated the Christchurch Schools Music Festival in 1972, before retiring in 1985 at the age of 63.

He wrote and conducted a grand finale for the Christchurch School of Instrumental Music and became involved in the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology’s Jazz School, as chairman of the advisory committee.

He played with the Christchurch Civic Orchestra from 1969, the Christchurch

Symphony in 1975, then the Canterbury Orchestra in 1978 and assisted the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.

He also played lead trumpet for the Risingholme amateur orchestra in 1994 and only retired in 2021, aged 99.

Jazz School founder Neill Pickard said Kelly was well-known as principal arranger and director of the Doug Kelly Radio Big Band for more than 40 years.

He said Kelly influenced many aspiring composers and arrangers and left a legacy of arrangements for future generations.

‘‘Doug was one of the most enthusiastic and omnipresent supporters of jazz ensembles and Big Bands wherever he could find them,’’ Pickard said.

‘‘His encouragement and guidance in the lead-up to the formation of the Jazz School was invaluable and his ability to embrace the new computer-assisted technology was inspirational,’’ he said.

‘‘Doug’s love of all styles of jazz, his work ethic, his astute analysis of the music scene and his gentle, generous observations and keen sense of humour marked him out as one of our great and much-loved gentlemen of jazz.’’

Pickard said Kelly was gentle, kind, encouraging, curious and generous of time and talent.

Granddaughter Angela Molloy said a small quote found in one of Kelly’s notebooks after his death said: Old trumpet players never die, they just blow away.