Anthony Bernard

Anthony Bernard (25 January 18916 April 1963) was an English conductor, organist, pianist and composer. Early life Anthony Bernard’s birth was registered as Alan Charles Butler in West Ham, then classified as Essex, in early 1891. His mother was Rosetta Ann Casselden, who had married Alfred Charles Butler, a coal-merchant (son of Henry Butler, also a coal-merchant) four years earlier on 21 September 1887. Bernard changed his name by deed poll in 1919 according to the National Archives. Further family research has uncovered that Bernard was the illegitimate child of Casselden and the Edwardian band leader Thomas Bidgood. Another of Bidgood’s sons was the dance band leader Harry Bidgood, also known as Primo Scala. In the 1901 census, Casselden was not living with her husband; she declared herself to be Rosetta Barnard and her 10-year-old son Alan Charles Butler to be “Allan Barnard” who was born in New York. Prior to cohabiting with Bidgood, she had three more sons (1893 - Thomas George who died in infancy; 1896 - Thomas Walter; and 1898 - Henry James), all were registered as “Barnard” (Harry Bidgood was Henry James Barnard). Thomas Walter was registered with Butler as the mother’s n