Thomas Albert Bollen

Thomas (Tom) Bollen’s remarkable musical career began when he played his cornet solo in the Broken Hill High School Orchestra and, aged 13, in the Salvation Army band with his father Herbert, a tuba player. 

Tom’s education began at North Broken Hill Primary School, and he was awarded Dux of the school in 1919, winning a state government Bursary to Broken Hill High School.  

The early 1900s in Broken Hill was a time of trouble and unrest with regular clashes and strikes between miners, unionists and mining companies. Tom, his mother Elsie, and his younger sister Alice were directly affected by the many dangers of the mining industry when Herbert Bollen left Broken Hill to work in the coal mines in Mt Mulligan in northern Queensland. In 1921, long with 75 other miners, Herbert was killed in an underground gas explosion. Tom was 16. 

By the time Tom was 18 he had won several awards, including the South Australian Championship Cornet Solo – an unprecedented acknowledgement for such a young musician – as well as the Open Champion Cornet Solo two years running in 1923-24. This led to his first professional offer, with Australian car manufacturer Holden’s Silver Band. In the same year, the Adelaide 10th Armoured Brigade Band won the Military Bands Competition under Tom’s conductorship 

Throughout the 1920s, Tom Bollen’s career as a cornet player soared with one win after another; one offer after another, including winning the Australian Open Championship Cornet Solo in Ballarat in 1925. By 1927, still only 22 years old, he was touring North America, Canada and Europe as Musical Director of the Australian National Band with another young Broken Hill musician, Clarinet player ‘Clarrie’ Collins. 

In Edmonton Canada, Tom became Bandmaster of the Edmonton Newsboys Band and, in 1928, met and married Violet Skinner. During this period there were radio appearances, recording sessions and a trip to New York to appear in a musical production of Kings of Jazz with George Gershwin, and the young Bing Crosby. In 1931 he left his marriage, and Edmonton, and worked and lived between Canada and the U.S., directing the Canadian Club Orchestra and winning the World Solo Coronet championship.  

In 1935 Tom formed his own band, ‘Tom Bollen and his Anglo Canadians’, which became ‘Tom Bollen and His London Band’, leading to the patronage of King Edward VIII which, until Edward’s abdication to marry Wallis Simpson in 1936, created rare financial stability for the band. 

Tom returned to Australia and to Broken Hill in 1936 and formed the Zinc Corporation Orchestra, then held short appointments as bandmaster of several boys bands until 1942 when he enlisted in the Army and, until 1946, was second-in-charge of all the Australian military bands. 

In 1947 he met and married Vera Folder and took on the role of Bandmaster of the Tamworth City Band, then became Musical Director for the Broken Hill Associated Smelters (BHAS) Excelsior Band in Port Pirie, South Australia. He and Vera had four children and finally returned to Broken Hill in 1953. In 1954 Tom and the Barrier Industrial Union Band won the Australian Band Championships. 

In later years Tom and Vera opened a music store in the old Grand Hotel on Oxide Street, before opening a store on Argent Street. Tom continued to share his musical passion with the community. He performed the Last Post on Anzac Day Ceremonies, and played at funerals and other charitable events 

Tom Bollen died peacefully in 1961 on a train journey to Sydney with his two elder sons. His was a truly extraordinary career as a world class musician and one of the most talented cornet players of his generation. 

Audio transcript available.