Thomas Bidgood

Vimy Ridge

The British composer Thomas Bidgood (1870-1925) was a gifted music teacher who conducted his own professional orchestra, several theatre orchestras and wind bands. He composed a lot of light orchestral music and some fifteen marches, mong which 'Sons of the Brave' and Vimy Ridge'. The title of this march refers to a ridge situated between the town of Arras and the Flemish plain in the North of France. This ridge has been assaulted numerous times since the Roman conquest. Bidgood wrote this march after the Battle of Arras in April 1917 when the Canadians conquered Vimy Ridge which was one of the strongest fortified positions of the Hindenburg Line.