| Biography | Mackenzie Rogan was the first bandmaster in the Brigade of Guards to be granted a substantive commission with the rank of 2nd Lieutenant and after passing through all the various ranks retired as a Lieutenant-Colonel, the first serving bandmaster or director of music to reach this rank. For 20 years he was the senior director of music of the Brigade of Guards, responsible for the massed bands of the Brigade at the funeral of Queen Victoria, the coronation and funeral of King Edward VII and the coronation of King George V.
Under his direction, the Band achieved several notable "firsts". In 1896 a Coldstream officer heard Tschaikovsky's 1812 Overture in St Petersburg, and brought back a copy of the score. Mackenzie Rogan played it at concerts throughout the country and brought it to the attention of Henry Wood. The Band was the first British Army band to visit one of the Dominions, touring Canada in 1896, and in 1907 they were the first Guards Band to visit France at the invitation of the French Government. He retired in 1920.
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