IN Rome, supposedly on holiday in 1908, Elgar was caught up in civil strife and saw the signs of armed conflict writing to a relative: "the streets occupied in every direction with troops, bayonets, and loaded rifles... bloody war - I saw the poor human stains on the stones and bullet marks on the walls."

Elgar was even more profoundly affected by the death and misery of the First World War as he had close and affectionate and commercial contacts in Germany.

The Battle of Gheluvelt when the Worcesters saved the Empire' in October 1914 and subsequent continuing campaigns with tales of deaths and derring-do would have dominated those years.

Elgar is associated with stirring patriotism but he was a man who understood the pain of losing loved one. He lost his brother when they were both young and he never composed again after his wife died.

He would have followed the words of the war poets including Rupert Brooke who died in the ill-fated Gallipoli campaign where the Worcesters also served and suffered.

He would have known the Reverend Woodbine' Willie Studdart, famous for his compassion and courage in the trenches with his men and for his commitment to the desperate and downcast citizens of Worcester. In February 1916 he sent his composition The Spirit Of England to the publishers with a dedication: "To the memory of our glorious men, with a special thought for the Worcesters." The previous year five Worcesters were shot the same July day after short formal courts martial. Shell-shock was not a recognised affliction for soldiers.

His music, particularly the Pomp And Circumstance March and Nimrod, evoke instant recognition as English and are essential parts of military occasions, both stirring and solemn.