THE GREY TOWER VALSE

Composed by Bandmaster H Carter of the Essex Artillery Volunteers, litho by HC Maguire, printing by AB Court of 46 Poland Street, Soho, London. Volunteers are seen manning two guns on the lawn before an embattled country house. Fourteen gunners are present, one of them a young boy bugler.

Three individual artillery corps were formed in Essex during 1860-61 and these, in 1880, were merged as the 1st Corps with headquarters at Stratford. Grey Towers was a mansion standing in 85 acres on the Hornchurch Road, Hornchurch,

Essex, built in 1876 for Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Holmes, the owner of the Hornchurch Brewery. A deputy Lieutenant for Essex, Colonel Holmes served with the 1st Essex AVC.