G'day Gurney, Vectis (& Guran),

I'm afraid the 20th century perception of the Sally Army's concertina bands completely smothers there vast and widespread use of the simple, joyous German and (later) Anglo-German concertinas that its working class reruits could afford and, quickly, play.

Dan Worrall's comprehensive new 2-volume book The Anglo-German Concertina - A Social History devotes an entire section to the Sallys ... and includes several 19th century photographs of the Booth family women (the founding family of the Salvation Army) who were renowned for their presentation - both on stage and at Salvationist meetings - of hymn tunes ... proudly holding their gleaming Jeffries Anglo-chromatics!

Unfortunately the Sallys eventually succumbed the the "Bandmaster Syndrome" ... a subset of British militarism.

Regard(les)s,

Bob