Hi all,
just found this Boosey and hawkes flute on ebay, in the key of E, is this a bit unusual, seen and played an Eb,
I’m totally skint at the moment, so wont be bidding, might be of interest to someone, link is below
Hi,
Those flutes were mass-produced back then for the army bands, and were made to play in unusual keys, when I was dealing in flutes back some years ago, I picked up a cardboard box full of those flutes in Leed’s, Took quite a long time to get rid of them as they were in those odd keys.
God nothing is kept secret on here, my brother is looking at this same flute. . .think he is quite keen on it. 
Sorry chris the wakes,
one of my vices is when I have a few minutes to kill i have a set pattern of ebay searches,
usually for rare camera lenses, my other search is wooden flutes, this one caught my eye at 99 pence, which usually means it will get loads of interest and go at fair price, or it will go for 99 pence, so you never know.
With the military connection it might just go to a collector, I did a bit of research on the 4th ROYAL WELSH FUSILIERS for that year, a bit came up, but I suppose the band would have been made up of regular soldiers that had two duties, soldering and play at events and such, dated 1934 so pre ww11, perhaps thats why theres not much info.
tell your brother good luck,
Sponge 
As a point of interest- the spelling of Welsh in the title of the ROYAL WELSH FUSILIERS is actually, and I believe uniquely, Welch, so in fact it would be - ROYAL WELCH FUSILIERS; a search with this spelling may be productive.
Members of British military bands did not, and still do not, usually, serve as combat troops, rather they were used as stretcher bearers during conflict.
Paul
Probably will play fine in Eb. Notice it says it is in low pitch E, that would be E flat… I used to have a Eb Boosey, great flute!
Yeah, it’ll be Eb OK, and likely at A=440 if it says it is LP. They seem often not to have bothered (wasn’t in a standard set of punches?) with a stamp for the flat sign - just think of all the Bb band flutes (at whatever pitch standard) simply stamped “B” when no-one ever made B major scaled flute back then - they were always Bb and understood as such…
Re: the RWF and military corps of drums, I make no claim to expertise, but I do know a latterday former RWF (I think) drum major (I’ll try to get him to take a look at this thread). He has previously told me about how this worked in the modern (-ish) British Army. The flute band and drummers were not Military Bandsmen for the most part (who indeed woiuld be fully trained Conservatory standard musicians and would not normally be combat troops but serve as auxiliaries as described above) but ordinary soldiers, not necessarily otherwise musical/musically trained, who volunteered for the Corps of Drums - so would have that role in parades etc. but were otherwise normal combat squaddies.
Hi all,
Thanks Jem for bringing this to my notice. Firstly, I was the Drum Major 1st Bn The Royal Welch Fusiliers in the late 80’s early 90’s. Drummers were not trained musicians but normal infantrymen who might have had an ear for music etc. Their role has changed throughout out the years but more recently have been Assault Pioneers and Heavy Machine Gunners as well as Infantry and Drummers. The spelling of Welsh or Welch are both correct. It seems that the MOD would change it at their pleasure but was befere we got amalgamated “Welch”. And lastly, the Eb Flute. A full Corps consisted of Bb Flutes 1st, 2nd and 3rds. F Flutes which were the equiv of the Euph’s, Bb Bass which is what it implies, the Eb Piccolo and the Eb Flute. The latter, from the scores I have seen followed the melody of the F flute but an octave higher. The Low Pitch was so we could play along with the Regimental Band on Parade. Bandsmen are still Medics over the water. Most Corps in the British Army are now skeleton strength or simply do not exist. Shame !. If anyone is interested in this sort of music, there is a site www.yorkshirecorpsofdrums.com you can listen to. They are playing high pitch flutes and are very much Guards orientated but a good site to familiarise with the Drums. Hope this is/was of any use
regards
Dave beer
Looks like it will play at Eb, but will probably need some tuning modifications, as the head will have to be shortened. The foot may have flat foot syndrome otherwise, as it is closer to a high pitched British tuning then Eb tuning.
I’m always gobsmacked by the sheer number of interesting people who manage to find threads on this site. It always feels like that scene in Annie Hall, where Marshall McLuhan happens to be in line at a cinema at just the right time to support Woody’s side of an argument about what McLuhan means.
Is that a B key on the foot?
s1m0n - Dai Beer did find the thread 'cos I know him (gave him lessons for a while a few years ago, used to live not far from me) and specifically phoned him up to ask him to contribute (and correct anything I misremembered him telling me!) - not so very strange…
Re: the keys: No, that is a perfectly normal “C” foot (goes down to a real pitch Db) with Bohm style rod-axle keywork - which was the norm on long-footed simple system flutes by the era this one was made.
it does indeed play Eb perfectly…well it should.
I have the exact same flute…but in Ebonite with a companion piccolo!
will be selling shortly.
Plays firm at Eb.
dm
It went for £281 - not bad, but perhaps a bit on the cheap side for such a nice flute…
BTW, it was a flute very much like this that the likes of Empire in India have copied for their Ebonite stinkers, though their “master” was more likely a very HP D flute. You can see the (distorted) resemblance of the foot keys quite well!
468 bucks… fek that’s cheap. I should have bid,