Born London, February 28, 1910.
Died London, April 22, aged 98.
Last of the women band-leaders of the 1940s-50s, Blanche Coleman won a scholarship at 15 to the Royal College of Music, where she played violin, clarinet and saxophone, and learned to orchestrate and arrange.
Daughter of a fishmonger near Paddington Station, she and her late sister attended Westbourne Park Middle-Class Ladies’ College. She met her late husband, Henry Soester, in the silent-film orchestra of the Grange Cinema, Kilburn, North West London.
Forming her own all-girl band, she got her break in 1942 when Covent Garden Theatre (now Royal Opera House) was converted into a dance hall for the Forces. Against strong competition, her 12-piece band won the contract.
