Charles O'Neill (31 August 1882 – 9 September 1964) was a Canadian bandmaster, composer,[1][2] organist, cornetist and music educator of Scottish birth and Irish parentage.
[3][4] Born in Duntocher to Irish parents, O'Neill began his musical training in the piano as a young child.
He then studied the organ with Albert Lister Peace in Glasgow and music theory with Archibald Evans in London.
He moved again in 1905 to Kingston, Ontario in Canada, where he played in the Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Band as a cornet soloist.
In 1908, he returned to England to receive training as a bandmaster for at the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall through the support of the Canadian Department of National Defence.
[6] After earning a diploma from the RMSM in 1909, O'Neill returned to Canada in 1910 to succeed Joseph Vézina in the post of music director of the Royal Canadian Garrison Artillery Band at the Citadelle of Quebec.