"Follow the Colours" is a marching song written by the English composer Edward Elgar in 1907, with words by Capt.
In November the company announced that the winner (of 96 applicants) was William de Courcy Stretton - a 45 year old retired Royal Artillery captain from Salcombe in Devon - and that the music was to be written by Elgar.
Stretton, at the annual banquet of the Musicians Company at Stationers Hall on 28 April 1908, when it was for that occasion given the generic title "Marching Song".
Such was its pre-war success that in 1914 it was republished by Novellos in a version (in key D) with piano accompaniment, with fewer introductory bars and the third verse omitted.
Tragically the author, William de Courcy Stretton, lost four of his five sons, Capt Alexander Lynam (M.C.
), Capt William Stapelton, Able Seaman Conrad (Royal Australian Navy) and 2nd Lt John while fighting for the British Empire during the First World War.