[2] This work, as well as the English Folk Song Suite, stemmed from Vaughan Williams' admiration for the band of the Royal Military School of Music at Kneller Hall.
The Vaughan Williams piece became well known in the United Kingdom as the theme tune to the BBC television adaptation of Billy Bunter in the 1950s, which used the central, "Portsmouth", section as its title music.
[6][7] Both used the 1955 orchestral recording of the work performed by the New Concert Orchestra, conducted by Nat Nyll, which was part of the Boosey & Hawkes music library.
The original military band score is available in a recording by the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra conducted by Timothy Reynish.
[9] To commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the death of Vaughan Williams, the piece was performed at the 2008 Last Night of the Proms, in place of the traditional Fantasia on British Sea Songs by Sir Henry Joseph Wood, founding conductor of the Proms, and friend of Vaughan Williams.