Pioneer participant in the Notting Hill Carnival. Gerald Forsythe OBE was the first tutor and manufacturer of pan in Britain. He made the Mangrove Steel Band’s first set of pans. He started steel pan lessons in schools and had it formally registered as a musical instrument.
In 1969, Islington Green School became the first school to form a steel band under the guidance and teaching of Gerald Forsythe. By the late 1970s, Forsythe and Frank Rollock of the London Allstars had formed the Pan Teachers Association (PTA) to promote pan teaching in schools. In 1975, there were over fifty schools had steel bands and in the same year, the PTA received recognition from the Greater London Council (GLC). In 1978, Forsythe was appointed steel-band organiser for schools and within twelve years, the number of schools with steel bands had risen to 160.
Came to the UK from Trinidad in the early 1960s. A founding member of the Guild of UK Tuners. Died in or before 2019.
Sources: I love carnival, Pan Podium, Notting Hill Carnival - Strategic Review, Steelband in Carnivals around the World.
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