Mr. William G. Collins was appointed master 1st August, 1856. He joined the royal artillery band at ten years of age. When he had established his name as a performer, he turned his attention to composition, and was instructed as a theoretical musician by James Harris, Esq. Mus. Bac. of Oxon. When quite a young man he was promoted to be master of the band on the recommendation of Sir Henry Bishop and the President of the Royal Academy of Music—Cipriani Potter. Subsequently he held a similar situation in the Royal Bucks Militia Band, which, from his peculiar fitness and attainments, became one of the best bands among the regular troops or militia in the kingdom. On the disembodiment of the regiment, his engagement with Lord Carington having ceased, his well-known reputation led to his instant appointment as master of the Royal Engineer Band. 1854. BOMARSUND—TURKEY—BULGARIA—WALLACHIA. War with Russia—Detachment attached to Baltic fleet—Second company to the Aland Islands—Landing—Brigadier—General Jones—Preliminary services—Operations—Fort Nottich attacked—Adventure at Fort Tzee and escape from it—Bomarsund captured—Destruction of the forts—Conduct of the company—Sickness; it returns to England—Detachment to Turkey—Augmentation to the corps—Seventh company withdrawn from Hurst Castle—Eleventh and seventh companies to Turkey—Odessa—Services of the first detachment in Turkey—Corporal Cray—Gallipoli; Boulair; Ibridgi—Commendation by Sir George Brown—Tenth and eighth companies to Scutari—Redoubt Kaleh—Works there—Circassia—Working-pay—Companies attached to divisions of the army—Buyuk Tchekmedjie—First detachment to Varna—Followed by the tenth company—Also by the eleventh—Complimentary order for services of the latter—Contrast between the French and English sappers—Works at Varna—Also at Devno—Encampments at Aladyn and Varna—Works at Gallipoli and Boulair—Eighth company to Varna—Gallantry of corporal Swann and private Anderson—Sappers join at Varna from the fleet—Coast of Circassia—Photographers—Detachment to Rustchuk—Trestle bridge at Slobedzie—Bridge of boats over the Danube—Return to Varna of a portion of the sappers from Rustchuk—Misconduct of the detachment; also of the seventh company—Spirited conduct of corporal Cray—Major Bent and party of sappers to Bucharest—Private Anderson and the Austrian Dragoons—Fourth company to Varna—The Somerset Fund—The Central Association.