Photograph caption added at a later date reads: A name, destined to remain with Invercargill Bands through four generations, appeared in the records when William Valentine Siddall was appointed conductor upon the retirement of Captain Heywood in 1882. "Val" Siddal was born in Corfu, Ionian Islands, in 1857 and was educated at the Duke of York Military School in London. In 1876 he arrived in Dunedin and the following year settled in Invercargill and joined the Garrison Band as principal cornetist and teacher.

Lt. siddall's first contest as a conductor was the "challenge" contest of 1882 between Invercargill and Oamaru Garrison Bands. He continued as a successful conductor of the Band until he shifted to Christchurch in 1902 and took up the conductorship of the Woolston Brass Band. In 1905 the Woolston Band celebrated its first victory when it won the Oamaru Contest. It also won the 1909 Invercargill contest. Siddall resigned from the Woolston Band in 1912.