... was born In Middlesex and moved to Birmingham, where he became a successful teacher, concert artist, recording star and broadcaster, sold many banjos, and zither-banjos bearing his name as the maker.  

All these instruments were made for him: at first by Windsor and then by Joseph Riley Sons.

He was associated with the latter firm, as a teacher and demonstrator from about 1894 to 1898.

In the first deacde of the 20th Century he was renown for playing the fashionable ragtime tunes of the period on his zither banjo.