CHARLES GUARD MBE

Born and brought up on the Isle of Man, Charles was educated at St Francis School and KWC. He studied organ and piano at the Royal College of Music in London, and the Irish Harp in Dublin. He returned to the Isle of Man to take up a position at Manx Radio, and from 1984 produced and presented the daily current affairs programme ‘Mandate’.

 

He left Manx Radio to become General Manager of IoM Television, a production company specialising in TV documentaries and heritage films such as ‘The Story of Man’ at the Manx Museum. During this period he composed several scores for BBC films and documentaries.

​

Charles Guard then became Administrator of the Manx Heritage Foundation (now Culture Vannin), an organisation dedicated to the support and promotion of Manx culture. He also produces videos on a variety of Manx topics, runs a recording studio, is a Director of Manx Radio and Chairman of the Trustees of the Milntown Estate, and continues to compose music and broadcast.

​

He has been closely involved with IOMSO for some years and has appeared in several of our Villa Marina Concerts ; as compère in the Opera Gala, narrator in Peter and the Wolf, keyboard player in the Planets. We have also performed his compositions ; his arrangement of the Manx National Anthem and his wonderful ‘Song of the Southern Hills’. His most recent composition for IOMSO was ‘The Legend  of St. Maughold,’ which was performed in the Villa Marina in 2018 with Charles as  narrator.

 

We were delighted to hear that Charles was awarded an MBE in the New Year’s Honours list 2021 - surely a well-deserved reward for his work over many years  promoting Manx culture and history.