According to the information in Newsletter 200, 1972 which is in the digital archive of the ICA, there was an Inaugural meeting on 27 September 1952 of the International Concertina Association. See below:
“No.2 Newsletter was issued in October 1952. It is not signed and bears no address so we do not know who wrote it. Among the names mentioned in it are: Fred Read, Alf Edwards, Charlie Parslay, Wilfred Pearce, J. Floyd, Inga Webb, Sylvia Webb, Cheetham Walters, Helen Bland, Father Loveless,Al Coomber, Herbert Greene, Sid Ive, Rosa Loader, Teddy Stream, Con Courtney, J. Mearns, Thomas Murphy, A.G.Peters.
Some of the above names are still with us today, twenty years later.
The Newsletter mentions three records made by Alf Edwards and issued by ‘NIXA’ at 5s.3½d. each, including Tax. It also mentions the ‘BOOTLE CONCERTINA BAND’ and the “MEXBOROUGH CONCERTINA PRIZE BAND”.
Enclosed with No.2 Newsletter was a report of the Inaugural Meeting of the I.C.A. which took place on Saturday 27th September 1952, with 50 members present. The association was then 3 months old and had 134 members. Mr. L. J. Silvester was the General Secretary.
Various points put forward and agreed upon were:-
- To re-popularise the concertina
- To encourage ear-players to learn music
- To lay down a proper musical foundation for the new generation of players.
- To have a close co-operation between concertina and accordion players.
- To select District Organisers for local work.
- To form a Central London Concertina Orchestra”