Geoffrey Hartley was born in 1906 near Oxford. He began playing the bassoon at school when he was 16, using an old Savary instrument from his father's collection. He studied engineering at Oxford and, having acquired a new Buffet-Crampon instrument, played in the Oxford Orchestral Society. He later acquired a Heckel and, alongside his career teaching mathematics, became an ARCM (bassoon) in 1931. From 1939-1979 he was at the Meteorological Office and played in various local orchestras.

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