A lieutenant in the 13th RIT, Fernand Halphen is one of the rare composers to have founded and directed a military orchestra, which officially represented the Groupe d'armées du Nord [fr], notably welcoming royalty visiting the front — Albert I of Belgium on 22 August 1915 and George V of England on October 26 the same year. Halphen formed a second orchestra in April 1916, but without his star performers, fellow Conservatory alumni Fleury and Marcel Tournier, it was less successful and disbanded on 1 May 1917 when Halphen, suffering from diphtheria, was repatriated to a hospital in Paris where he died on May 16.[16]
