Victor Brightmore was born in Brighton in 1902. He started learning the piano as a boy, but took up the horn when he was 18, having been inspired by hearing Wagner's Tannhauser. In the early 1920s he served for a short time in the Royal Army Medical Corps Band, and then went on to study the horn with Frank Probyn at the Royal College of Music. He was also a student of Constant Lambert. His subsequent career as a freelance horn player spanned many years and he played for many distinguished conductors.