Royal College of Music war memorial explained

The Royal College of Music War Memorial is situated in the entrance hall of the Royal College of Music building, Prince Consort Road in South Kensingtonl London. The original central panel lists 38 RCM students and staff who lost their lives in World War I.^[1] 18 of them were organists.^[2] The memorial was unveiled on 10 November 1922 by Lord Justice Younger.^[3] Obituaries of many of those listed on the memorial were printed in wartime editions of the RCM Magazine.

First World War

• Arthur Armstrong-Dash (1883–1918), violinist, Lancashire Fusiliers, 12th Battalion
• Rupert Borowski (d.1918), violinist, private
• Gilbert Hearn Breach (1896–1916), Royal Fusiliers, Public Schools Battalion
• Eric Francis Brown (1890–1917), organist and choirmaster at Emmanuel Church, South Hampstead, Captain, Wilts.^[4]
• George H. Burchell (died 1917), flute scholar 1915, Lance-Sergeant in Belgium, Queen's Royal West Surrey^[5]
• George Butterworth, composer, Lieut., Durham Light Infantry^[6]
• Philip Evershed Chapman (1893-4 September 1915, Malta), piano, organ, composition, Hants Regiment^[7]
• Donald John Stuart Chapman (1894–1916), 2nd Lieut., Royal Fusiliers
• Rohan Clensy (1877–1919), actor, violinist and singer
• Ernest Coster (1883–1917), organist, student 1906–10, Captain, Royal Welsh Fusiliers
• Charles Dixon (d. 1917)^[4]
• Roger MacDonnell Evanson (d. 1917), singer, Royal West Kent Regiment
• Wilfrid Rupert Bucknall Eyre (d. 1917)
• Ernest Bristow Farrer, composer, 2nd Lieut., Devonshire Regiment^[8]
• Seymour Thomas Goodwin (1890–1917), private, Suffolk Regiment^[4]
• Adolphe Goossens, horn player, 2nd Lieut., Norfolk Regiment^[9]
• Wilfrid John Hare (d. Palestine, December 2017), organ and piano, London Irish Rifles^[10]
• John Hatchman (office staff), Hussars
• Arthur Clements Heberden (died 1917), organist, director of music, Marlborough College, 2nd Lieut., King's Royal Rifles^[4]
• Herbert Noel Hosking (1891–1916), singer, pianist, student 1910–14, Corporal, Middlesex Regiment^[11]
• Eli Hudson (1877–1919), principal flute London Symphony Orchestra, Lieut.^[12]
• Joseph Knowles Ireland (1885–1916), singer, Captain, Royal Fusiliers
• Harry Duckinfield Jones (1880–1915), pianist, Honourable Artillery Company
• Claud Percy Mackness (1887–1917), 2nd Lieut., Gordons
• Edward Mason (d. May 1915) cellist and conductor, husband of Jessie Grimson, Lieut., Northants Regiment^{[13] [14]}
• Albert Midgley (1892–1918), organ, 2nd Lieut., Worcestershire Regiment^[15]
• Alfred George Millard (d. 1917), organist, 2nd Lieut., East Surrey Regiment^[4]
• Ralph Windsor Parker (1891–1918), pianist, 2nd Lieut., Grenadier Guards^[10]
• Harold William Pickett (1890–1918)
• Henry R Pycock (d. 1916), office staff, Artists' Rifles
• Harry Retford (d. October 1917), Artists' Rifles
• Eric Walter Roper (d. 1916), singer, actor 2nd Lieut., Royal Fusiliers
• Leonard Sadgrove (d.1917), violin and piano, Royal Amateur Orchestral Society Scholar, private, Royal Fusiliers^[16]
• Kenneth Bruce Stuart, organist, 2nd Lieut., Durham Light Infantry
• William Hibbert Wanklyn (d. 1917), 2nd Lieut., Household Brigade
• Francis Purcell Warren, violinist and composer, 2nd Lieut., South Lancs^[17]
• Arthur Benjamin Wilkinson (d. November 1916), organist, Royal Chapel Windsor Park, 2nd Lieut., Royal Sussex Regiment^[18]
• Cecil Keith Foyle Wright (1890–1918), organist of St Mary Abchurch, Cannon Street, 10th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers^[16]

Second World War

A further 21 who died in the Second World War were added after 1945 in two small panels either side of the original central panel.

• Alan Bartlett
• Harold Luther Clark
• John A Clover
• Rudolph Dolmetsch (1906–1942), harpsichordist, Regimental Bandmaster with the Royal Artillery, died in the sinking of the SS Ceramic in 1942.^[19]
• Stanley Downing
• Gordon Fleming
• Wilfrid Frampton
• Harvey Goodwin
• John Humphrey Hare
• Geoffrey Hopkinson
• Douglas Harry Mostyn Hoops (1923–1943), pianist and composer from Aberdeen, R.A.C. 6th Armoured Division, killed in North Africa^[20]
• Donald Lipski (Donald Allan Lawson), Sergeant Navigator, killed 14 September 1943 as a result of an aircraft accident^[20]
• Desmond Mitchell, Flying Officer, killed in action 24 August 1943^[20]
• Alan Nichols
• Ronald Onley, violin, student 1923–34, wife of pianist Irene Crowther, member London Symphony Orchestra^[21]
• George Reardon
• Frank Rendell
• John R M Smith
• David Stanton, Sergeant Pilot, killed 1943^[20]
• Morris F Taylor
• George Wall (d. Burma, August 1943), singing scholarship, 1937^[22]

External links

• Lest We Forget, Royal College of Music
• Memorial: David Owen Norris WW1 Musical Stories - Royal College of Music War Memorial, BBC Radio 3, 4 July 2014

Notes and References

1. https://www.warmemorialsonline.org.uk/memorial/261916 War Memorials Online: Royal College of Music
2. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0222trb Memorial: David Owen Norris WW1 Musical Stories - Royal College of Music War Memorial
3. The Musical Times, Vol. 63, No. 958 (December 1922), p. 872
4. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1917-13-3-images/page/80/mode/2up?view=theater Obituary, RCM Magazine No 13/3, Midsummer Term 1917, pp. 81-84
5. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1920-16-2/page/22/mode/2up?view=theater Obituary, RCM Magazine No 16/2, Easter Term 1920, p. 22
6. Copley, Ian. George Butterworth and his Music : a centennial tribute (1985)
7. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1915-12-1-images_202010/page/18/mode/2up?view=theater Obituary, RCM Magazine No 11/1, Christmas Term 1915, pp. 19-20
8. https://musicbehindthelines.wordpress.com/composers/other-composers/ernest-farrar/ Behind the Lines: the music and composers of the first world war
9. Rosen, Carole. The Goossens: A Musical Century (1993)
10. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1918-14-2-images_202010/page/54/mode/2up?view=theater Obituary, RCM Magazine No 14/2, Easter Term 1918, pp. 54-55
11. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1917-14-1-images/page/20/mode/2up?view=theater Obituary, RCM Magazine No 14/1, Christmas Term 1917, pp. 21-2
12. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1919-15-2-images/page/30/mode/2up?view=theater Obituary, RCM Magazine No 15/2, Easter Term 1919, p. 30
13. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1915-11-3-images/page/82/mode/2up?view=theater Obituary, RCM Magazine No 11/3, Midsummer Term 1915, pp. 82-85
14. https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205393719 'Second Lieutenant Edward Mason', Imperial War Museum
15. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1918-14-3-images/page/80/mode/2up Obituary, RCM Magazine No 14/3, Midsummer Term 1918, p. 81
16. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1918-15-1-images/page/34/mode/2up?view=theater Obituary, RCM Magazine No 15/1, Christmas Term 1919, p. 34
17. https://www.warcomposers.co.uk/warren 'Francis Purcell Warren', War Composers: The Music of World War 1
18. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1916-13-1-images/page/24/mode/2up?view=theater Obituary, RCM Magazine No 13/1, Christmas Term 1916, pp. 24-25
19. https://www.royalmarineshistory.com/post/ss-ceramic 'SS Ceramic loss of DEMS crew', Royal Marines History
20. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1943-39-3-images/page/102/mode/2up?view=theater 'On Active Service', RCM Magazine No 39/3 (1943), p. 103
21. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1945-41-3-images/page/76/mode/2up?view=theater Obituary, RCM Magazine, Vol. 41 No 3 (1945), p. 77
22. https://archive.org/details/rcm-magazine-1946-42-1-images/page/14/mode/2up Obituary, RCM Magazine, Vol. 42 No 1 (1946), pp. 12-13