Vaughan Williams was born in 1872 in the Cotswold village of Down Ampney (after which his famous hymn tune for ‘Come down, O Love Divine‘ is named). He was educated at Charterhouse School, then Trinity College, Cambridge. Later he was a pupil of Stanford and Parry at the Royal College of Music after which he studied with Max Bruch in Berlin and Maurice Ravel in Paris.

At the turn of the century he was among the very first to travel into the countryside to collect folk-songs and carols from singers, notating them for future generations to enjoy. As musical editor of The English Hymnal he composed several hymns that are now world-wide favourites (e.g. For all the Saints). Later he also helped to edit The Oxford Book of Carols, with similar success.

Vaughan Williams volunteered to serve in the Field Ambulance Service in Flanders for the 1914–1918 war, during which he was deeply affected by the carnage. He was a great friend of the composer Gustav Holst. For many years Vaughan Williams conducted and led the Leith Hill Music Festival, regularly conducting Bach’s St Matthew Passion. He also became professor of composition at the Royal College of Music in London.

In his lifetime, Vaughan Williams eschewed all honours with the exception of the Order of Merit which was conferred upon him in 1938. He died in August 1958, his ashes are interred in Westminster Abbey, near Purcell.

In a long and productive life, music flowed from his creative pen in profusion. Hardly a musical genre was untouched or failed to be enriched by his work, which included nine symphonies, five operas, film music, ballet and stage music, several song cycles, church music and works for chorus and orchestra.

We shall be commemorating his death on October 12th, his birthday, as it happens, when at the request of the archbishop of Canterbury, we shall be using V.W hymns, either composed or arranged by him, in our services.
Gary