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Famous names in the First World War

Ralph Vaughan Williams

Vaughan Williams in 1915 - by kind permission of Ursula Vaughan Williams

The English composer and folk song collector Ralph Vaughan Williams served in the First World War and his Medal card is now available to view on DocumentsOnline.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was born in Down Ampney, Gloucestershire. He was a great-great grandson of both the pottery manufacturer, Josiah Wedgwood, and of the eighteenth century intellectual, Erasmus Darwin. Another illustrious relative was his great-uncle, Charles Darwin.

Vaughan Williams composed orchestral music, including nine symphonies, choral works, operas and other stage works. He also composed film music, chamber music and solo pieces. In addition to editing Henry Purcell's works, he arranged English, Gaelic and Appalachian folk songs. He was also a president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society.

After his father died in 1875, Vaughan Williams lived at the Wedgwood family home at Leith Hill Place, Dorking in Surrey. He attended Charterhouse School then went to study first at Trinity College, Cambridge and then later, at the Royal College of Music (RCM). He first met his close friend Gustav Holst during his time at RCM. You can view his 1901 census return. Note that the enumerator listed his name as "Ralph V. Williams" and Down Ampney, the place of birth, as being in Wiltshire. Also the composer Holst, who was earning a living as a trombone player at the time, is listed as a visitor at the Vaughan Williams residence, 10 Barton Street, Westminster, London.

Service in the Great War

When war broke out Vaughan Williams volunteered for the Field Ambulance Service in the Royal Army Medical Corps (RAMC). He was posted to France and Greece. In 1917 he was commissioned in the Royal Garrison Artillery. Click on the image on the right to view his Medal Index Card. You will see that his surname was entered as "Ralph Vaughan-Williams".

Below are some excerpts from his service record (held in the series WO 374). The first of these, the next-of-kin form, lists not only the wife’s name (in this case, Vaughan Williams’s first wife, Adeline Fisher) but also gives details about the date and place of marriage and the names of two witnesses. Any children would also be listed on this form.

 

The two witnesses at Vaughan Williams's first marriage were his brother-in-law, historian Herbert A L Fisher, who was to become MP for Sheffield Hallam, and another relative, Ralph L Wedgwood, would later become Chief General Manager of the London & North Eastern Railway.

One of those who testified to Vaughan Williams’s "moral character" was Sir Francis Darwin, the son of Charles Darwin and an eminent botanist at Cambridge.

After the war

In 1919 Vaughan Williams became Director of Music of the 1st Army British Expeditionary Force in France and subsequently was appointed Professor of Composition at the Royal College of Music.

Vaughan Williams accepted the Order of Merit in 1938 and in 1955 he became the first musician to receive The Albert Medal of The Royal Society of Arts. However he was not seeking honours. It is said that one of the most remarkable things about meeting this great English composer was his humility.

He died peacefully in August 1958, and after the funeral at Westminster Abbey, his ashes were placed near to the grave of Henry Purcell.

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