THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

From R. Vaughan Williams,
The White Gates,
Westcott Road,
Dorking.

July 12th 1953.

Dear McCleary,
About that story of Waddington:¹ I only got it verbally from I forget whom, many years ago. I once asked Waddington, agin² without giving details, whether it was true, and he said “yes”. But I feel that before a story like that is published the leave of his executors ought to be asked, and the details verified. His son H.G. Waddington (I think) wrote to me from his father’s old address, Smoky Hole, Uplyme, Dorset. As regards Waddingtons studying in Vienna, he went abroad under the auspices of the Mendelssohn Scholarship, which has nothing to do officially with the R.C.M.³ Whether he also got a grant from the R.C.M. I do not know. Would you like to mention in your article that he was, I believe, for many years chorus master at Covent Garden? It is also rumoured that he used, anonymously to orchestrate, and probably re-write, the musical comedies “composed” by fashionable young men.
I would send my love to Fiona,⁴ but I see from your letter that she would not be there to recieve⁵ it.
Yrs

RVW

And love, and thanks for your letter to me. I must appologise⁶ for any typing errors, but I have had Port for Elevenses (being Sunday, and wet and cold) which makes my typewriters spelling even more uncertain than usual. We did enjoy having you and Fiona so much.⁷
U.

1. Sidney P. Waddington, composer and teacher at the Royal College of Music. It appears that McCleary was preparing an obituary for him.
2. sic.
3. Royal College of Music.
4. Fiona McCleary, pianist and composer, former pupil of VW and apparently George McCleary’s daughter.
5. sic.
6. sic.
7. Postscript from UVW.