THE LETTERS OF RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

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

August 23 [1935]

Dear Sir Alexander
I should like – if you approve – to arrange that after my own and my wife’s death that a proportion of the fees and royalties on my compositions should go to the Butterworth trust. Of course this may amount to nothing and would only give the trust unnecessary trouble – On the other hand there might, for some years, be something substantial which I should like the trust to administer at their discretion, but with a special recommendation to the helping of young composers to get their works performed. This may seem to be legislating for a distant future – but in these days of motor cars – and I know you will sympathise here – the question might at any moment become actual.
I discussed the matter with my solicitor the other day and he raised the question as to whether the trust was a legal entity to which a bequest could be made, or whether it must be made to some individual member of the committee. If you think that the trust would be willing to be burdened with this rather problematical legacy would it trouble you very much to write to my solicitor and explain to him what the nature of the trust is.

He is F.G. Joseph
c/o Messrs Tamplin
52 Bishopsgate

Yrs sincerely
R Vaughan Williams