Showing 3 results

Authority record
GB0192-437 · Person · 1929 - 2005

Brian Hartley was born in 1929, and attended Trinity Hall, Cambridge in 1950, where he studied for the Natural Sciences Tripos. He then went on to gain a distinction in the Diploma in Prehistoric Archaeology. He retired from the University of Leeds in 1995, and passed away on 26th April 2005.

GB0192-496 · Person · 1840-1907

Thomas Bowman Whytehead was born on 17 April 1840. He was educated at St Peter's School, York, before joining Gray's solicitors in the city, where his father had worked before him. Whytehead did not, however, enjoy the work, and later joined shipping firm Messrs Green and Co in London, with whom he served his apprenticeship. He was subsequently employed by the British India Company, before settling in New Zealand, where he became a journalist with the New Zealand Herald.

In 1870 Whytehead married a daughter of the late Thomas Drought of Plunketstown House, Castledermot, Ireland, in New Zealand, and returned to Britain shortly afterwards. He took up journalism again in York, and spent time as editor of the Yorkshire Gazette until 1886, when he was appointed registrar and chapter clerk to the Dean and Chapter of York.

Whytehead was also a justice of the peace for the North and West Ridings of Yorkshire, and a prominent freemason. He died on 5 September 1907 in Acomb. He left behind his wife, four sons and a four daughters, his fifth son having been killed in the Boer War. .
See Also - Allen; Oswald (1767-?)

GB0192-517 · Person · 1902-1997

Iris Lemare was born in London on 27 September 1902, the daughter of organist Edwin Lemare. Iris went to Bedales and then Geneva to dstudy at the Dalcroze / Eurythmics School. She went on to story the organ under George Thalben-Ball at the Royal College of Music in London, where she won the Dove Prize. She also entered the conducting class of Malcolm Sargent.

In 1931, Lemare started concerts with Elisabeth Lutyens and violinist Anne Macnaghten. She conducted several of Benjamin Britten's early works, including the premiere of his Sinfonietta opus I and later his choral 'A Boy was Born'. She also premiered several works by Alan Rawsthorne, Christian Darnton, Elizabeth Maconchy amongst others. Overall the concerts premiered over 40 new works, many of them by women.

In 1937, Lemare became the first woman to conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and during her career she also conducted the Oxford Chamber Orchestra and the Carlyle Singers. She loved opera and conducted Handel's Xerxes amongst other works in the late 1930s at Pollards, a house in Essex belonging to the Howard family.

During the Second World War she founded the Lemare Orchestra. She featured many new or little-known works and her soloists included Joan Hammond, Benno Moiseivitch, Geza Anda, Peter Donohoe and many others. In the 1970s she worked in opera and presented works by Menotti, Maconchy and Britten, and the premiere of John McCabe's The Play of Mother Courage.

Following her 81st birthday she was invited by the BBC Singers to conduct a 50th anniversary performance of Britten's 'A Boy was Born'.

Aside from her working life, Lemare was a keen walker, bird-watcher, swimmer and skier. She died on 23 April 1997 at Askham Bryan near York.