Messages

I am thrilled to see this post.   I shall be down in Sussex during the last two weeks of July and would love to come to St. Peter's Bexhill if possible to see the rest of the church music of W.H. Speer.   Hope to be able to attend at Westminster Abbey as well.   Caroline Hart.

Great to see the two Speer cousins separated and given their due, Giles.  Thank you for all your work.
I have a privately bound version of William Henry Speer's "Cinderella" suite for orchestra.   Does that mean that both cousins were attracted by the same subject?

Yes, Giles, I do have a photograph and also the dates of birth and death that you requested from me.   I have been working on the family tree this afternoon and will post them shortly to you.   It is complicated in that there is a Charlton Templeman Speer who was also a composer of about the same vintage.

Dear Gareth,
I have a bound printed copy of the full score of the Rhapsody in Eflat for Orchestra.   I also have a bound copy of the Cinderella suite for orchestra, together with parts.   Also Cinderella arrangement for Piano.  And autograph copy for two trombones. 
The Jackdaw I think I photocopied from the Bodleian - The Novello Original Octavo edition.  Chorus and small orchestra.
Ditto the Organ sonata originally published by Augener.
Ditto:  Caprice (Ascherberg Hopwood & Crew)
I also copied if I recall correctly, just some of the songs: e.g. Where Delia Is (Teschemacher). The Cradle Song (Novello). What the Bullet Sang (Novello). 
I believe I didn't take any more copies because I couldn't carry them, but of course everything was out of copyright.   Maybe there is still something left at the Bodleian.

How I wish I could.   I have only the scores which I found at the Bodleian, which include the Rhapsody, the Cinderella suite, the organ sonata and The Jackdaw of Rheims.
My grandfather actually had four children, of whom the eldest, whom you list, was Alfred Henry Loraine, who died at the age of 22 in the First World War.   My father, Roy, Francis, Powys, Malise Speer, was the youngest.   He became a BBC Light Programme producer.   Sadly, he was not family minded and now here I am, the end of the line.
I see there was a Speer Memorial Library attached to the Hastings Municipal Orchestra, which probably doesn't exist any more.   Maybe I could chase up that clue.

William Henry Speer was my grandfather, although he died before I was born.   I have his sheet music and have always felt sadness at the neglect of his compositions.   There are one or two factual faults in the information given which I might be able to correct.   However, it is very gratifying to find he has not been entirely forgotten.   Caroline Hart (nee Speer).