The doyen of English music has died, aged 107
mainHe was personal copyist to Ralph Vaughan Williams and William Walton, pianist for the LSO in the 1930s, librarian for the BBC Proms during the War and a player in the Tunbridge Wells orchestra for nearly 40 years.
Above all else, Roy Douglas was one of the sweetest, most modest men you could ever hope to meet.
To me, and many others who tapped his infallible memory, Roy could not have been more helpful.
His death has been reported in the local press.
photo (c) Bert Hardy/Photographers Gallery
A great figure in the class of Michael Kennedy and Deryck Cooke. The debt all lovers of RVW owe to Douglas is immense. I’m glad he wrote a book and also that his thoughts were preserved on film.
One by one, all the musical heroes of my youth are going. Sad.