Rutland Boughton/Comments - Biography

Biography

Rutland Boughton was the son of grocer William Boughton (1841–1905) whose shop occupied Buckingham Street in the town of Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire. From an early age he showed signs of exceptional talent for music although formal training opportunities did not immediately become available to him. In 1892 he was apprenticed to a London concert agency and six years later his attention was attracted by several influential musicians including the Rothschild family which enabled him to raise sufficient monies to study at the Royal College of Music in London. The amount raised, however, was only sufficient to maintain his studies for one year after which he left the college and took up ad-hoc work first in the pit of the Haymarket Theatre then as official accompanist to the baritone David Ffrangcon Davies (whose daughter, Gwen, later became associated with the Glastonbury Festivals in her famous role Etain in The Immortal Hour). In 1903, he married former Aylesbury neighbour's daughter, Florence Hobley, that he was to regret years later. It was in 1905 (the year he completed his first symphony Oliver Cromwell) that he was approached by Sir Granville Bantock to become a member of staff at the Birmingham and Midland Institute of Music (now the Birmingham Conservatoire).