As some will know and many will be unaware, I am the grandson of the explorer Frank Kingdon-Ward (also known as Francis Kingdon Ward, and Capt F.K. Ward) author, explorer, and plant collector.
I am also the nephew of a very talented musician, my Aunt Martha, who sadly died last year at the age of 93. She was a clarinettist of considerable renown who formed a number of musical groups best know of which was/is Sweet Harmony.
She was a devoted fan of Mozart and did a huge amount of reaserch into his works.
I just got back from a celebration of her life with many of her muscial friends. I must confess, for complicated reasons that I don’t want to bore you, or embarrass myself, with I only ever met her once. Nevertheless, I have been entrusted with her diaries which, although they do not cover the entirety of her life, are nevertheless extensive consisting of 40+ books, each one filled with fairly close-packed writing. They date from the 1970s until fairly recently. There is also one from 1946 which I am working through now. HERE
I will share bits from these dairies for all, although I anticipate the main interest will be exclusively among her immediate friends and family, it will be worth the effort for them alone.
Just a short note to say initially that both my parents and I knew Martha from around the mid 1960s, mainly through music but she also lived with her mother in Streatley not far from my parents in Goring on Thames. I lost touch, as did my late father Robert sometime decades ago. However she appeared in my current village, Charlton on Otmoor I think giving a concert. She went to the home of I think a Miss Griggs (“Tierce Acre”) and they were possibly connected through the Soroptmists. Invited round to the house afterwards conversation flowed between a few people. I knew who she was but no opportunity came to re-introduce myself and she did not acknowledge that she must have known me! It was a very strange evening
Hi Brian, thank you for your comment. That is a most interesting vignette into her life. I scarcely had the pleasure of knowing my aunt, only really meeting her on a couple of occasions and always too briefly. She was a singularly unusual character by all accounts. At the celebration of her life which I attended some time after she died (lockdown restrictions preventing a normal funeral) many people spoke in glowing terms about her but at the same time it was clear she was not at all conventional in social situations.
I am impressed by your work of transcription and it is nicely presented. Interesting that you follow in the famous explorer’s footsteps. You may know, ‘The Journal of a Disappointed Man’. There may be some parallels. The trouble with diaries is that there is a lot of dead wood, but there can be precious insights. I was on friendly terms with Martha who was to be seen at many musical events in Reading in the Seventies when we lived there (she taught my sister the clarinet; once I hired Martha to play at my cousin’s wedding, and it was a beautiful performance: she sight-read some early Shostakovich which I had arranged for clarinet and organ. It was surprisingly lovely. There is an outside chance there may be some gold in those diaries! btw Please publish the website’s email at the top of the page.