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.