Ursula Vaughan Williams

Infobox Person
name = Ursula Vaughan Williams


image_size =
caption =
birth_date = birth date|1911|3|15
birth_place = Malta
death_date = death date and age|2007|10|23|1911|3|15
death_place = London
occupation = Poet and author

Ursula Vaughan Williams, née Joan Ursula Penton Lock (March 15 1911 – October 23 2007) was an English poet and author, and biographer of her second husband, the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams.

Biography

Born in Valletta, Malta, the daughter of Major-General Sir Robert Lock, she began writing poetry in 1921. In 1941, her first published book of poems appeared, "No Other Choice". Her second volume of poetry was "Fall of Leaf", from 1943. [cite news | title=Ursula Vaughan Williams (obituary) | url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1567221/Ursula-Vaughan-Williams.html | work=Daily Telegraph | date=25 October 2007 | accessdate=2007-10-29]

In the early 1930s, she was a student at the Old Vic. In 1933 she married Michael Forrester Wood, an army officer. She met Ralph Vaughan Williams in 1938, after she sent him a play which she had hoped he would set to music. The meeting led eventually to their collaboration on the choral work "Epithalamion". She and Vaughan Williams began an affair whilst still married to their respective spouses. Michael Wood died in 1942 whilst on Army duty, of a heart attack. After his death, Ursula Wood continued her relationship with Vaughan Williams, with the acknowledgment of Vaughan Williams' wife Adeline. [cite news | author=John Bridcut | title=Sonata for three | url=http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1020534/Sonata-How-composer-Vaughan-Williams-shared-bedroom-mistress-40-years-junior--wife.html | work=Daily Mail | date=20 May 2008 | accessdate=2008-07-19] Ursula Wood became Ralph's literary advisor and personal assistant.

Adeline Vaughan Williams died in 1951 after a long illness. Ursula Wood and Ralph Vaughan Williams married in February 1953. She encouraged her husband to resume the composition he had been forced to set aside during his first wife's illness, writing the libretto to two of his last choral works, including the cantata for Christmas "Hodie". [cite news | title=Ursula Vaughan Williams (obituary) | url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article2732710.ece | work=The Times | date=25 October 2007 | accessdate=2007-10-24] Ralph Vaughan Williams died in 1958. Following her second husband's death, Ursula Vaughan Williams set up residence near Regent's Park, London.

In 1964 she published "RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams". She completed her own autobiography, "Paradise Remembered", in 1972, but did not publish the book until 2002. [cite news | author=Oliver Neighbour | title=Obituary: Ursula Vaughan Williams | url=http://www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2198334,00.html | work=The Guardian | date=25 October 2007 | accessdate=2007-10-29] Additionally, she published four novels, including "Set to Partners" (1968) and "The Yellow Dress" (1984) [cite news | author=Robert Ponsonby | title=Obituary: Ursula Vaughan Williams | url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ursula-vaughan-williams-397792.html | work=The Independent | date=25 October 2007 | accessdate=2007-10-29] , and five volumes of poetry. She provided libretti for other composers, including Herbert Howells, Malcolm Williamson and Elizabeth Lutyens.

Until her death in London at age 96, she was honorary president of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society. She was also the president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. She left no survivors.

Bibliography

* "The Complete Poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams"
* "There was a time... A pictorial journey from the collection of Ursula Vaughan Williams"
* "Paradise Remembered" (autobiography)
* "The Collected Poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams"

References

External links

* [http://www.rvwsociety.com Ralph Vaughan Williams Society]