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{{Short description|English writer}}
{{distinguish|Ursula Moray Williams}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2019}}
{{Use British English|date=June 2019}}
{{Infobox person {{Infobox person
| name = Ursula Vaughan Williams | name = Ursula Vaughan Williams
| image = | image = Ursula and Ralph Vaughan Williams 1953.jpg
| image_size = | image_size =
| caption = Ursula and ] on their wedding day in 1953
| caption =
| birth_name = Joan Ursula Penton Lock
| birth_date = {{birth date|1911|3|15}} | birth_date = {{birth date|1911|3|15|df=y}}
| birth_place = ] | birth_place = ], Malta
| death_date = {{death date and age|2007|10|23|1911|3|15}} | death_date = {{death date and age|2007|10|23|1911|3|15|df=y}}
| death_place = ] | death_place = London, England
| occupation = Poet and author | occupation = Poet and author
| spouse = {{plainlist|
* {{marriage|Michael Forrester Wood|1933|1942|end=d}}
* {{marriage|]|1953|1958|end=d}}
⚫ }}
| parents = ]<br>Kathleen Beryl Penton
| relatives = ] (grandfather)
}} }}


'''Joan Ursula Penton Vaughan Williams''' (née Lock (March 15, 1911 &ndash; October 23, 2007) was an English poet and author, and biographer of her second husband, the composer ]. '''Joan Ursula Penton Vaughan Williams''' (née '''Lock''', formerly '''Wood'''; 15 March 1911 – 23 October 2007) was an English poet and author, and biographer of her second husband, the composer ].


==Biography== ==Biography==
===Early years===
Born in ], the daughter of Major-General ] and his wife Kathleen‎ Beryl Penton, daughter of ] CB, CMG, CVO, 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.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
Ursula Vaughan Williams was born in ], Malta, where her father, Major ], was ] to the ], ]. Lock, later a knighted major-general, was married to Penton’s daughter Kathleen. Ursula was the eldest of their three children, having a younger sister and a younger brother (Robert John Penton), who was killed in Burma in 1944.<ref name="dt">"Ursula Vaughan Williams", ''The Daily Telegraph'', 25 October 2007, p. 29</ref><ref>{{CWGC|id=2034701|name=Lock, Robert John Penton|access-date=18 November 2024}}</ref>


Army life entailed frequent moves, and her education was sporadic. She had governesses before attending a day school in England and finishing her schooling in Brussels (1927–28).<ref name="dt" /> By then her father was stationed in England, as commandant of the experimental station at ]. The ] ] writes that after moving from Brussels "she passed the next four years, horribly bored and reacting sharply against the social round in which she was expected to take part".<ref name="guardian">Neighbour, Oliver. , ''The Guardian'', 25 October 2007</ref> Neighbour records that she occupied herself with reading, writing poetry, archaeology and amateur dramatics, "and finally escaped to London" in 1932–33 to study at the ] theatre.<ref name="guardian" /> While a student there she was able to attend some performances free of charge, and one evening she saw '']'', a ballet by ] with a score by ]. It was a memorable experience that remained in her mind. She later said it "opened a new world to me".<ref name="mccray">McCray, James. , ''The Choral Journal'', February 1993, pp. 9–11 {{subscription required}}</ref>
In the early 1930s, she was a student at the ]. In 1933 she married Michael Forrester Wood, an army officer. She met ] 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, an invalid crippled by arthritis, and for whom Ursula was the carer.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Ursula Wood became Ralph's literary advisor and personal assistant.


===First marriage===
Adeline Vaughan Williams died in 1951 after years of suffering from crippling ]. 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 ] to two of his last choral works, including the ] '']''.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Ralph Vaughan Williams died in 1958. Following her second husband's death, Ursula Vaughan Williams set up residence near ].
On 24 May 1933 she married Captain John Michael James Forrester Wood of the ] at ] church, London.<ref>"Marriages", ''The Times'', 11 April 1933, p. 17; and "Weddings and Engagements", ''The Tatler'', 26 April 1933, p. x</ref> Between then and the ] she wrote prose and verse and contributed to the ] and the '']'', while living the peripatetic life of an army wife.<ref name=dt/> In 1937 she sent Vaughan Williams – whom she had not met – a ballet scenario she had written about the ].<ref>Vaughan Williams, p. 218</ref> The subject did not appeal to him, but through the intercession of ] he was persuaded to consider another scenario of hers, based on ]'s '']''.<ref>Vaughan Williams, pp. 218–219</ref> Author and composer met for lunch in March 1938 and enjoyed each other's company. Despite their both being married, and a four-decade age-gap, they soon began a love affair that lasted secretly for more than a decade.<ref name=on/> Ursula became the composer's muse, helper and London companion, and later helped him care for his ailing wife, Adeline, who had arthritis so severe as to confine her to the house in ] where she and her husband had lived since 1929.{{refn|Ralph and Adeline Vaughan Williams had previously lived at ] in London until the numerous stairs in their house became too much for her and caused them to move to a more manageable home, "The White Gates", Dorking. Vaughan Williams, who thought of himself as a complete Londoner, was sorry to leave the capital, but his wife was anxious to live in the country, and Dorking was within reasonably convenient reach of town.<ref>Vaughan Williams, pp. 171 and 179</ref>|group=n}} Whether Adeline knew, or suspected, that Ursula and Vaughan Williams were lovers is uncertain, but the relations between the two women were of warm friendship throughout the years they knew each other. The composer's concern for his first wife never faltered, according to Ursula, who admitted in the 1980s that she had been jealous of Adeline, whose place in Vaughan Williams's life and affections was unchallengeable.<ref name=on>Neighbour, pp. 337–338 and 345</ref>


In 1941 her first published book of poems appeared, titled ''No Other Choice''.<ref name=dt/> The following year Michael Wood died suddenly on 8 June 1942 of heart failure aged 41.<ref>{{CWGC|id=2350885|name=Wood, John Michael James|access-date=18 November 2024}}</ref> At Adeline's behest the widowed Ursula was invited to stay with the Vaughan Williamses in Dorking, and thereafter was a regular visitor there, sometimes staying for weeks at a time. The critic Michael White suggests that Adeline "appears, in the most amicable way, to have adopted Ursula as her successor".<ref name=white>White, Michael. "The merry widow", ''The Daily Telegraph'', 4 May 2002, p. 62</ref> Ursula recorded that during air raids all three slept in the same room in adjacent beds, holding hands for comfort.<ref name=white/> In 1943 she published a second volume of poems, ''Fall of Leaf''.<ref name=dt/>
In 1964 she published ''RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams''. She completed her own ], ''Paradise Remembered'', in 1972, but did not publish the book until 2002.<ref>{{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}}</ref> Additionally, she published four novels, including ''Set to Partners'' (1968) and ''The Yellow Dress'' (1984),<ref>{{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}}</ref> and five volumes of poetry. She provided ] for other composers, including ], ] and ], for example her famous "Hymn to St. Cecilia", which was put to music by Howells.


===Marriage to Vaughan Williams===
Until her death in ] at age 96, she was honorary president of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society. She was also the president of the ].
Adeline died in 1951, aged eighty.<ref>"Obituary", ''The Times'', 12 May 1951, p. 8</ref> In February 1953 Vaughan Williams and Ursula were married.{{refn|There were no children of the marriage.<ref name=who>, ''Who's Who'', Oxford University Press, 2007 {{subscription required}}</ref>|group= n}} He left the Dorking house and they took a lease of 10 ], ], London.<ref>Vaughan Williams, p. 331</ref> After Vaughan Williams's return to live in London, Ursula successfully encouraged him to become much more active socially and in '']'' activities. With her support he resumed the composition he had been forced to set aside during his first wife's illness; Ursula wrote the ] for two of his last choral works, including the ] '']''.<ref name=dt/>

Vaughan Williams died in 1958. Following his death his widow moved to ] near ], London.<ref></ref>{{refn|In Gloucester Crescent her neighbours included ]. She appears as a character in Bennett's autobiographical play and film '']''; in the film she is played by ].<ref>, British Film Institute. Retrieved 24 February 2024</ref>|group=n}} In 1964 she published ''RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams''. She completed her autobiography, ''Paradise Remembered'', in 1972, but did not publish it until 2002.<ref name=guardian/> She wrote four novels, including ''Set to Partners'' (1968) and ''The Yellow Dress'' (1984),<ref>{{cite news | author=Robert Ponsonby | title=Obituary: Ursula Vaughan Williams | url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/ursula-vaughan-williams-397792.html | work=The Independent | date=25 October 2007 | access-date=29 October 2007}}</ref> and five volumes of poetry. She wrote libretti for other composers, including ], ] and ], for example, her "Hymn to St. Cecilia", which was set to music by Howells.<ref name=dt/><ref name=guardian/>

Until her death in London at the age of 96 she was honorary president of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society. She was also the president of the ]. Her funeral was held at ].<ref>{{cite web|last1=Carrier|first1=Dan|title=Hundreds pay tribute to Vaughan Williams |url=http://www.thecnj.com/camden/2007/110807/news110807_28.html|publisher=Camden New Journal|access-date=25 December 2016|date=8 November 2007}}</ref>


==Bibliography== ==Bibliography==
* ''The Complete Poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams'' * ''The Complete Poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams''
* ''RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams by Ursula Vaughan Williams''
* ''There was a time... A pictorial journey from the collection of Ursula Vaughan Williams'' * ''There was a time... A pictorial journey from the collection of Ursula Vaughan Williams''
* ''Paradise Remembered'' (autobiography) * ''Paradise Remembered'' (autobiography)
* ''The Collected Poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams'' * ''The Collected Poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams''


==Notes, references and sources==
⚫ ==References==
===Notes===
{{Reflist|group=n}}
⚫ ===References===
{{Reflist}} {{Reflist}}
===Sources===
* {{cite journal | last = Neighbour | first = Oliver | author-link = Oliver Neighbour | title = Ralph, Adeline, and Ursula Vaughan Williams: Some Facts and Speculation | journal =]| date = August 2008 | pages = 337–345 | jstor = 30162996 | volume=89 | issue = 3 | doi=10.1093/ml/gcn042}} {{subscription required}}
* {{cite book | last = Vaughan Williams | first = Ursula | title = RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams | year = 1964 | location = Oxford | publisher = Oxford University Press | isbn = 978-0-19-315411-7 }}


== External links == == External links ==
* *


{{Authority control|VIAF=76517952}} {{Authority control}}

{{Persondata <!-- Metadata: see ]. -->
| NAME = Vaughan Williams, Ursula
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| SHORT DESCRIPTION = English writer
| DATE OF BIRTH = 15 March 1911
| PLACE OF BIRTH = ]
| DATE OF DEATH = 23 October 2007
| PLACE OF DEATH = ]
⚫ }}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan Williams, Ursula}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaughan Williams, Ursula}}
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Latest revision as of 21:46, 18 November 2024

English writer Not to be confused with Ursula Moray Williams.

Ursula Vaughan Williams
Ursula and Ralph Vaughan Williams on their wedding day in 1953
BornJoan Ursula Penton Lock
(1911-03-15)15 March 1911
Valletta, Malta
Died23 October 2007(2007-10-23) (aged 96)
London, England
Occupation(s)Poet and author
Spouses
Michael Forrester Wood ​ ​(m. 1933; died 1942)​
Ralph Vaughan Williams ​ ​(m. 1953; died 1958)​
Parent(s)Sir Robert Lock
Kathleen Beryl Penton
RelativesArthur Pole Penton (grandfather)

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

Biography

Early years

Ursula Vaughan Williams was born in Valletta, Malta, where her father, Major Robert Lock, was aide de camp to the General officer commanding, Arthur Pole Penton. Lock, later a knighted major-general, was married to Penton’s daughter Kathleen. Ursula was the eldest of their three children, having a younger sister and a younger brother (Robert John Penton), who was killed in Burma in 1944.

Army life entailed frequent moves, and her education was sporadic. She had governesses before attending a day school in England and finishing her schooling in Brussels (1927–28). By then her father was stationed in England, as commandant of the experimental station at Porton Down. The musicologist Oliver Neighbour writes that after moving from Brussels "she passed the next four years, horribly bored and reacting sharply against the social round in which she was expected to take part". Neighbour records that she occupied herself with reading, writing poetry, archaeology and amateur dramatics, "and finally escaped to London" in 1932–33 to study at the Old Vic theatre. While a student there she was able to attend some performances free of charge, and one evening she saw Job, a ballet by Ninette de Valois with a score by Ralph Vaughan Williams. It was a memorable experience that remained in her mind. She later said it "opened a new world to me".

First marriage

On 24 May 1933 she married Captain John Michael James Forrester Wood of the Royal Artillery at St Clement Danes church, London. Between then and the Second World War she wrote prose and verse and contributed to the BBC and the Times Literary Supplement, while living the peripatetic life of an army wife. In 1937 she sent Vaughan Williams – whom she had not met – a ballet scenario she had written about the Ballad of Margaret and Clark Saunders. The subject did not appeal to him, but through the intercession of Douglas Kennedy he was persuaded to consider another scenario of hers, based on Edmund Spenser's Epithalamion. Author and composer met for lunch in March 1938 and enjoyed each other's company. Despite their both being married, and a four-decade age-gap, they soon began a love affair that lasted secretly for more than a decade. Ursula became the composer's muse, helper and London companion, and later helped him care for his ailing wife, Adeline, who had arthritis so severe as to confine her to the house in Dorking where she and her husband had lived since 1929. Whether Adeline knew, or suspected, that Ursula and Vaughan Williams were lovers is uncertain, but the relations between the two women were of warm friendship throughout the years they knew each other. The composer's concern for his first wife never faltered, according to Ursula, who admitted in the 1980s that she had been jealous of Adeline, whose place in Vaughan Williams's life and affections was unchallengeable.

In 1941 her first published book of poems appeared, titled No Other Choice. The following year Michael Wood died suddenly on 8 June 1942 of heart failure aged 41. At Adeline's behest the widowed Ursula was invited to stay with the Vaughan Williamses in Dorking, and thereafter was a regular visitor there, sometimes staying for weeks at a time. The critic Michael White suggests that Adeline "appears, in the most amicable way, to have adopted Ursula as her successor". Ursula recorded that during air raids all three slept in the same room in adjacent beds, holding hands for comfort. In 1943 she published a second volume of poems, Fall of Leaf.

Marriage to Vaughan Williams

Adeline died in 1951, aged eighty. In February 1953 Vaughan Williams and Ursula were married. He left the Dorking house and they took a lease of 10 Hanover Terrace, Regent's Park, London. After Vaughan Williams's return to live in London, Ursula successfully encouraged him to become much more active socially and in pro bono publico activities. With her support he resumed the composition he had been forced to set aside during his first wife's illness; Ursula wrote the libretto for two of his last choral works, including the cantata for Christmas Hodie.

Vaughan Williams died in 1958. Following his death his widow moved to Gloucester Crescent near Regent's Park, London. In 1964 she published RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams. She completed her autobiography, Paradise Remembered, in 1972, but did not publish it until 2002. She wrote four novels, including Set to Partners (1968) and The Yellow Dress (1984), and five volumes of poetry. She wrote libretti for other composers, including Herbert Howells, Malcolm Williamson and Elisabeth Lutyens, for example, her "Hymn to St. Cecilia", which was set to music by Howells.

Until her death in London at the age of 96 she was honorary president of the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society. She was also the president of the English Folk Dance and Song Society. Her funeral was held at St John's Wood Church.

Bibliography

  • The Complete Poems of Ursula Vaughan Williams
  • RVW: A Biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams by 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

Notes, references and sources

Notes

  1. Ralph and Adeline Vaughan Williams had previously lived at Cheyne Walk in London until the numerous stairs in their house became too much for her and caused them to move to a more manageable home, "The White Gates", Dorking. Vaughan Williams, who thought of himself as a complete Londoner, was sorry to leave the capital, but his wife was anxious to live in the country, and Dorking was within reasonably convenient reach of town.
  2. There were no children of the marriage.
  3. In Gloucester Crescent her neighbours included Alan Bennett. She appears as a character in Bennett's autobiographical play and film The Lady in the Van; in the film she is played by Frances de la Tour.

References

  1. ^ "Ursula Vaughan Williams", The Daily Telegraph, 25 October 2007, p. 29
  2. "Casualty Details: Lock, Robert John Penton". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  3. ^ Neighbour, Oliver. Ursula Vaughan Williams", The Guardian, 25 October 2007
  4. McCray, James. "Collaboration: Ursula and Ralph Vaughan Williams", The Choral Journal, February 1993, pp. 9–11 (subscription required)
  5. "Marriages", The Times, 11 April 1933, p. 17; and "Weddings and Engagements", The Tatler, 26 April 1933, p. x
  6. Vaughan Williams, p. 218
  7. Vaughan Williams, pp. 218–219
  8. ^ Neighbour, pp. 337–338 and 345
  9. Vaughan Williams, pp. 171 and 179
  10. "Casualty Details: Wood, John Michael James". Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  11. ^ White, Michael. "The merry widow", The Daily Telegraph, 4 May 2002, p. 62
  12. "Obituary", The Times, 12 May 1951, p. 8
  13. "Vaughan Williams, Ralph", Who's Who, Oxford University Press, 2007 (subscription required)
  14. Vaughan Williams, p. 331
  15. Letter from Ursula Vaughan Williams to Alan Bush – Letter No.: VWL3696 – The Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams database
  16. "The Lady in the Van", British Film Institute. Retrieved 24 February 2024
  17. Robert Ponsonby (25 October 2007). "Obituary: Ursula Vaughan Williams". The Independent. Retrieved 29 October 2007.
  18. Carrier, Dan (8 November 2007). "Hundreds pay tribute to Vaughan Williams". Camden New Journal. Retrieved 25 December 2016.

Sources

External links

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