George Dyson: Man and Music

by Christopher Palmer

George Dyson was born in Halifax, Yorkshire, on 28 May 1883. He attended the Royal College of Music and was a winner of the Mendelssohn Scholarship in 1905, which enabled him to spend some years in Italy and Germany. In 1914 he joined the Royal Fusiliers and during this time wrote a widely-used training pamphlet on the use of grenades. After being invalided home with shell-shock in 1916 and recovering, he joined the Royal Air Force and became involved in their military bands. In 1921 he took up posts as music master at Wellington College and as professor of composition at the Royal College of Music. He then worked for thirty years as a school music teacher (at Rugby, Wellington and Winchester), before being appointed as Director of the Royal College of Music in 1937. He received a knighthood in 1941 and was made a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (KCVO) in 1953. He died in Winchester on 28 September 1964, aged 81. His son is the physicist and mathematician Freeman Dyson and among his grandchildren are the science historian George Dyson and Esther Dyson. In this book, the late Christopher Palmer discusses the major works at length and gives an account of Dyson's life.

91 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1996