This award was established in 1931 from an endowment by Pastmaster John Clementi Collard (1844-1918 shown left) to give practical assistance to a "...musician of proven ability (minimum age 28) but prevented by financial stringency from fully exercising and improving their talent". The Fellowship may be held for a maximum of three years subject to the discretion of the Court.
During the 19th and early 20th century, members of the Collard family played important roles in the life of the Musicians’ Company. They were also well known as manufacturers of pianos in London and their story, in brief, is told below.
The first Collard to distinguish himself within the Company was Frederick William (1771-1860), see right, who joined as a Freeman in 1799, became a Liveryman in 1819, was elected to the Court in 1822 and served as Master in 1826, 1845 and 1846. He was also Treasurer between 1838 and 1860. In 1834 the Company gave him an engraved silver snuff box, in appreciation of his work for and committment to the Company (Click Here to see the box in ‘Ephemera’), about which more later. FW Collard’s son, John Arnold, did not, it seems, join the Company.
Frederick William Collard by Charles Turner, after James Lonsdale, pub. 1829 National Portrait Gallery.
Frederick William had a brother, confusingly christened William Frederick, who also did not join the Company, although his son, Charles Lukey Collard (senior) (1807-1891) did. He was admitted as Freeman in 1831, clothed with the Livery in 1855 and joined the Court three years later. On the death of his uncle in 1860, CL Collard was elected Treasurer (a post he held until 1876) and was also Master for two consecutive years in 1864/5.
CL Collard married Isabella Mary Wakefield. Their family comprised six children: Cecil, Frederick Wakefield, Charles Michael, William Stuartson, John Clementi and, the only girl, Phoebe.
William Stuartson Collard (1843-1904) and John Clementi Collard (1844-1918) both served their apprenticeships and were admitted to the Freedom and clothed with the Livery on the same day in 1871. Clearly keen to make progress, WS Collard was elected to the Court that same year, although it was a further 15 years before his younger brother would be similarly honoured. William Stuartson was elected Master in both 1877 and 1889 and took on the Treasurer’s responsibilities in 1887, a position he held until the year of his death.
For some years at the beginning of the 19th century the composer Muzio Clementi had interests in the family piano company – hence JC Collard’s middle name. In 1815 the company was established as Collard and Collard, which remained well-known and continued to prosper in the music trade for appreciably over 100 years.
Following his father and earlier Collards into the Musicians Company in 1871, young JCC married Catherine Purdie, in Edinburgh the next year.
Elected to the Court in 1886, he served as Master in 1893 and again in 1899. He also took over in the Chair in 1901 when Sir John Stainer, celebrated composer, died in office. In 1904 JCC was elected Treasurer of the Musicians’ Company, a post he held until his death in 1918.
On the sudden and unexpected death in 1909 of the Junior Warden, Rev’d Robert Henry Hadden, his 20 year old apprentice was ‘...turned over to Mr J C Collard’. The apprentice’s name was Adrian Boult, who in later years became one of Britain’s greatest and longest-lived conductors.
At his death, JC Collard left the extremely generous sum of £8,500 to the Company, which was used to found the John Clementi Collard Fellowship – an award still made and greatly valued by its recipients today (a list of winners is given below). Collard’s name is also linked to a Life Fellowship, of which to date there have been only four recipients: Sir Edward Elgar, Dr Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dr Herbert Howells and Sir Peter Maxwell Davies (Click Here to see further detail on this rarely awarded honour). In addition to this generosity, Collard also gave the Company the fine silver Treasurer’s Cup in remembrance of his, and other members of his family’s, holding that office at various times from 1838.
In October 1911 Cecil Collard, JC Collard’s brother, presented back to the Company the silver snuff box given to his great uncle Frederick William in 1834 – a treasure which is still owned and greatly valued by the Musicians’ Company today.
To close this family history, JC Collard’s son was named Charles Lukey Collard (junior) (1879–1931), undoubtedly in tribute to the boy’s grandfather. CL Collard was Master in 1915, during the difficult days of the First World War, and it is with him that the story of service to the Company by that distinguished family comes to an end.
The image left shows Charles Lukey (on the left) at the presentation ceremony of Piper, Daniel Laidlaw VC receiving his Musicians' Company Gold Watch from the Lord Mayor in 1916. CL Collard had in fact instigated the Company's decision to make such awards while he was Senior Warden (Click Here for the full story).
Shown right is a letter from Sir Ralph Vaughan Williams regarding a planned meeting with Arnold Bax in 1931 to discuss the nominees of the Collard Fellowship (together, they formed the first judging panel, eventually deciding that Herbert Howells would be the first recipient). The letter indicates that they were also to meet with Pastmaster Charles Lukey Collard, who sadly died just a few weeks later.
These picture are shown by kind permission of
The Royal Northern College of Music.
Shown above left are early photographs taken of the medal, together with a form dated October 1932 indicating that 2 of these medals had been struck in gold and would be passed to the next recipient as the Life Fellowship and Ordinary Collard Fellow changed. This situation is no longer the case.
Shown above right is the actual Collard Fellowship Medal awarded to Alan Rawsthorne in 1949.
Past Recipients:
1931 - Herbert Howells
1934 - Constant Lambert (see also, here)
1937 - William Alwyn
- Edmund Rubbra
1940 - Jack Allan Westrup
1943 - Gordon Jacob
1946 - Lennox Berkeley
1949 - Alan Rawsthorne (Alan's Livery Medal shown here)
1952 - Priaulx Rainier
1955 - Bernard Stevens
1958 - Peter Racine Fricker
1962 - John Gardner
1965 - Adrian Cruft
1968 - Alan Ridout
1971 - Bernard Roberts
1974 - Christopher Brown
1977 - Hamish Milne
1980 - Edwin Roxburgh
1983 - Justin Connolly
1986 - Alec Roth
1989 - Benedict Mason
1992 - Ann Mackay
1996 - Robin Grant
2000 - Dr Ronald Woodley
2005 - Michael Diprose
2008 - Marcus Barcham-Stevens
2009 - Férdia Stone-Davis
2011 - Dr Jonathan David Little
2012 - Naomi Pinnock
2014 - Joanna Lee
2015 - Mark Boden (see also, here)
2018 - Nazrin Rashidova
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