Photograph delivering Eulogy for Delius

Associated Press photo of the British conductor at the funeral of the British composer whose music he had championed for years.  Press report in French attached to verso.  Translated, in full:  "A funeral service commemorating the famous blind composer Frederick Delius was held at the church of Limpsfield, Surrey.  An orchestra conducted be Sir Thomas Beecham performed a selection of works by the great master.  The photo shows Beecham delivering his eulogy at Delius's grave, yesterday, May 26, [1935]."  Handstamps of Associated Press, Paris, and Société du Petit Parisien, dated May 27, 1935, to verso.  7 x 5 inches (17.8 x 12.3 cm).  Browned in part from glue applied to verso; else in good condition.

"Delius had died in Grez-sur-Loing, his residence in France, on 10 June 1934, aged 72. He had wished to be buried in his own garden, but the French authorities forbade it. His alternative wish, despite his atheism, was to be buried "in some country churchyard in the south of England, where people could place wild flowers".  At this time his wife Jelka was too ill to make the journey across the Channel, and Delius was temporarily buried in the local cemetery at Grez.  By May 1935, Jelka felt she had enough strength to undertake the crossing to attend a reburial in England. She chose St. Peter's church, Limpsfield, Surrey, as the site for the grave.  She sailed to England for the service, but became ill en route, and on arrival was taken to hospital in Dover and then Kensington in London, missing the reburial on 26 May. The ceremony took place at midnight; the headline in the Sunday Dispatch was "Sixty People Under Flickering Lamps In A Surrey Churchyard. Jelka died two days later." (After Wikipedia) (22383)

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Unsigned Photograph

Classical Music

Unsigned Photo

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