Grace Williams (Q60031)

Grace Williams (1906-1977), composer, from Barry, Glamorgan, studied music at University College, Cardiff, the Royal College of Music in London, with Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gordon Jacob, and in Vienna with the composer Egon Wellesz. She became a teacher at Camden School for Girls, as well as a visiting lecture at Southlands College of Education. After the Second World War she worked for the Schools Department of the BBC until retiring due to ill health in 1947. S he became a part-time member of staff at the Welsh College of Music and Drama in Cardiff. She wrote songs, arrangements and incidental music, often as commissions. In 1966, she was awarded the John Edwards Memorial Prize. She died in 1977. She was a close friend of Vivien Cutting, teacher and poet, a fellow-teacher at Southlands College, Wimbledon Park. Her papers passed to her sister, Mrs Marian Glyn Evans.