Francis Purcell Warren (29 May 1895 – circa 3 July 1916) was a British violinist, violist and composer who was killed in World War One.Phillip Brookes
Preface to ''Variations on an Original Theme for String Quartet''
published by Musikproduktion Hoeflich (2018) Warren was born in

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

. His father, Walter James Warren, was a musician. He studied at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a music school, conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the Undergraduate education, undergraduate to the Doctorate, doctoral level in a ...

from February 1910 and was awarded the Morley Scholarship in May of that year.Thomas Dunhill. 'Francis Purcell Warren, 1895-1916', in ''Music & Letters'', Vol. 7, No. 4 (October 1926), pp. 357-363 While at the college he became a close friend of

Herbert Howells Herbert Norman Howells (17 October 1892 – 23 February 1983) was an English composer, organist, and teacher, most famous for his large output of Anglican church music. Life Background and early education Howells was born in Lydney, Gloucest ...

. Howells portrayed "Bunny" Warren in the fourth movement ('Mazurka alias Minuet') of his light orchestral suite ''The B's'' (1914), alongside his friends

Arthur Benjamin Arthur Leslie Benjamin (18 September 1893, in Sydney – 10 April 1960, in London) was an Australian composer, pianist, conductor and teacher. He is best known as the composer of '' Jamaican Rumba'' (1938) and of the ''Storm Clouds Cantata'', f ...

Arthur Bliss Sir Arthur Edward Drummond Bliss (2 August 189127 March 1975) was an English composer and conductor. Bliss's musical training was cut short by the First World War, in which he served with distinction in the army. In the post-war years he qu ...

and

Ivor Gurney Ivor Bertie Gurney (28 August 1890 – 26 December 1937) was an English poet and composer, particularly of songs. He was born and raised in Gloucester. He suffered from bipolar disorder through much of his life and spent his last 15 years in ps ...

(aka "Bartholomew"). In the summer of 1914, before conscription was compulsory, Warren volunteered for war duty, joining the

Royal Warwickshire Regiment The Royal Warwickshire Regiment, previously titled the 6th Regiment of Foot, was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in continuous existence for 283 years. The regiment saw service in many conflicts and wars, including the Second Boer War ...

as a private. After a short spell in France he returned to England and joined the 10th

South Lancashire Regiment The South Lancashire Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 to 1958. The regiment, which recruited, as its title suggests, primarily from the South Lancashire area, was created as part of the Childers Ref ...

as a Second Lieutenant. On 3 July 1916 he was reported missing at

Mons Mons (; German and nl, Bergen, ; Walloon and pcd, Mont) is a city and municipality of Wallonia, and the capital of the province of Hainaut, Belgium. Mons was made into a fortified city by Count Baldwin IV of Hainaut in the 12th century. T ...

in Belgium during the

Battle of the Somme The Battle of the Somme ( French: Bataille de la Somme), also known as the Somme offensive, was a battle of the First World War fought by the armies of the British Empire and French Third Republic against the German Empire. It took place bet ...

. His body was not found. Warren is commemorated on the

Thiepval Memorial The Thiepval Memorial to the Missing of the Somme is a war memorial to 72,337 missing British and South African servicemen who died in the Battles of the Somme of the First World War between 1915 and 1918, with no known grave. It is near the ...

. His name is also one of the 38 on the

War Memorial A war memorial is a building, monument, statue, or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or (predominating in modern times) to commemorate those who died or were injured in a war. Symbolism Historical usage It has ...

at the Royal College of Music. Howells dedicated his 1917 ''Elegy for Viola'' to the memory of Warren. His surviving works include the short motet ''Ave Verum'', published by Richards & Co in 1912, the ''Benediction Service'' (1912, held in the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom and is one of the largest libraries in the world. It is estimated to contain between 170 and 200 million items from many countries. As a legal deposit library, the British ...

), the ''Five Short Pieces for Cello and Piano'' (Curwen, 1914) and the ''Variations on an Original Theme'' (originally the final movement of his String Quartet in A minor), composed circa 1914 and posthumously published by Cramer in 1927. There was also a Canon, scored for string orchestra. An Adagio for cello and piano was intended for a sonata that remained unfinished.

Cobbett Cobbett is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Hilary Dulcie Cobbett (1885–1976), British artist * William Cobbett (1763–1835), British radical agriculturist and prolific journalist. * Walter Willson Cobbett Walter Willson ...

described it as "a powerful and deeply moving piece, in which an almost prophetic foreboding seems to colour the spacious phrases".''Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music'', Volume 2 (1929), p. 569

Thomas Dunhill Thomas Frederick Dunhill (1 February 187713 March 1946) was a prolific English composer in many genres, though he is best known today for his light music and educational piano works. His compositions include much chamber music, a song cycle, '' ...

described it as "indubitably his masterpiece".

References

External links

* War Composers: Francis Purcell Warren
'A Sunday Evening in Autumn', from ''Five Short Pieces''
Steven Isserlis and Stephen Hough
''Variations on an Original Theme for String Quartet''
realization by Steve's Bedroom Band * {{DEFAULTSORT:Warren, Francis Purcell 1893 births 1916 deaths English Romantic composers English classical composers Alumni of the Royal College of Music English male classical composers 20th-century British male musicians British military personnel killed in the Battle of the Somme People from Leamington Spa