Mary Cuningham Chater,

MBE Mbe may refer to: * Mbé, a town in the Republic of the Congo * Mbe Mountains Community Forest, in Nigeria * Mbe language, a language of Nigeria * Mbe' language, language of Cameroon * ''mbe'', ISO 639 code for the extinct Molala language Molal ...

(14 January 1896 – 25 July 1990) was an English composer, author, music advisor to the

Girl Guides Association Girlguiding is the operating name of The Guide Association, previously named The Girl Guides Association and is the national guiding organisation of the United Kingdom. It is the UK's largest girl-only youth organisation. Girlguiding is a char ...

and editor of several Girl Guide songbooks. She was a recipient of the Silver Fish Award, the highest adult honour in Girl Guiding.

Family and personal life

Mary Chater was born in Strawberry Hill, Middlesex on 14 January 1896. She was the third child of Jessie and Leathley Chater. Her father was a glass and lead merchant, the secretary of the London Plate Glass Merchants' Association and a first-class cricketer. Her mother, Jessie Chater, née Bedwell was chair of Littlehampton's District Nursing Association. Chater was baptized on 22 February 1896. Her eldest brother Alfred Dougan Chater was wounded at the

Battle of Neuve Chapelle The Battle of Neuve Chapelle (10–13 March 1915) took place in the First World War in the Artois region of France. The attack was intended to cause a rupture in the German lines, which would then be exploited with a rush to the Aubers Ridge a ...

in 1915; Chater, aged 19, and her mother travelled to

Wimereux Wimereux (; vls, Wimeruwe) is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Hauts-de-France region of France. Geography Wimereux is a coastal town situated some north of Boulogne, at the junction of the D233 and the D940 roads, on the b ...

to visit him in hospital whilst the war continued to the north. One evening she entertained the troops by playing "tunes from London shows, popular ballads and ' Your King and Your Country', a great favorite with the men" on the piano. Her other brother was Guy Leathley Chater (1892 – 1974), a Major in the 1st Norfolk Regiment. After her father retired in 1927, the family relocated to

Littlehampton Littlehampton is a town, seaside resort, and pleasure harbour, and the most populous civil parish in the Arun District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the English Channel on the eastern bank of the mouth of the River Arun. It is south sout ...

West Sussex West Sussex is a county in South East England on the English Channel coast. The ceremonial county comprises the shire districts of Adur, Arun, Chichester, Horsham, and Mid Sussex, and the boroughs of Crawley and Worthing. Covering an ...

where they became heavily involved with St James Church. Chater met Cicely Bertha Hale, Girl Guide leader, suffragette, health visitor and author (1884 – 1981) in 1947. They lived together in Littlehampton from 1950 – 1965, and after that lived next door to each other until Hale's death in 1981. In old age, Chater moved to Kenwith Nursing Home.

Education

Brought up in a musical household - her uncle wrote songs and her mother played the piano and sang - Chater learned the piano from the age of seven. At ten she began to learn the church organ and started composing. She became adept at

playing by ear Playing or learning by ear is the ability of a performing musician to reproduce a piece of music they have heard, without having seen it notated in any form of sheet music. It is considered to be a desirable skill among musical performers, especi ...

. She entered Durham University as an unattached student to read music in 1919 where her professor was Joseph Cox Bridge and her examiners included Edward Bairstow. She graduated with a

B.Mus Bachelor of Music (BM or BMus) is an academic degree awarded by a college, university, or conservatory upon completion of a program of study in music. In the United States, it is a professional degree, and the majority of work consists of prescr ...

in December 1923. During this time she studied viola and composition with the string instrumentalist, organist, author, teacher, composer, inventor of the violinda and water-colourist John Hullah Brown (1875 – 1973). Chater went on to study at the

Royal College of Music The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire established by royal charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, UK. It offers training from the undergraduate to the doctoral level in all aspects of Western Music including performanc ...

from 1926 to 1929,Royal College of Music, London: Prospectus, 1928. Special Scholarships and Exhibitions. p37 earning an L.R.C.M. Her principal study was composition, under

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 ...

and her second studies were conducting, under

William Henry Reed William Henry "Billy" Reed (29 July 18762 July 1942) was an English violinist, teacher, composer, conductor and biographer of Sir Edward Elgar. He was leader of the London Symphony Orchestra for 23 years (1912–1935), but is best known for his lo ...

Malcolm Sargent Sir Harold Malcolm Watts Sargent (29 April 1895 – 3 October 1967) was an English conductor, organist and composer widely regarded as Britain's leading conductor of choral works. The musical ensembles with which he was associated include ...

and Adrian Boult, orchestration under

Gordon Jacob Gordon Percival Septimus Jacob CBE (5 July 18958 June 1984) was an English composer and teacher. He was a professor at the Royal College of Music in London from 1924 until his retirement in 1966, and published four books and many articles about ...

and score reading. In 1926, Chater was awarded part of the

Signor Foli Allan James Foley (7 August 1837 – 10 October 1899), distinguished 19th century Irish bass opera singer, was born at Cahir, Tipperary. In accordance with the prevailing preference for Italian artists, he changed the spelling (but not the ...

Scholarship, awarded to composition students of at least one year's standing. In 1929 some of her Variations were performed by the Patrons' Fund Orchestra under Adrian Boult.

Work

Chater worked as a music teacher, singer, conductor, and conducting tutor. From 1942 to 1944 she took charge of Rosemead School, Littlehampton, which, due to its location on the south coast, had become a garrison town with empty houses, buildings and schools serving as lodgings for billeted servicemen. She and a small staff looked after around forty day pupils, sharing their school facilities with the army. She ran the school's choir and Brownie pack. She served as a justice of the peace for the Arundel Bench from 1945 – 1961.

Girl Guides Association

Chater joined the Girl Guide movement in 1921 whilst living in Strawberry Hill. Of this, she wrote, "Guiding was an activity completely alien to my mind and capacity. I was impractical, unobservant and rather antipathetic to organisations. However… I was soon well and truly hooked. As my brother Guy said, 'This will either be the making of Mary or the ruin of the Girl Guides.'" During her Guiding career she was a Guide Captain,

Ranger A Ranger is typically someone in a military/paramilitary or law enforcement role specializing in patrolling a given territory, called “ranging”. The term most often refers to: * Park ranger or forest ranger, a person charged with protecting and ...

Captain, Camp Advisor and District and Division Commissioner for Littlehampton from 1935 to 1946. In 1935, she became assistant to the Association's Commissioner for Music and Drama, Kitty Streatfeild. From 1949 -1961 Chater held the position of Music Advisor, Commonwealth Headquarters, Girl Guide Association. In this role she travelled extensively, produced song collections, composed original music for special occasions, tested music instructors, adjudicated festivals, gave talks, accompanied church ceremonies and led

campfires A campfire is a fire at a campsite that provides light and warmth, and heat for cooking. It can also serve as a beacon, and an insect and predator deterrent. Established campgrounds often provide a stone or steel fire ring for safety. Campfires ...

. Musical highlights included conducting the singing at the All-England Ranger Rally at the Royal Albert Hall in 1946, leading 10,000 people in song around a campfire at

WAGGGS The World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS ) is a global association supporting the female-oriented and female-only Guiding and Scouting organizations in 152 countries. It was established in 1928 in Parád, Hungary, and has its ...

' 13th World Conference in Oxford, England in 1950 and playing the organ in both

St George's Chapel, Windsor St George's Chapel at Windsor Castle in England is a castle chapel built in the late-medieval Perpendicular Gothic style. It is both a Royal Peculiar (a church under the direct jurisdiction of the monarch) and the Chapel of the Order of the Gart ...

and the Royal Albert Hall. She led the singing on board the frigate Foudroyant for Princess Margaret in 1950 and served as Music Advisor on the Girl Guides' Golden Jubilee Committee in July 1960. In 1953, she visited Canada to direct the music for their National Camp for which she wrote a "well received" song about her experiences whilst there, and also directed the music as part of a "colourful pageant". When visiting Doe Lake, Ontario's Guiding training centre, she fell and broke her arm. The leaders named one of the buildings Chater House. She also visited Guides in Montreal as part of her trip. She received the Silver Fish Award, Guiding's highest adult award, for her role of Music Advisor. She was also awarded an

for services to Guiding in 1962.

Publications

Chater edited and compiled the following songbooks, the vast majority published by the Girl Guides Association: * ''The First Book of Camp Fire Songs'' (1944) * ''Fireside Songs in Two Parts: Traditional Tunes for Unaccompanied Equal Voices'' (1945) * ''A Baker's Dozen: 13 Singing Games for Brownies'' (1947) * ''A Brownie's Day'' (1948) with Joy Faulkner * ''Overseas: Songs from the British Commonwealth and Empire'' (1949) * ''International Songs'' (1950) * ''More Fireside Songs in Two Parts: Traditional Tunes for Unaccompanied Voices'' (1953) * ''A Brownie's Dozen: 14 Singing Games and Songs'' (1955) * ''The Sol-fa Songbook for Guides'' (1956) * ''Centenary Souvenir Song Book'' (1957) * ''The Second Book of Campfire Songs'' (1961) * ''Graces and Vespers'' (1962) with Tirzah Barnes * ''Singing Games from Far and Near'' (1966) She also authored two books, ''Music through Guiding Part 1'' (1951) and ''Pathway Over the Hill: The Elements of Guiding'' (1966) and contributed the music notes for ''A Collection of Christmas plays for Guides and Brownies'' (1961) by Anne Fairtlough and Eileen Peake.

Compositions

* Laura * The Chief (1956) written for the centenary of BP's birth in 1956 * Guide Marching Song (1948) appeared on the 1971 BBC album 'Singing Along with the Girl Guides' * Ranger Song (1948) * A Country Song (1948) * Mighty Lord and Saviour (1954) * Trefoil Song * Sussex Campfire Opening * St Patrick's Breastplate * Carillon *

Foxlease Foxlease is a training and activity centre of Girlguiding near Lyndhurst, Hampshire, UK. The Foxlease estate has been owned and managed by the Guides since 1922. The estate is and the main house is known as The Princess Mary House, in honour o ...

Vesper * A Royal Round * A Short Grace * Tony O! (words: Colin Francis) * What is this life (words: W.H. Davies) * Ships * The North Countree (round in 3 parts) * Serve God Daily (text: Sir John Hawkins, 1532 - 1595) * The Queen's Grace (text: George Belling, 1585) * A Brownie's Day (words: Joy Faulkner) * The Jubilee Song (1960) marking the 50th anniversary of the creating of Girl Guides was recorded by the Band of the

Women's Royal Army Corps The Women's Royal Army Corps (WRAC; sometimes pronounced acronymically as , a term unpopular with its members) was the corps to which all women in the British Army belonged from 1949 to 1992, except medical, dental and veterinary officers and cha ...

(WRAC), an all-female military band, conducted by Major McDowall and was privately released by the GGA as a 7" single.

Translations

* Festival Song (1947) tune: an old French carol. Written for the International Folk Dance Festival with accompaniment by Gustav Holst * Tuoll on mun kultani (My Sweetheart) from Finnish into English. * Meunier tu dors (The Miller Sleeps) French into English

Arrangements

Chater had strong feelings about the quality of many vocal arrangements where "alto parts are too often a dreary shuffle from one note to the next and back again, while descants tend to become too elaborate and to smother the air". She set about writing her own arrangements, which appeared in her own and many other songbooks of the era. Arrangements included: * Lilliburlero (1936) Pub: OUP Archive * The

National Anthem A national anthem is a patriotic musical composition symbolizing and evoking eulogies of the history and traditions of a country or nation. The majority of national anthems are marches or hymns in style. American, Central Asian, and Europea ...

* The Queen's Grace (text: George Belling, 1585) * Guide Grace: Bless this our food (text: Dorothy Kerr) *

Greensleeves "Greensleeves" is a traditional English folk song. A broadside ballad by the name "A Newe Northen Dittye of ye Ladye Greene Sleves" was registered by Richard Jones at the London Stationer's Company in September 1580,Frank Kidson, ''English Fo ...

* " Will ye no come back again?" (text: Lady Nairne) * New Forest Vesper (additional text: D. Whitehouse)

Conducting

Chater conducted several Guide groups, including for the BBC's Children's Hour as part of the 1949 and 1950 Thinking Day features. Outside of Guiding, she established a women's choir called 'The Monday Club' which met at her home. They would perform at the Bognor and Worthing music festivals where Herbert Howells would occasionally judge. She also conducted the Parry Choir.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chater, Mary Cuningham 1896 births 1990 deaths People from Middlesex (before 1965) Alumni of Durham University English composers Members of the Order of the British Empire Girlguiding Girlguiding officials Girl Guiding and Girl Scouting Alumni of the Royal College of Music People from Littlehampton English choral conductors English book editors Recipients of the Silver Fish Award