Frank Schuster (24 September 1852 – 26 December 1927), was a British music-lover and patron of the arts. His home overlooking

St James's Park St James's Park is a park in the City of Westminster, central London. It is at the southernmost tip of the St James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less. It is the most easterly of a near-continuous ch ...

at 22 Old Queen Street,

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

, part of which now contains offices of ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British magazine on politics, culture, and current affairs. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving weekly magazine in the world. It is owned by Frederick Barclay, who also owns ''The ...

'' magazine, became a meeting-place for artists, writers and musicians, including Siegfried Sassoon, John Singer Sargent,

Walter Sickert Walter Richard Sickert (31 May 1860 – 22 January 1942) was a German-born British painter and printmaker who was a member of the Camden Town Group of Post-Impressionist artists in early 20th-century London. He was an important influence on d ...

, Sir

Edward Elgar Sir Edward William Elgar, 1st Baronet, (; 2 June 1857 – 23 February 1934) was an English composer, many of whose works have entered the British and international classical concert repertoire. Among his best-known compositions are orchestr ...

and Sir

Adrian Boult Sir Adrian Cedric Boult, CH (; 8 April 1889 – 22 February 1983) was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family, he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London ...

. He was a particular patron of Edward Elgar, and also did much to make

Gabriel Fauré Gabriel Urbain Fauré (; 12 May 1845 – 4 November 1924) was a French composer, organist, pianist and teacher. He was one of the foremost French composers of his generation, and his musical style influenced many 20th-century composers ...

's name known in England.pages 11 and 12, ''The Spectator'', 3 February 2007J. P. E. Harper-Scott, Elgar and the Salon
Retrieved 12 October 2014

Biography

Leo Francis Howard Schuster was born at 151 King's Road,

Brighton Brighton () is a seaside resort and one of the two main areas of the City of Brighton and Hove in the county of East Sussex, England. It is located south of London. Archaeological evidence of settlement in the area dates back to the Bronze A ...

and baptised at St John's parish church,

Penge Penge () is a suburb of South East London, England, now in the London Borough of Bromley, west of Bromley, north east of Croydon and south east of Charing Cross. History Penge was once a small hamlet, which was recorded under the name Pence ...

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

, on 19 November 1852. He was the only son of Mary née Howard,

Norfolk Norfolk () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in East Anglia in England. It borders Lincolnshire to the north-west, Cambridgeshire to the west and south-west, and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the No ...

-born second wife of

Leo Schuster Leopold Schuster (1791 – 27 February 1871) was a German-born British cotton trader turned merchant banker, best known as the Chairman of the London and Brighton Railway and then the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway, and part of the c ...

, a Jewish German-born London banker and long a naturalised citizen. The two children of Leo's first wife, Emilie, were baptised aged 3 and 1 on 10 December 1833 at

Mosley Street Mosley Street is a street in Manchester, England. It runs between its junction with Piccadilly Gardens and Market Street to St Peter's Square. Beyond St Peter's Square it becomes Lower Mosley Street. It is the location of several Grade II and G ...

Unitarian church

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. They were to marry, respectively, the eldest daughter of an Earl (

Orkney Orkney (; sco, Orkney; on, Orkneyjar; nrn, Orknøjar), also known as the Orkney Islands, is an archipelago in the Northern Isles of Scotland, situated off the north coast of the island of Great Britain. Orkney is 10 miles (16 km) north ...

) and a baronet. Educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

, and generous in character, the homosexual Schuster had a wide friendship circle. In 1924, knowing that Siegfried Sassoon was suffering from depression, Schuster made him the gift of his first car. He also allowed Sassoon to stay at his popular country retreat, "The Hut", opposite

Monkey Island ''Monkey Island'' is a series of adventure games. The first four games in the series were produced and published by LucasArts, earlier known as Lucasfilm Games. The fifth installment of the franchise was developed by Telltale Games in collabor ...

at Bray-on-Thames, but the two were never lovers. Edward Elgar statue, Hereford - IMG 0101

Schuster was a close friend and travelling companion of composer

, and helped foster Elgar's popularity in the years leading up to

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

. It was at "The Hut" that Elgar partially wrote his First Symphony,

Violin Concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

and the symphonic study ''

Falstaff Sir John Falstaff is a fictional character who appears in three plays by William Shakespeare and is eulogised in a fourth. His significance as a fully developed character is primarily formed in the plays '' Henry IV, Part 1'' and '' Part 2'', w ...

''. Elgar dedicated his concert-overture " In the South (Alassio)", completed in 1904, to Schuster. Schuster was highly involved in organising the three-day Elgar Festival at

Covent Garden Covent Garden is a district in London, on the eastern fringes of the West End, between St Martin's Lane and Drury Lane. It is associated with the former fruit-and-vegetable market in the central square, now a popular shopping and tourist si ...

in 1904, which was an unprecedented tribute to a living composer.

and Edward Elgar first met at Schuster's house in 1905. He was also a patron of

, and was responsible for introducing Fauré and Elgar to each other. One of the stories retold by ''

'' when it moved into 22 Queen Street in 2007:

Boult liked to tell of how Schuster's sense of humour landed him in trouble with the ballad-singer
Kennerley Rumford Robert Henry Kennerley Rumford (2 September 1870 – 9 March 1957) was an English baritone singer of the 20th century. He was first known for his performances of oratorios, but following his marriage to the well-known contralto singer Clara But ...
, with whom he had been at school. Joining in the craze for bicycling — embraced by both Elgar and Mahler — they went out for a ride and Rumford said he had decided to give his bicycle a name. 'I shall call it Santley (a famous baritone) because it is a
Singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...
.' Schuster retorted, 'I will call mine
Clara Butt Dame Clara Ellen Butt, (1 February 1872 – 23 January 1936) was an English contralto and one of the most popular singers from the 1890s through to the 1920s. She had an exceptionally fine contralto voice and an agile singing technique, and imp ...
because it isn't.' He was aware the joke fell flat and realised why a few weeks later when he read the announcement of the engagement between Rumford and Miss Butt."

He died at Hove Lawn, Cromwell Road,

Hove Hove is a seaside resort and one of the two main parts of the city of Brighton and Hove, along with Brighton in East Sussex, England. Originally a "small but ancient fishing village" surrounded by open farmland, it grew rapidly in the 19th cen ...

, on 26 December 1927 following an operation. In their obituary section ''The Times'' a few days later published two lengthy letters written by friends.Mr. L. F. Schuster. ''The Times'', Monday, Jan 02, 1928; pg. 19; Issue 44779 He ensured Elgar's old age would be provided for by leaving him £7,000 in his will. The portion of "The Hut" known as ''Long White Cloud'' (the Maori name for New Zealand) was sold on the death of Schuster's heir and became the childhood home of

Stirling Moss Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Schuster, Frank 1852 births 1927 deaths English patrons of music LGBT people from England LGBT Jews English people of German-Jewish descent People educated at Eton College