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Manx Music Festival – Coming of Age 1912

by Bernadette Weyde
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A recent ebay win has just arrived and it is much better than I thought being an actual bronze plaque awarded to Florence H Laughton, Hon. Secretary, 1912.

I have been trying to find out more information about it and see that David J Radcliffe transcribed the following for MNH in 2011:

“In 1912 the festival celebrated its coming of age with a three day series of competitions. A special bronze plaque, designed to commemorate the occasion, was given to all first prize winners, and a souvenir programme was filled with congratulatory messages from distinguished musicians and others.”

Having put out a request on facebook for more information the following has come to light:

  • From Stephen Miller:  F(rank) S Graves was the designer I have been told. He also designed other such items in this period.  He was involved with the Manchester Manx Society and designed the medals handed out to the crew of The Wanderer.  Frank Graves may well be related to the Graves family of boat and ship builders of Peel. He also designed the logo of the World Manx Association.
  • From Nigel Crowe: From my copy of 1912 Programme facing p. 8; The centre panel of repoussé work was a depiction of “Home-coming of the Viking”, after a famous image by Herbert Gandy.
  • From my own enquiries I came across a Dissertation by Grin, Amanda Jane (2006), The amateur competition movement: shaping identity through participation in the Manx music festival 1892-2005, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online.  It’s a 342 page .pdf available to download for free.

Thanks to all above for their contributions and to everyone for sharing.

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