Postscript 3: Mabel Saumarez Smith
The exact nature and extent of any direct involvement of Mabel Saumarez Smith with the Caldecott Community remains obscure. The white cupboard in the Music Room contained at least one published score of a piece by her that bore a dedication to The Caldecott Community. There were manuscript pieces, possibly copyist’s scores, not the composer’s originals. I once saw a piece by Saumarez Smith in a second hand music shop. This also had a dedication to the Caldecott Community – probably it was the same piece that was in the cupboard. I did not buy it and I have been kicking myself ever since. It is not something that turns up in second hand dealers’ lists very often.
The best account of Saumarez Smith’s life is her obituary in the Royal College of Music Magazine of 1932 (Volume XXVIII no. 1). She was born in 1873. Her father was an Archbishop and the Primate of Australia. She came to England to study at the Royal College at an undefined date, probably still in the 19th century since she was already a published composer by 1899. One of her teachers was Stanford and it is claimed that he never found a “sharp word” for her. If true, she must have been the only one of his many pupils who escaped his notoriously quick tongue. After obtaining her diploma, she returned to Australia, but was back in England at least by 1911, when she was a founder member of the Society of Women Musicians. In 1915 she was elected Assistant Honorary Secretary to the Royal College of Music, a post she held until 1923. She was also prominent in the Church Music Society and had “endless social and philanthropic claims”. These latter and her dedication to proper recognition for women seem the ideal milieu for a meeting with Miss Leila and Miss Potter. She was also described as “spiritually dauntless. Once in Cornwall she climbed down a dangerous cliff to rescue a sea-bird trapped there”. The sort of woman Miss Leila would have admired.
The British Library catalogue lists twenty short published pieces (songs, part songs and anthems) plus four arrangements of traditional tunes and two volumes of poetry. One piece, a setting of Christina Rossetti’s “Up-Hill” for solo contralto, choir and piano, can be found on Internet. The RCM obituary refers to other pieces still in manuscript. A string quartet, performed in 1931, achieved some critical praise. After so many years, it is unlikely that the manuscripts of such an obscure composer survive. She also contributed four hymn tunes to “A Missionary Hymn-Book” (1922). One is entitled Caldecott. Without the added word “Community”, there is no absolute proof, beyond the fact that the composer dedicated at least one other piece to the Caldecott Community, that the Caldecott in question is not another. I reproduce it below. These words were not in the red hymn book.