9. Before Betty Rayment
The role of music in the earlier years of the Community needs researching, though I doubt if much documentary evidence survives. Gill Cook has put her memories on the site and some valuable thoughts have been provided by Michael Sherwin, David Dear and Katy Gordon. Michael Sherwin, who sadly died not long after, mentioned the curious fact that the music teacher previous to Betty, Dilys Bartholomew, married a man with the same surname as hers, so she did not change her name after marriage. Though Michael seems to have forgotten it, between Miss/Mrs. Bartholomew and Betty Rayment, the post was taken by a teacher whom Miss Leila defined as “hopeless”. Not for her musical abilities, but because she was so incapable of asserting any discipline that Miss Leila had to sit in on the lessons to ensure that anything got done*. Perhaps the fact that Betty’s immediate predecessor was a dud led her all too easily to assume that music at Caldecott started with her. She told me I was its third musical boy (preceded by Michael Sherwin and David Dear), but there may have been others further back. I do not know whether black vocal music counted as music with her, but Billy Millar’s extensive research and writings on the subject surely earn him a place among Caldecott’s “musical boys”. As has been related elsewhere, the co-founder, Phyllis Potter, had a strong singing voice and at least two composers, Mabel Saumarez Smith and Desirée Martin, wrote music for the Community. I will write about this and the Caldecott Hymn Book in postscripts, though the material available will not permit me to throw much light on these areas of Caldecott history.
* It occurs to me that the “hopeless” music teacher may actually have been employed following Betty’s initial departure, resulting in Miss Leila’s strong efforts to get her back again.