NEXT year marks 100 years since the influential composer Sir Henry Walford Davies took up residence in Aberystwyth, and calls have been made for him to be remembered and his story told.

Sir Walford Davies came to Aberystwyth in 1919, accepting the professorship of music at Aberystwyth University College together with the post of director of music for the University of Wales and chairman of the National Council of Music.

Born in Oswestry in 1869, Sir Walford Davies had a “powerful influence on the appreciation of serious music in Wales” during his eight years in the town.

In the book, Rebirth of a Nation by Kenneth O Morgan, Sir Walford Davies was described as a “crusader of extraordinary single-mindedness” during his years in Aberystwyth, spreading “the gospel of music vigorously in Aberystwyth itself”, attracting composers “like Elgar, Vaughan Williams, German and Holst, and conductors like Sir Henry Wood and Adrian Boult, to the little seaside town.”

In a biography by Henry Ley, Sir Walford Davies “laboured unceasingly for the musical enlightenment of the principality” during his stay in the town.

Sir Walford Davies, who died in Wrington in Somerset in 1941 aged 71, lived in the end terrace house in Brynymôr Terrace during his years in Aberystwyth.

While he is remembered with a plaque on the house, calls have been made for other institutions to honour him and produce information for tourists about his life and contribution to Aberystwyth.

Howard Brayton, who visited Aberystwyth last month from Oxfordshire, said he was “surprised” that little is known about Sir Walford Davies in the town.

He said the lack of celebration of the composer “marred” his weekend.

“Surely the music department at the university; the National Library of Wales, which holds many of his manuscripts; choral societies and choirs; the tourist office, which had never heard of him; and the museum, who were most interested, could collaborate to produce an illustrated tourist information pamphlet on one of the town’s most forgotten famous men,” he said.

See this week’s south papers for the full feature, available in shops and as a digital edition now