Alice Elgar

The Elgar scholar Diana McVeagh describes it as "quite an accomplished, entertaining, indeed touching tale, with a control of pace and situation, and a humour that might well surprise anyone knowing Alice only from her later verses, letters and diary".

[6] In 1886 Alice Roberts' brothers had left to join the army and she was living with her elderly widowed mother at Hazeldine House at Redmarley in Worcestershire (now in Gloucestershire).

When her mother died the next year she went abroad for a while before returning to settle down at a house in Malvern Link called Ripple Lodge, and continued with her accompaniment lessons.

[3] She became engaged to her young teacher, much to the disapproval of her strongly Anglican family, who not only considered her fiancé a poor tradesman of a lower social class, but also noted that he was eight years her junior and a devout Roman Catholic.

Of Alice's family only her cousin William Raikes and his wife Veronica attended, while on her husband's side there were only his parents and his musical friend Dr. Charles Buck.

[8] The Elgars spent a three-week honeymoon at Ventnor on the Isle of Wight, then returned to London to be closer to the centre of British musical life.

However the lack of work for Edward forced them to leave, and they returned to Malvern Link, renting a house 'Forli' in Alexandra Road, where it was hoped he could earn a living teaching and conducting local musical ensembles.

At the beginning of World War I, for a short while, Lady Elgar taught French to a group of private soldiers at Chelsea Barracks.

[16] In the gallery of the church the slow movement from Elgar's String Quartet was played by Reed, Albert Sammons, Lionel Tertis and Felix Salmond.

[citation needed] At the beginning of World War I, Carice Elgar trained in First Aid, then from 1915 did translation work for the Government Censorship Department.

[13] The month before Alice died, Carice returned home from a holiday in Mürren, having met there a Surrey farmer older than she was named Samuel Blake.