Benton Fletcher

[5] He became an artist, a book illustrator, a writer and a traveller,[6] drawing King Hussein bin Ali, Sharif of Mecca, who had invited him to Arabia in 1921,[7] and made several expeditions to the Libyan, Hejaz and Sahara deserts.

He bought, restored and furnished it with antiques and his growing collection of early keyboard instruments as a music centre for amateurs, students and professionals.

[8] He became something of a social and press celebrity and raconteur giving talks on the BBC National Programme radio service in 1938-9[9] and early television broadcasts from Alexandra Palace featuring his stories and keyboard instruments in 1937-8.

[10][11] His art exhibitions, early musical instrument concerts and furniture collection[12][13] were patronised by royalty, military and society figures.

Although he was called "the luckiest collector in the world",[14] he was unlucky that Old Devonshire House was totally destroyed in a Luftwaffe bombing raid on Holborn, London in May 1941.

The later instrument is faced with amboyna burl wood and is among the most elaborate of late English harpsichords, featuring the Venetian swell patented by Shudi in the same year,[21] a machine stop, six hand-stops and a pedal action, with five notes below FF.

It has two split accidentals allowing either chromatic or selected lower bass notes to be played with the front or back component of the "same" key.

[1] A late example of virginals by Robert Hatley, London, 1664, opens to reveal an inside lid and drop-down front painted with figures in 17th century dress in landscape, with applied gilt papers.

[17] Instruments collected by Benton Fletcher[18] and probably lost during the Luftwaffe raid on Holborn in 1941 include an early 16th-century Italian painted clavichord,[26] and two grand pianos, one by Matthew and William Stodart of 1791 and the second by Kirckman of 1803.

[1] There is an Ioannes Ruckers harpsichord of 1612 from Antwerp enlarged in England in the 18th century belonging to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, formerly housed in Windsor Castle, a square piano by John Broadwood of 1774, a grand piano by John Broadwood & Son, London, of 1805[27] and a clavichord by Arnold Dolmetsch, Haslemere, of 1925.

Elijah Hoole, an Arts and Crafts movement architect, built the Cadets' Drill Hall, Red Cross Hall, which was decorated by Walter Crane, with painted panels of scenes of working class heroism, adjacent to Redcross Cottages and Red Cross Garden, Southwark.

[2] Later, in 1931, in a letter to Samuel Hield Hamer, (Secretary of the National Trust, 1911–34) about his scheme for giving his property and musical instrument collection to the National Trust, Benton Fletcher wrote: "it embraces education, pleasure and philanthropy, &, would I feel confident have appealed strongly to the late Octavia Hill and her sisters whose efforts to encourage the love and performance of old music fostered the like desire in my own mind during the twelve years I lived in the slums of Southwark working with & for these farseeing pioneers.

[4] He can be documented as being in Egypt Exploration Society camps in Beit Meir with Aylward Blackman,[48] Abydos with Edouard Naville and Thomas Eric Peet[49] and Meydum where he first met Flinders Petrie.

An account of the strange acquisition and restoration of these subsequently damaged reliefs by John Pierpont Morgan (1837–1913) and Dikran Kelekian (1868–1951) for the Metropolitan Museum in New York, is given by Herbert Winlock.

In 1906-8 he met Delius, Elgar, Grieg and Sinding while sharing a house in Chelsea, 14 Upper Cheyne Walk, with the pianist and composer Percy Grainger and Grainger's mother Rose,[54] He was nursed at Bawdsey Manor, the Quilter's family home after returning ill from Cairo in 1907 and later accompanied Roger Quilter and his parents on a holiday tour in 1908-9, staying with them in Taormina, Egypt, and Naples.

[56] An exhibition of his watercolour paintings and drawings of Egypt was held at the Fine Art Society in New Bond Street in June and July 1914.

[61] Fenton House contains a drawing by him of 3 Cheyne Walk,[62] a painting of Rye Harbour,[63] and a view of St Paul's Cathedral from the South Bank.

"The income arising from the Cobham and Buckingham Place properties will be used partly to ensure the carrying on at Old Devonshire House of the centre started there by Major Benton Fletcher for the special study and performance of works of older English Composers".

[88] His sudden and lonely death aged 78 at 3 Cheyne Walk on an unusually cold 31 December 1944 hunched in rigor mortis in his bed with a burnt out pan on an electric ring, was dramatically described by James Lees-Milne in his diary: "Give me V2s every minute rather than a repetition of this experience".

A nephew by marriage, probably Alec Hodsdon, was the only member of his family to attend his funeral, the three others present being Roger Quilter, James Lees-Milne and Donald MacLeod Matheson, the Secretary of the National Trust and the executor of his will.

[91] Major Benton Fletcher pioneered the idea of preserving early keyboard instruments so that they can be played and heard in surroundings of the right period.

[92] He saw Old Devonshire House and the collection as a living museum, and wished to establish it on a permanent basis by his gift to the National Trust.

He expressed the view that the music of Handel and Bach was not improved when performed on modern pianos and was disparaging about the lack of sonority of 20th century revival harpsichords.

"Major G H Benton Fletcher (artist author and traveller) refused a public school education and became a licensed peddlar - the reason for this was that he wanted to study the conditions of doss houses at first hand - in his house in Holborn which was built by the first Duke of Devonshire - he has one of the finest collections of musical instruments in the world and he allows students to practise on them for a fee of sixpence an hour - his house is also the headquarters of the famous Tudor Singers and very often Major Benton Fletcher accompanies them during rehearsals on his historic instruments - photo shows Major G H Benton Fletcher playing the accompaniment for members of the Tudor Singers on one of his valuable instruments - a virginal of Queen Elizabeth period 24 October 1934"
Lord Allenby opened an exhibition of drawings of Royal Homes near London by Major Benton Fletcher. The picture shows Lord Allenby with Susan, Duchess of Somerset and Major Benton Fletcher. 3 December 1930
Red Cross Hall and Redcross Cottages 6 and 5
Benton Fletcher in the uniform of a Major in the Sherwood Foresters (Nottingham and Derbyshire Regiment). His cap badge is that of the Sherwood Foresters and his sleeve markings are those of a British Army Major . He became a Major in 1905, the probable date of this photograph. Courtesy of the National Trust
This unusual rain hopper at 6 Buckingham Place SW1, is dated 1913 and bears the initials GHBF. George Henry Benton Fletcher acquired this house in 1913 and gave it to the National Trust in 1937.