[2] Jessie ("Jen") Mathieson was a talented musician, who among other engagements foreshadowed her sons' careers by playing the piano accompaniment for silent films at the local cinema.

[4] After attending Stirling High School Mathieson went to the Royal College of Music in London from February 1929, winning a succession of scholarships.

[12] On 21 December 1935, at the Brompton Oratory, London, Mathieson married Hermione Louise Alys Darnborough, principal ballerina of Sadler's Wells Ballet.

[1] Two years earlier, when already engaged to be married, they had both taken part in Hiawatha at the Royal Albert Hall in London, when Mathieson deputised at a few minutes' notice after the scheduled conductor, Sargent, was taken ill during a performance of the piece, in which Darnborough danced the role of the Spirit of Spring.

[1] With the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939 Mathieson became musical director to the Ministry of Information, the Royal Air Force, and army film units.

[1] By now he had considerable experience of commissioning film scores, and he approached the veteran Ralph Vaughan Williams, generally regarded as the most important living British composer.

[7] Mathieson conducted the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in the finished score, with the composer at the sessions, ready to "cut, enlarge, alter, adapt" as necessary.

Youdell describes the film of Henry V as "one of the greatest and most imaginative productions of the war period" and Walton's score as of "almost unparalleled beauty in its melody, orchestration, and construction".

[1] By the end of the war Mathieson had become musical director for the Rank Organisation, which included several film-making units, such as Two Cities, The Archers, and Cineguild.

He supervised the music of most of the major films produced under the Rank banner, continuing to engage leading composers including Richard Addinsell (Blithe Spirit 1945),[28] William Alwyn (Odd Man Out, 1946),[29] Arnold Bax (Oliver Twist, 1948),[30] Bliss (Men of Two Worlds, 1946),[31] Walter Goehr (Great Expectations, 1946) [32] and Walton (Hamlet, 1948).

[36] In The Magic Box (1951), a film made to mark the Festival of Britain, Mathieson appeared as a cast member, in a cameo role as Sir Arthur Sullivan conducting a choir.

[39] Among Mathieson's other 1950s commissions were Arnold's score for Hobson's Choice (1954),[40] Addinsell's for The Prince and the Showgirl (1957),[40] and Alwyn's for Carve Her Name With Pride and A Night to Remember (both 1958).

[1] His biographer S. J. Hetherington records that Mathieson arranged, directed, conducted, and occasionally composed, the music for almost one thousand films during his career.