The Walter Willson Cobbett Medal is awarded annually by the Worshipful Company of Musicians "in recognition of services to Chamber Music".
It was established in 1924 and endowed with £50 by Walter Willson Cobbett (1847–1937), an amateur violinist and expert on chamber music who went on to serve as the company's master in 1928–29.
The first recipient of the medal in 1924 was Thomas Dunhill, a committed composer of chamber music who had also set up an annual series of concerts in London to perform British works: his concerts ran from 1907 until 1919 and included the music of several subsequent winners of the Cobbett medal, including Ralph Vaughan Williams and Charles Wood.
Included were chamber works by Arnold Bax, Frank Bridge, Rebecca Clarke, Benjamin Dale and Eugene Goossens.
[3] The medal itself, designed by Gilbert Bayes, is silver-gilt and features a portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven.