|
More than 5000 entries on the history, culture and life of Britain (published in 1993 by Macmillan, now out of print)
|
Women's Institutes
|
|
(WI) Social and educational organization, catering particularly for women in rural districts. The movement began in Canada in 1897, with classes on domestic science at Stoney Creek, Ontario. The first WI in Britain was established at *Llanfair PG in 1915; several other branches were formed elsewhere in Wales and in England before the end of that year. In the early 1990s there are approximately 8900 WIs in England, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. In Scotland the Scottish Women's Rural Institutes are an equivalent organization.
|
|
|
|
Henry Wood (1869–1944, kt 1911) Conductor whose lasting memorial is the *Proms, where a traditional feature of the last night is his *Fantasia on British Sea Songs. The piece known as the *Trumpet Voluntary is also one of his arrangements. He greatly raised the standard of British orchestral playing, insisting upon a permanent team (he rejected the convention by which musicians could send deputies in their place) and bringing female players into the orchestra. He premiered in Britain the works of many leading continental composers, including Tchaikovsky, Sibelius, Richard Strauss, Debussy, Mahler and Schoenberg.
|
|
|
|