Biographical timeline
This timeline places events in Susan Spain-Dunk’s life alongside selected events in British music and wider history.
| Susan Spain-Dunk's biography | Contemporaneous events in history and British music |
|---|---|
| 1880 – Susan is born in Folkestone, England into a family of amateur musicians.2 Father William Dunk, Master Builder. Mother Catherine (Neé Major). Susan’s middle name indicates a connection with the Spain family, also of Folkestone.2 | 1881 – Gilbert and Sullivan operettas open at The Savoy Theatre in London. |
| 1892 – Susan has her first formal violin lessons at school, having previously taught herself on an old violin she found at home and played at family concerts.1 | |
| 1894 – Susan attends a girls' boarding school in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France.10 | 1895 – Henry Wood and Robert Newman found the Promenade Concerts ("Proms") in London.4 |
| 1896 – Susan returns to Folkestone and continues her musical education.1 | 1896 – Dan Godfrey establishes the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra and Symphony concert seasons in Bournemouth, England.4 |
| 1900 – Soloist for Mendelssohn Violin Concerto at Vincent Henneker's annual concert in Ramsgate, England.10 | |
| 1901 – Susan becomes a student at the Guildhall School of Music in London10 | 1901 – Death of Queen Victoria 1899 – Sir Edward Elgar's Enigma Variations premiered in London |
| 1902 – Susan’s violin professor Alfred Gibson arranges for her to transfer to the Royal Academy of Music (RAM) on the Licentiate (LRAM) course.10 | 1901 – Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance March No. 1 first performed at the Proms |
| 1903 – Susan awarded RAM medals for violin playing and sight-singing. Her first use of hyphenated Spain-Dunk as a surname appears on the medals.2 | |
| 1904 – Susan’s engagement to Henry Gibson, musician and nephew of Alfred Gibson announced.10 | |
| 1905 – Susan gains her LRAM qualification and continues to study at RAM, taking advanced courses in composition and orchestration. | 1905 – WW Cobbett, philanthropist and chamber music enthusiast, establishes his Phantasy Quartet prize competition.5 |
| 1906 – Susan wins the Charles Mortimer Prize for composition and is elected as an Associate of RAM. Her first orchestral work Geraint and Enid, a tone poem, is highly commended in two competitions and performed at an Academy concert.2 | |
| 1907 – Susan's first publication is Petite Serenade for Flute and Piano. Her Phantasy in A Minor is awarded a prize in WW Cobbett’s competition.2 | |
| 1908 – Susan marries Henry Gibson10. They live in West Kensington in London. Both work on professional engagements daily and compose, Henry playing violin in various orchestras and organist at a local church. Springdans Scandinavian Dance for Violin and Piano is published.6 |
|
| 1909 – Susan publishes Valse Caprice for flute and piano and Violin Sonata in B Minor which wins a Supplementary Prize in the WW Cobbett competition. She publishes under her maiden name, but sometimes performs as a violin soloist as “Mrs Henry Gibson”.9 | |
| 1911 – Alan Gibson, Susan and Henry's son, is born. | 1912 – Ongoing campaign for women’s suffrage. Activists including Ethel Smyth jailed. 1912 – On Hearing the First Cuckoo of Spring composed by Frederick Delius. 1913 – Ethel Smyth is the first woman to conduct at a Promenade Concert.2 |
| 1914–1918 Henry Gibson serves in the Artillery in the British Army on the Western Front. Susan remains in London teaching music at the Colet Court Preparatory School. | 1914-18 – First World War 1916 – Gustav Holst completes The Planets Suite. Jerusalem by Hubert Parry first performed. |
| 1915-1920 – Susan publishes her Phantasy Quartet in D Minor in 1915. She also composes two sonatas for violin and piano, two string quartets and two phantasies for strings.9 | 1918 – British women over 30 and men over 21 granted the right to vote. 1918 – WW Cobbett sets up a free Chamber Music Library in collaboration with the Society of Women Musicians.5 |
| 1923 – Susan submits her Suite for Strings to Sir Henry Wood. She joins his course on conducting at RAM and he invites her to conduct this piece in the following year at the Proms.2 | |
| 1924 – Susan conducts her Suite for Strings at the Proms, only the second woman to conduct at a Prom after Dame Ethel Smyth. Susan also plays the viola in WW Cobbett’s quartet, playing a Schubert quintet on the first record issued by the National Gramophone Society.5 | 1924 – National Gramophone Society founded.5 WW Cobbett’s quintet record Schubert quintet for issue on their first 78 rpm record, which he sponsors free for the first 300 members. |
| 1925 – Susan conducts The British Women’s Symphony Orchestra at The Queen’s Hall, London, performing her Idyll for String Orchestra and The Water Lily Pool. Later that year she conducts these pieces again at the Proms.9 | |
| 1926 – Susan conducts her Kentish Downs Overture, dedicated to Dame Ethel Smyth, at the Proms. Susan and Henry Gibson separate permanently.2 |
1926 – The General Strike in the UK. |
| 1927 – Susan conducts her tone poem Elaine at the Proms. She conducts the Bournemouth Municipal Orchestra performing The Kentish Downs and The Water Lily Pool. Susan also plays in WW Cobbett’s ensemble preparing his Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music.2 | 1927 – The BBC become involved in managing the Proms.11 Sir Dan Godfrey holds concerts for women composers in Bournemouth, where Ethel Smyth and Susan Spain-Dunk conduct.4 |
| 1928 – Susan’s Kentish Downs Overture first broadcast by the BBC.9 At Bournemouth she conducts her Andred’s Weald Overture and Edith Swepstone’s tone poem A Vision.4 | 1928 – British women over 21 granted the right to vote. |
| 1929 – Susan conducts her Kentish Downs Overture and her tone poem Stonehenge at the Eastbourne Festival. Stonehenge is badly received by the critics. She is elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music.2 | 1929 – The Wall Street Crash followed by The Great Depression WW Cobbett’s Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music published. |
| 1930 – Susan conducts The Kentish Downs and The Water Lily Pool at the Folkestone Music Festival. Sir Henry Wood and Dame Ethel Smyth also conduct there.9 | |
| 1931 – Susan conducts Stonehenge again at Bournemouth and it is better received.2 First orchestral performance of Cantilena for clarinet and orchestra at the Queen's Hall conducted by John Barbirolli. | 1931 – Dame Ethel Smyth’s last appearance as a conductor at the Proms. There are no women conductors at the Proms for the next 50 years.7 |
| 1932 – Susan’s Stonehenge is first broadcast by the BBC. She conducts the Royal Artillery Band at Woolwich, London playing Andred’s Weald.2 Cantilena is broadcast by the BBC. | |
| 1933 – Lorelei (Legend) and Jarába for violin and piano published. | 1914-1934 – Sir Dan Godfrey gives 97 performances of orchestral works by 25 women composers.8 |
| 1934 – Lament for string orchestra composed. | 1934 – Sir Dan Godfrey retires.4 Very few works by women composers performed in Bournemouth for the next 50 years.8 |
| 1935 – Susan holidays in Oban, Scotland which inspires several works, including Highland Overture and Two Scottish Pieces. Andred’s Weald is published and renamed The Farmer’s Boy by the publisher. Winter Song for cello/viola and piano published.9 | |
| 1936 – Karisma for orchestra and Six Spanish Dances for piano published. | |
| 1937 – Highland Overture first broadcast by the BBC. London Pride and other pieces for brass band written by Susan at this time. She becomes a Professor at Royal Academy of Music teaching harmony and composition.2 | 1938 – Munich Crisis |
| 1939 – Susan composes the symphonic work The Flute Player of Brindavan, a tone poem. It is dedicated to Dr Hari Shastri, the teacher of Yoga philosophy and Hindu mysticism.2 | 1939 – Start of the Second World War |
| 1940 – Susan composes a second symphonic work influenced by Hindu mysticism, Somya Devi. Also composes The Castle overture[2,9]. | 1940 – The beginning of the Blitz, German aerial bombardment of London. |
| 1941 – Susan resigns her professorship at RAM, leaves London and takes lodgings in Beaconsfield where she composes piano preludes and a prelude for organ.9 | 1941 – The Queen’s Hall in London destroyed by bombing. Scores and parts of orchestral works by Susan and other composers lost.2 |
| 1942 – Susan returns to London.2 | 1942 – Proms continue at the Royal Albert Hall 1944 – Sir Henry Wood dies |
| 1945 – Susan composes Joyous Fanfare Overture.9 1945 – Farmer’s Boy overture broadcast by BBC |
1945 – End of the Second World War |
| 1954 – The Flute Player of Brindavan first broadcast by the BBC World Service.9 | |
| 1958 – Susan composes a short anthem for voices, Send Out Thy Light - Verses From Psalm 43. Broadcast by the BBC.2 | |
| 1960 – Susan composes her last work, a cantata, The Baptism of Jesus.2 | |
| 1962 – Susan suffers a stroke at her home in London and dies on New Year's Day aged 82.2 |
References
Section titled “References”- Autobiographical notes on music in Folkestone as a child and teenager by Susan Spain-Dunk. Ca. 1954. Gibson family archives.
- Susan Spain-Dunk, Kentish Musician 1880-1962. Lecture notes by her son Rev Alan Gibson 1974. (p1-20) Gibson family archives.
- Some Folkestone Worthies – Ten outstanding persons who have contributed to the life and development of old Folkestone. by CH Bishop ca. 1976 (p24-27)
- Sir Dan Godfrey Champion of British Composers. Stephen Lloyd 1994, Thames Publishing, London (p31, 137, 172-3,183,184,187,199)
- Music for the Love of It. Episodes in Amateur Music Making. Joel Epstein, 2022, ISBN 978-965-92782-3-7 (p120-141)
- British Library Music Catalogue: S Spain-Dunk
- Survey of women composers and conductors listed in Proms programmes 1923-1944. David Gibson 2025 (unpublished).
- British Music for Strings III – South West German Chamber Orchestra CD, Programme Notes by Lewis Foreman 2021 (p 17).
- Susan Spain-Dunk signed manuscripts, publications, concert programmes and press cuttings. Gibson family archives.
- Diary of Catherine Dunk (Susan Spain-Dunk’s mother) 1874-1914. Gibson family archives.
- My Life in Music. The autobiography of Sir Henry Wood, Henry Wood, 1938, Victor Gollancz Ltd.