Walter Braithwaite

Who is Walter Braithwaite?

Walter Heurtley Braithwaite was a composer, pianist and teacher. He was born in Gloucester on 24 August 1906, the third of five children born to Rev. Herbert Morris Braithwaite and Julia Mary née Young.

He moved to Worcestershire with his wife Sophy Kathleen Cottrell and became an important member in the founding of both Sunfield School, Clent, and Elmfield Rudolf Steiner School, Stourbridge. Here he composed songs for school plays and festivals, taught music and piano, and accompanied eurythmy lessons. Works include a Sonata for Violin & Piano; Incidental Music for a production of The Merchant of Venice; Music for the Act of Consecration for Piano or Strings, and many other short pieces and songs, arrangements of carols and folk-songs. He also wrote about music theory, teaching and improvisation.

For much of his life Braithwaite lived with his family at 51 Corser Street, Stourbridge. The house, on the corner of Corser Street and Farlands Road, can be seen on Google Street View. Instruments he owned here included two upright pianos, a harmonium, and two square pianos, one of which he converted into a clavichord. He was an early member of The Christian Community church in Stourbridge, for which he wrote music and played piano. He died in Clent on 18 August 1991.