Felix Harold White

Felix Harold White (27 April 1884 31 January 1945) was an English composer, music teacher and pianist. Early career and war White was born in Fetcham, Surrey into a Jewish family originally called Weiss. He was the oldest of five children, and initially worked with his coal merchant father and his brothers transporting coal around Surrey. But his mother had taught him piano from the age of five and he made rapid progress, and soon developed a career as a music teacher. Other than that he was largely self taught, though Hubert Parry took an interest in his work and helped secure some early performances. In 1914, White married Marta Scholten, a Swiss-German, and in 1916 he registered as a conscientious objector. For the rest of the war he was sent off away from his family to work on a farm in Cornwall, and then to another farm in Hemel Hempstead. His Fanfare for a Challenge to Accepted Ideas of 1921 was inspired by his resistance to the war and militarism. Post war Before and during the war White was living in Kingston-upon-Thames. During the 1920s, White and his family were living at 28, Hilldrop Crescent, London N7. Between 1933 and 1935 White played with the London Philharmonic Or