Scarborough gains a blue plaque to commemorate Frederick Delius scribe Eric Fenby
Scarborough Civic Society has unveiled a plaque to honour Eric Fenby, the musician, composer, pianist, organist and teacher.
Fenby is best known for having assisted the Bradford-born composer Frederick Delius in his final years.
Born in 1906 and educated at Scarborough Municipal School, Fenby was musically gifted, equipped with perfect pitch and a treble voice.
By the age of 12, he was organist at Holy Trinity Church.
His talent recognised by Alick Maclean, conductor of the Scarborough Spa Orchestra, he was invited to conduct his early compositions.
In 1928, at the age of 22, Fenby heard that Frederick Delius, was gravely ill with a condition which left him blind and virtually paralysed.
Fenby offered his services as musical scribe, which Delius accepted, beginning a six-year partnership until Delius died in 1934.
In this period, Delius was able to complete several of his finest works, including A Song of Summer and Songs of Farewell.
Towards the end, Fenby was effectively acting as nurse to the dying composer, and after his death, assisted his widow, arranging for his exhumed body to be returned to Limpsfield in Surrey for permanent burial.
This experience was recounted in Ken Russell’s 1968 film, A Song of Summer, with Fenby as adviser on the script. Fenby also featured in a 1981 documentary film, A Song of Farewell, which followed him as he made a return visit to Grez-sur-Loing, where Delius died.
The film was screened to a busy house at the Stephen Joseph Theatre last November.
Fenby was commissioned in the Royal Army Education Corps during World War Two, after which he married Rowena, daughter of a Scarborough vicar, and they had two children, Roger and Ruth.
He then turned to teaching, being appointed Music Director of the then North Riding College of Education (now Scarborough TEC) in 1948. The Civic Society will be unveiling a further heritage plaque next year to celebrate this association.
Later, he was awarded the OBE in 1962 for his work as artistic director of the Delius Festival in Bradford that year, and then appointed Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music in 1964.
Retiring from the Royal Academy in 1977, he returned to Scarborough, where he died in 1997.
He is buried in Scalby churchyard with his wife Rowena.
The unveiling of the plaque took place at 12 Mayville Avenue, where the Fenby family lived between 1919 and 1938.