Early life and familyRalph Vaughan Williams was born at The Vicarage, Down Ampney, on 12 October 1872 to Arthur and Margaret Vaughan Williams. Ralph's father; Arthur was the vicar of All Saints Church in Down Ampney in 1868. On his mother's side Ralph had two famous great-great-grandfathers; Josiah Wedgwood, the founder of Stoke-on-Trent pottery, and Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin. In 1875 Ralph's father died suddenly, when he was only two years old. His mother moved him and his two brothers into the Wedgwood family home: Leith Hill Place, Surrey. Musical training and education Music was very important to the family and his first music lessons were given by his aunt Sophy, who was his mother's sister. He wrote his first piano piece when he was six years old, entitled The Robin's Nest. Ralph and his brothers played duets together and were all good students. Soon it was time for Ralph to go to school, so he followed his brother Hervey to the preparatory school at Rottingdean near Brighton in 1883. He really liked the music teachers there and was introduced to JS Bach. He learned to play the violin and soon became good enough to know Raff's Cavatina by heart. In 1887 Ralph became a student at Charterhouse School near Godalming in Surrey where he remained until 1890. He was fourteen at the time. Here he organized concerts and wanted to devote himself to the viola, but his family did not agree and chose the organ for him instead. In 1890 Ralph entered the Royal College of Music. After two semesters he became a pupil of Sir Hubert Perry. Perry deepened Ralph's musical knowledge and had a certain love for English choral music, which Ralph relied on later in his life. In 1892 Ralph attended Trinity College, Cambridge, to earn an honorary degree in music from Oxford. In 1914 Ralph completed his first opera, Hugh the Drover, a work he had begun writing in 1910. It is a romantic ballad with lyrics by Harold Child that traces the love-at-first-sight relationship of Hugh and Mary, the father's daughter. 'agent. Vaughan Williams wanted to write a "musical" about English life. It's really full of wonderful songs in Vaughan Williams' freshest and most lyrical style. He even manages to set a boxing match between Hugh and John the Butcher, with whom Mary was unhappily married. The opera was first performed publicly in 1924, with the forces of the British National Opera Company conducted by Malcolm Sargent. Work Cited Connock, Stephen, MBE. "The Life of Ralph Vaughan Williams." The Life of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, 19 August 2001. Web. 07 April. 2014.