Name Charles Terry Role Historian | ||
 | ||
Died November 5, 1936, Aberdeen, United Kingdom Books Bach: A Biography, Bach's Chorals Part I: Th, Bach's Chorals Part 3 ‑ T, The Scottish Parliament, A catalogue of the pub | ||
Education Clare College, Cambridge | ||
Charles Sanford Terry (24 October 1864, Newport Pagnell – 5 November 1936, Aberdeen) was an English historian and musicologist who published extensively on Scottish and European history as well as the life and works of J. S. Bach.
Contents
Career
Terry was the eldest son of Charles Terry, a physician, and Ellen Octavia Prichard. After attending St Paul's Cathedral School, King's College School, and Lancing College, he was an undergraduate at Clare College, Cambridge, where he obtained a B.A. in history (2nd class) in 1886 and an M.A. in 1891. He held lectureships in history at Durham College of Science (now part of the University of Newcastle-upon-Tyne), the University of Aberdeen and the University of Cambridge. In 1901 he married Edith Mary Allfrey of Newport Pagnell, daughter of Francis Allfrey, a brewer; the marriage was childless. He was appointed Burnett-Fletcher Professor of History and Archaeology at the University of Aberdeen from 1903 until his retirement in 1930. He served as president of the Association of Scottish History. Terry was also known as a composer and amateur musician. In 1898 he became conductor of the Aberdeen University Choral and Orchestral Society, with roughly 150 singers and 70 instrumentalists; and in 1909 he founded the Aberdeen and North East of Scotland Music Festival.
Terry had a close professional and personal association with Edward Elgar, both being involved in the Three Choirs Festival in the cathedrals of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester. Terry arranged for Elgar to receive an honorary doctorate from the University of Aberdeen in 1906 and four years later helped with the proofreading of the original manuscript of the violin concerto, which Elgar later bequeathed to him. Terry later gifted this volume to his colleague at the University of Aberdeen Sir John Marnoch
Works
Terry published extensively on several aspects of Scottish history, and wrote a Short History of Europe (1806–1915). He published many books on the life and works of J. S. Bach between 1915 and 1932 and became known as an authority on Bach; his works have become classics in Bach scholarship.