There's still quite a bit of work to do, but here is the first draft of the biography:
William Wooding StarmerWilliam Wooding Starmer (1867-1927) was a noted expert on bells, an organist and a choirmaster. He was the son of Edwin William Starmer. He settled in Tunbridge Wells becoming the organist and choirmaster of St. Mark’s. By 1901 he was the local secretary for Trinity College, organising local examinations in music. On 20 December 1901 a lecture he gave on the mechanical and technical aspects of bells, along with experiments he had performed, was reported in the local paper.
The 1911 census records him at 20 Warwick Park as a “Professor of Music, Organist, Conductor” By 1917 he had moved to 52, Warwick Park and by 1927 to the High Street Tunbridge Wells. He died on 27 October 1927.
He married Hon. Florence Somerville who survived him and died in Cape Town on 24 July 1947. He had at least one child, William Lionel Meredyth Starmer.
By 1919 he was regarded as “the local musicologist and bell expert W W Starmer” and was asked to advise St Peter’s Tunbridge Wells on their proposed recasting and rehanging of the Bells. Starmer had a close relationship with Taylor’s of Loughborough and aparently did not regard Gillett & Johnston of London as their equal: “surely he would not go to a clockmaker to hang bells!” Later he wrote:
“You know well that I have never written a single word re bells save to recommend Taylors of Loughborough and they will ever have the first chance in every thing I can get within my grasp. There is only one bellfounder for me. I am just unfortunately placed here re Gillett and Johnston but I could not help myself. Johnston is a very decent harmless fellow. He know something but not very much re bells. In our way. I have not written a word re old St Peters Bells. I have simply praised them as a matter of course. and studiously avoided any thing controversial. I gave my authority for the bells to be created etc but no certificate what ever. and if they want it, it will have to be dragged out of me and that will be a long a difficult process as I can be stubborn when necessity arises I assure you. and you may bottom dollar that in the end I shall be on top. This is a very egotistical statement but I believe it to be true.”
1 He performed a similar service for Rochester Cathedral in 1920. The Chapter minute books record the payment £5-5-0 expenses to him in September for investigating Gillett’s offer on the bells and subsequently £10-10-0 fee and expenses the following month.
1 T338 (Taylor's, Folder 11/4) W W Starmer to Denison Taylor, 7 May 1920
