The Penguin Song Book by Leslie Woodgate

The Penguin Song Book

by Leslie Woodgate

Penguin, 1958, music and verse throughout, landscape paperback

Good Condition, some edge and shelf wear, some rubbing and bumping to edges and corners, no inscriptions, age toned pages and covers, some tears to spine (see photographs)

“Leslie Woodgate was born in London 15 April 1902.  At the age of eight he became a chorister of Holy Trinity Church, Sloane Street, Chelsea, where he taught himself to play the organ.  IN 1918 he was appointed organist and choirmaster of St Andrew’s Church, Chelsea.  He joined the theatrical company of Where the Rainbow Ends as a pupil of the Italia Conti School of Dancing and Acting and later toured in The Luck of the Navy.  He was on the staff of the music publisher Winthrop Rogers and for nine years was Roger Quilter’s private secretary.  From 1919 to 1924 he studied the organ with Sir Walter Alcock and composition with Dr C. Armstrong Gibbs at the Royal College of Music.  In 1923 he was awarded a Carnegie Prize for Composition for a work for Men’s Chorus, Strings, Piano and Organ.  He became a B.B.C. official in 1929 and was appointed Chorus Master in 1934.  In 1938 he was made a Freeman of the City of London and in 1947 a Liveryman of the Worshipful Company of Musicians.  He is a member of the Royal Philharmonic Society and an Honorary Life Governor of the Middlesex Hospital.”