Are you a descendant of Bedfordshire’s Robarts, Stapley or Diemer families?
If so, would you like to take part in a piece of historical academic research?
In December 1909, Louise Marie Robarts (Later Louise Marie Stapley after she married in 1911) took a graded music examination in Bedford. Her teacher was Ethel Grace Diemer of Bedford. The recent discovery of this exam certificate in a Bedford charity shop has inspired a piece of historical research by Dr Ross Purves of UCL Institute of Education. This is investigating music exams at the time, along with the careers of private music teachers like Miss Diemer and the motivations and experiences of exam candidates like Miss Robarts. The next phase of this research project seeks to make contact with living descendants of these individuals, with the intentions of sharing what has been discovered so far and perhaps gathering further information from family recollections. If you are a descendant of either of these individuals and would like to take part in this research or just find out more, please respond to this post and Ross will get in touch to provide further information.
Many thanks,
Ross Purves
About Dr Ross Purves
Ross Purves is Associate Professor of Music Education at the UCL Institute of Education and a former music teacher and teacher trainer in Bedfordshire. He has a long-standing interest in the history of English music education and devoted much of his doctoral studies to this topic. He has also presented historical findings at UK history of education academic conferences.
