Richard Beattie Davis
28 August 1922 - 6 September 2008

Richard Beattie Davis, was a native of Sandhurst, Kent, England and was for many years a keen collector of first and early editions of Western and Russian music. He wrote articles on Henselt, Hummel, Balakirev, Lyapunov and Belaieff and mounted exhibitions and gave talks in London, Germany and south Florida. He contributed works listings of a number of other Russian composers, together with sleeve-notes for recorded works of Lyapunov, Balakirev, Henselt, Rakhmaninov and Scriabin.

He was, for many years, on the governing board of the 'Purcell School of Music' (London). In the 1950s he sang under John Minchington and with Al Cuieno with the London Bach Group. In the 1960s he was a founding member of the 'Haydn Opera Society' (London). He contributed articles to the 2nd.Edition of 'The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians', and a forthcoming encyclopaedia of Russian music, currently in preparation. He wrote the definitive work on the Russian music publisher, Mitrofan Petrovich Belaieff many of whose publications are lodged with the 'Special Collections' of the S.E.Wimberly Library, Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida. (www.library.fau.edu/depts/spc/davis.htm) Richard Davis was the honorary president of the 'Internationale Adolph-Henselt-Gesellschaft' (Schwabach, Germany) and presented papers, made listings and mounted music exhibitions.

Richard Beattie Davis was born in Croydon, England on 28 August 1922. He died of cancer in Kent on 6 September 2008.

Gillian Wimbourne