Early years and familyRalph Vaughan Williams was born at The Vicarage, Down Ampney, on 12 October 1872 to Arthur and Margaret Vaughan Williams. Ralph's father; Arthur was the vicar of All Saints Church in Down Ampney in 1868. On his mother's side, Ralph had two famous great-great-grandfathers; Josiah Wedgwood, founder of Stoke-on-Trent pottery, and Erasmus Darwin, the grandfather of Charles Darwin. In 1875, Ralph's father died suddenly, when he was only two years old. His mother moved him and his two siblings to the Wedgwood family home: Leith Hill Place, Surrey. Musical training and schoolingMusic was very important to the family and his first music lessons were given by his aunt Sophy, who was his mother's sister. He wrote his first piano piece at the age of six, called The Robin's Nest. Ralph and his siblings played duets together and all were good students. Soon it came time for Ralph to go to school. He therefore followed his brother Hervey to Rottingdean Preparatory School near Brighton in 1883. He greatly appreciated the music teachers and was introduced to JS Bach. He learned the violin and quickly became gifted enough to know Raff's Cavatina by heart. In 1887 Ralph became a student at Charterhouse School near Godalming in Surrey where he remained until 1890, when he was fourteen. Here he organized concerts and wanted to pursue the viola, but his family did not agree and chose the organ for him. In 1890, Ralph entered the Royal College of Music. After two semesters, he became a student of Sir Hubert Perry. Perry developed Ralph's musical knowledge and had a certain love of English choral music, which Ralph relied on later in life. In 1892, Ralph went to Trinity College, Cambridge, to obtain an honorary doctorate in music from Oxford. In 1914, Ralph completed his first opera, Hugh the Drover, a work he had begun writing in 1910. It is a romantic ballad with lyrics by Harold Child chronicling the love at first sight relationship between Hugh and Mary, the constable's daughter. Vaughan Williams wanted to write a “musical” about English life. It is indeed full of wonderful melodies in Vaughan Williams' freshest and most lyrical style. He even managed to arrange a boxing match between Hugh and John the Butcher, to whom Mary was about to be unhappily married. The opera was first publicly performed in 1924, with forces from the British National Opera Company led by Malcolm Sargent.Work CitedConnock, Stephen, MBE. “The Life of Ralph Vaughan Williams.” The Life of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, August 19, 2001. Web. April 7. 2014.