Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012)
Sir Richard Rodney Bennett (1936-2012) is one of two important figures from the Arts world with strong connections to the Budleigh area who passed away last year . As President of the Budleigh Jazz Festival Sir Richard was well known to many local residents. He lived at various houses in Budleigh for more than 20 years until the family settled in Boucher Road in 1945. A photo of the young Richard, right, with his family in the garden of Lace Acre, in Budleigh Saltert on's Boucher Road His father was a writer and his mother a fine musician and pianist, organising local recitals and madrigal groups in which the teenage Richard and his friends would take part. His childhood was not especially happy according to Anthony Meredith’s much praised magistral biography, and moving to London as a student at the Royal Academy of Music was a refreshing change. However he retained his affection for Budleigh, which, as he said in later life “I still love and won’t hav...