Trivia

His eldest son Adrian Welles Beecham succeeded him in the baronetcy.

The eldest son of the late Sir Joseph Beecham, the wealthy manufacturer of pills and the famous Beecham's Powders.

Met future wife Betty Humby when she was 12. She played at several of his concerts.

He was awarded Knight Bachelor of the Order of the British Empire in the 1916 King's Honours List for his services to music.

Succeeded to the baronetcy on the death of his father (who had been made a Baron in 1914) in 1916.

He was awarded a Companion of Honour in the 1957 Queen's Honours List for his services to music.

Two sons by his first marriage

He formed the Royal Philharmonic in 1947, and conducted it from 1947 until his death.

He is as famous for his dry, sarcastic witticisms as for his conducting.

He is considered the greatest English conductor.

He was a great champion of Frederick Delius.

His early stereo recording of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's "Scheherazade" is widely considered the finest performance of the work.

In 1959, he recorded a drastically re-orchestrated stereo version of Handel's "Messiah", rescored by Sir Eugene Goossens for a huge chorus and a modern symphony orchestra, complete with cymbals and tam-tams. Purists were horrified, but today the recording has been critically re-assessed and found to be immensely entertaining.

He sincerely and honestly believed that the works of George Frideric Handel had to be re-orchestrated and edited before they were acceptable to a modern audience, and he often did exactly that. Today this attitude would be considered sacrilegious by some; however, Beecham, unlike Leopold Stokowski, never re-orchestrated just for show, and CDs of Beecham's versions of Handel's works continue to be released to great acclaim.