We were very sad to learn about the recent passing of Anthony Boden.
Following a career in the RAF medical service for which he was awarded the Order of St John’s Officer’s Cross in 1987 in recognition of his services to military medicine. He became the Three Choirs Festival organiser between 1989 and1999 and wrote the definitive history of the Festival.
Anthony had a passion for music and literature. In 1995 he was the founding Chairman of the Ivor Gurney Society, of which he was elected president in 2015. His books include ‘Stars in a dark night: the letters of Ivor Gurney to the Chapman Family’ (1986 rev 2004), ‘F W Harvey: Soldier Poet’ (1988 rev 2016), ‘The Parrys of the Golden Vale: background to genius’ (1998), ‘Thomas Tomkins: the last Elizabethan’ (2005), and with R K R Thornton ‘FW Harvey selected poems’ (2011).
He gave strong support to the founding of the F.W. Harvey Society in 2010 and attended many events. He very kindly recently donated his F.W. Harvey research archive based on his research for his biography ‘Soldier, Poet’ to the Society and these have been in turn donated to Dean Heritage Centre and are available for inspection there.