1. Walford Davies served with the Royal Air Force during the First World War, during which he composed the Royal Air Force March Past, and was music adviser to the British Broadcasting Corporation, for whom he gave commended talks on music between 1924 and 1941.
Henry Walford Davies was born in the Shropshire town of Oswestry.
Walford Davies was the seventh of nine children of John Whitridge Davies and Susan, nee Gregory, and the youngest of four surviving sons.
Walford Davies's father, although an accountant by profession, was an amateur musician who founded and conducted a choral society at Oswestry and was choirmaster of Christ Church Congregational church: at which Walford was a chorister, and at which Walford's siblings, Charlie and Harold, later held the post of organist.
Harold Davies was professor of music at the University of Adelaide from 1919 to 1947.
In 1882 Walford Davies was accepted as a chorister at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, by the organist, Sir George Elvey.
When his voice broke in 1885 Walford Davies left the choir and later that year was appointed organist of the Royal Chapel of All Saints, Windsor Great Park and was secretary to Elvey's successor, Walter Parratt, and Dean Randall Davidson.
Walford Davies entered for the Cambridge bachelor of music examinations in 1889, but his exercise failed.
In 1890 Walford Davies was awarded a scholarship in composition at the Royal College of Music, London, where he was a student until 1894.
Walford Davies considered resigning the post in 1896, when he failed the counterpoint paper in the Cambridge examinations for the degree of doctor of music; he was successful at his second attempt, and the doctorate was conferred in March 1898.
In May 1898 Walford Davies was appointed organist and director of the choir at the Temple Church in the City of London, a post he retained until 1923.
In 1919 Walford Davies accepted the professorship of music at University College, Aberystwyth, together with the post of director of music for the University of Wales and chairman of the National Council of Music.
Walford Davies wrote "God Be in My Head" and several other pieces at Witham Hall, which was the home of a friend.
Walford Davies resigned his professorship at Aberystwyth in 1926, when he was appointed by the BBC as a music adviser, but he remained chairman of the National Council of Music until his death.
Walford Davies was from 1927 to 1932 organist and director of St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Walford Davies became well known for his programmes "Music and the Ordinary Listener", his wartime broadcasts for children, and "Everyman's Music".
Walford Davies proved himself to be one of the very few lecturers who could immediately establish the sense of personal contact with audiences over the wireless.
Walford Davies died at Wrington, near Bristol, on 11 March 1941, and his ashes were buried in the graveyard of Bristol Cathedral.