Is it by design that Sir Edward Elgar’s birthday coincides with graduation season? In reality, the composer of the “Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1” was a fairly introverted and often melancholy character. In academic circles, he felt inadequate as he was largely self-taught. He was a Catholic in a largely Protestant country. He married a woman “above his station,” for which she was disinherited. Is it any wonder that he preferred animals to the company of people? Yet this perpetual outsider went on to become his country’s most celebrated composer. Funny, how fate works sometimes.

Happy birthday, Sir Edward Elgar (1857-1934).

Rare footage of Elgar conducting:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-AmryhlRpI

At play with his dogs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y5LtycnkoM

PHOTO: He overcompensated with the most impressive moustache in the land