Young Arthur Sullivan, the Choirboy

Arthur Sullivan’s parents were poor but loving – his Irish father Thomas Sullivan was a music teacher and bandmaster at the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and his mother, Maria Clementina Coghlan, was the granddaughter of Joseph Righi, an Italian from what was then the Kingdom of Sardinia.

Having experienced financial difficulties, Thomas and Clementina hoped that both their sons would enter into stable and respectable professions that would allow them to live comfortably. Their hopes never exactly turned out the way they planned! The older son, Frederick, started out as an architect but switched to acting and eventually made a name for himself as an actor and singer.  In fact, he created the role of the Learned Judge in Trial by Jury, singing music composed by his brother. And despite his parent’s hopes that he would develop an interest in chemistry, Arthur Sullivan was devoted to music from a very young age.

Later in his life, Arthur Sullivan said that from the age of 5, music was all he cared about. At 8 years old, he composed his first anthem, “By the waters of Babylon.” By the time he was sent to a private school in Bayswater at age 9, he could play all the wind instruments in his father’s band at Sandhurst.

It took Sullivan three years to convince his parents to give him the education of his choice, as a chorister of the Chapel Royal. The famous composer Purcell had been a chorister, and Sullivan aimed to follow in those distinguished footsteps. Eventually, he convinced his father to take him to Rev. Thomas Helmore, the master of her Majesty’s Chapel Royal.

Convincing Helmore was not easy. First of all, Helmore had a rule that he would accept no student older than age 9 – and Sullivan was 12. Second, Sullivan’s family lived too far away for the boy to be able to commute during the vacations to sing at St. James’ Palace, which the choristers did even when school was out.

But Sullivan’s good looks and charming nature were already working in his favor. Helmore was impressed by the boy’s excellent voice, his knowledge of the catechism, and his musical expertise. Once Sullivan’s family agreed to let young Arthur stay at the school at Cheyne Walk during vacations, he was ready to take the first step toward his musical career.

Nevertheless, the young choirboy did not have it easy! According to Hesketh Pearson, in Gilbert and Sullivan, a Biography, Helmore did not spare the rod when educating his students:

Helmore believed in the wisdom of Solomon and implanted knowledge with the aid of a stick. Sullivan’s charm did not soften the master’s heart, and since he could not be caned … for not knowing the meaning of fortissimo, he earned his stripes by a want of interest in Latin and Euclid. … Worse still, he “had the gospel to write out 10 times for not knowing it,” though, in his letter home recording the fact, he did not specify the evangelist.

Also, choirboys of the Chapel Royal had other difficulties to contend with. The school at Cheyne Walk was located a couple of miles from St. James’ Palace, where the boys sang twice on Sundays and on every major feast day.  Having to make the 5-mile round trip, wearing a heavy scarlet gold-braided coat, wore Sullivan out so much that he would have to lie down and rest in between.

To make matters worse, those gaudy, gold-covered coats made the boys stand out like sore thumbs as they trudged to St. James’ Palace and back. At the time, Chelsea Embankment had not yet been built and Cheyne Walk ran along the shore of the Thames, a broad road with taverns and coffee shops.  Local street boys and hooligans often hooted and jeered at the unescorted young choirboys, sometimes throwing stones or otherwise harassing them.

Pearson adds, somewhat snarkily, “Once [the choirboys] were violently assailed by a crowd of urchins near Buckingham Palace and might have been severely handled in spite of their desperate defense if a man had not taken their part. Sullivan’s comment, “I managed to get home safely,” rather suggests that he left the honor of the choir in more capable hands and took to his heels.”

Sullivan was known as a charming and upbeat fellow, but his childhood was not entirely idyllic. Between family poverty, canings from his teacher and abuse from street hooligans, he knew adversity. Despite this background, he rose high in society, befriending Queen Victoria’s son Alfred, hanging out at the court of Napoleon and Eugenie in France, and laughing at jokes with the future Kaiser of Germany. It’s truly a rags-to-riches story.