Death Of Noted Figure In Art And Music

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31236, 7 December 1966, Page 7

Death Of Noted Figure In Art And Music

"The Press” Special Service WELLINGTON, Dec. 6.

Mr Harry Hugo Tombs, 0.8. E., who died in Wellington last week aged 92, was such a votary of music and art as to have become almost a legendary figure. Certainly many other devotees of those pursuits owe him a great debt.

Harry Tombs, as he was always known, contributed not only his exceptional talents as an instrumentalist and painter. For many years he personally subsidised the publication of “Art In New Zealand” for 17 years, the “Arts Year Book” for seven years, and “Music In New Zealand,” in the interests of those traditionally penurious sectors of culture.

As a businessman, Mr Tombs was a director of H. H. Tombs, Limited, printers and publishers. This firm will close at Christmas. He was born in Christchurch in 1874. After leaving Christ’s College in 1890 he furthered his study of the violin and his interest in chamber music in Leipzig.

On the advice of the late Alfred Hill he was tutored there by Hans Sitt and at the same time he began studying pianoforte. He later took private lessons with Hans Becker. During his three years in Leipzig, his chamber music interest developed enormously.

He then went to England and took up a teaching post, before making a trip to .Africa to gain further experience in concert work. Among other activities he played for a season of Gilbert and Sullivan operas. In London Mr Tombs studied art and after his return to New Zealand he exhibited at the Wellington Academy of Fine Arts, of which he was a member and exhibitor for many years. He had a very successful exhibition in 1928, when two-thirds of the pictures exhibited were sold.

For more than quarter of a century a string quartet met regularly at his home, one of the members being his wife, who was a pupil of Sauret at the Royal Academy, London. The quartet also gave public performances. Mrs Tombs died and Mr Tombs remarried 14 years ago. His second wife died about 18 months ago. For many years English examiners visiting New Zealand usually went to Mr Tombs’s home and took part in some concerted work. When the Sheffield Choir toured New Zealand Mr Tombs was engaged as a violinist in the orchestra, which toured from Auckland to Dunedin and assisted in a fine performance of Elgar’s “Gerontius” and other choral works. He had himself conducted

performances of such works as a Bach Brandenburg Concerto (with Bernard Page as pianist) and Beethoven’s Symphony in C Major. For many years he was also on the executive of the Philharmonic Orchestra, a body which Introduced “celebrity” concerts in Wellington. In 1932 he helped toward the success of a Haydn Festival and he did much to help the formation of a New Zealand section of the British Music Society. As a publisher for the good of art and music in New Zealand Mr Tombs probably has had no rival. The first issue of “Art in New Zealand” was in September, 1928. The business success of the venture was of secondary importance to Mr Tombs, who carried on its publication at considerable financial loss. “Music in New Zealand” made its appearance in April, 1931. It was another piece of purely altruistic work in the service of Dominion music. His sole aim was to provide a medium through which musicians could propagate their ideas, discuss their difficulties, learn what their colleagues were doing in the various centres, gain a knowledge of overseas thought and activity and encourage the nascent musical art of New Zealand.

Mr Tombs is- survived by a son who lives in Turkey.