The Dolmetsch Family and Early Music
work in progress

Listed below are those members who have played a significant part in the family's involvement in early music.
This information is not yet complete and we are awaiting further details. The tree will shortly be added to by giving details of Arnold Dolmetsch's family origins in Switzerland and Germany.
Friedrich Dolmetsch
born: 1782 (Stüttgart, Germany)
died: 1861 (Zürich, Switzerland)
Swiss composer
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Frédéric (Frederik) Dolmetsch
Arnold Dolmetsch's uncle
born: 27 Mar. 1814, Zürich, Switzerland
died: 23 Apr 1892, Nantes, France
Director of Municipal Orchestra, Nantes
arranger and composer
Arnold Rudolf Dolmetsch
Arnold Dolmetsch's father
born: 11 Oct. 1827, Zürich, Switzerland
married: Nov. 1856 Marie Zélie GUILLOUARD (1836-1926)
died: 25 Mar. 1874, Le Mans, France
ARNOLD DOLMETSCH
born: 24 Feb. 1858 Le Mans, France
died: 28 Feb. 1940, Haslemere, Surrey, England
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AD married first
MARIE ELIZABETH (ELIZA) MOREL
born: 1848, Namur, Belgium
married: 28 May 1878
St. George's, Hanover Square
London, England
divorced from AD: 30 Nov. 1898
died: Mar 1916, Lambeth, England

issue: one daughter
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HÉLÈNE DOLMETSCH
born: 14 Apr. 1878, Nancy, France
died: 7 Jul. 1924, Dulwich, England
following a stroke
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AD married second
ELODIE DESIRÉE DOLMETSCH
(née Elodie Desirée Franche Lelong)
born: 1 Apr. 1869, Couillet, Charleroi, Belgium
married: 11 Sep. 1899, Zurich, Switzerland
(previous married to Arnold's brother Edgar(d)
Edgar(d) - born: 28 Mar. 1864, Le Mans, France
died 9 Dec. 1904, Calvados, France
Edgar and Elodie married: 01 Oct. 1887, Avesnes, France)

divorce from AD made absolute: 19 Sep. 1903, Zurich, Switzerland
died: unknown, but later than 4 Dec. 1926
no issue
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AD married third
MABEL JOHNSTON
born: 6 Aug. 1874
married: 23 Sep. 1903
Marylebone Town Hall
London, England
died: 12 Aug. 1963 Haslemere, England
issue: two sons and two daughters
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CECILE DOLMETSCH
born: 22 Mar. 1904 Dorking, England
married: Sep. 1925, Hambledon RO C. Leslie. C. Ward (d. 1989)
died: 8 Aug. 1997, Guildford, Surrey

issue: four children

NATHALIE DOLMETSCH
born: 31 Jul. 1905 Cook County, Chicago, USA
married: 12 Apr. 1929 Hambledon RO George Carley
died: 14 Feb. 1989 Yeovil, England

issue: three children

RUDOLPH DOLMETSCH
born: 8 Nov. 1906 Cambridge, Mass, USA
married: Dec. 1929, Hambledon RO Marian Millicent Wheaton (5 Feb. 1906 - 24 Jul. 1988)
lost at sea 6/7 Dec. 1942

no issue

CARL DOLMETSCH
born: 23 Aug. 1911 Fontenay-sous-Bois, France
married: 1937 Mary Ferguson (16 Feb. 1915 - 15 Oct. 1996)
died: 11 Jul. 1997 Haslemere, Surrey

issue: two sons and twin daughters
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FRANCOIS DOLMETSCH
born: 4 Oct. 1940, Haslemere, Surrey
issue: son and daughter

JEANNE-MARIE DOLMETSCH
born: 15 Aug. 1942, Haslemere, Surrey
issue: one daughter (died 21 Aug. 2004)
died: 29 Oct. 2018, Guildford, Surrey

MARGUERITE MABEL DOLMETSCH
born: 15 Aug. 1942, Haslemere, Surrey
issue: twin sons and one daughter

RICHARD DOLMETSCH
born: 1945, Haslemere
died: 1966
no issue


Biographical Details

Marie Elizabeth (Eliza) Morel
(born: 1848 died: 1916)
A lawyer's daughters from Nancy, Marie Morel had settled in Le Mans when she married. By the time Arnold Dolmetsch met her she had been widowed, and was the pianist in a small local chamber group which Arnold Dolmetsch joined at the invitation of a cellist friend Provost. Dolmetsch's family was furious when he announced his wish to marry Marie. She was nine years his senior. As he was not yet 21, under French law he could not marry without family consent. In England this bar did not exist and shortly after the birth of their daughter Hélène they travelled to London to be married. London did not keep them long and they soon returned to Nancy before taking a steam-packet to the US to Louisville where Marie gave piano lessons and Arnold worked on outlaying farms. They soon returned to France, gaining the forgiveness of his family, but Arnold wanted to broaden his musical education for which purpose the family moved to Brussels where Arnold began private lessons with the noted virtuoso of the violin, Henri Vieuxtemps. He enroled at the Conservatoire in Brussels then the centre of the French-speaking musical world and celebrated for its excellence in string teaching.

Hélène Dolmetsch
(born: 1878 died: 1924)
A fine performer on the viola da gamba and the cello, one of her most noted pupils was the Australian-born cellist Joyce Sands

Elodie Désirée Dolmetsch
(born: 1869 died: ----)
Elodie, born Elodie Désirée Franche Lelong, was formerly married to Arnold's brother Edgard (in English, Edgar) and a fine performer on the harpsichord. She and Edgard married in Avesnes, France on 1 Oct. 1887. Following her divorce, made absolute on 19 Sep. 1903, from her second husband, Arnold Dolmetsch, she returned to France and enjoyed some success as a harpsichordist and singer in Paris, having reverted to her maiden name of Elodie Lelong.

Mabel Johnston
(born: 1874 died: 1963)
Born the 13th child in a family of fourteen, Mabel Johnston was the daughter of a well-to-do Scottish insurance broker who had settled south of the border. They lived in Denmark Hill in a large house set in its own grounds with lawns, fountains and all the accompanying luxuries synonymous with late-Victorian middle-class prosperity. Her father, probably as a result of him organising his own further education, saw to it that all his children had the broadest academic and cultural training. Mabel was fluent in both French and Italian which was a distinct advantage with Dolmetsch to whom she applied in June 1896 for a position as violin student and apprentice musical instrument-maker. One of her brothers was the famous African explorer and colonial adminstrator Sir Harry Johnston after whom the okapi is named.

Cecile Dolmetsch
(born: 1904 died: 1997)
click on name for biographical details

Nathalie Dolmetsch
(born: 1905 died: 1989)

Rudolph Dolmetsch
(born: 1906 died: 1942)
click on name for biographical details

Carl Dolmetsch
(born: 1911 died: 1997)
click on name for biographical details

Francois Dolmetsch
(born: 1940)

Jeanne-Marie Dolmetsch
(born: 1942 died: 2018)
click on name for biographical details

Marguerite Mabel Dolmetsch
(born: 1942)
click on name for biographical details

Richard Dolmetsch
(born: 1945 died: 1966)