Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961) conductor, composer and operatic impresario, was the founder of several orchestras including the London Philharmonic and Royal Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Beecham Opera Company which led to the formation of the British National Opera Company. He was for 40 years one of the world's greatest conductors.

He was born in St. Helens, Lancashire, the son of a wealthy pharmaceutical manufacturer, and educated at Rossall School and Wadham College, Oxford. In 1899, at the age of twenty and with no special musical training he founded an amateur orchestra, and seven years later created the New Symphony Orchestra which performed at the Queen's Hall. Two years after this he formed the Beecham Symphony Orchestra. In the generous commitment of his personal fortune to the world of musical performance he notably supported new music, including that of Richard Strauss, and in particular during these years and ever after he championed the works of Delius, whose reputation he effectively established. His career as an operatic impresario began in 1909 with a production of Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers at His Majesty's Theatre. In 1911 he was, with his father's financial support, instrumental in bringing to England for the first time Serge Dhiagilev's Russian Ballet, and Russian opera and ballet seasons took place in subsequent years up to the outbreak of war. Beecham was knighted for his services to music in 1916. During the 1914-18 war he produced opera in English, with a repertoire extending from Leoncavallo and Puccini to Mozart, Wagner and Moussorgsky. He undertook the conductorship of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London and the Halle Orchestra in Manchester. Following a "grand" season at Covent Garden in 1920, having outrun his financial resources, he retired from active musical direction for some three years, and the Beecham Opera Company was transformed into the British National Opera Company.

On resuming his musical work as an orchestral conductor, Beecham added Handel to his list of particular favourites, and his performances of Messiah and other oratorios were notable for their vitality and insight. In 1928 he became conductor of the Leeds Triennial Festival, and in the years leading up to 1939 was responsible for remarkable performances of the choral works of Delius, Verdi and Berlioz, amongst others. His work for opera continued with an association with Covent Garden, where he conducted Wagner's Ring annually for a number of years (his performances of Wagner in Germany were well received), but his attempt to found an Imperial League of Opera, which he began to promote late in 1927, coincided with the era of economic depression, and failed before it could begin large-scale operations. The creation of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 1932 was by contrast an outstanding success. In 1935 he began, and thereafter continued enthusiastically, to promote the music of Sibelius.

Beecham's essentially eclectic approach was typified by his preference for Mozart over other German masters such as Bach, Beethoven and Brahms. His extraordinary memory meant that he would frequently conduct without a score.

During the 1939-45 War he remained in the United States, having long threatened to emigrate in reaction to the musical conditions in his own country, and also undertook tours of Canada and Australia. His strongly-held views and indiscretion in speeches were well known, and he made no apology for his acute wit on the shortcomings of British musical standards. Whilst in the United States he married the pianist Betty Humby (his second wife - Beecham married three times in all). After the War he returned to the musical scene with vigour, and in 1957 he was made a Companion of Honour; numerous other honours having been bestowed on him by other nations over the years. In his eightieth year he had a triumphant season at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, following an international concert tour. Late in 1958 he returned to England, where he unveiled a bust of himself at the Festival Hall, and undertook a series of concerts, and plans for conducting Mozart's Die Zauberflöte at Glyndebourne followed before deteriorating health intervened. He died on 8th March 1961.

Sir Thomas had close links with the city of Sheffield, where the Sir Thomas Beecham Trust established its first scholarship in the University's Department of Music in 1992. He conducted many concerts in the Sheffield City Hall, despite his much-quoted verbal attacks on the two stone lions prominent on the stage, and his links with the city were encouraged through regular visits to the home of Sheffield industrialist Herman Lindars, a professionally trained musician, and close contacts with the University's Vice-Chancellor, Sir William Henry Hadow, another music enthusiast, in the period of the Imperial League of Opera.

Beecham's autobiography 'A Mingled Chime' was published in 1944, and his biography by Frederick Delius in 1959, on both of which works these notes are partly based.