Powell , Dora Mary , 1874-1964 , née Penny , musicologist

Dora Mary Powell, née Penny, born 8 Feb 1874, daughter of Rev Alfred Penny and Dora Mary Heale. Following the death of her mother, she lived at Highfield with her grandmother while her father served in missionary work in the Melanesian and Solomon Islands. She rejoined her father at Wolverhampton, where he had been appointed Rector in 1895. Soon after he married Mary Frances Baker, who was a childhood friend of Caroline Alice Roberts, whom Edward Elgar married in 1889. As well as being stepmother of Dora, she was the sister of William Meath Baker, sister-in-law to Richard Baxter Townshend, and a close friend of Isabell Fitton, all of whom feature in Elgar's 'Enigma Variations'. In this way Dora Penny became acquainted with the Elgars and was to be characterised as 'Dorabella' (Variation X) of the Variations. She also became a close friend of A J Jaeger ('Nimrod' of the Variations). She took singing lessons, sang in the Wolverhampton Choral Society, and kept diaries during her years at Wolverhampton which record in passing this circle of friends. She lost regular contact with the Elgars after their move to Hampstead in 1912, paying a penultimate visit in 1913. She made her final visit to the Elgars shortly after her marriage to Richard Crofts Powell in Jan 1914. The couple moved to East Grinstead, Sussex. Richard Powell died in 1962 and Dora Powell died in 1964.