Margaret Deneke

Margaret Clara Adele Deneke
Margaret Deneke playing piano with her sister Helena
Born	1882
Died	1969
Burial place	Wolvercote Cemetery, Oxford
Monuments	Deneke Building (1932)
Occupation(s)	Pianist, musicologist, choirmaster, benefactor
Years active	1900–1969
Employer	Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford
Known for	Philanthropy
Relatives	Helena Deneke (sister)
Notes
Lived at Gunfield, 19 Norham Gardens, Oxford

Margaret Clara Adele Deneke (1882–1969) was an English pianist, musicologist, choirmaster, and benefactor.

Margaret Deneke was the daughter of Philip Maurice Deneke, a London-based merchant banker who was born in Germany, and his wife, Clara Sophia Overweg, from a Westphalian family.[1]

She lived with her sister, Helena Deneke, a German tutor and bursar at Lady Margaret Hall, an originally women-only Oxford college, at Gunfield, 19 Norham Gardens, near to the college.[1] The sisters held soirees in the music room at Gunfield,[2] attended by guests including Albert Einstein[3] and Albert Schweitzer.[4] For 27 years in the mid-20th century, the Oxford Ladies' Music Society (now the Oxford Chamber Music Society) met at Gunfield free of charge, with Margaret Deneke's sponsorship and support. Margaret Deneke, as well as being a pianist, was also the choirmaster at Lady Margaret Hall. She raised significant funds through concerts and lecture-recitals, becoming one of the college's benefactors.

Legacy

The Deneke Building at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford

Her portrait, with her sister, now located at Lady Margaret Hall, was painted in watercolour by Hubert Andrew Freeth RA.[1] Some of her papers, along with those of her sister, are held in the archive of Lady Margaret Hall.[5] and some of her correspondence is held in the archives of the Bodleian Library in Oxford.[6] She corresponded with the likes of the composer Ralph Vaughan Williams[7] and Helen Keller.[8]

There is now a Deneke Building at Lady Margaret Hall,[9] designed by Giles Gilbert Scott and completed in 1932.[10] During a recital tour of the United States, which Margaret Deneke undertook regularly to support the college financially, the American philanthropist Mary Stillman Harkness, the wife of Edward Harkness, gave a benefaction to her of £35,000. Mrs Harkness insisted that any building made possible by her gift should be named "after those who worked for it and not after those who merely gave money", hence the name of the building.[10]

References

1. Phillips, D. (23 September 2004). "Deneke, Helena Clara (1878–1973)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/56938.
2. "Miss H. C. Deneke". The Times. 1 October 1973.
3. Robinson, Andrew (2024). Einstein in Oxford. Bodleian Library Publishing. pp. 44–50. ISBN 978-1-85124-638-0.
4. Curtis, Mavis (2015). The WI: A Centenary History. Amberley Publishing. pp. 78–79. ISBN 978-1-4456-1704-6.
5. "The papers of Helena and Margaret Deneke, 1900–1969". UK: Lady Margaret Hall. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
6. "Correspondence of Margaret Deneke". Bodleian Archives & Manuscripts. UK: Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
7. "Letter from Ralph Vaughan Williams to Margaret Deneke". The Letters of Ralph Vaughan Williams. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
8. "Letter from Margaret Deneke, NYC to Helen Keller and Polly Thomson about her visit to the U.S., acco... 1955". Helen Keller Archive. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
9. "The Deneke Building". UK: Lady Margaret Hall. Retrieved 25 August 2024.
10. "Deneke Building, Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford". GilbertScott.org. Retrieved 25 August 2024.