Gwynne Kimpton
Edith Gwynne Kimpton was a pioneering woman conductor and founder of many orchestras, including the British Women's Symphony Orchestra in 1923.
Early career
Kimpton was of Welsh parentage. She attended the Guildhall School of Music and the Royal Academy of Music, studying violin with Alfred Gibson, and began her professional career as a violinist. She was for many years the leader of the orchestra at Bow and Bromley, which she first conducted in 1893. There was an associated choir at Bow and Bromley, conducted by William McNaught. She also taught music at Bromley High School for Girls in the 1890s. Kimpton founded the Strings Club in 1902 to further string quartet playing, and organised and played in many string quartet concerts in Bromley between 1906 and 1914.From January to June 1911 Kimpton was the conductor of the Orchestral Concerts for Young People series of five concerts and short lectures held at the Steinway Hall, the first concerts to be given for children in London. At this pre-war period she set up various orchestras and conducted them, including an orchestra at Chislehurst, and a professional London orchestra using women members of the London Symphony and Queen's Hall orchestras. During the war she formed the London Amateur Orchestra. In 1917 she co-founded the Bromley Symphony Orchestra.