Wilfred Brown was an accomplished English tenor.

He was born in Horsham

Horsham

Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...

, Sussex and educated at Collyer's School

The College of Richard Collyer

The College of Richard Collyer, or Collyer's, is a coeducational sixth form college in Horsham, West Sussex, England.-Admissions:Collyer's serves about 1600 students between 16 and 19 years of age. It offers AS and A-level courses in 45 different subjects, including a selection not taught at other...

, then at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge

Sidney Sussex College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in England.The college was founded in 1596 and named after its foundress, Frances Sidney, Countess of Sussex. It was from its inception an avowedly Puritan foundation: some good and godlie moniment for the mainteynance...

, and Trinity College of Music

Trinity College of Music

Trinity College of Music is one of the London music conservatories, based in Greenwich. It is part of Trinity Laban.The conservatoire is inheritor of elegant riverside buildings of the former Greenwich Hospital, designed in part by Sir Christopher Wren...

. Brown was a lifelong member of the Religious Society of Friends

Britain Yearly Meeting

The Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends in Britain, also known as Britain Yearly Meeting , is a religious organisation in England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, often defined as a denomination of Christianity.It is a part of the international religious...

. He was Master in charge of Music at Bedales before becoming a full-time musician.

Like fellow Petersfield

Petersfield, Hampshire

Petersfield is a market town and civil parish in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is north of Portsmouth, on the A3 road. The town has its own railway station on the Portsmouth Direct Line, the mainline rail link connecting Portsmouth and London. The town is situated on the...

 resident Michael John Hurd

Michael John Hurd

Michael John Hurd was a composer and musicologist principally known for his choral music.He was born in Gloucester on 19 December 1928 and educated at The Crypt School, Gloucester and Pembroke College, Oxford.He was also a composition pupil of Lennox Berkeley...

, he championed the work of Gerald Finzi

Gerald Finzi

Gerald Raphael Finzi was a British composer. Finzi is best known as a song-writer, but also wrote in other genres...

, who was a personal friend. In 1957, at St James' Square, London, Brown gave the first performance of Till Earth Outwears, a posthumous collection of Finzi's settings of poems by Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy

Thomas Hardy, OM was an English novelist and poet. While his works typically belong to the Naturalism movement, several poems display elements of the previous Romantic and Enlightenment periods of literature, such as his fascination with the supernatural.While he regarded himself primarily as a...

. In 1963 he recorded what is often cited as the definitive performance of the composer's Dies natalis (Op.8)

Dies natalis

Dies natalis is a five-movement work by Gerald Finzi, setting texts by Thomas Traherne, for solo soprano or tenor and string orchestra.-History:Dies Natalis is a cantata for solo voice and string orchestra...

with the English Chamber Orchestra

English Chamber Orchestra

The English Chamber Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and the ECO Ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall...

, under the direction of the composer's son, Christopher Finzi

Christopher Finzi

Christopher "Kiffer" Finzi is a British orchestral conductor.He is the son of composer Gerald Finzi. Like his father, the younger Finzi became a pacifist; he refused to do his National Service, and was briefly imprisoned. After his father's death in 1956, he helped his mother, Joy Finzi, to...

. He had previously studied the work with the composer and had been his choice in several performances. He was a great friend of the guitarist John Williams

John Williams (guitarist)

John Christopher Williams is an Australian classical guitarist, and a long-term resident of the United Kingdom. In 1973, he shared a Grammy Award win in the 'Best Chamber Music Performance' category with Julian Bream for Julian and John .-Biography:John Williams was born on 24 April 1941 in...

 and recorded a noted collection of English folk songs with him.

Brown died in Petersfield from a brain tumour on 5 March 1971, aged 49. In his last recital, given at Highclere Castle

Highclere Castle

Highclere Castle is a country house in the Jacobethan style, with park designed by Capability Brown. The 1,000 acre estate is in the English county of Hampshire, about south of the border with Berkshire, and south of Newbury...

 in Hampshire

Hampshire

Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...

, he had sung Dies Natalis.