Ida Gertrude Carroll was born in 1905. Daughter of Walter Carroll, composer of children's music, choirmaster and a powerful figure in Manchester's education authority, there was no way she would not live a musical life.
She entered her studies at the Matthay School of Music (Manchester Branch) in its early years as a piano student. When the school wanted to put together a string orchestra but were lacking a double bassist, she took up the instrument to fill the space.
In the late 1920s, she met a chap called Geoffrey Griffiths. He was a a travel agent at the office her father bought his train tickets from. Walter invited him to sing in his choir at Birch Church, which is where we assume he met Ida. They feel deeply in love but with her father's seeming disapproval and the untimely interruption of the Second World War they never married. During the war Ida volunteered as an Air Raid Warden for Didsbury and Geoffrey as part of the Auxiliary Fire Service for Ashton. After the war, Geoffrey accepted the role of Bursar of the school, allowing far more closeness than their lifestyles previously allowed. It was only when Walter died in 1956 that they were able to explore more freedoms as a couple.
During this period of war and romance, Ida had become secretary of the school and was doing a pretty sterling job of it. So much so that she was placed in charge of the school whenever its principal Hilda Collens became ill (an occurrence more frequent as the years went on). When Hilda died in 1955, she was made acting principal and later promoted to principal proper.
She steered the school through nearly 20 years of negotiations with the local councils and the Royal Manchester College of Music to create the new enterprise, the Northern College of Music, in 1972 (later the RNCM).
Her dedication to music teaching and education was awarded with an OBE in 1964 and an honorary degree or two, she was also President of Incorporated Society of Musicians in 1976 and a powerful member of the Musicians Benevolent Fund, the European String Teachers’ Association, the Graucob Travel Awards, Live Music Now and the Northern Chamber Orchestra.
She died in 1995, just a couple of years after Geoffery.
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