Samuel Ernest Palmer, 1st Lord Palmer

Samuel Ernest Palmer (1858–1948), 1st Baron Palmer of Reading, was one of the most generous benefactors of both the Royal College of Music (RCM) and British music as a whole. He was a member of the close-knit Palmer family that owned the famous manufacturer of biscuits, Huntley and Palmer of Reading. He remained a director of the firm for many years, and was deputy chairman of the Great Western Railway (1906–1943).

A keen amateur musician himself, Palmer served on the Council of the RCM (1898–1949), was Vice-President (1928–1948) and, for a time, Acting President. He endowed the RCM Patron’s Fund in 1904, which promoted the first performances of works by British composers under the age of 40, and later the Ernest Palmer Fund for Opera Study and the Berkshire Scholarship. In 1921 he was made the first Fellow of the Royal College of Music (FRCM), and in 1933 was awarded the first peerage to be conferred for services to music.