William Lloyd Webber was born in London in 1914. His Father encouraged him to learn to play the organ, and by the time he was 14 he was already well known for his frequent organ recitals. He went on to study with Vaughan Williams at the Royal College of Music, and also began to compose. It was after the Second World War that his career as a composer really began, as he began to write in a range of different forms - both instrumental and vocal. However, he became disillusioned with the criticism he received for his Romantic style and influences, and from 1964 and for the next twenty years he instead focussed on teaching at the Royal College of Music and the London College of Music, of which he was made Director. It was not until shortly before his death that he once again began to seriously devote himself to composing, during which time he produced the mass ‘Missa Santae Mariae Magdalenae’ It is only recently that William Lloyd Webber’s work has really been discovered and taken seriously – perhaps, in part, thanks to the high profile of his sons, Andrew (composer) and Julian (cellist). In a musical world which is now accommodating an increasingly broad range of styles, William Lloyd Webber's work can be more readily accepted and appreciated.