Mr Samuel Hosking has kindly supplied us with the following interesting notes:

A striking Richmond character has just passed suddenly away – one of mark, not only as a musician, but as a man.

Wilhelm Kristian Selle, doctor of music, and Musician in Ordinary to her Majesty the Queen during the long period of forty years, was born in Suffolk in the year 1813, and was the son of John Kristian Selle, who, while still a bachelor, left Hanover with Viotti, the celebrated violinist, for the purpose of joining the private band of the Duke of Cumberland, who was then living at Kew, and was commencing to form a band of his own, consisting chiefly of Germans. Herr Selle's wife, the mother of Dr Selle, was a Miss Underwood, the handsome and estimable daughter of a Suffolk farmer, and while the doctor was an infant, his father joined the Duke's band, and settled at Kew, and there he lived with his family until his death at the age of 87. He was earnest, energetic, and conscientious in his profession, and did moderately well, but was not gifted with genius, nor could he ever master the difficulties of the English tongue.

At a very early age, Dr Selle received the rudiments of music from his father. Subsequently he was placed under a highly talented man of the name of Platt who, with Viotti, was a leading instrumentalist in the Duke's band. When about fifteen he was placed under Cipriani Potter, at that time the principal of the Royal Academy, to study the pianoforte. Whilst under instruction he made sufficient by teaching the violin to be able to pay his master's fees – fifteen shillings per lesson – out of his own pocket. So rapid was his progress, that in a short time he was engaged to assist the Principal in instructing his own pupils. After about two years at the Academy, he found himself fully occupied as a teacher on his own account, and continued an uninterrupted career of instruction over a space of nearly 70 years.

At the early age of nineteen he married his girl-wife, Miss Daniel, then only seventeen, and who now survives him. Mrs Selle is one of the most accomplished and most charming of old ladies that one can meet with, clear-headed and bright-eyed, with the complexion of a woman of thirty. Crushing pecuniary losses, domestic disasters, and great physical suffering, have neither impaired her temper, her intellectual powers, nor her pious resignation to the will of Providence. Amidst all she remains a noble example of the cultured and dignified gentlewoman of the old school of virtuous womanhood.

Half-a-century ago, Dr Selle received the degree of Doctor of Music from the Archbishop of Canterbury through Dr Corfe of Christ-church Oxford. His first most important appointment was that of organist to her Majesty at Hampton Court Palace, and he held this post until his retirement on a pension after 46 years' service. His first royal pupil was the late King of Hanover, for whom he wrote a composition, and with whom he was an intimate guest for several weeks at a time. His next royal appointment was that of master to the Princess Mary of Cambridge, late Duchess of Teck, and he was selected to play at Kew Church on the occasion of her Royal Highness's marriage. He also taught other members of the royal family, including his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, beside a large number of pupils from among the aristocracy and other ranks of society. Until his recent retirement from public life through failing sight and the feebleness of age, there were but few contemporaries of note in the literary and artistic world with whom he was not more-or-less well acquainted. Consequently, his store of anecdotes was inexhaustible, and this, with a powerful and ready memory, made him a delightful raconteur.

Music was his passion, the violin his life study, and Beethoven, 'his dear master'. Nevertheless, he was a many-sided man, an ardent politician, a local administrator, a composer, lecturer, and author, and a most genial gossip. Above all he had the honesty of his opinions, and dared avow them, whether orthodox or otherwise, and these were informed by a rare intelligence and wide reading. He was a Liberal before Liberalism became fashionable, and remained to the day of his death a sincere and rational worshipper of freedom in its most liberal interpretation. To the last he preserved his love of activity, his cheerfulness and serenity of disposition, and afforded the philosophic example of an old man, neither weary of life nor afraid of death. His four score years and six were manfully and usefully spent, but on Tuesday last, after journeying from Richmond to Twickenham and back, and feeling somewhat faint, he called in at the Greyhound Hotel for a glass of ginger brandy, and before he could drink it, he was suddenly smitten by death, and fell to the floor a corpse. He, and those who loved him, could have wished for no more fitting end. Requiescat!