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Alfred Ernest Floyd

(1877-1974) musician

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJul 16, 2026
Entity authorityQ24036564 ↗
Source-derived summary

Alfred Ernest Floyd OBE (5 January 1877 - 13 January 1974) was an English-born organist and choirmaster in Australia, later known as a radio broadcaster. He has been described as Australia's oldest radio disc jockey when he retired at 95.

Career

Born in Aston, Birmingham, England, in 1877, Floyd's family moved to Cambridge in 1890 where he attended the Leys School and became a pupil of the organist of King's College, Cambridge. He completed a bachelor of music degree at Oxford in 1912, doctor of music at Cambridge in 1918, and took the position of organist and choirmaster of St Paul's Cathedral in Melbourne, Australia, where he was employed between 1915 and 1947.

He lectured with the Workers' Educational Association and Council of Adult Education, and was music critic of The Argus newspaper. In the 1940s he worked for the Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC), with his programme Music Lovers' Hour broadcast into the 1970s.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1948, and awarded an honorary Doctor of Letters and the ABC's Silver Medallion in 1971.

In July 1972, aged 95, Floyd announced he would be retiring from his radio programme after 28 years on air. He stayed on as a musical consultant for the ABC, and planned to broadcast again.

He died in Melbourne on 13 January 1974, eight days after his 97th birthday.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Alfred Ernest Floyd” as (1877-1974) musician. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Alfred, Ernest and Floyd.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1877, 1974, 1890, 1912—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1877-01-05. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Alfred, Ernest and Floyd providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Alfred Ernest Floyd”, the useful work is to connect “(1877-1974) musician” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

Chronology provides the most reliable spine for this subject; interpretation should follow only after identities and dates are secure. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 16, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q24036564. VIAF identifies the subject as 78369694. The Library of Congress control number is no96012696. 1 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1877, 1974, 1890 and 1912.

Critical limits

Later biographies can compress uncertainty and repeat inherited reputations, so apparently settled claims may still require comparison. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Alfred Ernest Floyd”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Alfred Ernest Floyd primary sources, Alfred Ernest Floyd archive and Alfred research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Alfred Ernest Floyd”?
  2. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
  3. Which claims depend on a single source or contested interpretation?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Alfred Ernest Floyd” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.