Blue Plaque Honors Dora Penny—Cyclist, Conductor, and ‘Dorabella’ of Elgar’s ‘Enigma Variations’

The Wolverhampton Society has unveiled a plaque honoring Dora Penny-"Intrepid cyclist, singer and musician," and "the inspiration for Variation 10 of Elgar's Enigma Variations."

Born in 1874, Dora was the daughter of Rev. Alfred Penny, then vicar of Swindon. Following her mother's death shortly after Dora was born, her father sailed to Melanesia and the Solomon Islands where he served as a missionary for several years. She rejoined her father at Wolverhampton in 1895, when he became rector of St. Peter's Collegiate Church. Soon after, he married Mary Frances Baker, a friend of Alice Elgar's-wife of Edward Elgar. The Elgars frequently visited the Pennies, with the composer forming a close friendship with Dora-affectionately known as Dorabella-despite being forty years her senior.

She is famously the inspiration behind the tenth of Elgar's Enigma Variations-the work that catapulted him to international fame. He used a dance theme in the variation, taking in mind Dora's love for dancing. She was also the recipient of Elgar's enigmatic Dorabella Cipher-a yet-undeciphered letter that he gave her in 1897.

Their friendship was hardly one-way: Dora was an advocate of cycling, regularly riding 40 miles to the Elgars' home in Worcestershire, and once completed a 398.5-mile tour. It was she who convinced the 42-year-old Elgar to buy a Wolverhampton-made Royal Sunbeam bicycle, now immortalized by Oliver Dixon's statue on the Hereford Cathedral Green.

It was also Dora who accompanied Elgar to the Wolverhampton Wanderers' matches, helping cultivate the composer's then-budding interest in football.

Dora was also musical herself, singing with the Wolverhampton Choral Society, and thanks in part to the encouragement of Sir Henry Wood, forming and conducting her own string orchestra. She caused a bit of a scandal, however, when she included music from comic operas in her repertoire.

In 1914, Dora married Richard Crofts Powell and moved to Sussex, and made her final visit to the Elgars, who by then had moved to Hampstead.

The blue plaque, depicting Dora on her bicycle, was installed on the house where she lived with her father, and where Elgar and his wife often came to stay.