William Christian Sellé

William Christian Sellé (1813–1898) was a Victorian doctor of music, composer and for forty years Musician in Ordinary to Queen Victoria. Biography Early life William Christian Sellé was born in Benhall, Suffolk in 1813. His parents were Elizabeth Underwood, from a farming family in Suffolk, and Christian Sellé (1781–1867), a musician who had left Hanover with Viotti, a celebrated violinist, to join the private band of the 15th Light Dragoons of Ernest Augustus Duke of Cumberland (1771 – 1851) who was then living at the royal residence in Kew and was forming a band of mainly German musicians. Sellé was bilingual from an early age. Sellé began his musical education at a young age. He was placed under the tutelage of another of the Duke of Cumberland’s musicians, a Mr Platt. At fifteen he became a pupil of Cipriani Potter, at that time the principal of the Royal Academy of Music where he specialised in pianoforte. Early on, while he was under tutelage, Sellé demonstrated the ability to teach music and Potter trusted him enough to allow him to teach the other pupils. He was at the academy for about two years and then started a 70-year career as a teacher. He was primarily a teacher of