In 1973 Captain Dennis Wareham, who was Bursar at Cranleigh between 1956 and 1968, donated a music prize in memory of Helen Wareham, his wife of over four decades, who had died the previous year. The conditions of the prize were that it be awarded to the winner of an annual competition in which all participants had to have reached Grade 8 with distinction. Since its inception it has been the pinnacle of individual music at Cranleigh.
The inaugural competition was won by John Wilks who later in the year was awarded an instrumental exhibition to Balliol College, Oxford.
It has been held every year since and is one of Cranleigh’s oldest traditions. Although the standard has always been high, the Director of Music warned in the Cranleighan in 1977 that it was “was less certain the rivalry (between competitors) will stimulate performances of real musical merit as the tensions associated with competing for a prize can often upset the most carefully prepared performer”.
Nor has the adjudication, usually by eminent former pupils, composers, or directors of music at other schools, always been without controversy. In 1981 the review in the Cranleighan said the winner “was not the best performance of the evening … to say that he was obviously the winner from the moment he sat down at the keyboard was arrogant nonsense”.
In 1980 there were 13 entrants (a number only matched in 1999) which resulted in a preliminary round being held. In 1980 the first girl – Nicola Harris – took part. In 1990 Sarah loannides (now an internationally renowned orchestral conductor) became the first girl to win and she was followed a year later by Monica Chan. In 1992 it was won for the first time by a singer, Thomas Hedley, who was in the Fourth Form at the time.
In the 2009 the eligibility criteria was changed so the competition was restricted to the top Grade Eight musicians in the School. Shortly after, it was changed again so it became a shoot-out between the winners of five sectional competitions (woodwind, strings, piano, vocal and brass) and each of those winners was deemed to have won the Helen Wareham. Further small changes took place in the following years with drums-and-percussion and guitar added in 2021.