In the end, 1937 proved to be a year of new hope. William Macmillan, appointed in 1936, proved to be an excellent Chairman. Lowe & Brydone’s new nominee on the Board, William Holden, put debenture arrangements into place at a much lower rate of interest, with repayment twenty years away unless the firm wished to repay earlier. The company’s sounder financial base allowed the agreement to be signed for the publication of The Collected Works of William Byrd. Dr Thomas Wood was appointed to the Board to replace Plunket Greene who died in 1936 and Richard Walthew again took an active part in the firm’s affairs.

The Young Musician was bought from the syndicate and found its place in the mainstream affairs of the company. New ideas for publishing light music and widely in the field of choral music were formulated. The firm was able to afford a traveller once more and Stainer & Bell looked as if it might be heading, for the first time since the early 1920s, for a small profit. The enthusiasm was overshadowed only by the menacing international situation which was to turn into the Second World War. Publishing was largely halted, partly because of the draconian rationing of paper supplies. Staff numbers were cut drastically as some were directed into the armed forces and others to war work.

A few weeks after the conclusion of the conflict, William Macmillan chaired his final Board meeting. Ellis Howard, by then in his eighties, died in harness in 1946. Arthur Braley, who, with his wife Marjorie, had kept the day-to-day affairs of the company going throughout the war years, was appointed to the Board, and Thomas Wood was elected Chairman. A new team was in place.

In 1950, the firm moved to the first of its two homes in nearby Newman Street, and shortly after was approached with a view to publishing a series of volumes containing the English Classics for the Royal Musical Association. The following year, as part of the celebrations for the Festival of Britain, The Mulliner Book was issued as the first volume of Musica Britannica. Fifty-six years on, this scholarly series has made available to the world well over eighty volumes from our country’s rich musical heritage.