Peter Grimes or ambiguous the various characters are. Pears was certainly the intended Peter Grimes, and it is likely that Britten wrote the role of Ellen Orford for Joan Cross. The work has been called "a powerful allegory of homosexual oppression", and one of "the true operatic masterpieces of the 20th century", but the composer's own contemporary (1948) summation of the work was simpler: a subject very close to my heart — the struggle of the individual against the masses. The more vicious the society, the more vicious the individual. Though as the writing of the libretto progressed, certain versions showed Grimes'
W. F. Grimes in 1959, and he became the third husband of Audrey Williams. She bestowed on him the nickname Peter. They retired to her home in Brynmill in Swansea in 1973. After Audrey died in 1978, he was remarried to Mrs Molly Waverley Sholto Douglas in 1980. He suffered from Parkinson's disease in later life, and died at home in Swansea. He was cremated, and his ashes were scattered at Pwlldu Bay on the Gower Peninsula, where the ashes of his second wife Audrey had also been scattered. W. F. Grimes William Francis Grimes (known as Peter; 31 October 1905 – 25