William Primrose was born in Glasgow, Scotland to John Primrose and Margaret-McInnis Whiteside Primrose. Primrose was the oldest of their three children.His father, John Primrose, taught violin and was part of the Scottish Orchestra.[3] His father bought Primrose his first violin in 1908,when Primrose was only 4 years old.[4] That same year, his father arranged violin lessons with Camillo Ritter, who had studied with Joseph Joachim and Otakar Ševčík.Primrose performed his first public concert on the violin in 1916, at the age of 12, playing Mendelssohn violin concerto.[3] During his childhood, Primrose also enjoyed reading and playing chess in addition to studying music and
