If you would like to join OCs Liveryman & Steward Louise Laprun, Liveryman Arnold Wills and Liveryman Christopher Gower for a potential members' evening, please do get in touch.
Randolph Wise, already the Company Chaplain, became Dean in 1981. The following year he invited me to join with him in meeting Harry Humber at the Hall to discuss the possibility of the Cathedral Choir singing the annual Carol Service for the Company. Prior to 1982, the service had been sung by a professional quartet. We had lunch together at the Hall and it was agreed that the Choir would sing the service the following December.
This duly happened and appeared to be a success. In those days the choir was placed in the gallery and one-half of the Great Hall was turned into a pseudo-church, the congregation facing the gallery. Thereafter we sang every Christmas, eventually moving into St Botolph’s and subsequently to St Vedast. During my eighteen years directing the Christmas music for the Company I was invited to become a dining member and, on my retirement from the Cathedral, a Liveryman.
There have been many highlights for me in my association with the Company particularly Henry Mott’s 90th birthday dinner, the 1992 banquet (I proposed the toast on behalf of the guests and sat next to Lady Mais, the widow of Lord Mais who laid the foundation stone of the Hall) and, of course, the Thanksgiving Service held in St Paul’s Cathedral in 2001, when we celebrated the Quincentenary of the Company. The two cathedral choirs of St Paul’s and Peterborough joined together and during the service sang an anthem I composed especially for the occasion: ‘I will fill this house with splendour’ with words from the book of Haggai. We also sang this during my last broadcast on Radio 3 before I retired.
Randolph’s favourite catchphrase was "bloom where you’re planted".
Many thanks to former Master of Music Christopher Gower for providing detailed information about our forty-year affiliation, from which this excerpt is taken.
Randolph Wise, already the Company Chaplain, became Dean in 1981. The following year he invited me to join with him in meeting Harry Humber at the Hall to discuss the possibility of the Cathedral Choir singing the annual Carol Service for the Company. Prior to 1982, the service had been sung by a professional quartet. We had lunch together at the Hall and it was agreed that the Choir would sing the service the following December.
This duly happened and appeared to be a success. In those days the choir was placed in the gallery and one-half of the Great Hall was turned into a pseudo-church, the congregation facing the gallery. Thereafter we sang every Christmas, eventually moving into St Botolph’s and subsequently to St Vedast. During my eighteen years directing the Christmas music for the Company I was invited to become a dining member and, on my retirement from the Cathedral, a Liveryman.
There have been many highlights for me in my association with the Company particularly Henry Mott’s 90th birthday dinner, the 1992 banquet (I proposed the toast on behalf of the guests and sat next to Lady Mais, the widow of Lord Mais who laid the foundation stone of the Hall) and, of course, the Thanksgiving Service held in St Paul’s Cathedral in 2001, when we celebrated the Quincentenary of the Company. The two cathedral choirs of St Paul’s and Peterborough joined together and during the service sang an anthem I composed especially for the occasion: ‘I will fill this house with splendour’ with words from the book of Haggai. We also sang this during my last broadcast on Radio 3 before I retired.
Randolph’s favourite catchphrase was "bloom where you’re planted".
Many thanks to former Master of Music Christopher Gower for providing detailed information about our forty-year affiliation, from which this excerpt is taken.