List of Westminster Abbey organists

This is a list of Westminster Abbey organists. The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as "Westminster Abbey", is a large, mainly Gothic abbey church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional site for the Coronation of the British monarch and many former kings and queens are buried there.

Organists

1549 John Howe 1550 John Copeland 1560 Master Whitt 1562 John Taylor 1570 Robert White 1575 Henry Leeve 1585 Nathaniel Giles and John Mundy (joint organists) 1606 Edmund Hooper 1621 John Parsons 1623 Orlando Gibbons 1625 Thomas Day 1633 Richard Portman

1660 Christopher Gibbons 1666 Albertus Bryne 1668 John Blow 1679 Henry Purcell 1696 John Blow (re-appointed) 1708 William Croft 1727 John Robinson 1762 Benjamin Cooke 1793 Samuel Arnold 1802 Robert Cooke 1814 George Ebenezer Williams

1819 Thomas Greatorex 1831 James Turle 1882 Sir Frederick Bridge, CVO 1919 Sir Sydney Nicholson, MVO 1928 Sir Ernest Bullock, CVO 1941 Osborne Harold Peasgood CVO (Acting) 1941 Sir William Neil McKie, MVO 1963 Douglas Guest, CVO 1981 Simon Preston, CBE 1988 Martin Neary, LVO 1998 Martin Baker (Acting) 2000 James O'Donnell

Sub Organists

• 1860 Charles Sherwood Jekyll^[1]
• 1875 Sir Frederick Bridge CVO
• 1881 Henry Davan Wetton^[2]
• 1896 Sir Walter Galpin Alcock MVO
• 1917 Stanley Roper CVO
• 1921 Osborne Harold Peasgood CVO
• 1941 Vacant
• 1946 Osborne Harold Peasgood CVO
• 1954 Derek Holman CM
• 1956 Robert Henry Charles Palmer
• 1962 Simon Preston CBE
• 1967 Tim W. R. Farrell
• 1974 Stephen Cleobury CBE
• 1978 Christopher Herrick
• 1984 Harry Bicket
• 1988 Iain Simcock
• 1988 Andrew Lumsden
• 1992 Martin Baker
• 1998 Philip Scriven (Acting)
• 2000 Andrew Reid
• 2004 Robert Quinney
• 2013 Daniel Cook

Assistant organists

• Charles Jekyll 1875
• W.J. Winter 1886–1895
• Walter Alcock 1896–1916
• Hugh Marchant 1947–1950
• Hugo Limer 1950–1959
• Rilford Trafalgar 1959–1984
• David Bruce-Payne 1968–1974 (later Director of Music at Birmingham Cathedral)
• Geoffrey Morgan 1978–1988 (later Sub-Organist at Guildford Cathedral)
• Miles Quick 1989-1991
• Stephen Le Prevost 1991–2001
• Simon Bell 2001–2002 (later Assistant Director of Music at Winchester Cathedral and subsequently Director of Schola Cantorum of Tewkesbury Abbey)
• Daniel Cook 2003–2005 (later Assistant Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral, Organist and Master of the Choristers at St Davids Cathedral and subsequently Sub-Organist of Westminster Abbey)
• Ashley Grote 2005–2008 (later Assistant Director of Music at Gloucester Cathedral, now Master of Music at Norwich Cathedral)
• James McVinnie 2008–2011
• Martin Ford 2012-2015
• Matthew Jorysz 2016-

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Organ Scholars

• James Cryer
• Jonathan Dimmock
• Adrian Lenthall
• Simon Morley (became Assistant Organist at Lincoln Cathedral, then Organist of Ripon Cathedral)
• Geoffrey Styles (became Organ Scholar at Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford)
• James Cryer
• Nick Murdoch
• Richard Moorhouse 1990–1992 (Organist and Master of the Choristers at Llandaff Cathedral)
• Meirion Wynn Jones 1992–1993 (Assistant Organist at Brecon Cathedral)
• William Whitehead 1993 - 1994 (became Assistant Organist at Rochester Cathedral)
• Louise Reid (née Marsh) 1994 - 1996
• John Hosking 1996–1999 (Assistant Organist at St Asaph Cathedral)
• Iestyn Evans 1999–2000 (Director of Music, St James's, Spanish Place, London)
• Simon Bell 2000–2001 (Assistant Director of Music at Winchester Cathedral and subsequently Director of Schola Cantorum of Tewkesbury Abbey)
• Justin Luke 2001–2002
• Daniel Cook 2002–2003 (Assistant Director of Music at Salisbury Cathedral and subsequently Organist of St Davids Cathedral)
• Richard Hills 2003–2004 (Assistant Organist at St Mary's, Bourne Street, London)
• Ian Keatley 2004–2006 (Organist and Director of Music at Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin)
• Simon Jacobs 2006–2007
• Benjamin Chewter 2007–2008 (Assistant Organist at Lincoln Cathedral and subsequently Assistant Director of Music at Chester Cathedral)
• Léon Charles 2008–2009 (See http://leoncharles.co.uk for more details)
• Samuel Rathbone 2009–2010 (Assistant Director of Music at Rochester Cathedral)
• Edward Tambling 2010-2011 (Assistant Director of Music, St James's, Spanish Place, London)
• Andrej Kouznetsov 2011-2012 (Organist, St John's Cathedral (Brisbane))
• Peter Holder 2012-2014 (Sub-Organist, St Paul's Cathedral)
• Jeremy Woodside 2014-2015
• Matthew Jorysz 2015 - 2016

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

References

1. British Musical Biography By James D. Brown
2. The Musical Times and Singing-class Circular