Kenneth Shenton writes:
GEOFFREY HOLROYDE remained throughout his long life a man of many parts. He trained initially as a physicist, served both industry and education at many levels, and was one of the defining choral technicians of his generation, bringing the choir of the Collegiate Church of St Mary, Warwick, to a level of perfection which had few equals. His devotion to the organ loft remained a constant.
Born in Sheffield on 18 September 1928, Geoffrey Vernon Holroyde was the only child of Harold Holdroyde, a bank manager, and his wife, Kathleen (née Glover). The family having moved to Stockport, Holroyde began his musical education as a chorister at St George’s, Stockport. Two years later, a further move, this time to Huddersfield, enabled him to join the parish church and begin organ lessons. When the organist was called up for military service during the Second World War, he took charge. In September 1942, aged 14, he won an organ scholarship to Wrekin College before, at the behest of his father, going to read not music, but physics, at the University of Birmingham.
Holdroyde completed his National Service in the Royal Navy and was commissioned and stayed on for a further ten years. From 1961 until 1970, he worked at the English Electric Company, becoming Principal of their Staff College in Dunchurch.
By then an Associate of the Royal College of Organists, in November 1962, he took up his post at St Mary’s, Warwick, where he inherited a choir of six trebles and five men. After a vigorous recruiting campaign, by the next Easter he had the nucleus of a flourishing ensemble. Among the new recruits was 16-year-old Edward Higginbottom, who took over organ-playing duties. His brother, James, not only sang tenor, but was a GEC Telecoms engineer and was crucial in keeping the organ going.
In 1964, not only was the organ rebuild completed, but the choir of St Mary’s, Warwick, made their first recital tour, of north Germany. Over the next few years, they made visits to the US, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Netherlands. Each summer, they would take up a fortnight’s camp and a cathedral residency. Numerous broadcasts included an edition of BBC’s Songs of Praise, while the choir also released six highly successful LPs.
It was during his time at St Mary’s that Holdroyde and Edward Higginbottom worked with Martin How (Gazette, 12 August 2022), of the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM), to develop what later became the RSCM’s chorister training scheme.
At the end of 1972, having become the first Head of Sidney Stringer School and Community College, Coventry, he took his leave of St Mary’s. He subsequently became director of Coventry Polytechnic, and, 12 years late, became the director of GEC Alstom’s management college.
He retired in 1990, and was able to fulfil a long-held ambition: completing a music degree, at Birmingham Conservatoire. In 1982, he created and directed a student-age choral ensemble, Coventry Cathedral Chapter House Choir. He was also assistant director of the Warwickshire County Youth Chorale from 1999 till 2006.
During a visit to Gosport in 2005, to look for a second home, Holroyde went into Holy Trinity, and was surprised to discover the historic, but badly neglected, Abraham Jordan 36-stop organ. It had been built in 1720 for the Duke of Chandos, reportedly the richest man in England, for his palace at Little Stanmore, in Middlesex. Its custodian was none other than the composer George Frideric Handel.
With a seaside bolthole purchased, Holroyde became honorary director of music of Holy Trinity, Gosport. With a grant from the then Heritage Lottery Fund, the parish was able to raise the £210,000 required for the organ to be restored. Andrew Cooper took on the work. Six years later, in November 2012, the opening recital was given by Andrew Lumsden. Holroyde stood down two years later, with the title Organist Emeritus.
Geoffrey Holroyde died on 3 December 2025, aged 97, four months after his wife of 65 years, Elizabeth.
