No article found for “Kibler Field?action=edit&redlink=1”.

Peter Lyons (musician)

☆ Save On Wikipedia ↗
Peter Stanley Lyons
Born6 December 1927
Atherfold Road, SW9, London, England
Died28 November 2006(2006-11-28) (aged 78)
Exeter, England
Education
Alma materSt John's College, Cambridge (BA, 1950; MA, 1955)
OccupationsChoral conductor; headmaster
Known for
SpouseBridget Webb-Jones (m. 31 July 1957, Wells Cathedral)
Relatives
Musical career
GenresChoral music; Italian opera
InstrumentsVoice; Keyboard.
Years active1944 - 1961
Military career
Allegiance United Kingdom
Branch
Service years
1946–1948; 1955; 1958.
Rank
Lieutenant

Peter Stanley Lyons (6 December 1927 – 28 November 2006) was an English choral musician who was a renowned member of the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge.

He served as director of music at Royal Naval College, Greenwich; director of music at the musically renowned Wells Cathedral School; and as an historic headmaster of Witham Hall School.

Early life

Peter Stanley Lyons was born, on 6 December 1927,[1][2][3] at 16 Atherfold Road, SW9, London,[1] to Harold Leslie Lyons[1][3] (16 December 1898 – 19 November 1967).[4] Harold Leslie Lyons was a sugar-boiler manufacturer during his 20s[3] before being appointed the sommelier at London's Savoy Hotel and Dorchester Hotel.

His mother was Teresa Gadsden (b. 23 July 1902),[1][3] whom his father had married at Wandsworth during 1927.[5] He had one younger brother Leslie D. Lyons.[6]

Peter was bought a house on the same road, No. 22, where he lived until his graduation from Cambridge.[3]

Education

Lyons was educated at Haselrigge Road School,[1][3] Alleyn's School,[1][2] Rossall School,[2][7][8] and at St John's College, Cambridge.[1][2][7] At Alleyn's School, he was a house prefect, received colours for soccer and cricket, and played the violin.[3] At Rossall, he was captain of soccer,[8] studied music, French, English, and German,[3] sung soprano,[9][10] and was described as a "forerunner of Maria Callas".[8] His performances included the part of Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice,[11] and the soprano part in Verdi's Requiem.[8] Lyons was broadcast on the BBC on 8 February 1944,[11] when he sung an aria from Mozart's Don Giovanni.[12]

He won a choral scholarship to Cambridge in 1946,[2][3] but completed National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals,[2] with whom he boxed for the British Army,[7] and in the Royal Regiment of Artillery,[3][13] before he in 1948 matriculated at St John's College, Cambridge,[2][1] which he chose over Trinity College, Cambridge, because of the former's superior choir.[3] He read Modern and Medieval Languages[2] (viz. French and Italian)[3] (BA 1950, MA 1955)[2] and was tutored by C. W. Guillebaud.[2][1] Lyons was awarded St. John's College Cambridge Colours for soccer during the 1949–1950 season, and was a member of the team that won the Inter-Collegiate Cup for soccer,[2] and captained Rossall School's Old Boys 1st XI at soccer.[8]

Lyons, who enjoyed the compositions of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan,[7] was a renowned member of the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge, under Robin Orr,[7][1] in which he sung tenor.[3] Lyons formed at Alleyn's School a lifetime friendship with John Lanchbery (who would become principal conductor of the Royal Ballet from 1959 to 1972) and with Kenneth Spring (who would become co-founder of the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain).[7][11]

Lyons was a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club,[7] for which he played during the 1960s;[14] and for the Jesters Cricket Club,[15] of which his father-in-law James William Webb-Jones was a co-founder;[16] and for the Dulwich Public Schools Association.[14]

Career

Lyons was:[2][1]

  1. Chorister of the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge (1948–1950)
  2. Director of music, Royal Naval College, Greenwich (1950–1954) (at which he replaced the Cathedral Psalter with the Anglo-Norman Oxford Psalter)[17]
  3. Director of music, Vanbrugh Castle School, (1950–1954)[18]
  4. Director of music and deputy headmaster, Wells Cathedral School, and master of the choristers, Wells Cathedral, (1954–1960). He received the rank of second lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery during 1955,[19] and attended King George VI Memorial Leadership Training Course, Command Study Centre, 21 Platoon, Saighton Camp, during 1958.
  5. Headmaster, Witham Hall School, (1961–1989)

Witham Hall School

Lyons was appointed the second headmaster of Witham Hall School in 1961, which was two years after the school's foundation.[20] Witham Hall School's number of pupils increased from 20 at the time at which the Lyons started, in 1961, to 150 by the time that they retired, in 1989,[7] by which time the school had become a feeder school for Eton College[21] in addition to for the local Oundle School, and Uppingham School, and Oakham School,[21] and The Leys School.[20] Witham Hall School was during the Lyons's tenure inspected by the Ministry of Education and granted the status of a trust, in 1978; and began to admit girls, from 1983.[20]

Witham Hall School has a school house, Lyons, that is named after Peter Stanley and Bridget Lyons:[22] and its original sports hall (which when it opened in 1987 was one of the largest in the country) was named the Lyons Hall by the governors and parents of the school in honour of the Lyons family.[20] The Lyons Hall was demolished in 2016 to create space for a new sports centre.[23]

Marriage

On 31 July 1957, at Wells Cathedral, Lyons married Bridget Webb-Jones,[7][2][1] who was the only child[24] of the choral educator James William Webb-Jones[7][25][26] and of Barbara Bindon Moody (who was the daughter of Colonel Richard Stanley Hawks Moody CB,[24] and the granddaughter of Major-General Richard Clement Moody who was the founder of British Columbia).[27]

A bridesmaid was the bride's maternal grandcousin Susan Holford,[6] who, like the bride, was a great-granddaughter of Richard Clement Moody.[28][29]

Peter Stanley Lyons (left) with John Lanchbery, Principal Conductor of The Royal Ballet (right), circa 1970

Bridget Webb-Jones's godmother was Lady Walford Davies,[20] who was the wife of composer Sir Henry Walford Davies who was Master of the King's Music from 1934 until 1941.[20] Davies had composed the choral work God Be in My Head at Witham Hall when it was a private residence.[20] Lady Davies subsequently married Julian Harold Legge Lambart,[30] vice-provost of Eton College,[31][32] for which Witham Hall School is a preparatory school.[21]

Issue

Peter and Bridget had two daughters, one son,[1] and four grandchildren.[2] Their eldest daughter Arabella Mary,[1] who was educated at Stamford High School, read English Literature at St Anne's College, Oxford.[33] Their younger daughter Virginia Clare[1] and their only son James Andrew,[1] both of whom were educated at Witham Hall School, suffered severe skull injuries in a car accident, near Stretton, Rutland, during October 1976.[34] Their son James Andrew married Joanne S. L. Hipkiss during July 1987.[35]

Retirement and death

Lyons was a member of the Young Musicians Support Group of the Dartington Hall Trust[7] of which Imogen Holst (who was the only child of the composer Gustav Holst) was a member.[36] Lyons died, of brain cancer, at Exeter,[7] on 28 November 2006.[2]

References

  1. "Lyons, Peter S. (1948)". Register of Twentieth Century Johnians. Vol. I: 1900–1949. St John's College, Cambridge. 2004. p. 279.
  2. "Lyons, Peter S.", The Eagle, St John's College, Cambridge, 2007, pp. 258–259
  3. Files for Lyons, Peter Stanley, b. 6 December 1927, Archives of St. John’s College, Cambridge
  4. Entry for Lyons, Harold Leslie, England and Wales Probate Index, 1858–1995
  5. England & Wales, Marriage Index, 1837-2005, Vol. 1D, p. 755
  6. The Wells Journal, 02 August 1957, p. 5
  7. "Obituary of Peter S. Lyons", Rutland and Stamford Mercury, 20 April 2007.
  8. French, Jim. "Rossall Reminiscences". Alleyn's On. Dulwich: Alleyn's School.
  9. The Fleetwood Chronicle, 27 June 1941, 'Commemoration Day at Alleyn's', p.3
  10. The Fleetwood Chronicle, 24 March 1944, 'On The Air', p.6
  11. Schofield, Susannah. "Alleyn's in the 1940s". Alleyn's On. Alleyn's School, Dulwich.
  12. The Fleetwood Chronicle, 4 February 1944, 'School Singer on Radio', p.1
  13. "No. 38220". The London Gazette (Supplement). 27 February 1948. p. 1482.
  14. "Peter Stanley Lyons, Profile, Cricket Archive".
  15. "James William Webb-Jones, Profile at Cricket Archive".
  16. The Cheddar Valley Gazette, 7 January 1966
  17. "Vanbrugh Castle School Recollections 2".
  18. "Peter Lyons, Residential Staff, Vanbrugh Castle School".
  19. The London Gazette, 18 March 1955
  20. "Peter S. Lyons and Witham Hall School", Lincoln, Rutland and Stamford Mercury, 8 February 1985
  21. The Tatler, Schools Guide 2014, Witham Hall School
  22. "The House System, Witham Hall School".
  23. "Lincolnshire Life". Educational supplement. County Life. Lincoln. May 2017. p. 170.
  24. "Entry for Webb-Jones, James William (1904–1965)". Who's Who, Oxford Index. Oxford University Press.
  25. "James William Webb-Jones, Headmasters of Vanbrugh Castle School". Vanbrugh Castle School.
  26. "Profile for James William Webb-Jones". Vanbrugh Castle School.
  27. "Entry for Moody, Colonel Richard Stanley Hawks". Who Was Who 2026. doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U214312.
  28. The Bridgnorth Journal, 17 August 1935, p. 6
  29. The Shrewsbury Chronicle, 16 August 1935, p. 16
  30. The Caernarvon and Denbigh Herald and North Wales Observer, 14 May 1948, p. 4
  31. "Eton College Collections Online: Reference Code: SCH B 01 01 02 64". Eton College. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  32. Charles Mosley (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage, and Knightage. Vol. 1 (107th ed.). p. 722.
  33. The Stamford Mercury, 22 October 1976, p. 2
  34. The Grantham Journal, 29 October 1976, p. 26
  35. Express & Star, Wolverhampton, 12 September 1986, p. 24
  36. Grogan, Christopher; Strode, Rosamund (2010). "Part II: 1931–52". In Christopher Grogan; Rosamund Strode (eds.). Imogen Holst: A Life in Music (revised ed.). Woodbridge, Suffolk: The Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-599-8.