RUTTER Life&times

1966

LIFE: As a student at Clare College, Cambridge, he conducts the first performance of his Shepherd’s Pipe Carol at a Christmas concert. It is published the following year.

TIMES: England win the FIFA World Cup at Wembley, beating West Germany 4-2 in extra time thanks to a hat-trick from Geoff Hurst and a further goal from Martin Peters.

1984

Life:founded by Rutter the previous year, the Cambridge Singers makes its first recording with Gloria, a disc featuring the composer’s own choral works. TIMES: Police office Yvonne Fletcher is killed and 11 other people are wounded when a gunman opens fire during a demonstration outside the Libyan Embassy in London.

2011

LIFE:HIS anthem This is the Day is sung at the wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton at Westminster Abbey, and is heard by millions on global TV. TIMES: The fatal shooting by police of Mark Duggan in Tottenham is followed by days of rioting in London, and in several cities across the UK.

1945

LIFE: John Rutter is born in London on 24 September. For his first ten years, his family lives opposite Baker Sreet tube station in a flat above The Globe pub, run by his grandmother.

TIMES: As the Labour Party wins the general election with a majority of

146 seats, Clement Attlee replaces Winston Churchill as Prime Minister.

1992

LIFE: After seven years of suffering from debilitating myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) that has led to him being unable to accept commissions, he starts to return to normal health.

TIMES: A faulty spotlight sets light to curtains in Queen Victoria’s Private Chapel, causing a fire at Windsor Castle that rages for 15 hours, destroying

115 rooms including nine state rooms.

2003

LIFE:HIS Mass of the Children for adult and children’s choirs is premiered at Carnegie Hall, New York. The work is inspired by Britten’s War Requiem, which he sang as a teenager conducted by the composer. TIMES: Fourteen years after apparently having been found dead, ‘Dirty’ Den Watts, played by Leslie Grantham, makes a surprise re-appearance in the BBC TV soap opera Eastenders.