From choir to calling Rev Scott-Joynt’s musical past
Jonathan Rowe has been looking into the story of the priest who christened him, and found he was an ex-policeman, war hero … and a musical celebrity
IWAS christened in St Luke’s Church, Brislington aged nearly two, on August 14, 1960, my Mum’s birthday and my parents’ wedding anniversary. I was always told the curate who performed the baptism had been a well-known singer but I knew little else until I began to research his life which uncovered the story of his years as a professional singer and how he became a priest.
The Reverend Albert George Scott Joynt (1910-1979) was born in Lymm, Cheshire. Both his father and grandfather were singers, and his father, who was a professional bass in his native Manchester, died when Rev. Scott-Joynt was eight.
On leaving school he got a job with Tootal the well-known textile firm and tie manufacturer, and then later he joined the police force in 1929. At 19 he was an ideal candidate, standing 6ft 5in, with an imposing physique. After six years, Constable Scott Joynt resigned from the force and, aged 25, became a ‘Vicar Choral’ chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral and a concert artist.
He sang professionally for more than 25 years as “Scott-Joynt” and toured all over the country appearing at The Albert Hall, The Festival Hall, Glyndebourne and on BBC Radio. He often sang with The London Philharmonic Choir, notably in Handel’s Messiah, and Bach’s St John’s Passion, as well as secular pieces such as Merrie England and The Bartered Bride.
It was while he was at St Paul’s Cathedral he first the man who was to help him make the most important decision of his life 20 years later. Rt Rev. Frederick Cockin (1888-1969) was a canon at the cathedral, and later became Bishop of Bristol (1946-1958.) During the Blitz the two friends spent many hours fire-watching over the famous dome of St Paul’s.
In 1939, a few weeks before the outbreak of war, Scott-Joynt married Dorothea Young, a member of the BBC Singers. The couple lived at 8 West Park, Clifton, at the outbreak of war and when the BBC relocated to Bristol in the early part of the war Dorothea was able to stay here while her husband joined the Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire Regiment and became a Major commanding a company during the D-Day landings in 1944 when he was mentioned in dispatches.
By the end the war, Scott-Joynt was in Hanover where he was able to sing at the famous Herrenhausen Opera House.
Back in postwar England, ScottJoynt met the famous conductor and impresario, Sir Thomas Beecham (1879-1961), a member of the Beecham’s pills family who is regarded as Britain’s first international conductor. He became a great friend and great influence on Scott-Joynt and introduced him to Percy Heming (1883-1956) the Bristol born operatic baritone singer and actor who had grown up in St Michael’s Hill and Cotham.
Scott-Joynt studied under Heming and also met Sir John Barbirolli, the Italian-French conductor and cellist and with him as conductor Scott-Joynt toured Germany with the Halle Orchestra in 1956. In 1953 Scott Joynt appeared at the Festival Hall in Bach’s St John’s Passion with Peter Pears, the famous tenor and the personal and professional partner of composer Benjamin Britten for 40 years.
On December 20th 1953 Scott Joynt appeared in the UK TV premiere of Amahl and the Night Visitors, the very first opera composed for television. First seen in the United States two years earlier, the one-act opera had been composed by Gian Carlo Menotti, the lifelong partner of American composer Samuel Barber. The story of the opera centred around the visit of the Three Kings to the infant Jesus, hence the Christmas premiere. Scott-Joynt played King Balthasar with Gladys Whitred, (1919-1985), fondly remembered as the singer in TV’s Andy Pandy and The Flower Pot Men, also in the cast. The opera was broadcast again on BBC TV on Christmas Eve 1954 and 1956.
In 1957, Scott-Joynt began to think seriously about becoming an ordained priest and sought advice from his old friend Dr Cockin, now Bishop of Bristol. Scott Joynt visited him in at the Bishop’s House in Clifton Hill. After some discussion Dr Cockin suggested Scott-Joynt should take a walk on Durdham Down to make a final decision about giving up his singing career to become an ordained minister.
Returning to the Bishop, Scott Joynt had a one-word answer: “Yes.”
Dr Cockin sponsored Scott-Joynt and he went to Westcott Theological College, Cambridge. From 1959-1961 he served as curate to Revd W.H. Osmund Moss, Vicar of St Luke’s Church, Brislington, (1955-66), and was ordained deacon in St Luke’s in December 1959.
I have been told that both Sir Thomas Beecham and Sir John Barbirolli attended the service but I have been unable to verify this. On December 18, 1960, was finally ordained priest in Bristol Cathedral. Shortly before he was interviewed at his home at 90 Callington Road, Brislington, by Western Daily Press reporter Denis Frost:
“Now, I have achieved something like that fulfilment and peace which I was seeking … It would be unnatural if, from time to time, I didn’t get a yearning to sing again, but I am profoundly glad that I realised when I did that so few of us have the voice and the ability to really bring out what is in our hearts.”
Denis Frost had heard ScottJoynt sing the Messiah in a Garrison Theatre in Oswestry, Shropshire on Christmas Eve 1954 and had been profoundly moved by the experience.
Revd Scott-Joynt died in Cambridge in 1979 aged 68. His only child, Rt Rev. Michael Scott-Joynt (1943-2014) also became a priest and was Bishop of Winchester from 1995 to 2011.