Henry Willis
Last of a celebrated line of organ builders who was a popular leading figure on industry bodies
HENRY WILLIS, who has died aged 91, was the last in the line of organ builders founded by his ancestor and namesake, the outstanding British organ builder of the 19th century. He was born in London on January 19 1927, the last child and only son of Henry Willis III (as he styled himself) and his wife Clara. His father had waited for 14 years for a son and the boy’s arrival was celebrated with a christening in St Paul’s Cathedral and the presentation of the Trompette Militaire stop to the cathedral’s Willis organ.
But Willis III’S expectations of his son were impossibly high, and his notorious irritability was driven to near violent levels by young Henry’s seeming indifference to the organ. He was sent to Westminster School at the beginning of the war, but removed after three months to the safety of Giggleswick School in Yorkshire. From there, in early 1945, he ran away and joined the Army, gaining a temporary commission in the Queen’s Royal West Surrey Regiment.
His father, struggling after the destruction of his company’s London works in April 1941, moderated his approach and eventually persuaded the young man to commence an apprenticeship in 1948. This he threw himself into with commendable energy and after five years he was sent to manage the firm’s Liverpool branch.
His first task was to supervise the re-instatement of the famous 1854 Willis organ in the St George’s Hall after wardamage and the servicing of the 1926 Willis organ in Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral, the largest organ in the British Isles. He also started to construct small 2-manual organs for the utilitarian churches that were being built in the early 1960s.
Henry Willis III died in April 1966 and at the age of 39 Henry 4 (as he styled himself – the 4 rather than IV being a form of rebellion against his father) became responsible for a business that had declined because of his father’s outdated methods. The London works were sold and new premises built at Petersfield, Hampshire.
But a new movement in organ building was in process. Organists and organ builders were now seeking the authentic sounds of the 17th and 18th century European organs and moving away from the ponderous (by comparison) sounds of the Victorian organ.
Willis who, like his father, had no musical skills, would not come to terms with this development. But he still undertook large scale reconstructions of existing organs as far apart as St Magnus Cathedral, Kirkwall, and Johannesburg Town Hall, and he enjoyed working on far-flung Willis organs around the world.
He was on surer ground in holding public office. In his time he was president of the Incorporated Society of Organ Builders, treasurer of the Federation of Master Organ Builders, president of the International Society of Organbuilders, Master of the Worshipful Company of Musicians and president of the Institute of Musical Instrument Technology. In all these offices he was conscientious and diligent, probably to the disadvantage of his own business. With his engaging and amusing style, he was popular with the membership.
In 1997 he retired and sold up. Ten years later he and Barbara, his wife of nearly 70 years, moved to the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, India, where his mother’s ancestors had been coffee planters.
She and their four children survive him.