Sir Sydney Nicholson

The ashes of Sir Sydney Nicholson, organist and composer, lie in the west cloister of Westminster Abbey. His gravestone was re-cut in 1975. it reads:

"Sir Sydney Hugo Nicholson M.V.O. Organist of Westminster Abbey 1919-1928 Founder and Director of the Royal School of Church Music"

His life

He was born on 9th February 1875, a son of Sir Charles Nicholson and his wife Sarah (Keightley). His brothers were Sir C.A. Nicholson, architect, and Archibald, stained glass artist. He was educated at Rugby school and Oxford and studied at the Royal College of Music under Charles Villiers Stanford and Walter Parratt. After working as an organist at several churches, including Manchester Cathedral, he came to the Abbey as Organist and Master of the Choristers in 1919. In 1920 he composed a motet "The Supreme Sacrifice" in memory of the Unknown Warrior and later wrote music for a sequence for St Edward's Day from the 14th century Litlyngton Missal in the Abbey's library. He also composed music for the light opera "The Mermaid". The first BBC broadcast of choral evensong came from the Abbey in 1926, and he took the choirboys on a tour of Canada in 1927.

He formed the larger Westminster Abbey Special Choir, which gave about three concerts a year from 1919 (disbanded in 1982). This choir consisted of 200 men and boys, including Abbey choristers. They came from choirs in and around London.

He resigned from the Abbey in 1928 to pursue his other interests including founding what is now the Royal School of Church Music. In 1938 he was knighted and died unmarried on 30th May 1947.

Further reading

"Sydney Nicholson and his 'Musings of a Musician' by J. Henderson & T. Jarvis, RSCM 2013

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography 2004

"Vocation and Endeavour. Sir Sydney Nicholson and the early years of the RSCM" by Watkins Shaw, 1997