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PPE

A Service of Thanksgiving took place in The Guards’ Chapel on Thursday 27th March to thank the many donors for their generous contributions towards the cost of the new organ. This has been designed by Harrison & Harrison who have been responsible over the years for building, restoring, and maintaining some of the great cathedral organs around the country. Their design has incorporated some inventive and innovative touches while also overcoming the challenges of the location itself: a relatively small footprint, together with harmonising the visual impact with the Chapel’s two distinct architectural styles: the original Lombardo Byzantine apse from the late 1870s,with its gold mosaics, and the Modernist style of the new Chapel, opened in 1963.
From an initial report on the old, failing organ in 2015 to the new organ’s first public appearance on Easter Day 2024, the project, instigated by Lieutenant General Sir Ben Bathurst, has aimed to provide a musical instrument of a quality that befits the spiritual home of the Household Division.

HRH The Princess Royal arriving at the Guards’ Chapel, escorted by the Major General and Major General Robert Talbot Rice	The congregation

The realisation of this aspiration marks a major milestone in the musical life of the Guards’ Chapel, and one for which the Chapel's musicians are immensely grateful. Heartfelt thanks go to the many generous individual donors for funding this ambitious undertaking, as well as the Army Central Fund, the Trustees of the Household Division, and the Trustees of the Household Cavalry and Foot Guards. Thanks also to those involved in the project, including the Guards’ Chapel Committee and Organ Committee, Major General Robert Talbot Rice (Chair), Major William Style (Treasurer), William McVicar (Organ Consultant), Robert Bowles (Structural Engineer), and Jonathan Louth (Architect). Grateful thanks also go the sizeable team at Harrison & Harrison for their wonderful skill, craftsmanship, and dedication, with particular mention to Owen Woods (Projects Manager), Michael Clough (Team Leader), Andrew Fiddes (Associate Voicer), and Andrew Scott (Managing Director).

The names of the major donors and those remembered being read by the Garrison Sergeant Major	The new organ has 2,192 pipes, which range from 6” (15.2cm) to 32’ (9.75m) in length

The service itself, in the presence of HRH The Princess Royal, was a most fitting tribute to the generosity of the donors as well as a wonderful showcasing of the organ itself. Under the direction of the Organist and Director of Music, Martin Ford, and supported by the Choir, the State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry, and the Fanfare Trumpeters and Brass Ensemble of the Band of the Scots Guards, under their Director of Music, Major E E Frost, the sound of music and singing rose to every part of the Chapel. A stirring processional hymn, All People that on Earth do Dwell, to the tune Old Hundredth, was followed by a welcome from The Reverend Alex Bennett CF, Senior Chaplain London District and Chaplain to the Household Division. After prayers and a reading, in his address the Major General spoke of the importance of church music and his hope that our new organ would still be here and inspiring congregations one hundred years from now. The Garrison Sergeant Major then read out the names of the major donors to the organ. Then, to the accompaniment of the organ and the band, the choir sang Thine are these orbs, an anthem by Philip Moore, commissioned to mark the 80th anniversary of the bombing of the Chapel in 1944 and the dedication of the new organ in 2024.

The three manuals (keyboards) and a pedalboard, which control four manual divisions (the Great Organ comprises two separate divisions) and a pedal organ	The scroll of donors, mounted in the side of the pulpit in the Guards’ Chapel, with Stephanie Gill, the calligrapher (photograph taken some weeks before the service)

The final hymn, Now Thank we all our God, to the tune Nun danket, arranged by John Rutter, provided the perfect accompaniment to the new organ, as music and voices in harmony rose to the Chapel’s vaulted ceiling. The power and majesty of this great organ was further demonstrated at the end of the service, with Charles-Marie Widor’s Toccata from Symphony No 5. The perfect way to show off the organ with a truly dazzling display of deft arpeggios and triumphant chords and a wonderful cascade of sound that brought smiles throughout the congregation, as no one wished to leave until the organ fell silent.

For further information on the Guards’ Chapel organ, forthcoming organ recitals, and information about the Sponsor a Pipe appeal, to help with future maintenance costs, please visit: https://www.householddivision.org.uk/guards-chapel

The Editor
(with thanks to the Guards’ Chapel Committee)