Saint Silas the Martyr - St.Silas Place, Kentish Town, London NW5

This is a list of the Organists who served S. Silas was mainly gleaned from the information given in the Monthly and Bi-monthly Parish Papers. It may not be totally complete and any additional biographical details would be welcomed.

Miss Vincent 1892 of 5 Sackville Street, W

Mr. Manders 1893 - 1894

Mr. E. A. Payne 1895 - 1896 then became Choirmaster.

Joseph Brereton 1897 - 1898

Thomas Mann 1899

Richard Mann 1900

George Thomas Moss 1901 - 1906
Died February 23rd 1920.

Mr. E. G. West 1908
Formerly assistant Organist at All Hallows, Southwark.

Mr. A. W. Gibbs 1909 - 1910

Mr. H. C. Holzapfel Oct 1913 - Dec 1916

Fr. A. J. Clark 1917
Both priest and organist.

Edward James Bennett Nov 1917 - Sept 1918 - then called up
Formerly Organist of St. Chad's, Haggerston.
Died April 24th 1924.

Monthly Paper, Nov - Dec 1918, page 12 - List of Church Officials, Servers and others on Service - Organists- H. C. Holzapfel, A. W. Gibbs, E. J. Bennett.

Mr. S. Cockeram Oct 1918 - Dec 1919
Formerly Organist at St. Faith's, Stoke Newington.

Edward James Bennett Jan 1920 - Dec 1923
(Died April 26th 1924, aged 34)
Obituary - Bi-Monthly Paper, July-August 1924, pages 10-11.
(His wife gave the picture of the Madonna and Child which hangs above the gallery steps to the church in his memory)

Mr. Frank W. Harding Dec 1923 - Oct 1926
Music teacher and Organist.
Director of Music at Golders Green Crematorium for about 25 years. Died 1971.

Mr. P. A. Tapp Nov - Dec 1927

Harold Walter James Rabson 1928 - 1969
(He was born near S. Silas in 1900, baptised confirmed and married here. He was a choir boy when the present church was consecrated and in due course became an assistant organist. He was a skilled musician and especially fond of plainchant and liturgical music. He wrote a number of mass settings, hymns and motets for this and other churches. He also taught composition at Morley College in London. He was also a man of prayer, using the rosary every day of his life. The statue of S. John Vianney is dedicated to his memory.)
Played the parts of a shepherd, Judas, and S. Silas in Benjamin Boulter's Mystery Plays.
He inherited a choir of men and boys from Mr. Bennett but at the onset of the Second World War the children of the Parish were evacuated and the choir lost its boys. After this there were only two or three ladies and men.

David Fysh 1969-
Friend of Fr. Cobb.
25 years - Director of Music, Wycliffe College Junior School, Stonehouse, Gloucestershire.
Later became the Revd. David Fysh - 1995 Parish Priest at S. Mary's, West Walton, Wisbech, Cambridgeshire.

Simon Lawford     1991 - 1992
1977-1980       Organ Scholar, Magdalen College, Oxford
1980-1986       Assistant Organist, Peterborough Cathedral
1986-1990       Assistant Organist, Christ Church, Oxford
1990-1991       Organist, Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles
1991-1992       Organist, St Silas the Martyr, Kentish Town
1992-1994       Organist and Director of Music, Hampstead Parish Church
1994 -              Director of Music, St Georges’s Cathedral, Perth, Australia

Simon Lawford received his early musical training as a chorister at St Paul’s Cathedral, London, from Dr Christopher Dearnley. In 1977 he won the organ scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied under Dr Bernard Rose.

In 1980, he was appointed Assistant Organist at Peterborough Cathedral, and in 1986 moved to Christ Church, Oxford, as Assistant to Stephen Darlington. Together with this choir, and as soloist, he took part in numerous performances for BBC radio and TV, as well as recordings and concerts throughout France, Belgium, Holland, Italy, Scandinavia, Canada and USA. Following a year in France as Organist at the Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles, he was appointed Director of Music at Hampstead Parish Church, where he instituted an important series of concerts and recitals. During this time he worked with the London Philharmonic Choir, the City of London Sinfonia, the Hanover Band, the Oxford Bach Choir, and the St EndellionFestival.

In January 1994, he took up his present appointment as Organist and Director of Music at St George’s Cathedral, Perth. He also directs St George’s Baroque Consort, specialising in the authentic performance of early music. This group has been widely acclaimed for its outstanding concerts featuring a wide variety of repertoire, including the first ever performances to use period instruments in WA of Handel’s Messiah and Bach’s St John Passion. He is in constant demand throughout WA as a recitalist, conductor and continuo player. He has performed the complete ‘48’ Preludes and Fugues of J. S. Bach at a series of recitals in St George’s Cathedral and was broadcast by the ABC as soloist with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in Poulenc’s Organ Concerto.

Peter St. John Stokes Dec 1992 -
Born in Yorkshire in 1944, Peter St.John Stokes started playing the organ at school, and from the age of sixteen had lessons with Dr. Francis Jackson, organist of York Minster. In 1964 he went to Trinity College of Music, London, where he studied organ, singing and orchestral conducting as well as composition with Dr. Arnold Cooke.
From 1967 to 1994 he taught, for the last 21 years being Head of Music at Loreto College, St.Albans. This position included directing major choral works and tours of France and Belgium (including the Ghent Festival and Brussels Cathedral). The choir had notable success in the BBC "Let the People Sing" competition, sang regularly at St.Albans Abbey and also at Westminster Cathedral.
Throughout the period that he was teaching full-time he continued to be active as an organist, playing both at the school, as a church organist and as a recitalist. He has been at S. Silas since 1992. Previous organist positions include St. Giles-the-Fields, London and Dunstable Priory. As a pupil of Naji Hakim, organist of La Trinité, Paris, he takes a particular interest in improvisation.

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