William Henry Harris was born in Fulham on 28th
March 1883 and was named after his father. His mother
was Alice Mary (neé) Clapp. Theirs was a musical
family, and at fourteen the boy’s exceptional gifts had
attracted enough local attention to generate sufficient
financial help to send him to St David’s Cathedral,
South Wales, to assist its somewhat easy-going
organist, Herbert Morris. He was soon quite content to
let Harris take over at times, certainly when he
preferred to sleep in during a weekday matins. A
scholarship at sixteen to the Royal College of Music,
not to mention an FRCO, soon drew Harris to the
attention of its Director, Sir Hubert Parry. His long
association with St George’s Chapel, Windsor, dates
back to this time, since its organist Sir Walter Parratt
became his organ teacher. Composition was encouraged
by Stanford and Charles Wood, and by Walford Davies,
whom Harris would sometimes help out at the console
of the organ in the Temple church.
After eight years as assistant in Lichfield (1911),
and much encouragement from Sir Granville Bantock,
for whom he took on some teaching at the Birmingham
and Midland Institute, a surprise appointment to
succeed Sir Hugh Allen at New College Oxford (1919)
gave Harris his first taste of being in charge, but only
just, since his powerful predecessor did not find letting
go at all easy. Moreover even five years later, having
failed to prevent Harris founding the University Opera
Club, Allen did his best to stop him putting on a
pioneering production with Jack Westrup of
Monteverdi’s Orfeo. Mercifully, Allen was a good
loser, and handed over the stewardship of the Oxford
Bach Choir in 1926, although it cannot be said that
Harris was ever quite as effective with a large choir as
with a smaller one. Politics at New College were not
always kind to Harris, and he took the opportunity to
move to Christ Church Cathedral in 1929 where
conditions suited him better. In 1933, however, he was
head-hunted for the post of organist at St George’s
Chapel, where the early death of Charles Hylton Stewart after only six months in the position had created
the vacancy. Of all his Oxford duties not one was to
remain, but he did retain his post as Professor of Organ
and Harmony at the Royal College of Music until 1955,
an appointment made as long ago as 1921.
Harris was always happy at Windsor. His tenure
lasted almost three decades during which he composed
much music both for choir, for organ solo and larger
pieces too for the Three Choirs Festival and even two
premières at the London Proms. Amongst his duties was
the tutoring of the Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret
Rose, the musical direction of many royal occasions and
Garter Services, and the sub-conducting of both the
1937 and 1953 Coronation Services, all of which
eventually resulted in a well-earned KCVO in 1954.
As an organist Harris had inherited from Parratt a
wonderful sense of restraint, in complete contrast to Dr.
Henry Ley, the much celebrated organ-playing Eton
Precentor, just down the road. During my five years as a
chorister, I doubt if I heard the Tuba stop drawn as
many times, whereas I have little doubt that Etonians
were hearing theirs as many times in a week. Nor have I
ever since heard psalms accompanied with such subtle
yet gentle imagination. Harris’s flawless technique
never seemed to fail him, even in later years when his
control of the pulse sometimes did. There would be
consternation down in the choir stalls as long
introductions to such anthems as Haydn’s ‘Insanae et
vanae curae’ inexorably gathered speed before the time
came for the choir to join in.
Sir William Harris retired to Petersfield in 1961
with his wife Kathleen Doris (neé) Carter. They were
married in 1913 and had two daughters. As early as
1925, Doris had all but lost her hearing, though experts
advised that hers was a condition that advancing
techniques might well some day remedy. Amazingly, in
1961, her hearing was partially restored. She died in
1968. Sir William lived on, reaching ninety in 1973 and
dying on 6th September.
