The Reverend Canon John Simpson 1933 – 2024
“In Curry Rivel I managed to start a choir, and we had about 18 boys and girls and a few
adults. Luckily there was a good organist. I also started the Curry Rivel Music Club to
celebrate the bicentenary of the Kirckman Harpsichord. The first season included a
concert with two harpsichords, a recital by Leon Goossens, a recital by a brilliant flautist
called William Bennett, and finally concertos for three and four harpsichords – quite a
programme for a village church. Amazingly nearly 300 people came to hear Leon
Goossens and about 200 to the other concerts. I am thrilled that the Music club is still
going strong.” John Simpson, interviewed in 2014 for a local production of Desert Island Discs.
Music was very important to John Simpson. He was an accomplished organist and a collector of keyboard instruments. He bought his first harpsichord in his twenties when he was a submariner. There were more harpsichords to follow, including two which he built. In 1962 he left the navy, and in 1964 he and Anne were married. The following year he was ordained priest and became Deputy Precentor of Winchester Cathedral, teaching at Pilgrims School and Peter Symonds College. After a period at Repton School, where he was Chaplain, he became vicar of St Michael’s Helston, in Cornwall, where he also continued teaching. He founded the Helston and Kerrier Music Society, now the Helston Chamber Choir, and organised local concerts. In 1978 John and Anne, and their children Joanna, Jessamie and Benjamin came to Curry Rivel. His initial appointment was as vicar, but when in 1980 the parish was enlarged, he was appointed rector. He founded Curry Rivel Music Club in 1979, with five concerts held that year, and an annual programme of concerts continuing until the present time. In 1987 John left Curry Rivel to become vicar of the church of King Charles the Martyr in Tunbridge Wells. In 1990 he was appointed Precentor of Bristol Cathedral and in 1993 he established the Bristol Cathedral’s Girls’ Choir, one of the first girls’ cathedral choirs in the country. In 1999 John and Anne returned to Curry Rivel, living at Ashill in the house bought for retirement many years earlier. In forty five years there have been over two hundred concerts in St Andrew’s Church.
Thank you John.
A Service of Thanksgiving for the life of John Simpson
will be held at St Mary’s Church (The Minster), Ilminster
on Wednesday 1st May at 2.00 pm.