Dr Simon Lindley DUniv, FRCO(CHM) (1948–2025)

It is with great sadness that we record the death of RCO Vice President Dr Simon Lindley. Dr Lindley held the position of RCO President from 2000 to 2003.

Simon Lindley first served on the College Council in 1977. In his capacity as a Vice President, he later returned to the Trustee Council and served from 2012 to 2020. Dr Lindley was a regular College examiner and took part in many RCO educational and outreach events over the years. Dr Lindley’s commitment to the College and its work was absolute and he was, without fail, a generous and welcoming face of the institution.

The son of an Anglican priest and the grandson of Belgian poet and art historian Professor Emile Cammaerts, Dr Lindley was born in London and was educated at Magdalen College School, Oxford and the Royal College of Music. He subsequently held positions at several London churches, was organ tutor at the Royal School of Church Music’s College of St Nicolas, and held posts at Westminster and St Albans Cathedrals. At St Albans he was the first full-time assistant to Dr Peter Hurford and was Director of Music at St Albans School.

Continuing a distinguished tradition (commencing with S. S. Wesley in 1842), Simon Lindley held the post of Organist and Master of the Music at Leeds Parish Church (now Leeds Minster) from 1975 to 2016. It was a church and community role that provided him with great musical opportunities and strengths, and one which allowed him the insights to connect with and champion the work of organists of all stripes. His rich and indefatigable career as an organist and conductor embodied a brand of skilled and rounded musicianship that was once far more prevalent. He was one of few players who was still regularly playing full oratorio accompaniments at the organ.

Soon after arriving at Leeds Parish Church, Dr Lindley also became Leeds City Organist, a position he held until 2017. He began a weekly recital series at Leeds Town Hall which became a hugely successful and lasting part of the musical life of the city. He was a leading choral conductor in Yorkshire and held, among others, conductorships of the Leeds Minster-based St Peter’s Singers, Sheffield Bach Choir, Doncaster Choral Society, and Overgate Hospice Choir, Halifax. Dr Lindley was President of the Incorporated Association of Organists (2003–05) and Vice President of the Sheffield and District Organists and Choirmasters’ Association (2012). He was a co-compiler for New English Praise (a supplement to the New English Hymnal) and was secretary of the Church Music Society from 1991 to 2023. Dr Lindley was honoured by many institutions and societies, and for his services to the musical and civic life of Leeds he was awarded an honorary doctorate by Leeds Metropolitan University in 2001. In recognition of his contributions to choral music he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Huddersfield in 2012.

Simon was a tireless advocate for his adopted Yorkshire and for its fine musical traditions. He had many cultural interests and was unfailingly a champion of all things Victorian. The closing words in his presidential speech of March 2002, given at Leeds Parish Church before the distribution of RCO diplomas, was true to form:

"Besides standards of craftsmanship and engineering, what else may be said to encapsulate the spirit of Victorian values for us organists today? Firstly, perhaps, might come Enterprise, possibly on a par with the pursuit of Excellence, undertaken in a spirit of Enlightenment as much as of Education. The achievement of such aims is surely dear to those who have the interests of the organ and its future as prime calls on their energies. To borrow a phrase from a former President, Dr Peter Hurford, the College strives to be “at the heart of the art of the organ”. It is our mission to ensure the continuing fulfilment of that worthy aim."

Requiescat in pace.