Walter Galpin Alcock

Sir Walter Galpin Alcock (29 December 1861 - 1947) was an English organist and composer born at Edenbridge.

He studied at the Royal College of Music under Sir Arthur Sullivan and Sir John Stainer.

After a brief series of posts including Holy Trinity Sloane Street and St. Margaret's, Westminster he was appointed assistant organist of Westminster Abbey in 1896 and was organist of the Chapels Royal from 1902. In 1916 he became organist of Salisbury Cathedral where he oversaw a strictly faithful restoration of the famous Father Willis organ, even going to such lengths as to refuse to allow parts of the instrument to leave the cathedral in case any unauthorized tonal alteration were made without his knowledge.

He played the organ at Westminster Abbey at the coronation of three monarchs: Edward VII, George V and George VI. In 1893 he was appointed Organ Professor at the Royal College of Music.

He was knighted in 1933 for services to music and was a noted teacher, whose published material for organ students is still thought valuable.

His hobbies included the construction of a model railway, on which choirboys at Salisbury would be given rides.

Family

His eldest daughter Naomi Judith married Dingwall Latham Bateson in 1922. [Times, January 31 1967, p. 12]

References

* http://www.amphion-recordings.com/organists2.html
* http://www.twickenham-museum.org.uk/detail.asp?ContentID=341
* "Grove"
* "The Oxford Companion to Music", (Percy Scholes, ed.)