DENNIS TOWNHILLDr Dennis Townhill who was made an OBE for his services to music after starting out as a chorister at Lincoln Cathedral, died on 18 July, 2008.Dr Townhill died peacefully at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh, at the age of 83.He had grown up in Lincoln and was in the cathedral choir as a boy between 1934 and 1940, where his music career began.The work meant putting in hours of hard graft with constant practices and cathedral services.His dedication to the music of Lincoln Cathedral was so strong that he often gave up weekends, holidays and even Christmas Day to sing there.Dr Townhill grew up with his grandparents who lived in Chaplin Street, off High Street, Lincoln, where his grandfather worked as a blacksmith.Childhood friend Richard Lucas paid tribute to his old friend."I was at Lincoln School with Dennis and knew him well," he said. "We also attended St Peter at Gowts Church together, except when Dennis was in the cathedral choir."While growing up in Lincoln I remember Dennis did much youth club work. I was a year or two younger than him."Before the Second World War boys would regularly be able to sing as choristers until they were 15 or 16, as their voices broke later - something Dr Townhill attributed to a richer pre-war diet.Although he left Lincoln in his early adulthood to work as an organist at St Mary's Cathedral in Edinburgh, he still returned to the city almost annually for the Lincoln Cathedral Old Choristers' Association reunions.He was a past president of the Lincoln association and had also served as chairman of the national federation.Mr Lucas added: "He was an enthusiastic and energetic character. He was well liked and was a great character."After leaving Lincoln Grammar School, where the cathedral choristers were educated, Dr Townhill went on to work across the county at the Choral Society in Brigg, St James' Church in Louth and then a parish in Grimsby before heading north to Scotland.He also produced a book called The Imp and the Thistle, an autobiography detailing his early memories at Lincoln Cathedral.
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