Queen’s Organ dedicated in Lady Chapel
Wednesday, 6th November 2013
His Royal Highness The Earl of Wessex attended the dedication of a new organ in Westminster Abbey’s Lady Chapel on Tuesday 5th November.
The Queen’s Organ was commissioned by Alderman Roger Gifford, The Right Honourable The Lord Mayor of the City of London, and the City of London Corporation as a gift to Her Majesty to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the Coronation in 1953. The Queen graciously agreed that the organ should be installed permanently in Henry VII’s Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey, a Royal Peculiar, and the historic site of successive coronations.
The Lord Mayor formally asked the Dean of Westminster, the Very Reverend Dr John Hall, to receive the organ into the custody of the Dean & Chapter of Westminster. The Dean dedicated the organ and led prayers. The Reverend David Stanton, Canon in Residence, read Colossians 3: 1-4; 16-17.
After the dedication James O’Donnell, Organist and Master of the Choristers, gave a recital at the new organ which was built by the long-established family firm of Mander Organs, in east London, which won the contract to build it after an international competitive tendering process. The two manual pedal organ has case work designed along the lines of 18th century chamber instruments.
The organ resided for a short time in The Mansion House, the official residence of the Lord Mayor, where it was used for a number of charity recitals in aid of The Lord Mayor’s Appeal, before being moved to its permanent home in the Lady Chapel of the Abbey.
