Michael Gillingham CBE
Michael Gillingham CBE (1933–1999) developed a passion for ancient church buildings and a talent for dealing in antiques. He was a scholar of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge where he read Law. After Cambridge he worked at first for a bank and then for the Fine Art firm of Spinks & Co, becoming a well-known dealer in his own right, especially in oriental porcelain and jade. He was a member of the London DAC from the age of 32 until his sudden death aged 66, serving as one of its organ advisers. When John Norman ceased to be an organ builder it was Michael who drew him into acting as another London DOA. Michael, together with Donald Findlay, rescued one of the finest houses in Spitalfields from dereliction, turning it into a grand yet welcoming home, richly embellished with antique furniture and works of art.
Organist of St James Clerkenwell, he and Noel Mander planned the elegant and entirely successful reconstruction of the G.P. England/Gray & Davison instrument, rescuing it from an unsympathetic 1929 rebuild. This return of such an organ to tracker action was entirely in line with his role as a founder member and the first Chairman of BIOS, whose principles he had espoused from the 1960s. He had a particular interest in and fondness for early Victorian organs of the City of London, several of which he helped steer towards sensitive restoration or re-creation. Michael had numerous like-minded, clubbable friends, such as Cecil Clutton, Austin Niland, John and Stephen Dykes-Bower and Noel Mander, resulting in his involvement in a number of significant organ projects large and small. Among them were the cathedral instruments at Chichester, Peterborough and Winchester (where he designed the added ‘nave’ division and its casework), church organs for St Andrew’s Holborn, St Giles Cripplegate and the new organ for his own Cambridge college.
A knowledgeable and detailed interest in organ cases was a particular passion, which proved its most productive in the restoration of the Framlingham cases in 1969, followed by the Gloucester Cathedral 17th century double case and front pipes in 1970 to 71. He also researched the history of the Gloucester organ and its cases, his memorable and detailed text forming the main part in the book published about the organ on the completion of the Downes/HNB rebuild.