Peter Stanley Lyons


Peter Stanley Lyons was a British choral musician who served as Director of Music at Royal Naval College, Greenwich, Director of Music at Wells Cathedral School, and Headmaster of Witham Hall School.

Early life

Peter Stanley Lyons was born on 6 December 1927 in Atherfold Road, London, SW9, to Harold Leslie Lyons, who was the sommelier at London's Savoy Hotel and Dorchester Hotel, and Teresa Gadsden.

Education

Peter was educated at Haselrigge Road School, Alleyn's School, and at Rossall School, where he was Captain of Soccer, and at St John’s College, Cambridge. He won a choral scholarship to St John's in 1946, but completed National Service in the Royal Corps of Signals, with whom he boxed for the British Army, and in the Royal Regiment of Artillery, before he in 1948 entered Cambridge University where he read Modern Languages and was tutored by Enquiry into the Cost of the [National Health Service|C. W. Guillebaud]. Lyons was awarded St. John's College Cambridge Colours for Soccer during the 1949 - 1950 season, and was a member of the team that won the Inter-Collegiate Cup for Soccer.
Peter, who enjoyed the compositions of W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan, was a member of the Choir of [St John's College, Cambridge] under Robin Orr. He sung counter-tenor until his twenties and was described as a ‘forerunner of Callas' whilst he was at Rossall School. His performances included the part of Euridice in Gluck's Orfeo ed Euridice, and the soprano part in Verdi's Requiem. Lyons was broadcast on the BBC on 8 February 1944.
Peter formed at Alleyn’s School a lifetime friendship with John Lanchbery and with Kenneth Spring. Peter was a cricketer for the Marylebone Cricket Club, for which he played during the 1960s; and for the Jesters Cricket Club, of which his father-in-law James William Webb-Jones was a co-founder; and for the Dulwich Public Schools Association.
Peter received the rank of second lieutenant in the Royal Regiment of Artillery during 1955, and attended King George VI Memorial Leadership Training Course, Command Study Centre, 21 Platoon, Saighton Camp, during 1958.

Music career

Lyons was:
  1. Chorister of the Choir of St John's College, Cambridge.
  2. Director of Music, Royal Naval College, Greenwich
  3. Director of Music, Vanbrugh Castle School
  4. Director of Music and Deputy Headmaster, Wells Cathedral School, and Master of the Choristers, Wells Cathedral,
  5. Headmaster, Witham Hall School

Witham Hall

Lyons was appointed Headmaster of Witham Hall School in 1961, which was two years after that School's foundation. Witham Hall School's number of pupils increased from 20 at the time at which Lyons started, in 1961, to 150 by the time that he retired, in 1989, when that School was a feeder school for Oundle School, and for Uppingham School, and for Oakham School. Witham Hall School was during Lyons's tenure inspected by the Ministry of Education and granted the status of a trust, in 1978; and began to admit girls, from 1983. Witham Hall School has a school house, Lyons, that is named after Peter Lyons, and had a sports-hall that was named the 'Lyons Hall' that was demolished in 2016.

Marriage

On 31 July 1957, at Wells Cathedral, Lyons married Bridget Webb-Jones, who was the daughter of the choral conductor James W. Webb-Jones and of Barbara Moody. Bridget Webb-Jones's godmother was Lady Walford Davies, who was the wife of composer Sir Henry Walford Davies, who had composed the choral work God Be in My Head at Witham Hall. Lady Davies subsequently was the wife of Julian Harold Legge Lambart, Vice-Provost of Eton College for which Witham Hall is a preparatory school. Peter and Bridget had three children and four grandchildren.

Later life

Lyons was a member of the Young Musicians Support Group of the Dartington Hall Trust of which Imogen Holst was a member. Lyons died on 28 November 2006.