Although Cliff was an excellent soloist he was also able to match his voice to singing in a choir, which, sadly, is not something that all soloists are good at!  His ability to do this was no doubt due in part to his early choral training in Sheffield where he would have learned this technique. 

 For many years it would be fair to say that he was the mainstay of our bass line, encouraging and praising other less experienced singers.  He kept them on their toes too as he would sometimes indulge himself by singing tenor or alto in an occasional verse of a hymn – always with a big smile on his face, which meant the other basses had to concentrate really hard on their part and not rely on Cliff.  He also encouraged other members of the choir and he could often be heard congratulating one of our trebles after they had performed a solo or read a lesson. The younger children were amazed at his breath control and even in his last years in the choir he could hold on a note far longer than anyone else. 

 I found Cliff very easy to work with. He was always very supportive and helpful and was clearly used to obeying Choir Trainers!  I know that he didn’t always agree with my interpretation of things but his words to me were ‘you’re the boss!’  He had had much more experience than me in singing church music but accepted that different people interpret things differently.  He could ‘nit pick’ at times if he thought I had overlooked something (and he was usually right) but that was Cliff and the way he was.  If I had made a mistake on any of the letters given to the choir, Cliff would always be the first to notice and on one famous occasion drew my attention to a split infinitive! As I write this I can feel him looking over my shoulder checking for similar errors.

Cliff loved singing and I think I speak for most of us in the choir when I say that we all loved Cliff.  His wicked sense of humour kept us all amused, we all learnt from him and we all respected him.  This certainly showed in the number of the choir who sang their hearts out at his Thanksgiving Service on February 21^st.  

Helen Woods

10th March 2003 - Celebrating 77 years as a chorister

Last Sunday Cliff celebrated his 77th anniversary of becoming a chorister. This is an article prepared by his daughter Jill Tyrell 2 years ago about the “choirs and places where he sang”.

He was born in Sheffield on 13th March 1919 and on Sunday 13th March 1926, his seventh birthday, he became a chorister at St.Andrews, Darnall, Sheffield, where his 17 year old brother was organist and choirmaster. This was a mission church of the parish church of Attercliffe, Sheffield where, when he was eight, he became a member of that choir. He remembers his mother’s advice before his first “major” public appearance as an eight year old soloist when he sang “Shenandor” to 2000 people at Sheffield Methodist Hall. She said: “Don’t see them as 2000 faces -imagine that they are 2000 cabbages!” He said he heeded that advice and his knees stopped knocking.

At the age of 9 he auditioned at Sheffield Cathedral and was accepted there as a chorister. Here, his musical education formed the basis of his lifetime development and devotion to church music, widened by some interesting secular experiences. When he was eleven years old, he gained a scholarship to Sheffield City Grammar School. This was the only way there in those days, from a poor family. He became the school soloist, in which capacity he sang at many official functions and in local theatres. He recalls singing “Who is Sylvia” at the official opening of Sheffield’s new City Memorial Hall in the early 1930s.

When he was sixteen, his voice “broke”. This happened almost miraculously because he sang treble in Sheffield Cathedral on one Sunday and on the following sang bass in his local Attercliffe Parish Church.

In 1939, now aged 20 years, he was conscripted into the army and served in tanks, in the Royal Armoured Corps until 1946. For some time he was stationed at Catterick Camp where he gave his spare time to running the Regimental concert party, with several interesting professional entertainers who had also been conscripted. His evenings, when not on duly, were occupied either rehearsing or giving concerts around the northern command, fr~ue2t1y to raise money at War Weapons weeks. His most embarrassing occasion was when singing at a Sunday evening Celebrity Concert at the Globe Theatre, Stockton-on-Tees, to 3000 people. His song “No John No” he had sung for many years. When he reached the first chorus, for the only time in his life (said Joan, my Mum) “... he was lost for words!”

Upon his discharge from the army in 1946, for eighteen years he sang in the choir of Handsworth Parish Church, Sheffield, where he was Churchwarden and Vice chairman. With his brother and my mother, he frequently entertained old people’s organisations. We moved to London in 1964. He became Crown Warden of St Marylebone and was a chorister there in their professional choir, although he said they didn’t pay him. He still enjoys singing The Crucifixion, which John Stainer wrote for that choir. His next choir was Warnham, near Horsham, from where he finally moved, over 20 years ago, to Bognor Regis.

He sought permission to sing in the choir wherever he was holidaying and he still does so. There must have been scores of these including the Garrison Church in Malta, a church in Bochum, Germany and at innumerable holiday resorts elsewhere.

My final story relates to one other famous place where he sang solo. In 1969 he applied (with many others) for the office of “bass lay clerk” at St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle and was surprised to find himself on the shortlist of three. Before the audition he was compelled to take Joan to the Castle because if she did not approve of the red bricked cottage in the cloisters which went with the appointment, he would not be considered. He was delighted to have sung there and was not concerned that he failed to be appointed. He said: “The best voice won”. His real disappointment was that, had he been successful, his great delight would have been to respond to the police officer who stopped him for speeding: “Your name sir?” “Stevenson”. “Full address?” “Windsor Castle”. “‘ere, pull this one.”

March 10 2003

13 March 2005 - Cliff Celebrating his 86th birthday and 79th yr as a chorister