Fr Howard Hollis, vicar of St Mary's from 1965 to 1976, died on Sunday 30 March in St John of God Hospital, Bendigo, Victoria, in his native Australia, at the age of 92.

Howard Hollis read music at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1940. He studied the organ with AEH Nickson, an Anglo-Catholic whose teaching and philosophy were among the factors influencing the young Howard to go on to study theology and train for the Anglican ministry, at Trinity College Melbourne. In retirement he was to acquire much of the Nickson archive and write a number of memorials of his teacher.

Howard was ordained deacon in 1945 and priest in 1946. He remained in Australia until 1947 when he moved to England as curate first of Croydon Woodside (1947-1949) and then of St Stephen’s, Gloucester Road, Kensington (1949-51). From 1951 to 1959 he was Precentor of Westminster Abbey. In this capacity he was among the clergy in official attendance at the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.  He was proud of his red cassock as a priest of a royal foundation, which he kept and would wear from time to time thereafter when entertaining. He returned to Australia 1959-65, then came back to London as Vicar of St Mary’s, with his wife Margaret and sons Julian (later a geologist) and Richard (later an artist).

Here he inherited a long-standing musical tradition, although for much of his time the choir comprised men only, and the repertoire was largely plainsong, until a mixed 4-part choir was established under Ivan Fowler as director of music. In matters musical Fr Hollis could be critical of the choir, the congregation and even his curates if they fell short of his own high standards. It was not unknown, for example, for a curate in training to be made to rehearse the gospel (sung in those days) over and over again until it was exactly in tune.
Occasional recitals at St Mary’s would feature Howard on the organ or piano and Margaret on the flute. She always said she was more than a little surprised to have married a musician who turned into a priest!

Howard was devoted to the traditional hymnody of the English Hymnal - some might say ‘warts and all’, as he enjoyed even those hymns and tunes that had already become outmoded elsewhere, in preference to a more modern repertoire. He was a Director of the English Hymnal Company, and his tune ‘Edenhall’ (named after the hospice in Hampstead) was published in the EH supplement English Praise. This in itself testifies to the importance Fr Hollis attached to the visiting of the sick by the clergy team, which at that time included two full-time curates and, after 1970, a non-stipendiary minister (Fr Francis Stephens).

In 1976 the Hollises returned to Australia, first to Sydney and later, in retirement, to Melbourne where Howard was made an honorary canon of the cathedral. He would go on to write The Best of Both Worlds (1991), a biography of Sir William McKie, former organist at Westminster Abbey. Howard and Margaret made occasional return visits to the UK, most recently in 2003 on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee celebration of the Queen’s Coronation, to which he was invited as a special guest, being then the only surviving priest who had attended the original ceremony. The Queen would later mark Howard’s ninetieth birthday by sending him a congratulatory telegram.

Among the key achievements of his time as vicar was the construction and first occupancy of the Elsworthy Road building for St Paul’s School. But it is as a kind, gently-spoken priest, pastor and musician that he is still affectionately remembered here.

Christopher Kitching
(Hon Archivist, SMVPH)
April 2008

I am grateful to Fr Martin Draper, Caroline Dunn, Charles Plouviez and Fr Lyndon Van der Pump for their contributions to this short memoir. For AEH Nickson see the Master’s thesis by I.K.Crichton, “The Most Divine of all Arts…” (Australian Catholic University, 2004) available online: http://dlibrary.acu.edu.au/digitaltheses/public/adt-acuvp66.25092005/02whole.pdf