Colin Mawby

Mawby became a central figure to choral music in Ireland, starting the RTÉ Philharmonic Choir and Cór na nÓg, the broadcaster’s children’s choir, and developing the RTÉ Chamber Choir.

Colin John Beverley Mawby was born in Portsmouth on May 9 1936, the son of Bernard Mawby, a Roman Catholic convert, and his wife Enid (née Vaux). He was educated at St Swithun’s Primary School, Portsmouth, but his mother’s death when he was three, and the Luftwaffe’s blitz of the city, made him an unruly child.

Although a conventional boarding school was beyond his father’s means, young Colin had perfect pitch and was one of the first choristers when Cardinal Griffin reopened Westminster Cathedral choir school in January 1946. He sang for 14 services a week in repertoire that was largely plainchant and polyphony, recalling how by the age of 12 he was “very fortunate” to be assisting George Malcolm, the master of music, in the organ loft.

Thanks to Malcolm’s contacts Mawby entered the Royal College of Music at the early age of 15. He was choirmaster at a couple of London churches and at Plymouth Cathedral before returning at 23 to Westminster Cathedral as assistant to Francis Cameron, Malcolm’s successor. Cameron left after two years, whereupon Mawby became master of music.

After parting company with the cathedral Mawby, who also taught at Trinity College and directed an amateur choir, re-emerged in 1978 at Sacred Heart Church, Wimbledon, his last church appointment. Around that time he wrote an article articulating how the church’s liturgical changes had caused so much anguish.

“We have seen many extraordinary advances since Vatican II, but also the destruction of much that was good,” he wrote, urging fellow Catholics to “see what of the old can be incorporated into the new”.

Meanwhile, a nun in the amateur choir drew his attention to an advert for the post of choral director at RTÉ in Dublin. Despite no previous connection with Ireland he settled happily there. Matters were eventually smoothed over at Westminster Cathedral and his return visits were well received.

It was not until he was 52, soon after the birth of his first son, that Mawby took up composition seriously: “I remember going into his bedroom and looking at his crib and thinking to myself, ‘I have to support this baby and I have to get him through university, I have to educate and clothe him. How am I going to do this?’ I thought, ‘The only thing I can do is compose.’ So I decided to sit down and seriously work at composition.”

In 2006 he conducted his 70th birthday concert in Ireland, expressing delight at having no responsibility for its planning. “All I do is wave my arms,” he said. “I don’t have to organise anything, it’s all done for me … why didn’t I think of this years ago?” From 1994 to 2017 he published Vivace!, a newsletter for church choirs. Mawby, was awarded a papal knighthood in 2006.