A Country Tune

Eric Thiman (1900 – 1975) was born in Ashford, Kent, and spent his life in or around London.

Though largely self-taught, he gained his FRCO at 21, and a DMus of London University at 27 – at the time the youngest person ever to achieve that qualification.

From 1931, until his death in 1975, he was Professor of Harmony at the Royal Academy of Music and was appointed Dean of the Music Faculty at London University in 1956. He was warmly respected and a gifted and patient teacher.

He was organist of The Park Chapel in Crouch End, North London for thirty years and then for twenty years at The City Temple, Holborn Viaduct where his outstanding gifts, especially for improvisation on hymn tunes, were much admired. With Sir William McKie, Thiman drew up the specification for the new Walker Organ at the City Temple, inaugurated when the rebuilt City Temple opened, in the presence of the Queen Mother in 1958.

For over forty years he was the organist, and occasional conductor, of the annual festivals of the Free Church Choir Union, mostly at Alexandra Palace.

He was also active as a conductor, working with his own string orchestra, with the Elysian Concert Society and with Purley Choral Society.

He was an examiner for the Royal College of Organists and the Associated Board, and a frequent adjudicator at music festivals. Thiman published over thirteen hundred compositions

He was still working at the time of his death.