Basil Ramsey (C&O)

[DaveHarries]

Greetings all,

My Mother this morning drew my attention to an obituary in the Daily Telegraph for Basil Ramsey, founding editor of Choir and Organ magazine who died 13th June 2018 at the age of 89. The obituary appeared in the Daily Telegraph's edition of Wednesday 18th July. No doubt a tribute will appear in the next edition of Choir and Organ but anyone who fancies reading the DT's writeup (although you may have to signup to their website to do so) can find it at https://www.telegraph.co.uk/obituaries/2018/07/17/basil-ramsey-organist-writer-obituary/

May he rest in piece.

Dave

[Vox Humana]

Obituary in the Guardian
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jul/24/basil-ramsey-obituary

[S_L]

 

I am sorry to hear of Basil Ramsey's death.

He was, particularly, kind to me when, a few years ago now, I was having a lot of difficulties with a local musician, who had an overinflated opinion of his playing abilities, wanting to give recitals all over the place and making public and derogatory remarks about those who refused to allow him to do so because they knew the standard of recital to expect!!!! Basil wrote me a lovely, unprompted and extremely witty, letter which gave me the encouragement to 'hold my ground' and kept the said player at bay! I had the impression that he was a nice man!

May he rest in peace!

[Barry Oakley]

To be honest, I had forgotten about Basil Ramsey as it was so long ago that I last had contact, but I am sorry to learn of his death. At the time he was managing editor of Choir & Organ in its early years and my dealings with him were essentially journalistic. Always a man with a receptive ear he commissioned and published a number of my articles.