A LINK between the Royal Albert Hall, many of this country’s finest cathedrals and Petersfield has been broken with the death of Henry Willis 4.

The last member of the family to be involved with the business of building, maintaining and restoring pipe organs, Henry Willis and Sons, died at his retirement home in the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, India, where he and his wife, Barbara, moved to in 2007.

They lived in Windsor Road, Petersfield, while Henry was in charge of the organ factory in Rushes Road between March 1967 and 1997 when he retired.

His firm’s distinguished legacy began in 1845 with the first Henry Willis, known as Father Willis, partly because of his pioneering expertise in the field of organ building which was a burgeoning industry in Victorian times. Thanks to the increasing wealth of Victorian industrialists and their wish to enhance their prestige with gifts for churches and public halls through the installation of massive pipe organs, Willis’s skills were much in demand.

The organ he built for the Great Exhibition of 1851 won a gold medal and was subsequently installed at Winchester Cathedral. Other prominent instruments which sealed his and the company’s reputation were installed in the Royal Albert Hall in London and cathedrals including St Paul’s and Salisbury.

There was a Willis organ in Windsor Castle, until it was destroyed by the fire of 1992, and others are in Blenheim Palace and the Royal Academy of Music.

Through the next two generations of the leadership of Henry Willis II and Henry Willis III, there were commissions for new organs and renovation contracts at churches and public buildings throughout the United Kingdom and abroad in countries including Australia and New Zealand.

Shortly after the completion of the largest pipe organ in the UK, installed in Liverpool Cathedral, by Henry Willis III, his son, Henry – who became known as Henry Willis 4 – was born on January 19, 1927. His christening was held at St Paul’s Cathedral.

After service in the Army and, following the firm’s main premises in London being destroyed in the Blitz in 1941, Henry 4 joined the business in 1948 and began work at the Liverpool branch. After his father’s death in 1966, he sold the London site and decided on the move to Petersfield.

He started to build smaller organs as the large pipe organs became less popular but also travelled widely maintaining Willis instruments. He held offices in a number of organisations relating to his profession.

Henry’s son, John Sinclair-Willis was a member of Petersfield Town Council, including a term as Mayor from 1986-7.

When the business was sold to David Wyld and transferred to Liverpool, the illustrious name of Henry Willis and Son was retained.