AN OKEHAMPTON organist marked fifty years of playing recently and was presented with a certificate to celebrate the occasion.
John Holland, was presented with the special certificate at the evening service of the Harvest Thanksgiving celebrations at Fairplace Church, Okehampton.
At the united service, with a congregation drawn from all the churches in the town, and including the Town Mayor Cllr Christine Marsh, John was presented with a Methodist Church Music Society Certificate marking ?Fifty Years of Devoted and Loyal Service as an Organist?.
The certificate was presented by the Rev Ian Young, a former minister, who had been invited back to Fairplace for the day as part of the centenary celebrations of the church.
John began church organ playing at Bridestowe Methodist Church in 1953. He went on to graduate at Trinity College of Music in London, from where he continued his studies at London University.
John was appointed head of music at St Austell Grammar School in 1962, and while in Cornwall he was involved with many musical events in the area, as well as regularly providing the organ accompaniment for Methodist hymn-singing at Victoria Road Methodist Church, in St Austell.
He moved back home to Okehampton in 1971, when he became head of music at Okehampton Community College. The College Choir, later to become the Okehampton Choral Society began in that year under John?s leadership.
John has been instrumental in the staging of a number of concerts, oratorio productions and other musical events in the town, while church organ playing has remained at the centre of these activities throughout the years.
John said he was ?absolutely thrilled and delighted? to receive the certificate, which came as a complete surprise to him. He was grateful for the joy he found being able to encourage successive generations of young people to make and enjoy music.