Ernest Bullock

Sir Ernest Bullock CVO (15 September 1890 – 24 May 1979) was an English organist, composer, and teacher. He was organist of Exeter Cathedral from 1917 to 1928 and of Westminster Abbey from 1928 to 1941. In the latter post he was jointly responsible for the music at the coronation of George VI in 1937.

When the Abbey's choir was dispersed during World War II, Bullock took up an academic career, first in the dual post of professor of music at the University of Glasgow and principal of the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, and then, from 1953 to 1960, as director of the Royal College of Music in London.

As a composer, Bullock wrote mostly church music, including twenty anthems and motets, two settings of the Te Deum and two of the Magnificat and organ pieces. He also published a few part songs and other secular vocal works.

Bullock was born on 15 September 1890 in Wigan, Lancashire, the youngest of six children of Thomas Bullock and his wife Eliza, née Stout. As a small boy he joined the choir at Wigan parish church, where Edward Bairstow was then organist. Thomas and Eliza Bullock died when Ernest was still a boy, and Bairstow took charge of his musical and general education, taking him as an articled pupil and sending him to Wigan Grammar School.

In 1906, Bairstow moved to a more prominent post, organist of Leeds parish church; he took his pupil with him into his home, along with his own three children. At Leeds, Bullock was appointed assistant organist to Bairstow at the parish church, and organist of St Mary, Micklefield (from 1908), and St John the Baptist Church, Adel (1910–12).

At that time non-residential students were able to qualify for music degrees from Durham University; Bullock graduated Bachelor of Music in 1908 and became a Doctor of Music in 1914. In 1909 he passed the examination to become a fellow of the Royal College of Organists.

After serving as sub-organist to Sydney Nicholson at Manchester Cathedral from 1912 to 1915, Bullock joined the army during World War I, serving as captain and adjutant until 1919. On his return to civilian life, he was briefly organist of St Michael's College, Tenbury, and then organist and choirmaster at Exeter Cathedral from 1919 to 1927. In the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Sir Thomas Armstrong writes of Bullock's time at Exeter: "with determination that was considered at times ruthless, he put new life into the music of the cathedral, the diocese, and the region"

In 1919, Bullock married Margery Newborn, daughter of a Lincolnshire solicitor. They had two sons and a daughter.