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Abbey Mourns former Headmaster

Roland-Adams, who was Headmaster of the Westminster Abbey Choir School from 1988 to 1997, has died at his home in Pershore, Worcestershire.

He was Headmaster during the school’s refurbishment when it was a very testing time for the boys. They had to live in a Kensington hotel and come to the Abbey by coach each day for singing and lessons, which took place in various parts of the precincts including Cheyneygates. They took their meals in College Hall.

After he left the Abbey in 1997 Gordon became Headmaster of St Thomas's Choir School on 5th Avenue in New York where he introduced a dress code for choristers similar to the Abbey’s including cloaks which New Yorkers had never seen before on school pupils.

He retired from St Thomas’s in 2004.

His funeral was at Worcester on the 12th September 2016 and he will be remembered at the Westminster Abbey Old Choristers' Festival Evensong in the Abbey on February 4th 2017.