Henry Pickard
Epithet: Teacher, musician, choir and festival director (1919-1971)
Record type: Biographies
Biography: From ‘New Manx Worthies’ (2006):
Harry Pickard, registered Henry, was the fifth of six children of Anne Jane (nee Kermode) and Harry Pickard of Douglas. It was a musical family - sisters Lilian (contralto), Ann (soprano) and Eileen (mezzo-soprano) were all singers of ability and musical sensitivity. Life was a struggle, for Harry's father was unemployed; a simple boarding house was their only means of income, and that for only a small part of the year.
In 1941 Harry married Audrey Margaret (Peggy) Corkill, eldest daughter of W. (Billie) Corkill, blacksmith, of Shaw's Brow, Douglas.
There were two children of this very happy marriage: Alan, who succeeded his father as head of music at Castle Rushen High School and became the first Music Adviser to the Isle of Man Department of Education, and Fenella, who followed a career in banking.
Harry Pickard was 6ft. tins. tall, a reasonably good-looking man with, in later years, distinguished grey-white hair. His left leg was damaged whilst on active service in 1941-42.
He was educated at Murray's Road School and at Douglas High School for Boys in the 1930s. He was taught pianoforte by a Mrs Corris, a very successful teacher of that period, but was especially influenced by a local and Liverpool organist, William Clegg FRCO, at St Thomas's Church, Douglas, who taught him organ and much about church music and choir training. His close-knit family was a particular source of strength and support; his mother's determination, kindness and sense of justice were strong influences in his formative years.
Harry was very able at school, particularly in English and French, but coming from the 'wrong' socio-economic group, higher education was out of the question. He left school for a trainee sales assistant post with Burton's, the tailors, in Douglas.
War service intervened and he joined the 15th LAA (Manx) Regiment, TA, and eventually a Lancashire regiment and was posted to Norway in the ill-fated campaign of 1940. On demobilisation in 1943 due to injury, he returned to Burton's for the duration. He became heavily involved in church and community music-making activities - St Ninian's Church, Laureston Ladies Choir (which he founded) and the Hillary Children's Choir, which he also started. He directed many concerts for service charities during this period.
After the end of hostilities in 1945 he was awarded a rehabilitation grant and received a scholarship from Burton's to study at Trinity College of Music in London. Here, he took a teaching course and specialised in singing, pianoforte and choral training. Charles Kennedy-Scott, a leading choral director of the period, was his mentor. He gained the Licentiate of Trinity College, London, and the Licentiate of the Royal Academy of Music.
After receiving his Ministry of Education qualified teacher status, Harry took up his first teaching post as head of music at the Handside Secondary Modern School in Welwyn Garden City, Hertfordshire. In 1949 he returned to the Island as teacher in charge of music at the newly-established bilateral comprehensive Castle Rushen High School.
This period in his life was extremely productive. In school, first and foremost he was a really gifted teacher and a brilliant amateur child psychologist. He knew instinctively how to bring out whatever was within a child- a true educator. For the cause of music in education, this was a happy coincidence; it had a fine musician possessing a real flair for teaching. Looking back, in 1963, to that period, Dr Robin Pedley, who had tracked the then new comprehensives from their inception, wrote in his The Comprehensive School that it was a matter of (UK) national pride that most of the pupils at Castle Rushen High School were involved in some musical activity or other.
Harry Pickard had very high standards in music-making but believed, passionately, that access to music was for all. He abhorred elitist attitudes.
One could say, without fear of contradiction, that single-handedly he anticipated the aims, objectives and content of Secondary National Curriculum Music by nearly 50 years! Extracurricular music activities took on a whole new meaning - junior choirs, boys' choirs, senior pupil/staff choirs, guitar bands, harmonica groups, handbell teams and, significantly, for the first time on the Island, the start of full orchestral music in schools. The seeds were definitely sown then of the youth orchestral and choral music-making which became so vital in the 1980s and '90s.
In his time as head of music at Castle Rushen, three of Harry's pupils were awarded places in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and students followed successful careers at Trinity College of Music, the Royal Manchester College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, Covent Garden and English National Opera.
He also negotiated for the National Youth Orchestra to hold a study course at CRHS in 1964 - a mammoth undertaking.
Taking music-making activities into the community was high on his list of priorities. He founded the Manx Girls Choir in 1951 - a fine choral group that has performed all over Europe. A large community choral society, the Manx Orpheus Choir, had already been founded by him in the late 1940s. This choir was a direct precursor of the Isle of Man Teachers' Choir founded by Alan Pickard in 1979. The Manx Girls Choir too [re-named Manx Voices in 2004], was directed by Alan from 1971 to 2002.
Apart from these school and community music-making initiatives, which are still ongoing and which have developed considerably in many areas since his death, Harry Pickard's greatest achievement was the concept and realisation of a non-competitive international music festival - the Isle of Man International Festival of Music and Dancing, which he established in 1962. Harry directed this from 1962 until his death in 1971. Alan took over in 1972 and continued until 1993.
In 1963, Castletown Commissioners (Castletown was the festival's base) conferred the Freedom of Castletown on Harry and presented him with a framed John Hobson Nicholson illuminated address in recognition of his 'festival achievement'. The spin-offs from the festivals were truly outstanding in terms of tourism, cultural enlightenment, international goodwill, exchange programmes and community involvement. Well over 6000 participants visited the Island for the festivals, both during and after the Cold War period, from all over Europe, the former Soviet Union, China, Israel, Scandinavia and, of course, the British Isles. The provision of a unique and first-class entertainment during the tourist season was another bonus.
Harry was a straightforward, honest and had deeply-held Christian values. He did not suffer fools gladly, though, and disliked pomposity intensely. He had a highly developed sense of justice and did become very upset when he encountered blatant injustice. He had strongly held views about such issues as private education and healthcare, and competitive music-making, especially for children - he disagreed with all of them. He was a social democrat all of his adult life, vacillating from left to right within this broad church. He espoused many humanist traits and enjoyed the company of his fellow men from all walks of life. In the early 1950s his main hobby was chicken husbandry - much to the consternation of his immediate family. For the last 20 years of his life boating was his passion and in the 16ft. Puffin and 27ft. Rip Van he spent many a happy hour. Although anathema to amateur anglers, `murdering' (with a multi-barbed sinker) was his method of cod-catching!
Harry's lasting legacy to the Island can probably be summed up as follows: developing school and community music-making to previously almost unattainable heights, promoting cultural exchanges in the widest possible sense - not in a narrow nationalistic interpretation of that term - and making the Isle of Man known to swathes of Europe and further afield, long before the age of globalisation and the Island's involvement in the international finance industry.
In his late 40s, Harry became ill - obviously something serious. For five years he suffered from chronic myeloid leukaemia; the chemotherapy used to treat it was horrendous, a form of arsenic poisoning. He carried on teaching until the end of 1970. He died in the Liverpool Royal Infirmary on Wednesday, 7th April 1971, the day before his beloved Manx Girls Choir left for a concert tour of Switzerland. Alan accompanied his body back to the Island before flying to Switzerland to direct the choir for the remainder of the tour.
After his funeral service in St Mary's Church, The Parade, Castletown, Harry was buried in Malew Churchyard.
Biography written by Alan Pickard (son).
(With thanks to Culture Vannin as publishers of the book: Kelly, Dollin (general editor), ‘New Manx Worthies’, Manx Heritage Foundation/Culture Vannin, 2006, pp.367-9.)
Culture Vannin
#NMW
Gender: Male
Date of birth: 1 January 1919
Date of death: 7 April 1971
Name Variant: Pickard, Henry ('Harry')