Croydon choir leads singing at Lanfranc memorial

Croydon Male Voice Choir led the singing at a civic memorial service at Croydon Minster on Sunday August 14 in memory of the pupils and staff from Lanfranc School who died in an air-crash in Norway fifty years ago.   Turn to next page for a full report.

John Ward Turner reports: It is fifty years since an airliner carrying 34 pupils and two members of staff from Lanfranc Secondary Modern School in Croydon crashed into a Norwegian mountain, leaving no survivors. That terrible tragedy is not forgotten and a most moving civic memorial service was held in Croydon Minster on Sunday 14th August.

The Reverend Canon Colin J. Luke Boswell officiated before a congregation of around 500 people that included many local dignitaries, among them Councillor Graham Bass,  Mayor of Croydon, who also read the lesson.  In line with the theme of local participation, Croydon MVC led the singing of stirring hymns such as ‘O God Our Help in Ages Past’, ‘Guide Me, O Thou Great Redeemer’ and ‘I Vow to Thee My Country’, accompanied by Andrew Cantrill, the organist and master of choristers at Croydon Minster.

The choir’s recognition of the importance of the occasion was shown by a near maximum turnout of 50-plus members who also sang the lovely choral setting of the Lord’s Prayer, the beautiful ‘Gwahoddiad’, and a stirring rendition of the ‘Hallelujah Chorus’, shortly before the final blessing, that drew spontaneous applause from the congregation despite the seriousness of the occasion.

It was an emotional afternoon and the total silence that accompanied the reading aloud of the names of those who died on ’Papa Mike’, including three aircrew as well as the 36 from Lanfranc School, bore witness to the solemnity felt by all. It was greatly appreciated by everyone present that Mrs. Bjorg Tysdal Moe, the Deputy Mayor of Stavanger, had travelled from Norway to offer a most moving and beautifully worded tribute to the dead.

Perhaps the fact that the memorial service closed with choir and congregation joining to sing ‘God Save The Queen’ with great fervour and not the least trace of embarrassment is the greatest proof of the value all participants gave to the occasion. 

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