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Pat Vince 1932– 2019

Born in Wembley at home on 23rd June 1932 to parents Reginald and Ivy Roberts, Pat was an only child. At some point they moved to Hounslow where she grew up and went to primary and grammar school. This is where her love of music began and she started to learn to play the piano.

After leaving the grammar school, she attended the Pitman secretarial college in London and became a very accomplished shorthand typist, working in an architect’s office on Hanover Square. Her shorthand skills were put to use all her life, as she often wrote in shorthand to save time. In her lunch breaks in HS she would enjoy listening to music and songs which were played in the church near her office. She also gained her London Guild School of Music degree for performance and teaching, of which she and her family were immensely proud, although Pat rarely used the letters after her name! Her love of doing crosswords was born during her commuting days, and in later years she would complete the Daily Telegraph crossword with ease most days.

Through her faith and music she met Frank, a travelling commercial representative for the famous Christy Hat manufacturing company, who was divorced and twice her age. On 23rd July 1955, when Pat was 23, they married at the Methodist church in Hounslow where they both lived.

They moved to Melbourn in 1961, due to a change in Frank’s region of sales for Christy to East Anglia, and purchased 1 Spencer Drive, where they resided for many years before Frank passed away and Pat went into a home. They enjoyed living in the village very much and involved themselves in the church and music as quickly as possible. Throughout their marriage they both loved to travel and went on many touring holidays in Europe and further afield, including a cruise on the QE2. Andrew was born on 21st April 1962 and Pat was overjoyed to become a mother. Due to Frank’s being away most of the week working this was quite difficult at times. Andrew remembers spending an awful lot of

time throughout his childhood alone with his mum, and they therefore built up a very strong bond. He enjoyed many happy family holidays and his love of cars was born travelling in his gran’s and mum’s Austin A30 and A40.

Whilst bringing up Andrew, Pat began to teach piano lessons to adults and children at home, which became very busy by word of mouth. In 1996 she also began teaching pupils at Greneway school in Royston, 2 days a week, and it is estimated that over the years 500 pupils were taught by her and enjoyed and never missed their lessons. They would perform a splendid end of year concert to celebrate their achievements. Unfortunately, when Pat ‘s mother Ivy had a stoke she had to give up her teaching at the school to become her full time carer.

Another great passion was realised when she took over the choir in Melbourn from Arthur Harcourt in 1975, and hence the New Melbourn Singers were formed with Pat singing and conducting. This proved to be a huge part of her life and she arranged many fabulous concerts, raising lots of money for various charities along the way.

The two main concerts took place at Easter, on Good Friday, and at Christmas. Other concerts were performed regularly at the Parish church and at Meldreth Manor, who benefited from the much-needed charity monies at the time.

Throughout this time, she also was heavily involved with the Cambridge Choral Society and orchestra, singing, conducting and playing the cello. A weekly event also took place at her home, when she invited fellow musicians known affectionately as ‘the men’ to make up a quartet with her and Frank, who played the violin, and they loved getting together to play, eat and drink. She produced lots of sweet cake treats which always encouraged them to turn up!

Pat played the piano for over 40 years at Moorlands, the care home, and the residents became extremely fond of her. She also played at Whaddon church from time to time. Her love of playing the organ in church was shared with Derek Thurley for many years.

Pat was delighted to be a grandmother to Amy and Chloe, who have fond memories of the many times they shared with her.

Chloe remembers trips during the school holidays to Wood Green animal shelter in her Nan’s red Rover. She was kept quiet with bags of Skittles sweets, to stop her complaining about the classical music channel on the radio, which she was not allowed to change! Chloe remembers not liking Pat’s driving either! On one trip to Wood Green to collect a cat, someone else was admiring it and Pat told them: ‘It’s too bad, it’s mine!’.(Not sure if it might be better to cut this.)

Chloe used to play in the music room when visiting her Nan, and loved the instruments box, which was always under the piano, with everything from a tambourine, maracas, a triangle, recorder and more. She says that her Nan helped her to learn the piano and practise her scales, which she tried to get out of, but Pat was always insistent you had to learn the scales in order to play well, and it certainly paid off. Chloe is certain that her Nan was thrilled that one of her granddaughters played the piano and enjoyed singing too, and that she was very proud of her achievements.

Finally, we cannot finish without mentioning the cats! Pat cherished and loved each one, the home was never without one or more and she also took in strays and would feed the neighbours’ cats too. Most of her cats were called Minnie, after the car, but others, included Monty, and Poppy, who she inherited from Andrew and Sharon, when they adopted her from an animal shelter only to discover that Sharon was severely allergic. Pat’s house was a shrine to cats including pictures, crockery, ornaments, clothing, clocks and cushions. She loved all animals, despising cruelty to them, and supported many charities over the years.

Many of you have not seen Pat for years but have your own special memories of a wonderful lady and pillar of the community. She managed to stay in her home, being looked after by Sharon and social services carers, until 5 years ago. She had a very bad fall at home, and alongside her additional health issues, including diabetes and dementia, she was admitted to the Home Close care home in Fulbourn, near to Sharon and Andrew’s home. Her quality of life had been very poor for some time, and after developing a blood clot in a main artery in her leg she passed away peacefully on Saturday 10th August.

Andrew would like to take this opportunity to thank Sharon for all her hard work, care and devotion to Pat over many years.

The history of the New Melbourn Singers

The following article was written by Pat Vince in 2002 and printed in the Melbourn magazine to celebrate 160 years since the New Melbourn Singers began in 1842.

160 years old this year! 1842–2002

The Melbourn Choral Society was founded in 1842 by Mr. George Ward, builder and undertaker, and his friends, and is still thriving today despite several changes of name, enormous changes in the way we live and the many different types of entertainment now available to us.

The Society Minute Book begins in 1846, and is beautifully written in a very stylish hand by the Secretary/Treasurer Mr W. Carver, the minister of the Congregational Church (now URC) who also owned and ran the Nonconformist Boarding School in the High Street where Greenbanks is now built. (At that time nonconformists were not permitted to attend Church of England Schools).

This explains why rehearsals and meetings were held in the Congregational Church, but not why quite a few of them were in the club room of The Hoops public house, unless the landlord, Albert Huggins, also a pork butcher, was a member of the church?

During 1846 the Rules were laid down. There were to

be 9 committee members, one to act as Librarian, elected annually, (the Chairman and Treasurer/Secretary were ex officio members); potential members were to be proposed and seconded, and could be blackballed if considered unsuitable. Members could also be ousted from the club for rowdy or unsuitable behaviour. Boys under the age of 14 were to be free members, (there is a later, pencilled, record, underlined, saying that girls under 14 were also to be admitted free!). There were 3 general meetings a year and initially subscriptions were 1d (12d were replaced by 5p in 1971) to be paid every six weeks. The Chairman at this time was Mr William Crole and the Librarian Mr J. Cayzer.

On 10th October 1849 Mr Carver was in the chair at a meeting at The Hoops. Amongst the expenses listed is the sum of £1 10s 11d incurred for candles, beer and a Police Constable during a concert. This makes it sound like a pop concert! It was the custom for some years to raise money for the society by organising a Good Friday Tea, and in 1858 this raised £2 18s 0d, though the expenses incurred for this were £1 14s 11½d.

The first surviving programme is for a concert given on December 13th 1877 in the Reading Room at Shepreth. Front Seats were 1 shilling, and Back Seats were six pence. The programme consisted of Glees, Songs, Duets and Solos, such as ‘Moonlight’ sung by Mrs W Flitton, ‘Truth and Absence’ sung by Miss Titchmarsh and the Glee ‘Friendship’. A year later a benefit concert was given for Mrs Flitton. The reasons are not given, could there be a tragedy here?

In 1879 a concert was given in the Old Chapel for the benefit of Melbourn Library, (which was upstairs in the Congregational Church), with tickets at 6d, and 3d for the gallery. In 1880 a sum of £1 1s 0d (one guinea) was donated to Wanstead Infant Orphan Asylum, an institution founded in London by a wealthy nonconformist; this amount was repeated for several years. In 1881 and 1883 funds were raised for ‘Coals for poor Widows of Melbourn and Meldreth, and in 1882 ‘In Aid of the Clothing Club’. Due to our proximity to Cambridge the Singers have always had associations with the University, and several undergraduates came to conduct concerts. In 1895 Mr H P Allen, organist at Christ’s, (later to become Sir Hugh Allen, conductor of The Bach Choir and succeeding Hubert Parry in 1918 as principal of the Royal College of Music) conducted a St Cecilia’s Day Cantata, bringing some members of the Cambridge University Musical Society (CUMS) with him.

He came again in 1896 to conduct two cantatas, sing quartets with other students and play two Chopin pieces. We are told that he persuaded the LNER to stop the Northbound Express at Melbourn & Meldreth Station so that he could get back to Cambridge and the College before they closed the gates for the night! Another undergraduate who practised his conducting skills on Melbourn singers, on St Patrick’s Day 1898, was Edward Dent of King’s. He went on to become a world authority on early Italian opera, Mozart, Handel and more. He was appointed Cambridge Professor of Music from 1926-41.

The Great War caused a lapse in the Society, which started up again in 1923, with the Rev Rice of Whaddon conducting a mixed programme on December 20. It included many solos and part songs, including one called ‘Aldiborontiphoscophomio’! Between the Wars the Society entered the newly started Cambridge Festival of Music, with which Professor Dent was associated, and won many cups and certificates for Madrigal Singing, Mixed Voice Choruses and Sight reading. The conductor throughout this time was George Ward, son of the founder, and the accompanist Mrs Irene Black, whose daughter, Daphne, is still in the choir and our longest singing member. Mr Ward died in 1942, and during World War II the Society was kept going by Mr Seymour Samuels, the Congregational Church Organist. An earlier accompanist was Miss Hagger.

After the War the choir gave concerts to raise funds for the Merchant Navy and the Wilfred Pickles Appeal Fund for Children. Despite this numbers declined and in 1956 C. Wedd wrote ‘the Society was not continued through lack of members’. However, the opening of the Village College provided the impetus for the re-forming of the Choir, and an extra boost was given by the formation of the Cambridgeshire Village College Choral Society, now known as the Cambridgeshire Choral Society, formed by Sir David Willcocks and Mr Edgar Alder to enable amateur singers to perform major works with professional soloists and musicians. The CCS is made up of smaller choirs which meet up once a month, from September, to rehearse for the performance the following April. The conductors continued to be eminent Cambridge musicians, and after Sir David were Philip Ledger, Tim Brown, Paul Trepte, Stephen Cleobury and now James Thomas conducts the choir. The venue for the concert this year was Kings College Chapel, and we have also performed at Ely and St Edmundsbury Cathedrals. There are also regular workshops and fundraising events.

The Melbourn Singers were conducted for many years by Mr Arthur Harcourt, the headmaster of Bassingbourn Primary School, and after he retired in 1980 Mrs Patricia Vince, who had been accompanist for 17 years, took over, renaming the choir the New Melbourn Singers. Patricia Vince

WHAT THE PAPERS SAID

Choral Society

A Choral Society has sprung up in this place, which would be a credit even to a large town. Last Tuesday week, a selection of sacred music, consisting of all the “Messiah” choruses, two or three solos, and one of Mozart’s Services, was performed in a manner highly to be commended, and, indeed, to be imitated: the badness of the room and the paucity of soprano voices alone present this society from giving full effect to the sublime composition of Handel and Mozart. We repeat that the exertions of the society and its talented leader merit all praise.

1850 April 13th Cambridge Chronical