Henry Willis & Sons is a British firm of pipe organ builders founded in 1845 in Liverpool. Although most of their installations have been in the UK, examples can be found in other countries. Five generations of the Willis family continued the tradition of organ building until 1997. The company is now under the ownership of David Wyld who is Managing Director.
The charismatic founder of the company, the eponymous Henry Willis, was nicknamed "Father Willis" because of his contribution to the art and science of organ building and to distinguish him from his younger relatives working in the firm.
He was a friend of Samuel Sebastian Wesley whom he met at Cheltenham, and who was instrumental in gaining for Willis the contract for his first cathedral organ, at Gloucester, in 1847.
Willis's are regarded as the leading organ builders of the Victorian era, itself a time when both civic and religious commitment led to the erection of a large number of impressive buildings and other public works.
During the Industrial Revolution any town worth its salt would want an imposing Town Hall, preferably with a Willis organ, and a substantial (and similarly equipped) church. Industrialists competed to endow the most lavish halls and instruments. The result was a convergence of both a very fine and technically proficient organ builder, and a substantial number of commissions for really exceptional instruments. This heritage has, fortunately, lived on.
The most famous "Father" Willis organs are probably those in St Paul's, Salisbury and Truro Cathedrals, but there are many more including the cathedrals in Aberdeen, Calcutta, Canterbury, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hereford, Lincoln and Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, St. Mary's Church, Southampton, Giggleswick School, Felsted School and the town church of Inverness, the Old High Church. St Michaels and all Angels, Croydon boasts a Father Willis Built and installed in 1882 with additions by Noel Mander in 1955.
Windsor Castle had a Willis until it was destroyed by a fire in November 1992, as have Blenheim Palace and the Royal Academy of Music and several historic civic buildings including Reading Town Hall, Birmingham Town Hall, Freemasons' Hall, London and the Sheldonian Theatre in Oxford.
The tiny hamlet of St Michaels, near Tenbury Wells also has a full organ which was installed in the new church created to support the then new St Michaels College in the mid-19th century. The 4,600 pipes organ built in 1892 was originally installed in the Brisbane Exhibition Building but in 1927 was moved to the Brisbane City Hall in Brisbane.[1] The organ in St Bees Priory Church (1899) was the last major instrument to be personally supervised by "Father" Henry Willis.
Father Willis's organ won the gold medal in the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace. The organ was later installed in Winchester Cathedral by the family firm, after being reduced to the appropriate size for the cathedral. Other examples of very fine Willis organs can be found in the firm's hometown, St George's Hall and the Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool, which both house Willis organs. The organ built by Willis & Sons in Liverpool Cathedral is also the largest organ in the UK.
The "Josiah Wedgwood" Willis organ has been installed in St. Peter's Church on Hayling Island.
Although four generations of Henry Willis are mostly remembered for organs on the grand scale they also built smaller instruments. Seven examples exist in Australia, including the last imported, the 1881 organ (Great: 5 stops; Swell: 4 stops; Pedal: 1 stop; 3 couplers) in All Saints Church, Bodalla, New South Wales, commemorating the 'father of Australian dairying', Thomas Sutcliffe Mort.[2]
Henry Willis III built and worked on many organs across Britain, the most notable examples of his work being in Westminster Cathedral and Sheffield City Hall, both built in 1932. These organs both contain stops invented by the builder: the Sylvestrina at 8 foot pitch on the Choir divisions.
Henry Willis IV built many Junior Development Plan Organs which he designed to be economical initially but with scope for expansion as funds became available. There is an example in St. Anne's Church in East Wittering, West Sussex.