Len Rawle, MBE, (4 January 1938 - 14 November 2023) was a Welsh organ builder and organist. A London College of Music graduate, he was particularly noted for his restoration of Wurlitzer theatre organs.[1][2] In 1973 he appeared in the TV documentary film Metro-Land, written and narrated by Sir John Betjeman, and performed Chattanooga Choo Choo and The Varsity Drag, a song which would have been popular when Betjeman was a young man. Rawle gave numerous concerts and workshops in the US, Australia and Europe.[1] In May 2001 he played on "Western New York's mightiest Wurlitzer theater pipe organ" in Buffalo.[3]

Rawle was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2012. He often played at the Barry Memorial Hall in Barry, Vale of Glamorgan.[4] He maintained the Wurlitzer organ in Woking and previously maintained several other Wurlitzer organs such as those at the Gaumont State Cinema, Kilburn and the former organ of the Empire, Leicester Square which he installed in his Chorleywood home. That instrument was sold to a fellow enthusiast in 2015 to be restored and installed in a new purpose-built location in Suffolk.[5] Rawle was also involved in a £40,000 project to restore the Granada Tooting Wurlitzer organ, described as "one of the most significant restoration projects in the UK".[6]

References

  1. 1 2 "Len Rawle MBE". Cinema-organs.org.uk. Retrieved 3 September 2014.
  2. ↑ Mackenzie, Sir Compton; Stone, Christopher (1974). Gramophone. General Gramophone Publications Ltd. p. 123.
  3. ↑ "Reporter's Notebook". Buffalo News. 8 May 2001. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2014 – via HighBeam Research.
  4. ↑ "Young organist's skills hit right note". South Wales Echo. 2 March 2004. Archived from the original on 21 September 2014. Retrieved 3 September 2014 – via HighBeam Research.
  5. ↑ "History". Empire Wurlitzer Theatre Pipe Organ. Empire Wurlitzer. Retrieved 10 April 2023.
  6. ↑ "Len Rawle". Rochford-compton.com. Retrieved 3 September 2014.


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