Purcell James Mansfield born Torquay 1889.
Purcell
James Mansfield
was born in Torquay on the 24th May 1889, the only child to Orlando Augustine Mansfield
of Devon and Louise Christine Jutz of Geneva,
Switzerland.
With
two musical parents it was inevitable Purcell became a musician
and after two appointments as organist and choirmaster in churches
in Devon, in
1910, he was invited to take up the post of organist at the
Park Parish Church in Glasgow,
Scotland and lived in West Princes Street near the church. His term was
interrupted by the Great war
when he joined the 10th Argyle and Sutherland Highlanders. On
his return to Glasgow, and needing somewhere to stay he lodged
with the Campbells in 40 Blantyre Street, opposite the Kelvingrove Art Galleries and Museum
in the city. The Campbells had four daughters and in 1916 Purcell
married Marie Campbell.
On the 20th March 1918 they gave birth to Cedric Orlando. A newspaper cutting intimates that Cedric was baptised in the house which suggests Marie was too ill to attend Church and sadly she died the following year, possibly a victim of the great flu epidemic. The same year, Purcell was appointed organist and choirmaster at the Abbey in Paisley, a large town 8 miles East of Glasgow. The following year he remarried, to Marie's sister Jessie Campbell and in 1922 Sylvia was born.
The
picture above is of three generations, Purcell, Cedric and
Orlando on holiday in Wales. The picture opposite is a young Cedric
with Purcell, his second wife Jessie and her Mother, Isobel
'Granny' Campbell.
Around
1923 he moved to Pollokshields Parish Church in Glasgow and
was now living in Mosspark, a strategic base for travel to
Glasgow and Paisley. The first address in Mosspark Oval had
views over Bellahouston Park especially spectacular during
the great Empire Exhibition. From
his home he taught and arranged many pieces of music
including concert overtures and over 60 short pieces for the organ.
After his second wife Jessie died at an early age he married a member of his choir, Miss Jean Walker whose brother Tommy was a church organist as well. He
was stiill adjudicating, playing and teaching until his death
on the 24th September 1968 at his home in Mosspark.