My brother Nicholas Milner-Gulland, who has died aged 77, made a considerable mark in educational, and particularly musical, life in Sussex.
Son of Hal Milner-Gulland, headmaster of the prep school Cumnor House, and his wife, Nancy (nee Bavin), Nick was born in Surrey. He was academically promising, winning a scholarship to Westminster school and a place at Cambridge University. But he also took to music: I can still remember the first bars of a thumping piano sonata he was composing before he was eight. From being a pianist, he became skilled at the harpsichord, French horn and organ. He published his orchestration of selections from Michael Praetorius.
Advised (perhaps oddly) at Cambridge to stick with classics rather than music, he went into teaching, doing a diploma at Bristol and short stints at Marlborough college and in the US before returning to Cumnor House, near Danehill, East Sussex, to assist, and subsequently take over from, his father; the school built up a fine reputation, particularly in the production of Shakespeare’s plays, and of course music.
He met and married his wife, Anna, there; they had three children, Kate, Jamie and Toby. But in the week of his 60th birthday Nick was diagnosed with myeloma (blood cancer). This condition was successfully treated at the Royal Marsden hospital; but despite the wish of the trust that owned the school that he should return, he took retirement, settling in Lewes.
There began a new and very active stage in his life. From teaching in a private school he plunged into educational activity at Lewes prison. More recently he spent much time sorting the vast handwritten archive of his distinguished neighbour, the historian Asa Briggs.
But musical activity at all levels consumed him more and more: playing, conducting orchestras and choirs, arranging concerts in south-west France (where, a convivial host, he always took summer holidays). He was particularly involved with the Fletching Singers and New Sussex Opera, for which his experience of producing plays was helpful. Less than a week before the sudden onset of his final illness, he excitedly emailed me listing his many coming musical commitments, from village carol services to what was to be a great culminating performance of Bach’s St Matthew Passion in March.
He will be hugely missed not just by family, ex-pupils and many friends, but by a great circle of music-makers. He is survived by Anna, and their children and grandchildren.
