Len Rawle

Len Rawle (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, such as at Harrow, Tooting and Woking.

Early life Leonard George Rawle was born in Tonypandy, South Wales to Thomas Leslie (Les) Rawle, a grocery store manager, and Edith, a pianist and singer. Rawle learned the piano at the age of four. He also played the recorder and violin at school. The installation of the Wurlitzer organ, which originated from the Granada Theatre, Wandsworth, was complete on 30 October 1960, when an opening concert took place.

Career After school, Rawle attended the Acton Technical College. However, he did not complete his studies and, instead, pursued a career in insurance at the London and Lancashire Insurance Company. He worked there for two years, from 1952, before being called up for National Service and posted to Aldershot Garrison in Hampshire in 1954 for his basic training. At Aldershot, Rawle focused on clerical and musical duties, including playing at the battalion churches and passing out parades. He would also play, on a voluntary basis, the Wurlitzer Organ at the Ritz Aldershot on a Saturday morning, for the Children's Matinee, and the Compton organ at the Empire Cinema on a Sunday. In 1973, he appeared in the TV documentary film Metro-Land, written and narrated by Sir John Betjeman. Rawle performed "Chattanooga Choo Choo" and "The Varsity Drag", the latter a song which would have been popular when Betjeman was a young man. He was offered the position of Musical Director of Kemble (Organ Sales), a role he would continue in until his retirement.

Rawle was responsible for establishing the Yamaha organ dealer network and Yamaha Music Schools in the UK. He gave numerous concerts and workshops in the US, Australia and Europe.

Rawle was particularly noted for his restoration of Wurlitzer theatre organs.

Rawle was 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". In April 2007, Rawle, along with Doreen Chadwick and Kevin Morgan, gave the reopening concert to an audience of over one thousand. However, some months later, the organ suffered a flood, rendering it inoperable.

Rawle was a member of both the Theatre Organ Club and the Cinema Organ Society. Rawle and his father founded the London and South of England Chapter of The American Theatre Organ Society.

Personal life and death Rawle married Judith Anne Rodgers (born 1939) on 12 September 1964, in Sevenoaks. The couple had three children, Elizabeth, Richard and Georgina. The family settled in Berry Lane, Chorleywood, Hertfordshire, where Rawle built his own house, Tonawanda, and installed a 4-manual, 20-rank Wurlitzer organ, previously at the Empire, Leicester Square. For a time, he owned a Cessna plane.

Rawle was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in 2012.

Rawle died on 14 November 2023, aged 85.