Malcolm S Beer

Malcolm was born in Leeds in 1940. At the age of eight he joined the choir of St Edmund's Anglican Church, Roundhay, Leeds where, with the encouragement of the vicar, Rev Richard H. Talbot and the organist Raymond G. Sunderland his long-standing love of English church music began. He later became an organ pupil of Raymond Sunderland and continued to sing at St Edmund's as an alto.

In the mid 1960s through his friendship with the Reverend Duncan Thomson, Malcolm became a supernumerary lay clerk at Ripon Cathedral and sang, in the choir for over 22 years. During this period he studied with Duncan and obtained his Licentiateship of Trinity College of Music, London.

After leaving, school aged 16, Malcolm went into insurance and for over forty five years worked as a Chartered Loss Adjuster in Bradford and Leeds. He was elected president of the Insurance Institute of Leeds in its centenary year and became a main board director of McLarens, a large national firm of Loss Adjusters, from which he retired in 2000

Malcolm is married to Joan and they have two children: Their daughter, Jane, was for a time an assistant in the pre-prep department at Ripon Choir School and their son, Simon, was a chorister at the cathedral. For many years Malcolm was a governor of the Cathedral Choir School and he continues to take a keen interest in the music at Ripon Cathedral.

Howard M Crawshaw

Howard was born in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, in 1947, and at the age of four moved to Devon.

He was a chorister at Exeter Cathedral under Reginald Moore and Lionel Dakers before moving on to Malvern College.

Howard studied medicine at Edinburgh, and while an undergraduate sang with the Exon Singers. He became a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh in 1976, and subsequently spent a year working in Boston, Massachusetts. Later he was appointed Consultant Surgeon to the Edinburgh Hospitals and Honorary Senior Lecturer in the University Department of Clinical Surgery.

Howard moved to Ripon in 1998, and for a number of years combined the posts of lay clerk and chapter clerk at the cathedral.

Married to Susan, he has four children and one grandchild and is now retired.