06. George Hopkins – Organ Builder

Born in 1872 in Rochester, England, to a family with strong musical traditions, organist and organ builder George Hopkins arrived at St. John’s in 1912, to find the 1862 organ, formerly in the west gallery of old St. John’s, had been moved, more or less as it was, into the cavernous new organ loft.  In 1915, he began to rebuild and enlarge the Brindley organ on English cathedral lines. The project was not quite complete when he left Launceston in 1929, perhaps frustrated that his ambition to build the organ up to 4 manuals, 90 stops and 4,700 pipes was held back by money and clashes over unauthorised expenditure. Read about him and the organ at All Saints History Collection: George Frederick Hopkins [P170] and The Organs – All Saints Anglican Network.