John Bevan is a great and dear friend, godfather to our youngest daughter and also, the eldest of the fourteen children of the Bevan family.
Parents Roger and Molly, brought up their children as good Catholic parents did back in the 1960s.
Roger was Head of Music at Downside School for many years and, so the story goes, two year old John would be parked in his pram, outside the chapel or classroom, wherever the school choir practice was taking place and, before long was to be found gently singing the cadences of plainchant.
The brothers and sisters formed a choir under Roger's guidance and went on to successfully make several recordings that are still available today, if you are quick, on Ebay.
They also toured the country giving performances up until such time the siblings left home and went their separate ways, many of them to become professional organists and singers.
And now, their children are equally successfully making a name for themselves, most notable being Sophie Bevan, described as "the most exciting classical soprano to have appeared on the scene since Kate Royal" (Daily Telegraph).
The Bevan Family, now greatly enlarged with nieces and nephews, is to perfom in public once more at the Church of St John's Bath on November 10th at 5pm.
This film from the early days of the Bevans, shows them in their family home, an old Somerset farmhouse - well worth watching for a glimpse of Catholic family life, before Vatican II.
