Partner John Webb
Queer Places:
Winchester College, College St, Winchester SO23 9NA
Reynell Fitzwilliam Grissell (November 12, 1927 - September 6, 1999) was an English concert pianist.
Born in London, he was descended from a family of Tudors. His ancestors were involved in the erection of Nelson's Column in London's Trafalgar Square, and in the building of the Houses of Parliament. Grissell went to Winchester College. He went for a while to India with the Yorkshire Light Infantry. He studied with the distinguished pianist Frank Merrick at the Royal College of Music in London. One of his contemporaries there was Joan Sutherland. Among others, he worked with the violinists Ursula Snow-Beamish and Bernard Newland, the cellist Christopher Bunting, the conductor Edward Downes, and the singers Gerald English and Nigel Douglas. He mainly fell into the role of accompanist but also performed in several solo recitals and he also had his own piano quartet for a time. He had a heart attack in the late 1970s and then had a stroke in 1980 which left him without use of his left hand. Sally Beamish helped out by arranging piano music for the right hand. He retired to Primrose Hill in north London with John Webb who had been his partner since the Second World War. John Webb died three weeks before the death of Reynell Grissell, who died in Brighton, East Sussex.
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