Cyril Dams

Cyril Theodore Henry Dams was Minor Canon and Precentor at Westminster Abbey from 1951-1963 and Deputy Minor Canon from 1968-1973 and his ashes are buried in the vault of the Islip Chapel at Westminster Abbey but his grave is not marked. At the 1953 coronation he carried the Ampulla and Spoon in the Regalia, or Litany, procession which takes place prior to the main ceremony. As Precentor he was responsible for the ordering of the daily and special services at the Abbey.

He was the son of the Reverend Henry Dams, vicar of Knowsley in Lancashire and his wife Alice (Winstanley). His uncle, William Bell Dams, had been Minor Canon at Westminster from 1908-1932 and Head Master of the Choir School. He was born on 17th June 1906 and educated at Westminster School (where his relative Edward Lampsey Dams was also at school) and went on to Oxford where he was an organ scholar. After ordination in 1929 he was a curate in Derby and Minor Canon of Windsor 1932-1942, succentor at Lincoln cathedral and rector of St Mary Magdalen in Lincoln until 1951. He was vicar of St Peter's Cromley Gardens from 1963. On 20th October 1931 he married Elizabeth (Betty) Leach. Their children were Christopher and Mary. He died on 30th May 1973 in Leicester and his ashes were interred during the Abbey memorial service.