A FAMILIAR figure at the Three Choirs Festival, Vernon Handley, principal conductor with the English Symphony Orchestra, has died at his home in Skenfrith last week at the age of 77.

Vernon Handley – dubbed Tod in reference to his toddling gait by his brother, a name that remained with him into his 70s – was born in Enfield in 1930, the son of musical parents.

His father was a member of Llandaff Cathedral choir and his mother taught the piano. An invitation to conduct the school choir when he was 16 convinced Vernon that he had found what he wanted to do, and a number of visits to the BBC’s Maida Vale studios to watch Sir Adrian Boult rehearsing with the BBC Symphony Orchestra reinforced the conviction and led to him seeking guidance from Boult, whose advice and patronage had a lasting impact.

“The Three Choirs Festival was hugely saddened to hear of the death of Vernon Handley last Wednesday,” said Paul Hedley, general manager of the festival.

“The music world has lost a great champion of British music, and a wonderfully inspiring conductor. His contribution to the musical life of this country has been immense, spanning well over four decades, and he will be sorely missed.”

“Over the course of his long and distinguished career he was a staunch champion of British music, and he appeared regularly at the Three Choirs Festival,” added Geraint Bowen, director of music at Hereford Cathedral and director of Hereford Choral Society.

“Sadly he had to withdraw from his last scheduled concert in Gloucester in 2007 following his collapse at the rehearsal, so his last appearance at Three Choirs was in Hereford in 2003, when he conducted stunning performances of Elgar’s First Symphony, Bax’s tone-poem Tintagel and Finzi’s Violin Concerto with Tasmin Little as the soloist.”

Vernon Handley probably recorded, performed and broadcast more British music than any other conductor. Of some 150 recordings, more than 90 are British, 87 of them works recorded for the first time. His output included all the major works of Elgar, all the symphonies of Vaughan Williams, Stanford, Malcolm Arnold and Robert Simpson and the whole of Moeran’s orchestral music.

“I only do this music, and a lot of it, because I believe that a native conductor ought to,” he said.

Last January, Vernon Handley, who was presented with a Lifetime Achievement award at the 2007 Classical Brits, became the principal conductor of ESO.

He had been scheduled to conduct the second concert of the 2008 BBC Proms season on July 19, but withdrew due to ill-health. On learning of his death, Proms’ director Roger Wright announced that the Prom Concert on September 10 was to be dedicated to him.

Vernon Handley is survived by his wife, Catherine Newby and his son and by two sons and two daughters from two previous marriages. One son from his first marriage predeceased him.