Life Stories
Jeffrey Fletcher Dyball
Jeffrey Fletcher Dyball (1963 BA English Language and Literature) died on 18 July 2026 aged 81.
Jeffrey was born into a farming community, educated in Cambridge, Oxford and Paris and had a musical career that took him around the world.
At an early age he showed aptitude for the piano, which enabled him to win a musical scholarship to The Leys School, Cambridge. It was there, during his last years at school, that he became captivated by the harp when a visiting harpist joined the school orchestra in a performance.
Despite being offered a place at the Royal Academy of Music he chose to go to Oxford University, to Keble College, where he studied English Language and Literature.
A major step was to then attend the Ecole Normale de Paris (where he obtained his Licence de Concert) and study with Micheline Kahn and Pierre Jamet. He remained a friend and pupil of Jamet for many years and after Jamet died in 1991, wrote his obituary for The Independent newspaper. It was during this period that he developed his great love of France, which continued all his life.
From 1971 to 2009 he was harpist at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (principal harp from 1999). This was a life filled with activity, with tours to the major music capitals of Europe, to Los Angeles for performances preceding the 1984 Olympics, to Japan and South Korea, as well as performances for Royalty back at Covent Garden.
Jeffrey never married but was a committed family man, devoted to his nephews in Australia, whom he always managed to visit at the end of one of his orchestral tours. More lately, that same devotion was given to his great nephew and great niece.
On retirement from Covent Garden he still kept busy, playing at special events and in smaller ensembles. He also became involved in a literacy program, reading with children in primary schools in London and then Great Chesterford, to where he finally returned to live. It was here also that he became organist at the village church.
Jeffrey was a fount of knowledge, especially when guiding visitors around the streets of London or Paris. He could enrich any conversation with a quote from Shakespeare or one of the great poets. This ability must surely be attributable to Keble!
His was a life well lived.
Kindly provided by his family