A regular contributor to this blog, photographer Vallis , has just been informed he had an ancestor in New Zealand who was a renowned organist and choirmaster .
He was Albert Vallis (1862-l932) , official pianist and organist at the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition , help in Dunedin from 1889 to 1890. .
Although he was not a Catholic, he became the organist and choirmaster at St. Joseph's Church ,Dunedin, for more than 40 years.
In England he had been a pupil of the famous organist and composer Sir John Stainer who set standards for Anglican church music .
Upon Vallis's death, choir members gathered round his grave in Dunedin's Andersons Bay Cemetery and recited the Rosary, sang his favourite hymn, The Sacred Heart.
