A Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols<\/a>, the famous Christmas Eve service broadcast around the world by the BBC.<\/p>\nA Cambridgeshire police spokesperson told the Cambridge Independent: \u201cWe were called to the River Cam at about 9.15am on Sunday with reports of the body of a man in the river near to King\u2019s College. The death is not being treated as suspicious and has been passed to the coroner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paying tribute to him, King\u2019s College said: \u201cWe are deeply saddened to share the news of the death of Harrison Cole, assisting organist at King’s College.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarrison Cole was a music scholar at Ipswich School, and during his school years he spent three years as a student at the junior department of the Royal Academy of Music. Following a gap year organ scholarship at Wells Cathedral he came up to Trinity College, Cambridge as organ scholar in 2019. Upon graduation he spent a year as assistant organist at Gonville and Caius College before taking up his position at King\u2019s in September 2024.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring his time at King\u2019s he accompanied the choir on recordings, broadcasts and concert tours, including two A Festivals of Nine Lessons and Carols services, and tours to Australia, Estonia, the USA and Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cHarrison was due to leave King\u2019s this summer, and had recently been appointed to assistantships at St Paul\u2019s, Knightsbridge and St Michael\u2019s, Cornhill: two significant musical establishments in London from which he was poised to develop a freelance career as pianist, organist and conductor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Provost Gillian Tett said: “The entire college community has felt this loss keenly, particularly the choir and chapel teams. Our thoughts are with his family and loved ones at this sad time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many tributes have been paid following news of Harrison\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
![\"The](\"data:image\/svg+xml,%3Csvg)
![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/17R11LC4OHIBQBP3D7HR.jpg\")
The Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols at King\u2019s College Chapel. Picture: Keith Heppell<\/p>\n
Wayne Marshall OBE, a renowned conductor, organist and pianist fellow of the Royal College of Music, described his death as \u201cshocking and unbelievable\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cI saw him just one week before,\u201d he said. \u201cHe was a gentle genius and a wonderful person. So humble, and such a gifted player. I feel very privileged to have known him.<\/p>\n
We shall miss him. My deepest condolences to his family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Claire Weston wrote: \u201cWhen an 11-year-old boy comes to you and says \u2018Miss, can I chat to you about the Wesendonck Lieder\u2019 you know you\u2019ve got someone on your hands who is serious about music. Harrison was serious, passionate, invigorated, curious and enquiring about all that is music.<\/p>\n
\u201cMeeting Harrison, his twin and his parents all those years ago was a gift that has stayed and continues to be a prevalent part of my life through music and friendship until the current day. Harrison left a gossamer layer of his personality and talent on all that he met and worked with. Such a tragic and devastating loss of life. He will be remembered with such respect and love.\u201d<\/p>\n
Charlotte Evans wrote: \u201cHarrison was above us all with his talent but at Ipswich School he made time to accompany pupils starting out on their music-learning journey and was a friend to all. He still came back to play for us despite his busy and high-profile opportunities elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
David Briggs, a concert organist and composer, who studied music at King\u2019s, said: \u201cYou\u2019ll always live on in our hearts, Harrison. Thank you for your sheer brilliance, but even more than that, for being such a kind human being. In truth I learned much more from you than the other way round. Rest in peace, my dear friend, and deepest condolences to your family.\u201d<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the East of England Ambulance Service said: \u201cOne ambulance, a paramedic car and East Anglian Air Ambulance were sent to Queens Road Cambridge on Sunday morning following reports of a person in the river. Fire and rescue colleagues assisted in bringing a man ashore, but sadly, despite the best efforts of all involved, the patient had died at the scene.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The King\u2019s College community has been left saddened and in shock by the death of a gifted young…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":61350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[4],"tags":[1794,3384,529,1050,2061,1118,5,6],"class_list":["post-61349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-uk","tag-cambridge","tag-cambridge-university","tag-human-interest","tag-obituaries","tag-spotlight","tag-syndicate","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@UnitedKingdom\/116735744626838590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=61349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/61350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=61349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=61349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=61349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Harrison](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/britain\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/LWIKAG1OF7BRIM10UH3H.jpg\")
Harrison Cole, assisting organist at King’s College, Cambridge. Picture: Leon Hargreaves\/Choir of King\u2019s College Cambridge<\/p>\n