Gibb photograph archive, Volume 1

No. 3 - R.W.B. Langhorne at foot of the choristers' school steps. August 1941.

The school's Principal / Headmaster, Rev. Richard William Bailey Langhorne (1879-27 May 1944).

Gibb was his assistant from about 1940/1 until Langhorne's death. Gibb himself was uncertain as to which year he started in this role (see home web page for the Gibb volume one archive).

Married Victoria Winifred Helen Poole in June 1906 in Yeovil, Somerset.

Appointed to the Cathedral in 1909.

In Besleys Streets Directory, 1917, Langhorne is listed twice in the Cathedral Close entry:

Langhorne, Rev. Richard William Bailey, M.A., Priest Vicar and Sub-Librarian of Exeter Cathedral, and Licensed Preacher in the Diocese, The Abbot's Lodge.

The Choristers' School, Rev. R.W.B. Langhorne, M.A., head master

His daughter, Margaret Elizabeth Langhorne was killed in the bombing of 25 April 1942, aged 29. She was at home in Abbott's Lodge, The Cathedral Close. This building adjoined the Chorister's School - both buildings stood at the rear of 10, The Close. A huge high explosive bomb completely destroyed the properties in a few seconds. [source: http://www.devonheritage.org/Places/Exeter/Blitzcasualties.htm]

Extract from the Western Morning News, 1st May 1944:

The Rev. R. W. B. Langhorne, priest-vicar and headmaster of the Choristers' School, has to undergo a major operation. He will be laid aside all through the coming term. Mr. Langhorne has endured much during the last two years since April 1942.

Extract from the Exeter and Plymouth Gazette, 2nd June 1944:

Death of Rev. R. W. B. Langhorne in R.D.& E Hospital. We regret to announce the death in the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital on Saturday of Rev. William Bailey Langhorne, Priest-Vicar of Exeter Cathedral and Principal of the Cathedral Choristers School.

[source of newspaper quotes: https://www.ashefamily.info/ashefamily/6071.htm]

Langhorne obviously liked listening to music, as a collection of his 78 rpm records came up for auction in November 2019, in a house clearance sale in Griesemount House, Ballitore, Co Kildare, Ireland. The sale particulars for the item read:

A quantity of Classical 78's in six cases. They were the collection of the Rev. RWB Langhorne, late headmaster of Exeter Cathedral Choir school. The school along with his family home in the lodge of the Abbots of Buckfast, both in the cathedral close was completely destroyed in one of the first of the so-called Baedeker bombing raids, the German retaliation for the British bombing of Lubeck and Rostock, on 25th April 1942, killing four people including one of his daughters. The collection somehow survived, possibly kept elsewhere. [source: https://www.the-saleroom.com/en-gb/auction-catalogues/seaneacrett/catalogue-id-sean-e10007/lot-e541f9e4-dc7f-4fb9-bd5b-ab030086f6e1]

It is a puzzle how the records came to be in Ireland, unless it relates to one of his daughters living in Belfast, but the House is south of Dublin, so a very long way from Belfast.