AS A former head chorister at St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle, choir leader and pianist Seimon Morris will have a special interest when Prince Harry and Meghan Markle exchange wedding vows there on May 19.

But the truth is he’s much more likely to be pre-occupied with his own personal achievement as he makes an appearance at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

He will be achieving this musical milestone as accompanist to Sarah Benbow’s much-admired ladies choir Bella Voce which has been invited to take part in the Night of a Thousand Voices event, a thrilling gathering of top choirs from around the UK.

In fact, in typically modest fashion, he has to confess he’s been there before – a number of years back when a girls’ choir from Tasker Milward under Paul Williams was invited to perform during the same event. “They are two quite important things in my life,” he admits. “But I imagine I will be quite busy preparing for the combined concert on the day.”

His time at St George’s School undoubtedly gave him a more relaxed attitude to the royal family than most people. Although born in Tenby, he had been put down for a place at the school at birth by his father who had also been there and was a member of the chapel choir.

Seimon’s grandfather was partner with Eaton, Evans and Morris solicitors, a profession which Seimon’s father Tony also pursued.

In 1959 he became Tenby town clerk but by the time Seimon was born in 1961, changes in local government administration prompted him to move to England.

He became chief legal officer at Redditch in Worcestershire and Seimon was brought up there before going to boarding school in the grand surroundings of Windsor Castle and St George’s Chapel – more a cathedral in fact, rather than any chapel we might be more familiar with in Pembrokeshire.

“A lot of choir schools are boarding schools because of the competition,” said Seimon, “which is one of the reasons I have such huge admiration for St Davids Cathedral choir and the incredibly high standards it achieves without being a boarding school.” As well as a solid grounding in church and choral singing – as a young boy he would attend as many as nine services a week on a regular basis – it also gave him a nodding acquaintance with the Queen.

“It was a normal thing for the Queen and Prince Philip and other members of the royal family to attend St George’s – they wouldn’t be wearing their full regalia, of course, they would come in their Sunday best just like anyone else.

“The strange thing was we never looked on the royal family as anything particularly special – they are, I appreciate now – but apart from special occasions such as the Garter Service they were just dressed like ordinary people. “As they entered they might talk to one side or the other of the choir as they passed and say Good morning, and as a young boy I just accepted it, I suppose.”

However the chapel was also the venue for very formal royal and state occasions – the Garter Service, for example. The ancient medieval order of Knights of the Garter includes the Queen, who is Sovereign of the Garter, several senior members of the royal family, and 24 knights chosen in recognition of their work.

These individuals are chosen personally by the sovereign to honour those who have held public office or who have contributed in a particular way to national life or served the sovereign personally.

These have included Marshal of the RAF, Lord Stirrup, and former Prime Ministers Sir John Major and Sir Winston Churchill. Seimon particularly recalls one Garter Service when he was chosen to sing a solo in John Ireland’s setting of ‘Greater love hath no man’.

“I was very nervous because the Queen was going to be present and so I made a pact with another boy that I could ask him to help.” He also recalls the full military funeral of the Duke of Gloucester in 1974 as well as that of the Duke of Windsor in 1972, who had of course reigned as King Edward VIII for a year before his abdication.

“We had funerals, but we never had weddings,” Seimon recalls.

He later won a music scholarship to Malvern College and it was here that he developed the piano skills of playing by ear and an appreciation of a wide range of musical styles that he carried him on to study singing the Royal Academy of Music and later with his work as a teacher, choirmaster at Wiston Church and conductor of such innovative vocal groups as Tempus.

“My time at St George’s was very enjoyable, the unhappy part of course was saying goodbye to parents every term. But I think I did enjoy it as much as anyone enjoys school and it certainly laid the foundation of my love of music.”