Background
John Dunn was born in North Adelaide and educated at John Whinham"s North Adelaide Grammar School, and studied piano under Mission Francis of Glenelg, then E. Smith-Hall and Herr Boehm.
John Dunn was born in North Adelaide and educated at John Whinham"s North Adelaide Grammar School, and studied piano under Mission Francis of Glenelg, then E. Smith-Hall and Herr Boehm.
He also studied organ under Mr. Boult and displayed such proficiency that in 1882 he became his assistant.
He was a choirboy at Saint Peter"s Cathedral under Arthur Boult, and was frequently a featured soloist. He had secured full-time positions with Francis Clark & Sons and the Bank of Australasia, but in 1888 he sailed for London to study with West. de Manby Sergison, organist at Saint Peter"s, Eaton square, London, then in 1889 he furthered his studies under Sir Frederick Bridge, the great Westminster Abbey organist. On his return to Adelaide he took up teaching at the Adelaide College of Music (later Elder Conservatorium) under Cecil Sharp and I. G. Reimann.
He was appointed organist to the Cathedral on 1 November 1891, and officiated at the inauguration of the new organ in 1930.
The last service at which he presided was just a week before his death at the age of 71 years. He served as conductor for the Adelaide Orpheus Society and president of the Adelaide Society of Organists.
He was the composer for a stage musical The Mandarin with libretti by Harry Congreve Evans, performed at the Theatre Royal, Adelaide in 1896. John M. Dunn had four brothers: Frank C. Dunn, of Mount Lofty.
Walter C. Dunn of Launceston, Tasmania.
Doctor Spencer South. Dunn, of Bournemouth, England. And George V. South. Dunn, mining engineer, of Isleworth, Middlesex, England. John M. Dunn married Gertrude Josephine Ann Henning ( – 15 May 1939) of North Adelaide on 29 August 1906.
They had two children:
Evelyn Young Dunn (10 March 1910 – ) married Donnell Downey, lived at Thorngate.