Background
Bicknell was born in Chelsea. His maternal grandfather was an architect and amateur violinist, and his mother, Sally, was an amateur pianist. She married historian and former British Broadcasting Corporation executive Leonard Miall in 1975.
His father was Nigel Bicknell Defence Science Organisation, from whom he inherited his eye for design.
He was educated at Westminster School, Winchester College, and read Arts General at Saint Chad"s College, Durham University.
Education
He was educated at Westminster School, Winchester College, and read Arts General at Saint Chad"s College, Durham University.
Career
Bicknell"s career in pipe organ building started with North.P. Mander Limited. in east London in 1979. He left Mander Limited. in 1987 to work for J. West. Walker & Sons Limited in Brandon in Suffolk, where he worked on projects for Oriel College, Oxford, a one-manual chamber organ for the quire at Carlisle Cathedral, and the parish church in Kesgrave, near Ipswich. He was directly involved with the design and construction of some of the most significant recent new instruments to be built in Britain.
In 1993, he left full-time organ building to pursue a varied freelance career.
In 1989, Bicknell surveyed the organ in the ballroom of Buckingham Palace, expressing his horror at the state of the organization The outside appearance was fine, but the woodwork and pipes were "broken, dented and collapsing".
The organ was eventually overhauled and restored in 2002. He was particularly associated with the 1993 Mander organ in Gray"s Inn Chapel, where he led the team of builders, and the two 1994 Mander organs installed in Chelmsford Cathedral, which he designed.
In 2005 Bicknell took a permanent post as an administrator with the Association of Accounting Technicians in London.
Bicknell was found dead at his house in London at the age of 49. He had been diagnosed as Human Immunodeficiency Virus positive in 1992, and had also suffered from depression.
