Dennis William Townhill (29 May 1925 – 18 July 2008) was an English organist and composer. Born in Lincoln, he was educated at Lincoln School and studied under Dr Gordon Archbold Slater at Lincoln Cathedral. Townhill composed a set of responses for use at Anglican evensong. In 1970, Townhill became the driving force of a plan not only to safeguard the future of the Choir School of St Mary’s Cathedral, Edinburgh but to transform it into a new and vibrant entity. In 1972, the school was expanded into a specialist music school on the lines of the Yehudi Menuhin School, with Lord Menuhin becoming patron and referring to it as "my younger sister-school in Scotland". He was organist and choir master at: Townhill retired in 1991, and his autobiographical memoir The Imp and the Thistle: The Story of a Life of Music Making was self-published in 2000.