Steggall, Charles

Composer

b London 1826, d Lambeth, London 1905. RAM 1847–51, organist at Christ Ch, Maida Hill. DMus (Camb) 1851; the RAM’s first (and chief) Prof of organ, a post he held for 50 years. As co-founder of the Royal Coll of Organists he delivered its inaugural lecture, and was the first Hon Sec of the London Bach Soc; ever an enthusiast for Bach and English Elizabethan composers. For another first, he was the original Organist of Christ Ch Lancaster Gate from 1855, then at Lincoln’s Inn Chapel from 1864; a music examiner, composer of anthems and other church music. In his Preface to Church Psalmody in 1865, he was critical of ‘ill-trained choirs and silent congregations’; he edited Hymns for the Church of England (1868) and subsequently the music of Hymns A&M for its much-criticised 1904 edn. Nos.164=478, 476.