| Cherry, Edith Adeline Gilling |
b Plymouth, Devon 1872, d Plymouth 1897. Disabled by poliomyelitis from the age of 16 months until her death at the age of 25, she walked with a pair of light crutches which she called ‘my… |
| Francis of Assisi (Bernardone, Giovanni Franceso) |
b Assisi, central Italy, 1182; d Assisi 1226. Brought up in comparative luxury, he pursued pleasure as a youth but at 20 was imprisoned during a local war. Serious illness made him rethink his… |
| Bewes, Richard Thomas |
b Nairobi, Kenya 1934, where he grew up. From a strong missionary family, he attended Marlborough Sch, Emmanuel Coll and Ridley Hall, Cambridge (MA) and was ordained in 1959. After a curacy at Christ… |
| Bickersteth, Edward Henry |
b Islington, N London (Middx) 1825, d Paddington, W London (Middx) 1906. Trinity Coll Cambridge (BA 1847, MA). One of a long and continuing dynasty of mainly Anglican (and clerical) Bickersteths, his… |
| Patrick |
b ?Ailclyde, now Dumbarton c370 (or the village of Bannaven), d Saul, Co Down, Ireland c461. Born to a Romano-British family, at 16 he was enslaved and taken to Ireland by raiders. In Co Antrim and/or… |
| Townend, Stuart |
b Edinburgh 1963, the son of a pastor who became a CofE vicar from 1970–85. He learned the piano from the age of 7, playing in church from 9 or 10, and family moves took him to Morley nr Leeds,… |
| Gaunt, Alan |
b Manchester 1935. Silcoates Sch, Lancashire Independent Coll, and Manchester Univ. He was ordained to the Congregational ministry 1958, later the United Reformed Church; his 42 years of pastoral… |
| Jude, William Herbert |
b Westleton, nr Aldeburgh, Suffolk 1851, d Willesden, Middx 1922. During early years at Wisbech Grammar Sch, Cambs, he wrote incidental music from the age of 8 onwards for school productions of… |
| Thalben-Ball, George Thomas |
b Sydney, NSW, Australia 1896, d Wimbledon, Surrey 1987. His Cornish parents returned home from Sydney while he was still very young, and at the age of 14 he won a scholarship to the RCM where… |
| Cotterill, Thomas |
b Cannock, Staffs 1779, d Sheffield, Yorks 1823. The Free School, Birmingham, and St John’s Coll Cambridge (BA 1801); elected a Fellow, then ordained (CofE) 1803. After serving a curacy at Tutbury,… |
| Idle, Christopher Martin |
b Bromley, Kent 1938. Eltham Coll, St Peter’s Coll Oxford (BA, English), Clifton Theol Coll Bristol; ordained in 1965 to a Barrow-in-Furness curacy. He spent 30 years in CofE parish ministry, some… |
| Lee, David |
David Lee was brought up in south Manchester, sketching his first hymn tune while at primary school, and has been active in music in churches ever since. While an undergraduate at Durham in the late… |
| Pennefather, Willliam |
b Dublin, Ireland 1816, d Muswell Hill, Middx (N London) 1873. School at Dublin and Westbury-on-Trym nr Bristol, where in 1832, he says, ‘God was pleased to teach me to love him and to prize his… |
| Turl, Margaret Emma |
b Shrewsbury 1946. Stamford High Sch (Lincs) and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford (MA English and Cert Ed). Born into a literary household, she loved poetry from childhood, and was converted aged 13 at a… |
| Mason, John |
b ?Irchester, nr Rushden, Northants, c1646, d Water Stratford, Bucks 1694. Strixton Sch, Northants; Clare Hall, Cambridge. Following ordination he became curate of Isham, nr Kettering, Northants; in… |
| Woodward, George Ratcliffe |
b Birkenhead, Ches (Merseyside) 1848, d Highgate, N London 1934. Harrow Sch and Gonville and Caius Coll Cambridge (BA 1872, MA). Ordained in 1874, he was twice curate at the ‘advanced’… |
| Holst, Gustavus Theodore (von Holst) |
b Cheltenham, Gloucestershire 1874, d Ealing, Middlesex 1934. Son of a Swedish father and church organist (whose own composer father had come to England in 1807) and an English (pianist) mother, after… |
| Briggs, George Wallace |
b Kirkby, Notts 1875, d Hindhead, Surrey 1959. Emmanuel Coll Cambridge (BA in Classics, 1897); following ordination in 1899 he was a curate in Wakefield, a Royal Naval chaplain from 1902–09… |
| Bliss, Philip P(aul) |
b Clearfield Co, Pa, USA 1838, d nr Ashtabula, Ohio, USA 1876. Originally named ‘Philipp’, he later dropped the final ‘p’ and used it as a second initial. He was born in a log house and worked… |
| Wilson, John Whitridge |
b Bournville, Warwicks (W Midlands) 1905, d Guildford, Surrey 1992. Manchester Grammar Sch, Dulwich Coll, and Sidney Sussex Coll Cambridge (Physics and Maths; later MusB). At 23 he decided on a career… |
| Havergal, William Henry |
b Chipping Wycombe, Bucks 1793, d Leamington, Warwicks 1870. Merchant Taylor’s Sch, London; St Edmund Hall Oxford (BA, MA); ordained (CofE) 1816. He served curacies in Bristol and Coaley (Glos);… |
| Higham, William Vernon |
b Caernarfon, Gwynedd, N Wales 1926. His bilingual family moved to Bolton, Lancashire, in 1939, after years of widespread poverty, and he attended the Welsh Calvinistic Methodist Chapel with them. At… |
| Eddison, Robert John Buchanan |
b Derbyshire 1916, d Lingfield, Surrey 2011. Wellington Coll, Trinity Coll Cambridge (MA, History) and Ridley Hall Cambridge; ordained (CofE) 1939. After a curacy at Tunbridge Wells he was a… |
| Swain, Joseph |
b Birmingham 1761, d Walworth, Surrey (SE London) 1796. Like other hymnwriters (see eg notes to Doddridge, Gerhardt, Hood, Lyte and Olivers) he was orphaned when young; he was originally apprenticed… |
| Kerry, Michael (Mike) |
b Szechwan, W China, of CIM parents. After education to A-level with a maths/science bias, he worked for 45 years as a computer programmer and consultant; he is now semi-retired and looks after… |
| Zinzendorf, Nicolaus Ludwig von |
b Dresden, Germany 1700, d Herrnhut, Saxony 1760. The Adelspädagogium (school) at Halle, 1710–16; Univ of Wittenberg (degree in Law) 1716–19. Born into a wealthy branch of the German nobility,… |
| Rolinson, Christopher Philip |
b Walsall, Staffs (now W Midlands) 1958. Queen Mary Grammar Sch, Walsall, where he began serious composing in 1974; Univ of Birmingham (BMus 1979, Cert Ed). He worked with British Youth for Christ,… |
| Deale, Edgar Martin |
b Dublin 1902, d 1999. A lover of good music, he said, ‘even from my cradle’; he sang in the Christ Ch Cathedral choir and attended the Cathedral Grammar Sch, enjoying both sport and all kinds of… |
| Herklots, Rosamond Eleanor |
b Masuri, N India 1905, d Greenwich, SE London 1987. Born into a gifted clerical and missionary family, she attended Leeds Girls’ High Sch and the Univ of Leeds (BA, French). After teacher training… |
| Wordsworth, Christopher |
b Lambeth, S London (Surrey) 1807, d Harewood, Yorkshire 1885. A nephew of William W (whose brief biography he was later to write), he lost his mother before he was 7; Winchester Coll and Trinity Coll… |
