1842–1924

Introduction

Born: De­cem­ber 11, 1842, Ply­mouth, Eng­land.

Died: Ap­ril 24, 1924, Bide­ford, North De­von, Eng­land.

Buried: Bide­ford High­er Ce­me­te­ry, Bide­ford, De­von, Eng­land.

Biography

Blatchford stud­ied for the Uni­ta­ri­an min­is­try at Man­ches­ter New Col­lege in Lon­don. He re­ceived his BA de­gree from Lon­don Uni­ver­si­ty.

In 1866, he be­came jun­ior col­league to Will­iam James, min­is­ter of Lew­in’s Mead Meet­ing, Bris­tol, and up­on James’ death, be­came sole pas­tor there.

Blatchford’s hymns were writ­ten for the Sun­day school an­ni­ver­sa­ry ser­vic­es at Lew­in’s Mead Meet­ing, and were adapt­ed to ex­ist­ing tunes.

Sources

Lyrics

  1. Awake to the Duty, Pre­pare for the Strife
  2. Forward, Child­ren, For­ward
  3. Gladsome Hymn of Praise We Sing, A
  4. Night Clouds Around Us Si­lent­ly Are Steal­ing
  5. O Lord of Life, for All Thy Care
  6. O’er the Wide and Rest­less Ocean
  7. Once More the Sha­dows Fall
  8. Peacefully Round Us the Sha­dows Are Fall­ing
  9. Softly the Si­lent Night

Help Needed

If you know where to get a good pho­to of Blatchford (head & shoul­ders, at least 200×300 pix­els),