Introduction

Biography

Monk stu­died at Bath and in Lon­don with George Mac­far­ren for mu­sic the­ory, and Hen­ry Phil­lips for sing­ing.

He then be­came or­gan­ist at Mid­som­er Nor­ton church, then Christ Church, Frome. He was or­gan­ist, pre­cen­tor and Mas­ter of Mu­sic at St. Co­lum­ba’s, Rath­farn­ham, Dub­lin (1844), and three years lat­er at Rad­ley College.

He was ap­point­ed to York Min­ster in 1858, suc­ceed­ing John Cam­idge. He re­signed af­ter 25 years ser­vice and re­turned to Rad­ley, where he spent the rest of his life.

He lived in Rad­ley in a large house called East Cot­tage where he had pu­pils. After his death, vil­lag­ers re­no­vat­ed the church or­gan as a me­mo­ri­al to him. Though en­gaged as pre­cent­or at Rad­ley Col­lege be­fore go­ing to York Min­ster, he evi­dent­ly formed an at­tach­ment to Rad­ley, in which he took a great in­ter­est. A tab­let on the or­gan case reads, This or­gan is hum­bly de­di­cat­ed to the Glo­ry of God and in pi­ous me­mo­ry of Ed­win George Monk, Mus. Doc & Fel­low of the R.A.S. [Royal As­tro­no­mi­cal Society—he was an ama­teur as­tro­no­mer] First Pre­cen­tor of St. Pe­ter’s Col­lege Rad­ley (1847–58), and or­gan­ist of York Min­ster (1858–83).

Works

• Anglican Chant Book, 1850 (ed­it­or)
• Choral Ser­vice Book, 1858 (ed­it­or)
• Anglican Hymn Book, ed­it­or with Ri­chard Sin­gle­ton, 1868