Introduction

Biography

Edmund was the son of lace mak­er James Tur­pin. He mar­ried twice, to Sara­h Anne Wat­son (1857), and Sar­ah Hobbs (1905).

He stu­died un­der Charles No­ble, or­gan­ist at St. Ma­ry’s Church in Not­ting­ham, and John P. Hull­ah and Ernst Pau­er in Lon­don.

In 1847, at age 11, he be­came the or­gan­ist at Fri­ar Lane Con­gre­ga­tion­al Church, Not­ting­ham. He lat­er played at St. Ba­rna­bas Ca­tho­lic Church, Not­ting­ham (1850–64); St. George’s Church, Blooms­bu­ry (1869–88); and St. Bride’s Church, Fleet Street (1888).

He was al­so Band Mas­ter to the Ro­bin Hood Ri­fles, a un­it of the Vol­un­teer Force of the Brit­ish Ar­my and Ter­ri­tor­ial Force.

He gave his first pub­lic re­cit­al at the Great Ex­hi­bi­tion of 1851, re­ceived his Lam­beth DMus in 1889, be­came War­den of the Tri­ni­ty Col­lege of Mu­sic in 1892, and served as Hon­or­ary Sec­re­ta­ry of the Roy­al Col­lege of Or­gan­ists (1875–1907). In 1891 and 1901, he was list­ed as a Pro­fess­or of Mu­sic.