Edmund Hart Turpin

Professor Dr. Edmund Hart Turpin (4 May 1835, Nottingham – 25 October 1907, Middlesex) was an organist, composer, writer and choir leader based in Nottingham and London.

Edmund Hart Turpin was born into a musical family which ran a dealership in musical instruments at 20 Chapel Bar, Nottingham. His father, James Turpin, was a lace maker and enthusiastic musical amateur. On 3 November 1857 he married Sarah Anne Watson (*1834- 26 January 1903), second daughter of Mr. Robert Watson of Whitemoor, Nottingham. They had known each other from early childhood, and had attended their first school together. Together they had one daughter, Florence Elizabeth. On 26 January 1903 his wife, Sarah Anne, died. It was at St. Bride's, Fleet Street on 2 May 1905, that he secondly married Miss Sarah Hobbs (? - 10 November 1918), daughter of the late Mr. John Hobbs, a surgeon of Bloomsbury. Miss Sarah Hobbs had been a most ardent church-worker in the parish of St. Bride's.

Although by descent a French Huguenot, and a consistent member of the Church of England for nearly the whole of his life, E.H. Turpin always preserved the memories of this official connection with the Roman Catholic cathedral in a warm corner of his heart. The solemn stately ceremonial, the devotional breath of the incense, the tender pleading of the Latin liturgy by the voice of its own native plainsong, were subjects he ever delighted to discourse upon. It was a pleasure to him to bear witness during the whole eriod being organist at St. Barnabas (1850-1865), although in constant and daily touch with the cathedral clergy, no one ever attempted to persuade him to renounce his ancestral Protestantism in order to embrace the Catholic Faith. The services of the Anglican Church with which he was so closely associated later on in life, much as he admired and respected them, never seemed to appeal to his highly strung emotional temperament as strongly as did either those of the Church of Rome, or of the Catholic and Apostolic Communion. The beautiful ritual and music of the stately Catholic Apostolic Church must have consoled him for his severance from the still greater magnificence of the worship of the Roman Church.

E.H. Turpin was buried at Highgate Cemetery (London), and his funeral was at St. Bride's, Fleet Street. His funeral service was attended by many Fellows, Associates and Members of the Royal College of Organists, and other distinguished musicians. He was succeeded by Mr. T. Westlake Morgan, a former organist of Bangor Cathedral. The flat stone which covers his grave has the words of the fist verse of "On the Resurrection Morning" inscribed on it. A memorial tablet has also been placed in the hall of the Royal College of Organists, close to the door of his official private room; this has his portrait and the melody of his tune "Mansfield", with the words of the first verse of the hymn engraved below the music.

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