George Hugh Bourne (8 November 1840 – 2 December 1925) was a

hymnodist A hymnwriter (or hymn writer, hymnist, hymnodist, hymnographer, etc.) is someone who writes the text, music, or both of hymns. In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the composition of hymns dates back to before the time of David, who composed many of ...

, schoolmaster and warden, chaplain to the

Bishop of Bloemfontein The Diocese of the Free State is a diocese in the Anglican Church of Southern Africa. History The first service North of the Orange River to be taken by an Anglican clergyman was conducted in 1850 by † Robert Gray, the first Bishop of Cape Town ...

, and ultimately on the staff of

Salisbury Cathedral Salisbury Cathedral, formally the Cathedral Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is an Anglican cathedral in Salisbury, England. The cathedral is the mother church of the Diocese of Salisbury and is the seat of the Bishop of Salisbury. The buildi ...

Sub-dean {{Unreferenced, date=June 2019 A sub-dean is a person who acts as an assistant to a dean either in church circuit as a priest or minister or an academic institution. They are, however, not a vice-dean. A vice-dean is a person who can deputize a de ...

and Prebendary.

Early life and education

He was born on 8 November 1840 at St Paul's Cray,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

.George Hugh Bourne
/ref> Bourne was the son of the Revd R. B. Bourne and was educated at

Eton College Eton College () is a public school in Eton, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1440 by Henry VI under the name ''Kynge's College of Our Ladye of Eton besyde Windesore'',Nevill, p. 3 ff. intended as a sister institution to King's College, C ...

and at

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church ( la, Ædes Christi, the temple or house, '' ædēs'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by King Henry VIII, the college is uniqu ...

( BA 1863, BCL 1866, DCL 1871).

Career

Taking Holy Orders in 1863, he served as Assistant Curate of

Sandford-on-Thames Sandford-on-Thames, also referred to as simply Sandford, is a village and Parish Council beside the River Thames in Oxfordshire just south of Oxford. The village is just west of the A4074 road between Oxford and Henley. Early history In 108 ...

, 1863 to 1865. Subsequently Bourne was Head Master of St. Andrew’s

Chardstock Chardstock is a village and civil parish located on the eastern border of Devon, England off the A358 road between Chard and Axminster. The parish population at the 2011 Census was 828. The parish also contains the hamlets of Bewley Down, Birc ...

, 1866 to 1874 and afterwards Warden of St. Edmund’s, Salisbury, 1874 to 1885. From 1879 to 1898, Bourne served as Chaplain to the

(later of

Grahamstown Makhanda, also known as Grahamstown, is a town of about 140,000 people in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. It is situated about northeast of Port Elizabeth and southwest of East London, Eastern Cape, East London. Makhanda is the lar ...

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...

, the Rt Revd Alan Becher Webb, who was married to Bourne’s sister. Bourne was appointed Sub-dean of

, 1887 to 1901, and as Treasurer and Prebendary of Salisbury Cathedral, 1901 (where his brother-in-law Bishop Webb took up the Deanship after his retirement from South Africa), Bourne died on 2 December 1925 at St. Edmund's College, Salisbury, England, aged 85.

Hymns

Bourne wrote a number of hymns, the best known of which is his hymn "Lord, Enthroned in Heavenly Splendour". It was originally part of a set of ''Seven Post-Communion Hymns'' (1874), published privately for St. Edmund’s College, Salisbury, which then gained wider circulation after 1889 when five of the original ten stanzas appeared in the Supplement to the 1875 edition of '' Hymns Ancient and Modern''. It was, in turn, assigned a more central place among Communion Hymns in subsequent editions and revisions of that prominent

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

hymnal. The hymn is set to the tune "St. Helen" by

George Clement Martin Sir George Clement Martin (11 September 1844 – 21 February 1916) was an English Organist#Classical and church organists, organist, who served at St Paul's Cathedral. Background Martin was born in Lambourn, Berkshire on 11 September 1844. Jo ...

. Bourne’s other hymns include "O Christ, Our God", "O Christ, the King of Human Life", "Of the Wondrous Body", "O My Tongue Be Telling" and "Scarce Discerning Aught Before Us".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bourne, George Hugh 1840 births 1925 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford 19th-century South African Anglican priests Christian hymnwriters English hymnwriters 20th-century English Anglican priests