Alfred Ernest Whitehead (10 July 1887 – 1 April 1974) was an English-born Canadian composer, organist, choirmaster, music educator, painter, whose works are held in a number of important private collections, and an internationally recognized authority in the field of philately.
Whitehead's eight-part motets Watch Thou, Dear Lord (words by St Augustine) and Love Unknown, the Brahmsian organ Prelude on Irby, and his many short carols for Christmas, are also noteworthy.
[1] From 1913 to 1915, Whitehead was both organist-choirmaster of St Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Truro, Nova Scotia and instructor of organ and music theory at Mount Allison University.
From 1915 to 1923, he was organist-choirmaster of St Peter's Anglican Church, Sherbrooke and privately taught piano, organ and theory; one student there was the composer Allan McIver.
Thereafter, Whitehead prepared the festival choruses for performances of Johann Sebastian Bach's St Matthew Passion and Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No.