Edmund Hart Turpin (4 May 1835 – 25 October 1907) was an organist, composer, writer and choir leader based in Nottingham and London.
[10] 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.
[11] 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 period 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.
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.
Unlike Samuel Wesley, Henry Smart, Frederick Ouseley, John Stainer and others who were able to play at a very early age, Edmund Hart Turpin was about nine years old when he began to learn the pianoforte.
Early in 1847 – before his twelfth birthday – he became the organist of Friar Lane Congregational Church, Nottingham, which his family had attended for many years.
At age 13, the Roman Catholic Cathedral of St. Barnabas at Nottingham being then newly built and was in need of an organist; E.H. Turpin applied for this post.
[17] Besides these appointments as organists in local churches in Nottingham, Edmund was also Band Master to the Robin Hood Rifles.
[19] Later on he was heard at the Crystal Palace and upon other important organs in London, and from this time onwards he gradually increased his metropolitan work and connection; still, however, retaining his organistship at Nottingham, where he also acted as conductor for several musical societies.
[22][23] In the Musical Herald of 1 December 1907 Hume wrote: On the invitation of the chief minister of the church in Duncan Street, Islington, Mr. Turpin came in 1858 to instruct the choir in Plainsong.
Besides this, he wrote almost all the music sung in the church, and here, it may perhaps be said, he put in some of his best work, including some very fine settings of the Te Deum, and many beautiful anthems.
[24] His major contributions for the music in the Catholic Apostolic Church were: Finding as time went on that the continual travelling back and forth to Nottingham (frequently at night) was too great a strain upon his health, he resigned with great regret his post at the Roman Catholic cathedral in Nottingham, and finally, in 1865, he settled for good in London.
Among the twenty-one members of the Council of the College of Organists were Edward John Hopkins, Dr. Charles Steggall, Dr. Edwin George Monk, William Henry Longhurst, Ebenezer Prout, James Higgs as well as the first honorary Secretary Richard Limpus.
of the College of Organists coupled with his reputation, not only as a fine organ player but as a newspaper writer as well, naturally won for him a great deal of influence in the musical world.
For a long time this manifested itself chiefly in the immense number of recitals he was asked to given in connection with the inauguration of new organs in churches, chapels, town halls, and other public buildings.
[40] Late in 1887 he resigned the organist's post at St. George's, Bloomsbury, and accepted a similar appointment at St. Bride's Fleet Street, where the fine Renatus Harris organ was a source of great enjoyment to him.
[43] As such, John Stainer was one of those most intimately associated with Turpin in his connection (which was purely professional) with the Catholic Apostolic Church and a friend for nearly fifty years.