His voice broke at the age of fifteen and he studied for two to three years at the Royal Academy of Music under Cipriani Potter and Charles Lucas.

[1] In 1862 he was appointed organist of St Andrew's, Wells Street, London,[2] where he raised the services to a high degree of excellence.

[1] In 1871 he was appointed, in succession to Charles Gounod, conductor of the Royal Albert Hall Choral Society, a post he held till his death.

Bach's music, and proposed to Dean Stanley the 1870 performance of St John's Passion, with full orchestra and choir of 500 voices.

[1] He was largely instrumental in stimulating the love for Gounod's sacred music among the less educated part of the London public, although he displayed little practical sympathy with opera.