George Ratcliffe Woodward
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George Ratcliffe Woodward (1848 - 1934) was born 27 Dec 1848; died 3 March 1934. Born at 26, Hamilton Square, Birkenhead and educated in Elstree, Hertfordshire, then Harrow School. In 1867 he won a Sayer Scholarship to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, graduating in 1872, third class in the Classics Tripos. During his time at Cambridge he encountered Anglo-Catholicism, and became an admirer of the works of John Mason Neale. At both St Giles’, Cambridge and St Margaret’s, Liverpool, Woodward encountered plainsong, which remained a lifelong interest.
On 21 Dec 1874 he was ordained deacon by the Bishop of London, to serve as Assistant Curate at St Barnabas, Pimlico. Built deliberately as an Anglo-Catholic church, St Barnabas’ embodied the ideals of the Oxford Movement, and claimed to be the first Anglican Church to use liturgical colours, the sign of the Cross and an Eastward-facing position for the priest at the eucharist. In Sept 1882, after eight years at St Barnabas’, Woodward moved to Little Walsingham with Houghton St Giles’, in Norfolk, taking his first service there on 1 Oct. Woodward was six feet tall and cut an imposing figure in clerical dress, thereby drawing attention to himself and probably contributing to vastly increased attendances in Church in his first weeks in Walsingham, during which period he celebrated their first ever harvest festival. Woodward played the ‘cello, and the euphonium, sometimes in procession. Other hobbies included bellringing and beekeeping. In 1889 he married Alice Dorothy Lee Warner, at St Barnabas, Pimlico, having recently left Walsingham for the parish of Chelmondiston, near Ipswich, where he had been installed on 6 Dec 1888.
Around the same time, Woodward and six others formed the Plainsong and Mediaeval Music Society. Soon books of carols were produced: In 1893, Woodward published ‘Carols for Christmas-Tide, Series II’, containing nine translations and original compositions. His wife Alice died in Oct 1893, and was buried in Walsingham. In 1894, Woodward published ‘Carols for Easter and Ascension-tide, with twelve items, including two translations from German texts. There was one original composition: ‘This joyful Eastertide’. In Nov 1894 Woodward resigned as Rector of Chelmondiston, to return to St Barnabas’ Pimlico, where he had accepted the post of Assistant Priest and Precentor.
Back at St Barnabas’, and living at 24, Alderney Street, Woodward was again immersed in both the Anglo-Catholic tradition and the rich musical life of London. He was instrumental in the creation of the St Barnabas Choral Society, and continued his interests in carols and plainsong. In 1897 Woodward published ‘Hymns and Carols for Christmas-tide’, dedicated to Alfred Gurney, incumbent of St Barnabas’. In 1898 Woodward produced a collection of poetry, ‘Legends of the Saints’, and then in 1902 and 1903 ‘The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus’ and ‘Poemata’ respectively. In 1899 Woodward left St Barnabas in order to pursue is first major project: the ‘Cowley Carol Book’, the first part of which was first published in 1901. In the Second Series, Woodward included translations of his own from Greek, for the first time. Meanwhile, without a clerical position, he assisted at Berkeley Chapel, Mayfair, where Percy Dearmer was also involved. Woodward moved on to St Mark’s Marylebone, and from there in 1916 to St Augustine’s, Highate.
In 1904 ‘Songs of Syon’ was published, words and music separately. A Second edition in 1908 and an extended Third Edition of 1910 earned it a high reputation in the history of hymnody. Woodward write words for tunes he had found, and produced his own harmonisations where necessary. In 1910 appeared Woodward’s edition of ‘Piae Cantiones’, compiled for the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society. In 1911 Woodward wrote ‘Cock Robin and Jenny Wren, A Ballad for Children’, and also ‘Golden Lays of Olden Days’, which was a collection of poetry and prose translated from German, Latin, Greek and Hebrew. Other translations followed: ‘Cupid and Psyche’ (1912); and two translations of works by St John of Damascene (1913 and 1914).
In 1916 Woodward moved to 48, West Hill, Highgate, where lived until his death. In 1917, with W.J Birkbeck he published ‘The Acathist Hymn of the Holy Orthodox Church in the Original Greek Text and done into English Verse’. In 1920, collaborating with Charles Wood, ‘An Italian Carol Book’ was published with 37 items. In 1922 Woodward produced ‘Hymns of the Greek Church’, with 73 texts. That year Woodward acquired a small printing press, which he set up in his Highgate home and on which he printed pamphlets of hymns, among them ‘Carols for Yuletide’ (108 copies, 1922); ‘The Babe of Bethlehem’ (200 copies, 1923) and ‘The Mother of my Lord, or Carols for Our Lady’ (circa 120 copies, 1923).
In 1924, Woodward and Wood published ‘A Cambridge Carol Book. Being Fifty-two Songs for Christmas, Easter and Other Seasons’. Woodward ‘edited’ the volume with Wood, but much of its content was original, and it included Ding Dong Merrily on High. The same year also saw the publication of ‘Acta Sanctorum’, and ‘The Adoration of the Kings depicted by The Great Masters’, an illustrated volume with Christmas poems. The same year Woodward received an honorary Lambeth Doctorate in Music. Woodward died in 1934 aged 86. His funeral took three days: firstly at St Augustine’s. Highgate, on 6th and 7th March 1934, and thence to Walsingham to be buried with his wife on 8th March. Unfortunately the exact location of his grave is now unknown.
