Born: De­cem­ber 11, 1842, Ply­mouth, Engl­and.

Died: Ap­ril 24, 1924, Bide­ford, North De­von, Eng­land.

Blatchford stu­died for the Un­i­tar­ian min­is­try at Man­ches­ter New Coll­ege in Lon­don. He al­so re­ceived his BA de­gree from Lon­don Uni­ver­si­ty. In 1866, he be­came jun­ior col­league to Will­iam James, min­is­ter of Lewin’s Mead Meet­ing, Bristol, and up­on James’ death, be­came sole pas­tor there. Blatch­ford’s hymns were writ­ten for the Sun­day school an­ni­ver­sary serv­ices at Lewin’s Mead Meet­ing, and were adapt­ed to ex­ist­ing tunes.

Sources

Lyrics

1. Awake to the Du­ty, Pre­pare for the Strife
2. Gladsome Hymn of Praise We Sing, A
3. Night Clouds Around Us Si­lent­ly Are Steal­ing
4. O Lord of Life, for All Thy Care
5. O’er the Wide and Rest­less Ocean
6. Once More the Sha­dows Fall
7. Peacefully Round Us the Sha­dows Are Fall­ing
8. Softly the Si­lent Night