Arthur Coleridge

Arthur Duke Coleridge (baptised, 1 February 1830 – 29 October 1913) was a nineteenth-century English lawyer who, as an amateur musician with influential connections, was the founder of The Bach Choir and the man who introduced the Mass in B minor by Johann Sebastian Bach to the English concert repertoire. He was also a cricketer who played first-class cricket for Cambridge University in 1850. He was born at Ottery St Mary, Devon and died at South Kensington, London.

Background and education Arthur Coleridge was the son of Francis Coleridge and the great-nephew of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. He was educated at Eton College where he played in the cricket team, hitting the winning runs in the 1847 Eton v Harrow match at Lord's. Matriculating at King's College, Cambridge in February 1849, Coleridge played a single first-class cricket match at Cambridge, scoring 1 and 17 when opening the batting against Marylebone Cricket Club. It is not known if he batted right- or left-handed.

Legal career Coleridge became a Fellow at King's College before becoming a lawyer, being called to the bar in 1860. It was reported that he did not miss a single assizes session over his 37 years in post. He was himself an amateur tenor with a voice "of great power and dramatic quality" and "was one of the few amateurs who could speak with professionals" on equal terms. "Having worked the organization, and seen it through, he, with the modesty which was characteristic of him, left others to reap the credit," his obituarist in The Times in 1913 wrote.

Coleridge's daughter Mary Coleridge was a published poet and novelist: her entry in the Dictionary of National Biography indicates that Coleridge's circle of friendship extended beyond musicians to include literary figures such as Alfred Tennyson and Robert Browning, as well as painters such as John Millais. Hubert Parry, one of Arthur's musical friends, was one of the first composers to set Mary's words to music in the seven poems that make up his English Lyrics, Ninth Set, published in 1909.