George Ratcliffe Woodward

George Ratcliffe Woodward (27 December 1848 – 3 March 1934) was an English Anglican priest who wrote mostly religious verse, both original and translated from ancient authors. The best-known of these were written to fit traditional melodies, mainly of the Renaissance. He sometimes harmonised these melodies himself, but usually left this to his frequent collaborator, composer Charles Wood.

Early life He was born at 26 Hamilton Square, Birkenhead, the son of George Ratcliffe Woodward, a merchant of Litherland, and his wife Ann De(a)ville Owen. The daughter of John Owen of Field House, Marchington, his mother had two clerical brothers, John Owen and Robert Deaville Owen (1823–1904).

Woodward was educated at Elstree School, then Harrow School. In 1867 he won a Sayer Scholarship to Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge. At the time George Cosby White was vicar there; he was replaced in 1876 by Francis Lloyd Bagshawe, who died in 1878, and then Alfred Gurney from 1879. To the church's musical tradition, Woodward contributed as an instrumentalist, on the cello and euphonium, and in 1876 helped recruit G. H. Palmer as organist.

Woodward then worked on editing the Cowley Carol Book. It was published in parts, appearing in 1901, 1902 and 1919. For a period he was at the Berkeley Chapel, Mayfair assisting Percy Dearmer. He then was at St Mark's, Marylebone Road. Fuller's successor was James Granville Adderley, vicar at St Mark's from 1901 to 1904, and he was followed by James Newland Newland-Smith (died 1944). There is evidence that Woodward became unhappy with the religious tone at St Mark's, in the form of the amplification by Owen Chadwick of Adderley's anecdote:

When the incumbent of a London church invited preachers too unorthodox for the curate's mind, the curate used to sit in the sedilia fuming and relieved his feelings by muttering the Athanasian creed.

In 1924 Woodward received an honorary Lambeth Doctorate in Music. He died at 48 West Hill, Highgate on 3 March 1934. His interment was at Little Walsingham, Norfolk, on 8 March 1934. His hobbies included bellringing and beekeeping.

Works Woodward self-published his own verse. His works included:

Carols for Christmas-Tide (1892). It included a translation of Puer nobis nascitur. Carols for Easter and Ascension-tide (1894) with one original composition: This joyful Eastertide. For it Woodward supplied the words, and Charles Wood arranged an old psalm melody from the Netherlands. This work was dedicated to Woodward's late wife. Hymns and Carols for Christmas-tide (1897) Legends of the Saints (1898), verse The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus (1902) Poemata (1903) Songs of Syon (1904). It contains translations from Latin and German by Woodward. Piae Cantiones (1910), editor, compiled for the Plainsong and Medieval Music Society. Woodward had been one of the founders of the society, more than 20 years earlier, with Walter Frere, Athelstan Riley and others. The Acathist Hymn of the Holy Orthodox Church in the Original Greek Text and done into English Verse (1917), co-author with the ecumenist William John Birkbeck.

Family

In 1889 Woodward married Alice Dorothy Lee-Warner (1860–1893), at St Barnabas, Pimlico. She died in October 1893, and was buried in Walsingham.