Alexander Ewing

Alexander Ewing (1830–1895) was a Scottish army officer, linguist, translator, amateur musician, and composer. Born in Aberdeen, the son of physician Alexander Ewing, he studied at Heidelberg, where music and German were among his chief interests, and also studied law in Aberdeen without entering legal practice. He participated in Aberdeen's musical life through the Harmonic Choir and the Haydn Society. His clerical relative, Bishop Alexander Ewing of Argyll and the Isles, was a different person; the shared name later contributed to confusion over the authorship of Ewing's best-known tune.

When the Crimean War began, Ewing entered the British Army's Commissariat Department and served at Constantinople, where his language skills were useful. He later served in China during the 1860 campaign and in operations near Shanghai in 1862, then in Ireland during the Fenian disturbances. In 1867 he went to Fredericton, New Brunswick, and in 1870 transferred to the Army Pay Department. Later postings included Malta and Ceylon. He retired from the service in 1889 with the honorary rank of lieutenant colonel.

Ewing's surviving reputation in church music rests chiefly on the tune now called EWING. He composed it in 1853 for John Mason Neale's For Thee, O Dear, Dear Country; it appeared in print before William Henry Monk reshaped its rhythm and paired it with Jerusalem the Golden in Hymns Ancient and Modern in 1861. Ewing was also an accomplished translator from German, leaving English versions of works by Jean Paul Richter and E. T. A. Hoffmann. His career is therefore best understood as that of a professional soldier and gifted literary-musical amateur rather than a church bishop or career composer.