George Thomas Coster

George Thomas Coster (1835–1912) was an English Congregational minister, poet, hymn writer, editor, and devotional author. Born at Chatham, Kent, he studied for the Congregational ministry at New College, London, and was ordained in 1859 at Newport, Essex. His pastoral career later included appointments at Barnstaple, Hull, South Norwood, and Whitby, placing him within the vigorous world of nineteenth-century English Nonconformity.

Coster wrote steadily alongside parish ministry. His publications included Lorrin and Other Poems, Pastors and People, The Rhyme of St. Peter's Fall, Allegories, Poems and Hymns, Red Roofs and Other Poems, Collected Poems, Gloria Christi, Hessle Hymns, When Stars Appear, and Beams of Glory. He also edited Temperance Melodies and Religious Hymns and contributed poems on biblical figures to The Poet's Bible. His writing ranged from congregational hymnody and temperance material to narrative religious poetry and devotional meditation.

Among Coster's better-known hymn texts are From North and South and East and West, Lord of the Gracious Sunshine, and March On, O Soul, With Strength. His hymnody often joins moral seriousness with confidence in divine help, addressing discipleship, mission, courage, social responsibility, and perseverance. Coster remained active as a writer into the early twentieth century and died at Rotherham, Yorkshire, in 1912.